Chiefs 2011 Postseason Report

One thing should be made perfectly clear from this endeavor.

All it is, is therapy.

If all this is to you is a whine session, then move on to other web pursuits. If you think this is all just one pity party bash, then please, you are welcome to leave now.

I don't believe this is, but it is sharing truth in a setting where maybe a few typically heartbroken Chiefs fans can gather and commiserate, relate, just find solace in the comfort that others feel the same way. I'd like to think there'd be a handful of stout, resolute, and quite viscerally engaged Chiefs fans who'd hang around.

As it is, I commence yet another postseason blog post that does not end with any playoff wonderfulness in any way. The last time we got any of that was 1993, if you even remember. In fact, the first therapy point comes simply from this simple observation, a quite sorrowful one.

Today my son had some of the Giants-Falcons game on, and I happened to catch it during a time when New York was just starting to roll over Atlanta. Mention was made of Tony Gonzalez having never tasted playoff victoriness ever in his stellar career. Just the magnitude of that fact: Not a single time has he reached the next tier of postseason fun. Indeed this would be the second one-and-out he'd experience with the Falcons, after I believe three with Kansas City. I truly felt very sad for the guy.

A little later in the day I saw that the NFL Network was showing the NFL's all-time top hundred players, this episode: numbers 41-50. Coincidentally, the instant I turned it on there was Tony Gonzalez at No. 45. Now you'd think he should be higher, but come on. This is No. 45, people, out of 57 bazillion total NFL players throughout all of NFL history. He was just ahead of Roger Staubach for cryin' out loud.

And yet, here he is, the all-time all-great tight end in all-pro-football-great-anything, yet again today suffering through watching the playoff opponent run off the field with smiles and never ever getting to have that feeling.

All of us Chiefs fans just feel for the guy.

We understand.

Later in the day I found that the Broncos pulled off a close win in their playoff game with Pittsburgh. An 8-8 team winning the division then coming through with tough, clutch play to win against a very good Steelers team.

::Sigh::...

How many times did the Chiefs have a 13-3 record and hosted that first playoff game -- Let's compare: 13-3, 8-8. 8-8, 13-3. Hmm. Kind of a difference. -- and just drop everything they did well during the regular season and lose. I mean just drop it like buck snort from a sick cow. Actually in some of those games I don't even think any of it even got on to the field.

So yeah, to the facts:

Since the merger in 1970, the year after the Chiefs last won the Super Bowl, the Chiefs have won the division six times (a pathetic total to begin with -- that's out of 42 years) and then went on to win a playoff game after that once. That was in 1993, the last time they even won a playoff game at all. So, the Chiefs division-title-and-at-least-one-playoff-game-win to playoff-one-and-out ratio is an abysmal one to five. (The five: Mia '71, Ind '95, Den '97, Ind '03, Bal '10.) I haven't done it for every team in the NFL, but I have for the current AFC West teams, just to compare (sorry, but this will be especially gruesome - you may want to look away for a couple moments).

San Diego: 6 to 4. In their first playoff game after a division title they lost to Houston in '79, the Jets in '04 (Marty Schottenheimer's doing, what else), New England in '06, and the Jets again in '09. But again, they got to enjoy six other times when they won at least one playoff game after winning the AFC West.

Denver: 8 to 3. Their three were to Pittsburgh in '78 and '84 (nice revenge for them today) and Jacksonville in '96 (which they were able to avenge big-time the following year by whacking the Jaguars 42-17 on the way to their Super Bowl win that year).

Oakland: 11 to 2. That's nice. The Raiders have lost only twice out of the gate after winning the division. One was the infamous Immaculate Reception game of '72, the other, a loss to New England in '85. But that's it. Eleven times they've won and then won again. The next time you hear a Raiders fan complain about JaMarcus Russell, or not making the playoffs since '02, or how many ref calls have gone against them (puh-leaze), or even how many times the Chiefs have beaten them recently in the regular season, you have every right to tell them where they can shove their pathetic whimpers. The Chiefs have a long way to go to even come close to matching the Raiders' past success.

Kansas City: (Again to compare, and to embrace the pain of course) 1 to 5. For the most part, win the AFC West and win a playoff game. Unless you're the Chiefs. I remember wearing my Chiefs jacket with pride in '95 just before we faced Indianapolis, just thinking in my tiny little brain, actually thinking with great joy that after all of this great 1990's Chiefs greatness we'd have to do well in the playoffs sometime along here, this is as good a time as any for my team to actually do what everyone else has gotten to do.

