Chargers at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 9-7

I am a fan of the San Francisco Giants.

My favorite team is the Chiefs, yes, and I mean that. But right behind them is baseball's Giants. I've mentioned a number of times in this blog that growing up in the Bay Area I've been a Giants, 49ers, and Warriors fan. I also like the Royals, and now living in southern California my team here is the Angels. Not much of a fan of anyone else in pro sports.

I mention the Giants because last week I'd brought up the whole principle of got-it in a team, and we all witnessed the gruesome characteristics of being plagued with not-got-it as the Chiefs were against the Steelers.

Thing is, the San Francisco Giants got it.

They really do.

They've earned a World Championship in major league baseball three times in the past five years, a truly amazing achievement in today's world of shifting allegiances and ridiculous parity. This past year the Giants had the worst record of all playoff participants, yet they did what it takes, yet again, to run the table and win the World Series.

How do they do it? Yes, it is a matter of they got it, but there are indeed some things that can be identified that help make that happen. Thing is, being a Giants fan for so long and suffering for so long with a team that simply did not have any got-it for long long long periods of time, I can see the difference. I believe the key is in that leadership. And it isn't even in ownership.

It is just in leadership.

The club president of the Giants is a man named Larry Baer. He was there when the Giants were rescued from going to St. Petersberg in 1992 and worked his way through the organization until he oversaw all three of the Giants championship runs.

The general manager is a man named Brian Sabean. He's been there since 1996 and is, I believe, the longest serving GM with one team in the majors right now. He had an immediate impact in orchestrating a division title in 1997 and molded a team that went to the playoffs in 2000, 2002, and 2003. He then built these recent World Series teams.

The director of player personnel is a man named Dick Tidrow. A former major leaguer himself, he has been with the team for 21 years. He is in charge of all the drafting and signing and developing players. He's got his hands in everything having to do with the actual players who end up on the field.

The field manager is a man named Bruce Bochy (pictured). A fine manager for many years before he came to the Giants, he's still masterfully handled the team since 2007 even through difficult times.

The pitching coach is a man named Dave Righetti, who's been with the team for 15 years, and is respected as one of the best pitching coaches in the game. I believe he is the longest serving pitching coach with any one team.

I could name a dozen other people in the organization, including a number of former players who have vital roles in making the Giants ball club arguably the finest in the game. What do all these individuals have in common?

First, they've been there for so long providing a strength and stability that makes the Giants organization the envy of pro baseball. Secondly they are just really really good at what they do.

Notice I didn't talk about the owner. The owner of the Giants for their 2010 championship was Bill Neukom, I haven't the faintest idea who this guy is -- nothing against Mr. Neukom. The owner now is, guess what -- I don't even know. I really don't. Now yes, I could find out right now on the web, but I've realized that unless he's just plain rotten, it doesn't matter.

If you have these guys already in place and treat them well and pay them nicely...

Then you got it: you got it.

You have that infinitely invaluable got-it.

Thing about the Giants is that even the players have changed over those years. The 2014 team was way, way different than the 2010 team. Now they have benefitted from the performances of a few young, talented stalwarts like Madison Bumgarner and Buster Posey (pictured above). But even in the middle of the 2014 campaign this organization had to make dramatic moves here and there, some of them to cover for injuries to their fine centerfielder, No. 1 starter, and second baseman. The Giants must've tried 28 different second basemen before settling on a guy (Joe Panik, pictured right) who probably made the defensive play of the year in the seventh game of the World Series to help the Giants win it all.

I could write and write and write about the Giants, but this blog is about the Chiefs. I'd even like to put in a good word for the Royals, who got to the World Series to play the Giants mostly from the payoff on the deft management and resilient patience of their top guy, Dayton Moore. I'm sure an instrumental part of that came from David Glass, who even with the reputation for being a lousy owner has just let Moore do his thing to build that marvelous team.

What does this have to do with the Chiefs?

