Giants at Chiefs - Week 4 - Record: 4-0

You must know if you don't already that my favorite major league baseball team is the San Francisco Giants. I was born near Kansas City, but my parents moved to the bay area where I grew up. So whenever I see the matchup between the Giants and the Chiefs, I'm wondering if I'm being asked about who I favor more.

The baseball Giants have won two World Series in the past three years, but this year they have been abysmal, almost finishing in the cellar of their own division. The football Giants have won two of the last six Super Bowls themselves, but this year they have suffered injuries and a major drop in their play, and they came into Arrowhead with an 0-3 record.

It was just the kind of game the Chiefs could be down for after they've shot out to a 3-0.

It looked for much of it like the Giants were going to give us a run. It was 10-7 for a long time, and it should've been 10-10 if their kicker didn't brick a gimme field goal. Their only touchdown was yet another big play the Chiefs gave up, a long TD pass from Eli Manning to Victor Cruz. It did look like the Giants were very capable of using the Manning-to-Hicks-or-Cruz connections to beat us.

Not to be.

As the game progressed our defense just got tougher and tougher and tougher. They started to wear down their O-line and finally got to Manning, sacking him a few times, even forcing a fumble once. With that much pressure Manning had trouble being consistent enough to make things happen offensively for the Giants. I've always seen Manning as a tremendously resourceful quarterback, making something from nothing at least once every three plays. That's what has always done the Giants well.

The Chiefs messed that up just enough to make it extraordinarily difficult to Manning to do anything meaningful at all.

Thing is, it was still close midway into the second half! Our offense was not getting Jamaal untracked, our receivers were not getting separation enough, or they were just plain dropping balls. Errgh. Just wait -- don't mean to be a downer, but that receiver thing will kill us unless it gets fixed. That super nice catch and score by Bowe late can't disguise the worries I have about us being able to do that kind of thing in the clutch when needed.

The most electrifying part of the game was McCluster's punt return. Sure enough, just before that, more than any other time, I was shouting to him at the television set, come on Dexter, time to run one back -- it's time. I was kind of stunned when he did. Now I'm not going to try to brag or be a big shot and say I called it, because I admit I do frequently will my players to do great things at the TV all the time. But I will say that indeed this was one of those more particularly directed times.

His run was a thing of McCluster beauty. The turns and twists and cuts he made to break free were spectacular. Just like that, it was 17-7, and the way our defense was playing and the way our offense was able to grind late, this game was ours at that point.

Sure enough, with about nine minutes left, we started that grinding, again. We actually got a 53-yard field goal from Succop, but a penalty on the Giants gave us a first down, and we just did more grinding until Smith hit Charles with a TD pass to make it 24-7. Third game in a row with exceptional running clock late.

As for the overall, everyone is surely feeling great about this, the 4-0 start, all that. But one simple thing I can think is that the Chiefs have always done well against NFC teams, and so far we've beaten three NFC teams. Yes, this Chiefs team is a fine team. Yes, it seems only Chiefs fans know that this team has had beast talent, but with no quarterback and no coach, and subsequently few wins. Now that we have them we're doing what we should be doing.

The question is, will we continue the run against AFC teams? Next week we are visiting the Titans, a pretty decent AFC team from what little that I gather. How will we do against the other fine teams in our own division, especially the phenomenally good Broncos?

I must close with a couple brief notes about former Chiefs.

First, I'd say a few Chiefs fans were watching the NFL Network Tuesday night for the premiere showing of one of the most poignant editions in their A Football Life series, the one on Derrick Thomas. So much of it made me sad inside, from his father's legacy to his tragic death to, yes, all of the crushing playoff losses. Interestingly I discovered that probably his worst game Derrick ever had was that Monday night game with Denver, that Monday in November of 1998 when I myself left it all behind and didn't watch the Chiefs or anything about them for five years.