I simply did not grasp the terrifying impact of Odin's Revenge.

Just to finish the whole playoffs horror, I counted all the playoff games played, just playoff games played since that last time our Chiefs hoisted that World Champion trophy. Again, since the merger, only three teams have a playoff-games to team-years ratio worse than the Chiefs: Arizona, New Orleans and Detroit. And those two latter teams there are right now so good with such good quarterbacks that they'll soon put the Chiefs in the dust in this category.

In 42 years, the Chiefs have 15 playoff games. Just to compare (avert your eyes if necessary) Pittsburgh 53 games. Dallas 53.  Miami 42. San Francisco 42. Just the AFC West: Oakland 37. Denver 34 (and still counting as of this post). I could go on, and on, and on. 13 NFL teams have at least 30, twice as many as the Chiefs.

Considering the math a different way, since 1970 the Chiefs have on average one playoff game just about every three years. The Steelers have a playoff game every year, with two every five years, averaged out.

And here's a great one: With Houston winning yesterday, the metropolitan area of Kansas City (Chiefs and Royals) now has an effective playoff pro football/pro baseball drought of 44 team-years, officially twice as long as any other city with an NFL team and a major league baseball club. The next longest drought is now Cincinnati, at 22 years.

Every other two-team metro area has a drought of less than 22 years. More than half are less than ten. The Chiefs and Royals, 44 years.

Okay, breathe, that's it, breathe. Remember, this is therapy. Just us Chiefs fans having a nice, meaningful, comforting group session. Just working real hard (deep breath) to acquire the necessary coping skills (exhale) to confront with the brutal reality (that's it, breathe again, very nice...) of the vast dust and cobweb network that forms throughout the Harry S Truman Sports Complex every single January and October. (Ahh, better...)

Let's get right to what makes it all worthwhile.

This year. What to do from this point forward.

What needs to be done is simple.

First, for the umpteen bazillion bazillion quazillionth time, draft and develop a quarterback who'll be very very very very very very very very very very good for a long long long long long long long long long long time. This is number one, light years above anything else. I'd like to say this is the only thing, but I'm afraid that this isn't going to mean much unless the second thing is done.

Second, we simply, plainly, purely, absolutely, necessarily must hire the man. It is imperative that we do not hire another Todd Haley. Nothing against Todd Haley, the point is we need a Bill Walsh. A Bill Parcells. A Bill Belichick. We need Bill Somebody who'll coach this team into winners. I say "No Todd Haley" because Clark and Scott cannot again make the critical mistake of thinking someone like Todd Haley is somehow going to be a solid NFL coach when he simply isn't.

This hire has got to be the one. In fact it would be ideal if it was a pick that would be around for a while. Getting Dick Vermeil to run the team in 2001 was genius because the guy was a genius, but we all knew he would last only a few short years. Oh that we'd have a Dick Vermeil guy for a dozen years, or more if we're that blessed. I can't say I'm not scared to death, however, that we'll settle on some retread NFL guy or some college dude who just doesn't have it in him.

As for that quarterback, it would be even more ideal for a close-to-Andrew-Luck guy to be available at No. 11 or 12 or around there when we draft. I just know nothing about college-to-NFL quarterbacks, but what about that Oklahoma State guy? He looked pretty good when I happened to catch him. Will the Baylor guy, I think he won the Heisman, will he be there? I say "I think" a lot here because I just pay no attention to college football, or any NFL football if I can help it.

I only care about the Chiefs on the field and watching them win.

And I trust that Scott Pioli knows what he's doing there, and I simply can't see how he can't see how much we need that highly drafted and deftly developed quarterback.

As it is, it seems it'd be a good call to sign Kyle Orton for a couple of years as we nurture our brand new quarterback. I think Orton has potential to do some good things while we get the guy ready for prime time. I really don't know what the Chiefs are going to do with Ricky Stanzi, I mean, do they think he'll develop into the next Tom Brady? How much of a crapshoot is that?

What about Matt Cassel? Sorry, unload him. Please, I do actually like the guy. But let's be honest, he's a second-string guy who hardly played at all in college and had one decent year with a terrific Patriots team around him when Tom Brady went out for the season. In 2010 he had a fine year with a schedule of very weak teams, and then showed his true colors in the last regular season game and the typical one-and-out playoff game when he played wretchedly. This season before his injury it was just too aggravating to watch him, too many times flinging the ball everywhere but into receivers' hands.