Well, a couple things. The first thing is a purely selfish thing. The Giants have won a record nine straight playoff series, and doing it with the best got-it you could ever see displayed on an athletic field. Meanwhile the Chiefs have lost a record eight straight playoff games, and while we won't have the chance to lose a ninth this year, after Detroit and Cincinnati win their playoff games a bit later here, the Chiefs will hold the distinction of going the longest without a playoff win -- last one, 1993 postseason. The Giants being great now with such greatness takes the edge off of the Chiefs sustained crappitude in this area.

But the thing all Chiefs fans can take away from this is this.

There is great hope for this team.

Even after decades and decades of the worst not-got-it in the San Francisco Giants, they still turned it around and have become one of the greatest baseball teams in major league history.

The Chiefs have had decades and decades of the most putrid not-got-it, and what I see is the progression of a nice turnaround that starts with front office stability we haven't seen for a long time. Maybe, just maybe ten years from now I can write in my blog about the front office personnel of the Chiefs like I did there about that of the Giants.

See, that's the key thing here. Like the bountiful details of success with the who's who in the Giants organization, the Chiefs simply need to build on that and keep working it. And the thing is, it doesn't start with Clark Hunt. Yes, I know he's vitally important, but I still can't see anything that Clark has done or not done that has impacted the Chiefs in a negative way. Everything I've seen about him, at least as he's grown into his ownership role, has been above board. Yeah maybe I don't know everything, but the organization stuff I've seen this year has been pretty solid.

Who does it start with? It starts with John Dorsey, big-time. As I've said many times before, we are so due for someone who's smart, solid, insightful, courageous, a character guy who knows football. Remember who we've had before. Jack Steadman. Steady those grimace reflexes. Carl Peterson, a great football guy but terrible personnel guy. Scott Pioli -- steady... steady...

It seems Dorsey knows what he's doing out there, is learning and growing and is willing to take time to do it but at the same time has a deep sense of urgency, and one of the best things of all, is not toxic. Yay!

Then you've got Andy Reid. Even though he's coached for a while, he's got to take in the Bruce Bochy approach and just be here for a while. Bochy is, like, 58 or something, but he's been guiding the Giants for eight whole years and it looks like he's not ready to stop any time soon. We really need Reid to keep doing what he's doing for eight years, at least.

The sustained success of those guys, Dorsey and Reid and the others who're committed to the long-term, especially right now at this critical time, is the most significant factor in getting the Chiefs to be competitive next year with, most importantly, an amount of got-it that'll actually get us deep in the playoffs.

See, that's why I'm just not that distraught about not making the playoffs this year (today by virtue of the Ravens win). It is a perverse kind-of perspective, yes, I know, but come on Chiefs fans. Let's face it.

This is one less year we have to lose in the playoffs again.

Please please please don't get me wrong. I'd much much much [infinity] want to be in the playoffs than not, even if we would've had to face Indianapolis again.

But what we need for next year is a bit more establishment of the front office guys workin' it so the team we have next year is the one with the got-it.

What does that mean as far as our on-the-field personnel? Our needs are so pronounced.

Draft a big strong wide receiver. Develop a left guard and right tackle. Get the expected improvement from Eric Fisher. Plug a Ray Lewis-type guy in the middle of the run defense. Get Alex Smith to open it up more. Re-sign Rodney Hudson and Justin Houston -- who, by the way, was half-a-sack away from setting an NFL record in quarterback sacks for a season.

I'm sure I'll have more analysis of this sort later in this blogging effort.

When did this season go sour? Was it the Oakland game where one simple easy interception we didn't make late in the game cost us? Was it the Arizona game where we totally got jobbed on those awful calls against our tight ends? Was it the Pittsburgh game where the truckloads of got-it the Steelers had just crushed us? Was it either of the games against Denver -- definitely not those, let's just face it, the Broncos are just flat-out better than we are at this point.