On that Monday night it seemed all the Chiefs frustrations of eight years of the most wretched luck any team could ever have were packed into Derrick. He had all kinds of personal foul penalties during an embarrassing loss to Denver who themselves, with his buddy former-Chief Neil Smith, would go on to another Super Bowl win, their second in a row.

Thing is, I had no idea all that with Derrick happened that night. Yes, it was a good time to take a very long break from it all myself. Only I still wept when he died in 2000, and I wept again just seeing it all again this past Tuesday night.

Fast forward to 2003, when I resumed a small involvement in sports again, committing to just watching the Chiefs. It was a good year to do it, that year we blasted outta the gate refusing to lose until the tenth game of the season. We had so many weapons, what with Trent Green and Priest Holmes and Willie Roaf and all of them, but the most exciting player of all was unquestionably

Dante Hall.

I am the announcer of my son's high school football games, and in just catching some basic facts about the visiting team for this past Friday night's game, I surfed around at the school's website.

Guess what I discovered.

That Dante Hall was a running backs-special teams coach for the team.

Sure enough, I arrived early for the game, caught where he was at the corner of the field coaching his return specialists (of course!) and taking advantage of my on-field pass, I made my way to introduce myself to him. He greeted me with an engaging smile, we chatted for a few minutes, and I told him my son was a kick returner too but was injured.

After the game Hall actually sought out my son to chat with him as well, encouraging him to work hard to get back on the football field.

How great was that! Later Friday night my son and I talked and smiled and went back and looked over all the videos and stories about Hall's legendary exploits just reveling in the moment of being able to meet and speak with easily one of the greatest Chiefs ever.

And I can now only think about McCluster's splendid punt return today to just magnify the meaning of all of that. Afterwards they showed him on the sideline, naturally, with his arms crossed in that iconic "X" pattern.

Just too great.
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Chiefs at Eagles - Week 3 - Record: 3-0

A lot on this game, but first, some personal history related to Chiefs-Eagles games. (I do have a take on this one, so if you want to get right to it, just scroll down and it's there. It's all good.)

On Sunday, October 22, 1972, my father, brother and I were returning from a weekend trip to Yosemite National Park, which was about 100 miles or so away from our home. We were there without my mother because barely a month before she and my father had gotten a divorce. So, here's Yosemite, something for a dad to do with his boys on a weekend to show he was still there. That's cool.

I distinctly remember something from that drive home, and that was listening to the radio to the NFL scores of the day. Sure enough they said that Kansas City had defeated Philadelphia, 21-20. I remember being pretty stoked about that, even though I didn't follow everything quite so fastidiously -- I was only 11.

Turns out later sometime, I don't remember when, that the broadcaster got it wrong. It was actually Philadelphia that beat Kansas City 21-20, and I remember that kinda got to me. Wow. I can't trust my parents to stay together, now I can't trust these people to get the score right so my already fragile emotions don't get further yanked around.

Thing is, I thought, hmm, what actually did happen in that game, and what was the context? In fact I didn't even know it was a scant few weeks after my parent's divorce until I looked it up. Do you know what happened in that game?

Well, the Chiefs had already lost their first two games ever at Arrowhead that year, including an opening day home loss to the eventual undefeated Dolphins. But they had won three games on the road, so they were sporting a 3-2 record, not too bad especially coming off a terrific season that ended on that infamous Christmas day playoff loss.

So into Arrowhead come the Eagles who had no wins at all, 0-5. Sure enough the first half featured three touchdown passes thrown by the immortal Eagles QB Pete Liske. Yeah, Pete Liske. The Chiefs could only muster the 20 the rest of the way.

The Eagles would go on to get a grand total of one more win that year, while the Chiefs slogged to an 8-6 record and would get nowhere near the playoffs, a streak that would last another 13 years.

Because of the odd ways they did interleague scheduling for many of those years, the Chiefs and Eagles would not face each other again for another 20 years.