The proof is in the puddles: Look at our offense this year. (Sorry, more ugly stats for gurgling and spittling.) Throw out the Indianapolis game when we scored four touchdowns, and the total for all 15 other games was 14. Less than a touchdown a game. We only scored two touchdowns or more four times (including Indy). From Halloween on, which comprised the final nine games, we didn't reach the 20-point mark a single time. An offense like the Packers' regularly had three touchdowns on the board before the national anthem ended.

It simply cannot be emphasized enough.

Now's the time to get that quarterback.

Clark, Scott, please please please (okay I won't write a hundred "pleases" here) see the importance of having that guy and get him.

To finish this off, I do want to give a rousing shout-out to our defense, who really held its own all year. Yes, there were those wretched games against the old AFC East teams, but if you throw out those games (once again, NE, Mia, Buf, NYJ, and Ind) and the Detroit debacle, in the remaining ten games we gave up an average of only 12.3 points a game. Now yeah, there were those other six games, but hey, Curse of Odin's Revenge.

Otherwise there is one thing I want. It is the one thing every Chiefs fan wants.

It is for our team to do what it takes to win playoff games.

I don't even want any luck. We've never had it but I don't think most of those NFL teams who've won have had to rely on a bunch of it themselves, really now. We are so due, to be sure, but what good is just luck? Besides, it just takes so much more to end the Curse.

I don't even want a spectacularly good team. We had that in the 60's and 90's, and in those years when we were truly a dominant NFL football team, we got one Super Bowl title and pretty much diddly otherwise. How many really good teams get into the playoffs and just don't have it when it counts -- don't we know about that.

Will winning in the postseason involve luck? Oh that we'd get at least a bit of it for once. Will it involve fielding a good team? Certainly. But there is one thing that's more important. No, all I really want is one simple thing.

I just want us to win football games when it counts.

And this simply requires taking the defense we already have (but still getting that Ray Lewis guy in there!) adding a smart inspiring coach and a sharp talented quarterback, and

Getting the job done.

That's all.

Clark.

Scott.

All us Chiefs fans are asking for one thing. Shouldn't take much, we even believe in you, we do.

Get the job done.

Oh that we could then move from therapy into just flat-out watching us get that trophy back, and take pride in our team -- that they just got the job done.

The joy...
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Chiefs at Broncos - Week 17 - Record: 7-9

Every New Year's Eve I think about it. If you're a true Chiefs fan you know what I'm talking about. It was five years ago yesterday.

We're at 8-7 barely hanging on to playoff hopes. Two weeks earlier we'd endured a horrific loss to the Chargers, and only a gimme win over a weak Raiders team a week later had us still on life support.

On the morning of last Sunday of the season we handled Jacksonville while New England was easily taking Tennessee out of the running. The Steelers were having a hard time with Cincinnati, though, but we got that splendid Santonio Holmes catch and sprint for a touchdown in overtime to dismiss the Bengals. Then, glory be, the Niners wore down the Broncos in another overtime win and shazam --

We're in the playoffs.

Five years ago yesterday, one of the magical Chiefs moments of all time.

But here's the thing.

That is one of our most magical moments?

I mean, hey, I'm really taking nothing away from it. It was wonderful.

But in reality, this is really hurtin' -- that this is what we're most proud of over the past however-many years of Chiefsosity.

There's that, but, ahem, no big-time clutch division snatching win, no spectacular postseason performance to defeat a team everyone thought was invincible, no scintillating run through the playoffs captivating the attention of an entire nation, no absorbing Super Bowl hype about the Chiefs and their chances in the biggest game whatever those chances might be.

No, sadly, no. And yes, I do spend a lot of time on this blog sharing the woeful story of our beloved team. Sure, it could be seen as a pity party, but to be honest I do write all of this for the therapy, yeah, to relate to those who feel the same way -- I make no apologies there, in fact, I do enthusiastically invite you to the party...

But I also do it just to say what's what about the Chiefs, and mostly for the past many years it has been less that stellar to say the least.