No, it was the very first game of the season when we couldn't beat a lousy Tennessee team. I think back on that game and think about what I was thinking about this team we were playing, and wondering, is this Titans team really any good? It looks like it's not much, but they sure are giving us a beat-down. Later in the season we stormed back to make a good showing while Tennessee wobbled to a final 2-14 record. Wow.

This final game of the season was a nice one, beating a surging Chargers team who just needed to win here against us to get into the playoffs. Our pass defense was terrific, holding Philip Rivers' offense to a single touchdown. That to me is amazing. Great launching point for next year.

I could say more about this or that, but again, right now I'm just looking to see our leadership do its job and we can have great things happen next year. When I think of more things to write about I'll probably blog again. Like, hey, wow, we beat the Chargers twice in a single season, something we hadn't done since 2003.

Wow.

Maybe the got-it is just, just starting to stick.
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(Just a note about the Giants 2014 regular season record. It was 88-74, the same as that of the Pirates and A's who also qualified for their respective wild-card games. The best record was the Angel's at 98-64.)
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Chiefs at Steelers - Week 16 - Record: 8-7

There is something that I really started contemplating much more deeply last night, before the Niners-Chargers game, something that got much more calcified in my mind during that game. I watched it hoping the Niners would beat the Chargers, and for a while it looked like they would. I usually don't do that, watch any other game, but last night I did. I really shouldn't have because it was kind of depressing, even though it really didn't have much impact on what the Chiefs have had facing them. They'd still have to beat San Diego next week.

But watching Philip Rivers at work yet again.

Damn.

How on earth does this team ever lose a game with him at quarterback? I'd even heard he had a really bad back or something viciously bad with his physical constitution, needing surgery, all that. And yet he still carved up the 49ers. Just blistered them on the way to a major comeback win. I'd heard the Chargers had a couple other clutch wins earlier this year.

That's because even with all the stuff with the Chargers this year, whatever injuries and weaknesses they have...

They got it.

A lot of that is just that they have a quarterback who's got it. No matter what, no matter how he's already thrown an earlier pick or a wasted a play on an incompletion or gotten sacked, he still hangs in there and makes some big play sometime. I mean, I really don't know why the Chargers ever need to punt. If Rivers had a whole four plays to get 10 yards, they would never lose.

Why in blazes am I speaking about Philip Rivers and the Chargers when this is a Chiefs blog?

It is simple.

While there are a number of teams in the NFL who got it, I very regretfully have to confess that, yes -

The Chiefs don't got it.

Yes, I am writing in the emotion of the moment right now, I understand that. I'll be fine, thank you for your concern. But even before this game I'd been thinking about this, just thinking deeply about when we can authentically say at any time in our history that we got it.

What in blazes am I talking about with this got-it thing? I believe most NFL fans would understand what I'm talking about. It is that extraordinarily powerful intangible that just courses through an entire organization. It starts with the top management and just filters through everyone on the field. And yes, I do believe there is a profound spiritual, supernatural dynamic involved.

For instance, a team that has got it and has for some time is the New England Patriots. That may be obvious, but recently I found out something after coming across a blogger who pointed it out: That New England has had pretty average drafts over the past several years -- really no better than anyone else. What they do is deftly find undervalued players and know exactly where to plug them in.

The other thing is the quarterback having got it. Does Tom Brady got it? Absolutely. Philip Rivers's got it. Aaron Rodgers definitely does. Andrew Luck, I think does and will win big in the playoffs sometime to show that.

Ben Roethlisberger, the quarterback we faced today, he's got it.

And this Pittsburgh team we played today, they got it.

Sorry. I'm really sorry --

The Chiefs don't got it.

And here's the worst part.

I really don't think the Chiefs have ever had that got-it to be considered anything, really. Ever, in their history.

What about the 1969 World Champion Chiefs? What about those Chiefs teams of the entire 60's?

Okay, they may have had a little got-it. Len Dawson definitely had it, yes. But as I was thinking about all this, I just thought that Chiefs team was so talented for that one short run, I mean, really, even though their franchise had three AFL titles, there were several years they weren't even close to making the AFL postseason.

