Chiefs at Chargers - Week 14 - Record: 8-5

Yes the Chargers were playing like focused maniacs after looking uncharacteristically stupid against Oakland last week. Yes the Chargers were fighting for their playoff lives at home. And yes the Chargers are still a very good team, having stormed back into the division race with four straight wins before the Raiders debacle.

But I am not one to say this was coming or even that on any given Sunday your team can just not have it together. The real fact is

This Chiefs team does not look like a division leading team.

It is that simple.

It wasn't just that we didn't play well. It was mostly a complete and utterly horrific exposure of our quite extraordinary weaknesses. Let's go over them a bit, shall we? (Oh, don't worry, this game was already painful to watch. How much worse can it be?)

First, there is our backup quarterback situation. I was actually looking forward to seeing Brodie Croyle start, thinking that over the past couple of years under Todd Haley and now Charlie Weis -- and watching Matt Cassel make great strides in his development -- he'd mature and be confident and all the rest of it.

Not even close.

The guy is still awful. He has a great arm, great mobility, all that -- yadda yadda, heard it all four years ago. The guy still hasn't a clue as to what he's doing out there. He's now 0-10 as a starter, his last win was with Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.

We'd better hope nothing else happens to Matt Cassel.

As it was Croyle's complete ineptitude was the major factor in us coming that close to having our worst offensive performance ever -- it was a 60-something total yards game back in 1963 or something like that. Today we got something like 70. As far as I could tell we didn't have a single third down conversion, we may have when Chambers made that catch with a minute left, but whatever. We got into San Diego territory twice. Utterly pathetic.

Thing is, was it Haley or was it Croyle? Why wasn't Croyle just throwing the ball down the field early? Was Haley telling Croyle to hold back or was that just Croyle being very bad? Either way, it was all pukifying, abjectly pukifying.

Second, our tiring offensive line. The Charger defense just ran us over, that's all. As bad as Croyle was, our offensive line didn't help him. Yes our QB needed to just plain get rid of the ball. But if you're as nervous as Croyle was, you weren't going to get help from these guys. The run blocking was just as poor.

By the way, a little thing to add. Just a little thing, really, nothing at all.  Besides getting thoroughly and contemptuously shut out today, did anyone forget that we didn't score a single point in the second half of the Denver game last week? So, um, yeah, that's six quarters and counting of haplessly scoreless Chiefs football.

Third, our run defense. The D-line and our linebackers were just plain putrid. (Once again the call goes out: Scott Pioli! Scott Pioli! We need a Ray Lewis-type guy in the middle really really badly...) We faced another team that just knows how to stand us up. Not only that but I'm just flat ashamed at our unwillingness to fully pursue and truly finish. That last touchdown by their back-who-wouldn't-go-down was an embarrassment of epic proportions.

For those who didn't happen to behold it. San Diego had the ball deep in Chiefs territory for the 78th time or so in the game. Mike Vrabel had this guy, Ryan Mathews, dead in his tracks until he simply stayed on his feet while all the other Chiefs guys just watched. I guess they paid good money to come to the game to see this guy dance around and they just wanted to kick back in their lounge chairs and enjoy it.

On a more serious note, didn't these guys watch that same guy take the ball in the very first quarter and get hammered in the backfield, yet still stay on his feet for a few more yards? Didn't someone on the defense say the simple words, "Hey, no one stops until that guy's face is planted deep in the turf. Make sure you finish." Was there simply no Chiefs individual within a hundred miles of that sideline to tell all the other Chiefs quasi-defenders that? I mean, I was about 120 miles from there and I was screaming it into the television set, but, well...

Absolutely embarrassing.

Third, our receiving core. Now I can't lay it all on them because of Brodie Croyle, but still, where are these guys? Dwayne Bowe simply can't carry the load. Where is Chris Chambers? Do we have to rely on pick-up throw-in Verran Tucker? Why wasn't Dexter McCluster in the mix more?

Yes yes yes, Croyle just didn't know what to do with the ball, and that's not the receivers' fault.

But if our Matt Cassel-led team can't get the passing game to gel beyond Dwayne Bowe, we're in trouble.

Fourth, our precarious situation if the other team scores early. This relates to the passing game woes. In games when the opposing team scores first, or gets up by two scores, it is very scary because we've relied so much on the run. Regrettably, really good running teams like the Chiefs simply do not make good Super Bowl teams unless their passing game is stratospherically spectacular. It's like a rule.

I know, I know for sure that every team we play from here out -- and they are all still playoff contenders, not to mention those playoff teams if we ever make it there -- they are all going to employ the lighting-strike offense on their first possession to score quickly and take out our running game. Is our defense up to that challenge?

They weren't today, big-time.

No, it wasn't just a case of having a tough time of it today. No, this was not just a bad-day game. It was way way worse than that.

This was a bad-team game.

Sure we're still 8-5 and in control of our destiny. I know all that. But I will say it again in closing.

I only care about the Chiefs being a Super Bowl winning team.

And I really don't think this Chiefs team is even a division winning team, much much less a playoff game winning team.
_