The power company sent us a notice earlier in the week. Our power would be out at any time from 8:00 to 4:30 for maintenance. I'm thinking, of course, GREAT, that'll be right when the Chiefs game is on. Just great.
The phenomenally stupid irony of this is the we were playing the Chargers today.
Now, let's get this out of the way right now. That catch by Dwayne Bowe, the one that should've been the game-winner -- sensational. There he's doing his Mr. Hyde action there. We're down late, he slips into the middle of the end zone, he turns just right fiercely holding off the close defender and snatching the ball with one hand, keeping his grip even when the guy has his hand on it. Wah-oww.
Okay, got that outta the way. Now for the supreme ugliness.
We simply cannot beat Philip Rivers. We can't. You do know that makes 11 wins for that guy against us. I can't figure it out. He's Superman against us. This is a generally crappy 5-6 team. This was a gimme win for us. There was no reason in the world we shouldn't have hammered this team.
Except for the fact that they've got Philip Rivers.
But still, what is it with this? Again, this is a 5-6 team. What in blazes are all those other teams doing to keep Philip Rivers mortal? Against us, he's a god. Six other teams the Chiefs'd squash like a bug have their way with him, but us? We're the ones on the underside of his foot. So yeah, there has got to be some curse related to this guy and his success against us.
With the electricity off I listened to the game on the radio, because we get the Chargers games out here. And believe me, I think the very worst thing about the Chargers owning us so much is the utterly puke homer announcers for the Chargers. Who are they? I don't even know, I have to look it up, what a minute...
...Okay, Josh Lewin and Hank Bauer, that's who they are. Let's name names. Okay okay, I really don't wish harm to anyone, but these guys should summarily suffer the simple penalty of just not being anywhere near a microphone. And please know, I appreciate announcers who are good in spite of my arch rival sentiments. Greg Papa of the contemptibly reviled Raiders? One of the best. Vin Scully of my equally hated Dodgers? One of the greatest ever. And as a rule I always try to find the best in every announcer or announcing team, I really do.
But Josh Lewin and Hank Bauer? Please go away. Please, whoever is running that network, please send them to announcer oblivion forthwith. And it wasn't just today, I'd heard them before when forced to, for instance when I have to be on the road for some reason when the Chiefs are playing the Chargers, and it has always been excruciatingly unbearable. I almost want the Chiefs to hammer the Chargers only because I want those guys to feel it.
I thought they would today, hey, we shot up to a 14-3 lead, until -- yeah -- there must be some curse. Because when the game was still early I had to endure these clowns announce not only the injury to Tamba Hali, but Justin Houston. Not saying these guys gloated or anything about the injuries, it's just they're just wretchedly bad homer announcers.
Okay, lessee, two of the best pass rushers in the game out early, annnd Philip Rivers in there and ready to carve us like Thanksgiving turkey (I'm sure I've used that metaphor around this time before regarding the Chargers QB), annnd some curse that always kills us about to proceed to kill us?...
Yep, guess things are back to normal.
At halftime I couldn't stand it anymore -- I was getting ill. My family and I went to a pizza place with working electricity and we watched a second half go back and forth, which may have been thrilling for some, but it was astoundingly depressing for me because we should've been clobbering these guys.
Sure enough late in the game we were up 28-24 and Philip Rivers throws the ball right into the hands of our D-back Quintin Demps at the goal line. He can't make the pick. They get the FG and now it's 28-27. When we get the ball we're driving, and Jamaal Charles gets untracked and is sure enough he's gone for a TD, until he does a little juke he didn't have to make and got pulled down at the 10. We had to settle for a field goal, 31-27. Should've been 35-24. That should've been it, right there.
But the Philip Rivers curse is still in full working order.
As it is, the Chargers have won 10 of the last 12 Chiefs-Chargers games. They've either been blowouts or heartbreakers (remember that inexplicably crushing last minute 22-21 loss in '08 - the one when we were up 21-10 at the two-minute warning? Yeah, I try to forget too...) Even the two Chiefs wins were nail-biting close (remember we got a nice fumbled snap from Rivers in '11 to help us out?) -- we just can't comfortably blast this team, ergh, we can't even beat them at all. The last genuine Chiefs blowout was way back in '00, a 42-10 affair when the Chargers were wrapping up the very short-lived Ryan Leaf experiment and finished the season 1-15. Whupp-dah-doo.
I remember a few years ago -- in the midst of our awful '07 '08 '09 years -- I could crow for our Chiefs that overall head-to-head we were firmly ahead of all the other rivals in our division. Raiders, Broncos, Chargers -- the Chiefs had winning records against each one. Now, we're behind the Chargers because we just can't beat them any more.
The last time we beat the Chargers in both games of the season? 2003, when Doug Flutie was their quarterback. That's ridiculous. Since then we're 5-14 against them. Six of those losses have been by 14 points or more.
Well, we play them again the last game of the season in San Diego. Right now I'm very concerned about this team. Sorry, but I've kept thinking -- even mentioning it in this blog -- that we may actually not be all that. Is our team as good as Tamba Hali and Justin Houston? If it is we're in huge trouble. Yes, we've been blessed to be healthy all year long, but what will be the deal with them? As of now I don't know what the extent of their injuries are, but if we lose them -- wow.
I mean, today our defensive backfield was laid bare. Remember that we'd been barely beating third-string quarterbacks all year. Well, now we've faced Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers and gotten roasted by them. (I think I remember wailing loudly about that in this blog a while ago...)
I was really thinking Andy Reid did a good job of running that two-minute offense at the end of the game. Managing that last-few-minutes game has been one of the few things people have always been nervous about regarding his coaching skills. We score the go-ahead TD late, okay, all right, so I was thinking he'd done pretty decently... until then I noticed that he had the offense storm down the field and get a TD -- with 1:20 left. Yep, sure enough Philip Rivers had just enough time to get a few long screen passes to Danny Woodhead (where was our defense on those) and then get one of his patented laser-strikes on 3rd-and-15 to a wide-out for the game-winner.
Oh Andy Reid, why didn't we give the ball a few times to Jamaal to run clock? Get them to burn their time-outs? Errrrghckck... Sure, play for the TD, but we could've done fine with a FG to send it into OT if we didn't get the TD.
At the end of this day, you'd like to think we should have some comfort in still being 9-2. Sorry, but I just don't. I really don't. With what we've got coming up I'm looking at an historic collapse. I am indeed looking at a 9-7 finish. -- Oh Dave don't be so melodramatic.
Sorry, but until we can beat a Philip Rivers or a Peyton Manning -- and do so with some meaningful statement, no getting lucky breaks at key points and squeaking out some mildly invigorating win -- until that happens I just don't think we're going to get past Playoff Game Number One.
Sorry but to me this was extraordinarily discouraging, at just about every level. Sorry. I'm really tired of this.
The power was out in more places than just our house. We've since gotten it back here, but will it come back to Arrowhead?
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