They had fantastic players to dominate, finally, in 1969. Yes, I can't say they didn't have some got-it, it's almost axiomatic that you can't win a Super Bowl without it, but here's the point.

Other than that, really, when have the Chiefs ever got it so you just know they're going to compete?

Really, when?

Right now we're looking at another 21-year drought of not winning a playoff game. Did you catch that?

Just for the record, as of now we still have a slight chance to get into the playoffs this year. We do indeed need another 2006-like miracle. We need to win next week but we also need Baltimore, Houston, and Buffalo all to lose. And even then, we're almost certain to face Indianapolis again, and you know what happens whenever that happens.

Now, I'm not going to be completely down on our team and its chances. What I am saying is I look at our current 20-year playoff win drought and think, "What, another one? We had one from '70 all the way to '90 (21 years)! How could any team have two 20-year (plus!) playoff win droughts in their history?!!"

A team like the Chiefs can, that's who, a team who just cannot ever get any sustained period of rich, vibrant got-it so they can actually be meaningfully successful.

From my thinking, I consider the Chiefs only had two times they had any even remotely sustained got-it, and even then it wasn't much. Feel free to disagree, that's cool. But this is just what I think.

In the early 90's we had some got-it even during the years around having Joe Montana. Those two years he was on the team we probably had the most got-it of any time in our history. But then we had the whole Marty Schottenheimer thing going, I mean as wonderful as the guy was, he had not-got-it tattooed all over his body.

The other time was when we had Dick Vermeil, Trent Green, Priest Holmes, and that splendid offensive line, in the early/mid-2000's. Our weak defense kept us from winning any playoff games, but hey, we got to taste it. Guess there's that.

I will add that I'm positive we would've had tons of got-it after that nice taste in 1981, but only if we'd kept Marv Levy and drafted Jim Kelly or Dan Marino. I'm never one to cry too much about that no matter how much so many Chiefs fans still do, point here is we could've had the got-it if that happened.

But then, there presents one of the important components of all this. You know what it is.

Having that drafted and developed quarterback.

Well, we've already gone over that to death, and there's no question that Ben Roethlisberger's got it while Alex Smith, well...

Let's get right to it shall we. This was indeed a classic game demonstrating the classic distinction between the Steelers got-it and the Chiefs not-got-it. Please know, I hate this, I really do. I want the Chiefs to have it as much as anything. But I also look at the truth.

To start, just some history. The Steelers have had got-it ever since the Chiefs lost whatever amount they had back in 1971. Every single year since then the Steelers have definitely had got-it.  This game was just a brazenly ruthless microcosm of that truth. Point of fact, head-to-head against the Chiefs the Steelers are now 20-9. The last time the Chiefs won a game in Pittsburgh was, get this, that final game of the '86 season that propelled us into the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. Remember that game, with all the terrific special teams play that got us the 24-19 win? Ahem: last time we won there. Since then we're 0-5 in Pittsburgh, including today.

Oh, and that one shining moment for the Chiefs in Steelers-Chiefs history? Our 1993 playoff win over them (on January 8th 1994)? Are you all "Woo-hoo!" about that? (::Whimper:: We settle for so little...) Since that day. we've won one playoff game, and that was just the following week against a thoroughly dysfunctional Houston Oilers team. Otherwise, after that, we've had zero playoff wins while the Steelers have had ::gulp:: 17. The Chiefs have had eight postseason victories in their entire franchise history. Here they are. Hou (62) Buf (66) NYJ Oak Min (69) Oak (91) Pit YAY! Hou (93). Tha's it. If I were to put down all of Pittsburgh's postseason wins, the Internet would explode.

To the game.

I noted the Chiefs got-it parts, as well as the not-got-it parts. And please, I am trying to be fair. But you'll note that the got-it/not-got-it distinctions go beyond simply plays-made or plays-not-made. These two teams were reasonably evenly matched if you just looked at talent and that kind of stuff. Each team had certain facets it did better than the other.