That game was on October 11, 1992, and this time the Dave Krieg-led Chiefs got the touchdown they needed to actually win the game, 24-17. Here's the personal note though, I don't remember a thing about that game because, strangely enough, my stepfather had died suddenly just that week before the game. I was at my mother's consoling her and helping her make arrangements. So, yeah, weird, two Chiefs-Eagles games 20 years apart are preceded by my mom losing a husband each time.

The Chiefs-Eagles game after that was a Chiefs spanking, but only one of the two they had against the Eagles before this year's game. Thing about this one was that it was part of a streak to start the 1998 season when I was sure we were going to dominate the NFL -- finally! -- before we utterly tanked beginning my own sports swearing-off in November of that year. For five years following, yes, truly I knew not a thing about the Chiefs, or mostly anything else in sports. Today I still do nothing with any of it except -- I simply can't help it -- watch Chiefs games.

The Chiefs-Eagles affair in 2005 was two games before I started this blog. I remember it well too because, while the 2005 season was actually a pretty dang good one for us -- we finished 10-6 -- this game was probably the most devastating one of them all. We shot out to a 17-0 lead, at Arrowhead no less, and then, it evaporated just like that. We actually got crushed, the final was 37-31, but it really wasn't that close. If we had that game, we'd've gotten in the playoffs, and taken the place of the eventual Super Bowl winning Steelers.

Now to this game. The way I look at this game is that there were five key things that were both good and bad, but the good of each was just a little bit better, and that got us the win. Here they are, in no order of importance:

1. The Vertical Passing Game. The Bad: We just don't have one. Our receivers are just not getting separation for Alex Smith to get that ball down the field. It is the main concern I have about this Chiefs team, and I believe this is going to really kill us in the future. Stinkin' Jon Baldwin. The Good That Was Just a Little Bit Better: That Donnie Avery slant catch & run. Wow, that we could get away with that, what, three or four times, big-time during this game. Thing is you'd think if that was all we had they'd just shut it down for good, but we could do it because we actually executed it so damn well. Alex Smith got the timing down perfectly each time, our receivers hit their marks beautifully for the wedge needed for big yardage, and Avery's speed made it a big play every time.

2. Our Offensive Line. The Bad: For most of the game they played far more on the poor side than the good side. They got penalties, they allowed QB sacks, they couldn't get Jamaal untracked. It was very discouraging. The Good That Was Just a Little Bit Better: For the second game in a row the O-line stepped up when we needed it and did the grinding-down-clock thing to ice the game. We took, what, eight minutes off the clock when Philly really needed to get the ball back. They actually started opening things up for our backs, and yeah, a lot of that was Jamaal Charles, but they also gave Smith enough protection for a few of those dump-off passes you also gotta have.

3. The Big Play. The Bad: We got utterly roasted on three big plays that didn't have to happen. Can you believe Michael Vick's 61-yard run was the longest of his career? Michael Vick??? That was the longest? They also got a nice 20-something-yard arching touchdown pass from Vick and a 41-yard touchdown run in which their guy just hit a small crease in the line and was gone. The Good That Was Just a Little Bit Better: Our opportunistic defense. We do have a decent defense, but tonight they stepped it up to force Philly into five turnovers. Yes, some of that was them bouncing snaps off their butts, but some of it was indeed our defense just being beast out there. And just look at Justin Houston, who's emerging as -- dare I say it -- another Derrick Thomas. Okay okay, I won't go so far to say he's there yet, by any means, there's still lots of career ahead of him -- but wow.

4. Being in-synch. The Bad: Being out-of-synch. We really did look all over the place out there. Especially in the red zone, we really looked inept on too many plays. Too many times the Eagles were all over anything we tried to do. The Good That Was Just a Little Bit Better: Alex Smith's patience. Wow, did that help us out. He got sacked five times, but the odd thing is that this was actually a really good thing. He's proven he's not going to try to make something out of nothing. He really knows when to take advantage of things but only when you really can. Hey, if you suffer five yard losses on two plays of a series but can get 20 on one, it's all good. This reminds me of Eli Manning's play, and ya know, if Alex Smith can get us two rings, I'm perfectly fine with that.

