This was a game that meant absolutely nothing standings-wise or playoffs-wise one way or the other for the Chiefs -- they're already locked into a No. 5 seed for the playoffs. It meant everything for the Chargers -- win or go home for the postseason.
And yet our inspired backups almost won the game for us.
Really, they should have won it, but alas, we were again blistered by The Curse of Sid Gillman (or whatever version of The Curse has been so ruthlessly hammering us against the Chargers). I mean, all we needed was a gimme Ryan Succop field goal to win it, but, alas, The Curse. He totally bricked it, while former Chiefs kicker Nick Novak nailed his two to tie it and then win it. Now we've got beat by these guys 10 of the last 12. How sucked-up is that (couldn't resist, sorry).
But really if The Curse is going to bite us in the ass again, today is a perfect day for that to happen. This one didn't mean a damn thing. Sure The Curse can spank us by way of the effects of having all our top guys resting today leading to their lethargic uneven play next week. Now, yes, on the other hand they could be well rested enough and protected from injury enough to be righteously beast next week. But well... I won't bring up that thing again. But it's still there.
As far as this game goes, there was indeed another Chargers really stupid punt thing that went against the Chiefs, and sure enough I thought about the Chargers really stupid punt thing that was the crushing factor in that late 2006 game. This one was completely unjust if what I saw on the replays was actually what happened, and it did really cost us the game. Just have to share it here because it was just too stupid.
We stop them on their first series in overtime in their territory, it's something like 4th and 2. They try a fake punt with Eric Weddle, I think it was him, taking the snap and running up the middle. He gets the first down. Problem is, we stop him behind the line of scrimmage. No whistle blows. The pile moves forward a bit just past the 1st down marker, wherein he fumbles the ball before he goes down, at least that's what the one single replay that they showed indicated. Cyrus Gray ends up with the football and runs for a touchdown.
But, ahh, once the pile moves forward and no one knows what actually happened there, the officials blow the whistle. First down Chargers. I see. I see how it is. Everyone's tired, we all want to go home. I see how it is. The television people didn't even pursue the matter further. This is the Chiefs, and, well, they're supposed to lose to the Chargers. I see how it is.
Sorry, but if this happened to a Cowboys or a Giants or a Patriots they'd be all over this. They'd be reviewing the video on every highlights show and every pundit on the set would be carefully dissecting it and ranting and raving incessantly. There is no question this contemptible neglect of anything Chiefs is at least some vital part of The Curse, it really is.
I'm planning to put together a Playoff Preview Post here sometime this week, when I'll spit and spew and hock and holler about what I think about Chiefs at Colts. Yeah, nothing is new. Still feel that harrowing dread, sorry. Just being honest. But more about all that later.
As for now, the Chiefs record this year against backup, second-string, third-string, just-signed, and whatever fill-in quarterbacks there are: 9-0. Their record against top-flight Pro-Bowl caliber quarterbacks (namely Manning Rivers and Luck): 0-5. Just as I feared weeks and weeks ago. Oh, and next week that could be 0-6 on the year. Yhee. (The other two were Tony Romo and Eli Manning, two pretty decent quarterbacks we beat this year, but both had very subpar years.)
As for next week, The Curse affects the whole scheduling situation, too. My brother-in-law's already scheduled a huge paintball day for his son's birthday, on Saturday. I'm thinking, ya know? They're going to do it, I just know they will. They're going to schedule the Chiefs game for the first game of the weekend, on Saturday afternoon. ::Please-oh-please-oh-please-oh-please-don't-have-our-game-be-that-game...:: I thought all week long.
Not.
Guess which game is first, 1:25 PST next Saturday?
Errrghkkkkk.
Well, I don't know how this'll play out. Will our paintball be done so I can see the game? Maybe the second half of the game? Or hey, maybe I should just not watch, just enjoy the paintball experience and avoid the televised pro football agony. Maybe, I dunno. You'll see how that all plays out in next week's standard postgame post -- what I watch, how much, whatever. At this point I still just feel so resigned no matter how much our team has going for us. Again, next post, preview, sometime this week, I'll get into it.
Thought I'd add this, after being generally disturbed over these awful recent records we have against these teams. You'd think we'd have a poor overall record, but remember, through the 53 years of the Chiefs existence, we do have a winning record overall -- 415-392-12. How can that be? Who then do we have winning records against? Well, first, our worst records are against Pittburgh (9-19) and the New York Giants (3-10).
Speaking of Pittsburgh, kinda glad the Steelers didn't get in the playoffs through a Chiefs win today. There was a bit of talk about the Steelers' displeasure with Andy Reid for resting his starters and playing all the reserve guys. Well, Steelers whoevers, for one, those guys almost won the game, and for two, shut your trap because you had eight games this season you could have won yourselves but didn't. You've played the most charmed football for decades, people, 'bout time you got a taste of our curse.
Anyway, most teams we're pretty even with through the years, but the teams against whom we have winning records of some sizable margin? Five teams are worthy of note. We're seven games up on Tennessee, interesting because the Oilers are the team we're best known for beating in the playoffs -- in that AFL championship game in '62 and then in '93. We've also been really dominant over Seattle, and not just when they started out back in the late seventies. Since that awful game in 1990 when Derrick Thomas set the sacks record but we lost on the very last play, we've played the Seahawks 25 times and beaten them 19.
Our best records by winning percentage are against Arizona and Washington. We've only been beaten by the Redskins once in the entire history of Chiefs-Redskins games, comprising nine total meetings. But how about this team we have a pretty dominant history against:
The Packers. How about that. We're 7-3-1 against them, and one of those losses was Super Bowl I. Crazy, huh.
Oh, and something else kinda funny?
We have overall winning records against the Broncos and the Patriots, the two top seeds in the playoffs this year. Yeah, a lot of that success was in the AFL days, especially against the Broncos who we beat 25 of 27 times (yowza!) from the very get-go into the early seventies.
But hey, hey...
Maybe we can get some of that charm back for this run...
_
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