Point is, it came down to the Steelers distinct abundance of got-it and the Chiefs lack thereof. Watch.

The got-its for the Chiefs:

- Albert Wilson. I liked how they used him and got him in the mix a lot. He showed he could be a fine go-to guy. I liked that.

- The fake field goal. Fine, well-executed, and surprising. Cool, we're being imaginative, and boldly so. A very good thing.

- Keeping Roethlisberger off the field for solid amounts of time. We actually may have been able to pull this game out by successfully using the strategy that won us the San Diego game earlier, keeping their got-it QB off the field. And we could've if... well -- to the not-got-it's later.

- One single scramble play by Smith, inadvertent, of course -- Andy Reid would never read this blog and discover what'll make his team dynamite: that designed scramble play I've been enthusiastically talking about, but, oh well. The one time Smith actually got cleanly away from the rush, he ran for a first down. If he were in more open space and taking his time with his receivers running arranged routes, it'd've been even better, and done more often it'd've been great for many more plays.

Annnd, that's it. Please, I don't want to take anything away from the fine passes Smith did throw, the catches made by Kelce and Bowe and others, De'Anthony's quickness, the decent pass rush, our tacklers holding their good back to less than 100 yards, or any of the other fine things we did -- all standard fine things. But face it, we simply didn't finish, and on a scale of necessary got-it points amounting to anything we can start counting on for extensive playoff success, which is a total numerical value of abooouut 473, the Chiefs got-it total value today was about 13.8, I'd say.

Now for the Chiefs not-got-its. Good thing you don't need paper for a web blog. Just so you know, there's so much of it I'll just go in general chronological order as the game progressed.

- We only got a FG from that fake FG. Kelce almost ran it in for the score, but he was stopped at the five, and we couldn't convert from there. So even one of those good potential got-it kinds of things was totally not-got-it. Got-it teams score touchdowns after those things.

- We sacked Roethlisberger deep in Pittsburgh territory, he fumbled, we recovered (a turnover for us! Yay!) The officials called it an incomplete pass, but he definitely fumbled. They then got to punt, we drove down, but only to get a FG. Very not-got-it, especially since Reid could've used his review-the-play opportunity, but didn't.

- A Roethlisberger pass was batted high in the air, but in very not-got-it fashion there was no Chiefs defender around to pick it. Later in that drive the Steelers got one of their touchdowns, helped by a holding call on our D-back after we'd already done great keeping them at bay close to our goal line.

- Alex Smith was sacked a bunch of times again today, what's new. Thing is, both Rivers last night and Roethlisberger today did something Smith just doesn't do. And they always do this. They can throw the ball on a rope to their receiver even when the pocket is -- to use a phrase -- right in their back pocket. Roethlisberger threw one of his touchdowns today as he was getting crushed, ironically hitting one of his wide receivers. That the Chiefs can't do this is so not-got-it.

- And I'm not all over Alex Smith on this point. Let's face it. Our offensive line is offensive. It just is. And I thought we had a No. 1 overall pick a couple years ago -- with which, yes, we got an O-lineman. Not putting it all on Eric Fisher, he's actually been okay. Rodney Hudson too. But losing Jeff Allen to injury and Jon Asamoah and Branden Albert to free agency I really believe has killed us in this area. It is so not-got-it to have one of the best O-lines in NFL history in early 00's and have diddly postseason success from that. Sheezzz...

- With under a minute left in the first half with the Chiefs deep in Steeler territory, De'Anthony gets a pass and is stopped just short of the 1st down after the officials had said he had it. The spot was reviewed and overturned despite the TV ref saying there just wasn't enough evidence to overrule it. We face 4th and inches, go for it, and Charles is stopped on a vanilla run up-the-middle destined to fail. No points. Talk about not-got-it.