5. The Overall Game Approach. The Bad: All the penalties, the formation problems, the confusion, the unnecessary timeouts to try to fix it all. Ergh. The Good That Was Just a Little Bit Better: Our coaching. Yes, the blame for all that bad stuff is on Andy Reid, but ya know? I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world. The key little-bit-better thing is that it looks like the team is working hard to get it all going, and it's not easy. The whole system is new, and this is the NFL. It really does look like the coaching staff does have things in order, and are committed to making it work. Right after the game Reid had a microphone in his face and the very first Chiefs oriented thing he said after all the sentimental "I'm back in Philly" stuff was "We have a lot of work to do." He sees it, he knows about it, and he and his guys will get it done.

Hey, that we're 3-0 with all of that happening? I mean, after last year?

And just so you know, my mom is fine.
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Cowboys at Chiefs - Week 2 - Record: 2-0

We've already matched our entire win total of last year in the second week of the season. Get out the fancy flatware, Nelly, we've got to celebrate!

It was quite a close, riveting affair, however -- my son texted me saying he lost some hair watching that 4th quarter. But the wonderfully felicitous thing about it is --

WE WON!

Yowza yowza, we actually won a one-point game. Really, when was the last time that happened? Okay, okay, I did take a moment and go back through all of our wins through the years past until I got to the last one we won by one point. Sure those games don't happen that often anyway, really, close games are mostly margins of three points, four points, seven points, for good reason. But hey, can you believe it? Do you know when it was? Our last one-point victory?

Back on Christmas day, 2004, when we beat the Raiders 31-30. Remember that game? When Dante Hall made that great runback on the kick to get us the winning field goal?

Well, anyway, let's get into this game.

I thought it would turn on that phantom defensive holding call by Eric Berry just before he picked off a pass to Jason Whitten. After that they kicked a field goal to make it 17-16 with lots of time left. With the pick we'd have the ball at midfield with a four-point lead.

As it was after that FG we got the ball and ran clock. Yes we got help from a pass interference call ourselves that the Cowboys railed against, but I'm sorry, their guy did push Donnie Avery to the ground. It was clear. But the best of it was Jamaal Charles and our offensive line very effectively grinding it out against a very good Dallas defense. Cuh-lutch.

As for our other offensive play, it was truly beast at the beginning of each half. First half: splendid drive for a touchdown, but I wonder! What the bloomers was Alex Smith doing running all the time? Second half: another great drive capped by a sweet Dwayne Bowe slant pass for our second touchdown.

We have to confess that we did get a lot of help. That pass Dez Bryant dropped late in the game was big. We benefitted a lot from some sweet turnovers, but a lot of that is the product of a fiercely alert defense. I am concerned about our pass rush -- Tony Romo had way too much time out there, but then they were saying the Dallas O-line is pretty dang good.

If that's the case, then this win was big. I really don't know much about Dallas, but they looked pretty good out there to me. And wow --

We actually beat them.

How crazy is that. How delightfully crazy is that for Chiefs fans who've had to endure one of the worst seasons of quarterback hell. How crazy that here we have a quarterback who is -- crazy!!! -- actually making fine plays out there!

How great is this, too, considering that in the history of the Cowboys-Chiefs rivalry, the Chiefs have not done very well at all. Remember, these two franchises battled it out for supremacy in Dallas until it was the AFL's Texans that got pushed out. Perversely that was actually a pretty great thing, because it gave birth to the Kansas City Chiefs, but still...

You still gotta beat Dallas. You just gotta.

And today, we did.
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Chiefs at Jaguars - Week One - Record: 1-0

'Nkay, it has to be said. It is indeed the first and foremost thing that needs to be said.

When, I say, when was the last time you saw a quarterback performance like that from a Kansas City Chiefs starting quarterback? And please, I'm not saying today's effort from Alex Smith was anything so super wonderful. I mean our offense pretty much stalled in the entire second half, and we were not playing a very good team to begin with.