You don't think I want to say all kinds of delightfully awesome things about the Chiefs? Really? For one you've seen me write glowingly about great-things Chiefs, I do it all the time -- I've even been very guilty of looking too longingly through the rose-colored glasses and been wrong quite a bit about how good we are!

For instance look at today's game! Our defensive backfield was just amazing, again! I've always raved about our terrific Brandons and our safeties like Kendrick Lewis, and this without the rose-colored glasses! These guys were beast again, and what's more amazing they've been doing it without Eric Berry in there! I can even give a shout-out to Sabby Piscitelli, the guy who I once saw somewhere rated the worst D-back in the league.

Hey, he was still part of the core that showed there is simply no way Tim Tebow can do the comeback thing without solid pro-form passing skill. Down 7-3 with a minute left, he just could not do a thing with our D-backfield in there. Really, he hadn't seen that all year.

Welcome to the real NFL, Tim Tebow.

So while our defense did another fine job, our offense... Errrghhh...

Our offense.

Final end-of-season stat: The Chiefs' offense scored 18 touchdowns this season. 18. Eighteen total. Do you know how contemptibly pathetic that is? That's barely a single touchdown a game. I mean it is really hard to mince words here. The numbers speak for themselves, and if you watched this team play all year you'd know.

It was all right there to watch.

Just for comparison, Green Bay's quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and his scrub back-up who played just for today, finished the season throwing three times as many touchdown passes alone as the Chiefs entire offense scored.

I'm not going to get into all the why's and wherefore's until next week when I write my special final post of the season with the standard riveting analysis of the season.

But one thing I want to point out from this game is something that is critical for us to address in order to be on track for future success.

With the one minute left the Broncos started at their own 25 to begin that last patented miracle drive they've become so famous for. The Chiefs defense knew -- as everyone in the universe knew -- that all they had to do was smother the receivers (which again, they do very well) and contain with a very simple four man pass rush, and the game would be theirs. Sure enough three straight passes did not get them the first down, until Wallace Gilberry slammed into Tim Tebow's knees. Bam, just like that, personal foul, 15-yard penalty, first down Denver.

Now, if you are on any team and you want to win the game for you and your teammates and your mom and dad there cheering in the crowd, and you are told in the least uncertain terms possible, "Make sure you don't go into that drawn circle on the ground over there and spin around three times clockwise with your hands on your head while singing 'Hello, Dolly' in falsetto," don't you think it'd be reeeeeeal easy to just plain NOT DO THAT???

Now, pretend you're an NFL player on an NFL team making bazillions of NFL dollars, and you are told, "All you have to do is not run into the quarterback's knees. I mean, really, listen very carefully: just stand there, push on the O-lineman a few times, glare at the quarterback and wave your arms around frantically at times, BUT DON'T RUN INTO HIS KNEES," you'd think those instructions would be reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally easy to follow!

But no.

We have to shoot ourselves in the foot yet again.

And that's the whole point about this.

The whole episode illuminates the need for a head coach who can get this team, ahh, here's the word, get ready for it because it is a wonderul, wonderful word --

Disciplined.

Oh, I like that word. It is a marvelous, marvelous word, don't you think?

That the Chiefs would have it.

And I'm not just talking about regular plain old pro football discipline.

I'm talking about teams-that-regularly-compete-in-the-playoffs discipline. Teams that go at least 11-5 every year, who don't have the extraordinarily stupid, profoundly annoying, and contending-team-eviscerating penalties happening over and over and over -- I mean we had a bunch of those yet again in the game today!

And that means we get that coach who can do that.

Romeo Crennel, great. Great for the defense. Awesome: we held Denver to three points on the day, at their place. Awesome awesome awesome. Romeo Crennel you are the man for that. You - da - man.

But our offense did squat. Dexter McCluster's TD run? A thing of beauty. Don't get me wrong -- a thing of beauty.

But that was it. It - it - it.

We just need the guy that'll unlock this team's potential. Look at what Jim Harbaugh did with the already very talented and amazingly underachieving 49ers.

We need the guy like that who's going to get this team to not only be the class of the AFC West (which admittedly should not be hard to do these days) but to be one of the class teams in the NFL.

But again, next week is the season analysis post.

For now, just pride again in a team that finished the season with a good win, and while it wasn't like 2006, it's still always good, and perhaps even a positive note to get the team a bit excited for next year.

(And hey, even with the win, the Raiders were still booted from the playoffs when they lost their game! Oh yeah!)
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