But come on.

That we actually had at all any meaningful production from our quarterback is cause for a robust celebration. We may, yes, we may actually have, for once, a genuinely contending team.

A lot of that is not just because of Alex Smith. It was very clear that

- Our offensive line played extremely well. Eric Fisher sealed the outside well and provided fine pass protection. The return of Rodney Hudson in the middle I believe is the difference maker.

- Jamaal Charles run up and down the field again. He had a quad strain at one point so let's hope he's healthy and can keep going, but Cyrus Gray and Knile Davis looked good in relief.

- Our pass rush was quite ferocious, and Justin Houston looks like he's gained a step. Dontari Poe was beast in the middle, even batting down a pass at one point. Our defensive game plan even allowed Tyson Jackson to get a sack! It's all good!

- We actually had somewhat of a vertical passing game! It looks like they've found the magical potion to unleash Dexter McCluster. He ran great routes, caught some good long passes. Fine touchdown plays from Junior Hemingway and Donnie Avery were very sweet to watch, and showed what a difference a whole new coaching staff makes. Last year we just wouldn't have made those plays -- ahem, no real quarterback, no real coach.

But hey, the irony. For years the best thing about our Chiefs has been their punting team led by Dustin Colquitt. On the whole Colquitt and the special teams had a good day, but the irony: the worst thing the Chiefs endured today was a blocked punt that went for a safety.

We aren't all there altogether yet. We had the usual breakdowns most teams have, I mean, again, we couldn't get a single offensive score in the second half. Cause for concern?...

But then again, that we got three touchdowns out of the gate, the first two of them touchdown passes -- wow, touchdown passes and the Chiefs. The Chiefs and touchdown passes. The joy of seeing those two things together. Aaahh...
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Chiefs Season Preview 2013

I guess I'd better sit down here and pound out something to say about what I'm thinking about
the Chiefs this year. I say that because last year I'd written more in this blog that I had in any other year, because of the unique nature of the season. We had a decent team, actually, just a miserable coach and an even more miserable quarterback situation. A 2-14 record was the pukifyingly ignoble result. Last year's therapy was really just a set up to this preview, which really could be encapsulated in the simple idea that after the team thoroughly cleaned house and brought in quality personnel from top to bottom, there are indeed high expectations.

Of course I could write all about Andy Reid and Alex Smith, or even make mention of GM John Dorsey and pine hopefully for the most boffo decisions in the front office, but hey, it's just a given that they've got to be beast there for us to be beast on the field.

So what of that team? Just some brief thoughts beyond the standard expectations from this crew, just broken down what I think is the key to the offense, the key to the defense, and the key to the more long-term future of the Kansas City Chiefs, and each involves a single player.

The key to the defense: Dontari Poe.

I'm going to start there, and the key here is indeed the behemoth nose tackle we got last year with our number one pick and something like 11th overall. It was a learning year for the guy, but this year he's got to be the linchpin of a defensive line that must not only stand up the opposing offense but flat-out push it back.

I think our run defense should be pretty decent -- Derrick Johnson is still quick, Justin Houston's got another year of experience, Eric Berry has laser instincts for the ball, and ya know? I think Tyson Jackson does have it in him to do decently against the run.

Our defensive backfield still looks solid with the help of a fine pick-up in Sean Smith, but for our pass defense to work, we have got to win the battle at the line of scrimmage. If Poe is a stand-up -- and yes push-back -- kind of guy, then we should be fine on defense.

If he isn't, then a mediocre 8-8 season is very possible. I know many would think that's great compared to last year, but I'm sorry. We do have the talent to be 10-6, with a respectable coach and QB as we now have -- so 8-8 would be a disappointment.

The key to the offense: Wait for it... Junior Hemingway.

Huh? Who's that?

Yeah, right, who is that. In the small portion of preseason action I saw, this guy looked like our best receiver not Dwayne Bowe. Yes, a couple weeks ago I was planning to put Jonathan Baldwin's name here, yeah, as the key to the offense. That was merely because he had to have stepped up his game for us to really be effective offensively.

Well, not 'nee more.

So, yeah, trading Baldwin means that now here's yet another instance, in 2011, of the Chiefs forgoing a truly decent quarterback draft pick for some other guy who didn't pan out -- in this instance Colin Kaepernick and Andy Dalton both selected a few picks after Baldwin. In fact I should say my cousin has put together an analysis of all the times the Chiefs have drafted a bust -- or, to be fair, just someone who didn't get it done -- before some quarterback was drafted who went on to do fine things for their team. If he puts it together in some published form I'll share it here.

But to the key to the offense, I firmly believe it is in our wide receiver situation. Sure we have Dwayne Bowe, but I'm always concerned about him. Come on, how many of you Chiefs fans just cringe when you see him break off his route unexpectedly, drop passes thrown to him right on the numbers -- but then he forces you to tearfully forgive him when he makes that top-of-the-highlight-reel juggling catch or reaches half-way up the grandstands for another of his patented sideline grabs?

Then there's, who? Dexter McCluster? Maybe Reid will be the one to finally know how to use him. Anthony Fasano? What a phenomenally great pick-up at tight end, but that's tight end -- you can only go so far with that. The however many other wide receivers we are shuffling around and trying to fit in these last days of cuts and pickups? Chinese fire drills feature more stability and organization. Oh to have a -- ahem -- Jon Baldwin. In fact, I was thinking, are Calvin Johnson and Jon Baldwin that much different in size, speed, all that stuff? Ya know? I don't think so! It's just... yeah, you can stop laughing now.

Thing is we really really needed Baldwin not to be such a monumental bust. And the guy we got for him, A.J. Jenkins, is he going to get it done? Dunno, maybe at this point we should just be thankful we got something for Baldwin.

Enter Junior Hemingway. Again, he looked pretty decent the times I watched him -- running his routes nicely, getting nice separation, showing nice fundamentals... But errgh. Will it translate into a nice vertical passing game that I really wonder about -- having a nice Alex Smith in there now notwithstanding.

The key to the future: Drafting that quarterback we can actually have and hold dear and watch take us to the promised land.

Oh, please don't get me wrong. I fully expect Alex Smith to take us to the promised land sometime over the next three or four years. I do, I mean that.

But the evidence from The Quarterback Project is simply too brazenly obvious to be ignored. At some point sometime very very very very very very soon the Chiefs

SIMPLY MUST

Be in a position in the draft to have a top flight quarterback drop into our laps, and get one whom they can develop through the years to be their mainstay for years and years and years. The Chiefs are the only team in NFL history to never have that happen -- or at least have the wherewithal to make it happen. Really, look it up, right there in The Quarterback Project.

Never.

Never for them; at least once for every other NFL team in their history.

Now I've said this before, but I'm convinced that most of it has to do with the Chiefs wretched luck in having picks where they can snatch up that guy. My cousin feels it is just typical Chiefs ineptitude -- they always grab some Todd Blackledge or Matt Blundin but pass on every Brett Favre and Joe Flacco. It is obviously a combination of both, but both together mean the Chiefs have been majorly hosed in the area for years and years and... okay, I'll stop now.

As it is we've got I imagine a good three or four years for Alex Smith to shine. But during that time it is imperative that we get that quarterback -- first round somewhere, maybe in the most remote way second round -- yes Seattle's Russell Wilson was a third-rounder but they are rarer than any decent Chiefs quarterback draft.

Well, enough about that. It's a given. What we've got now is this year. And what we need this year to complement the Jamaal Charleses and Eric Fishers and Brandon Flowerses is that fierce defensive line which I do believe is well within our reach, and a downfield passing attack which I think is the one area that may be a critical deficiency.

In all of this there is no question Clark Hunt must be commended for his massive overhaul in those critical areas and his commitment to excellence that is looking very contagious, and as such this season holds great promise for some very good things to happen.

Looking forward it all!
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