- I believe this play was one of the plays run before the half, I forget, but I'll mention it here anyway. We're close to their goal line as we were often today (note how many touchdowns we got...), Smith throws a back-shoulder pass strike to Bowe in the end zone. I'm thinking as it is right there in his clutches, there it is, finally the WR TD, that's it, finally finally finally. Of course, Bowe can't pull it in enough to keep the defender from getting his hands in enough to swat it away. I mean it was firmly in Bowe's hands for a good second -- until... well, you know...

Intermission. Well, in football it's called half-time, but the intermission here simply for a breather from the breathtaking nature of the got-it/not-got-it contrast between these two teams. It is uncanny. More commentary later about that, but now, the second half. (The insane thing is that the score was still a very close Pittsburgh 10, Kansas City 6)

- Travis Kelce almost does another fumbly thing after being down, just like he did in the Arizona game! This time it was even more convincing he was down with possession, yet the Pittsburgh coach wanted a review. Thing is, we ran a play just as the coach threw his red flag, and for the two seconds of that play's initial progression it was clear it started opening up as our best running play of the game. Nope, the play was whistled dead. Tomlin threw the flag just in time, it was reviewed, and the Kelce play stood anyway. See, you can't make this stuff up. And yes I know every team has these idiotic things happen to them, but the whole got-it thing comes down to this: not allowing those things to critically hurt you like they do the Chiefs, and not having them happen too much like they do with the Chiefs. The scathing reality here is the contrast between a team that has got-it by the truckloads, the Steelers, and one that notoriously doesn't, the Chiefs. It just couldn't be more pronounced than it was today.

- Todd Haley is the Steelers offensive coordinator, and they put up an infographic showing his offense as No. 1 in NFL. There ya go. I mean really, do we need to go on with this? I will because I'm just a masochist that way.

- Jamaal Charles fumbled deep in Steelers territory, and they reviewed it, and it was a fumble, but so close that the TV ref was saying it was not a fumble. But because, apparently according to the explanation anyway, it was so fast and the moving of Charles body was so continuous, you couldn't say it wasn't a fumble. Really, I'm not kidding you, I laugh when I write that because it is so not-got-it.

- Albert Wilson broke wide open deep down the middle of the field, and sure enough, Smith misses him.

- We had a total of 28 yards rushing late in the game. Again, offensive offensive line. Charles could go nowhere. Thing is, when we play these got-it teams, they just seem to know what we're doing. Maybe they do! But then that is definitely a hallmark of being a got-it team, really, just being a step ahead of the opponent. The Chiefs have done that about three or four games in their history I think, maybe five. But to have got-it means you can do it for long, long periods of time. ::Sigh:: I look forward to the day we'll be able to regularly do that on game day, some eon from now... Coming into today's game I knew nothing about the Steelers defense. I discovered it wasn't ranked very highly, but then, sure enough, got-it team versus not-got-it team: they were just sharper, faster, quicker, smarter...

- The penalties. We just got nailed with so many penalties, and I'm not even saying we didn't deserve them, but most were close, even questionable. To be fair the Steelers had a taunting penalty against them that was stupid and shouldn't have been called. It gave us a 1st down after a pathetic 3rd and 17 play, but yeah, they didn't have to worry, we didn't do anything with it. But again, againagainagainagainagain... erghck... this is a profound distinction between that team and ours. The not-got-it team just suffers much more from its penalties. In fact here's one, from earlier. Smith gets shoved in the backfield long after the play ends and they're flagged for roughing the passer, wholly justified. But Kelce does some goofy pulling a Steeler lineman off the pile. Unsportsmanlike. Offsetting, replay the down. Who does that hurt more? I mean, you gotta be kidding me!

There's more, really, there's actually more. There're about half-a-dozen notes of other things I'm just too lazy (and too worn out!) to get down here.

The final was 20-12, but it wasn't even that close. It was almost as if the Steelers knew they had the got-it thing going and just toyed with us. They could've swatted a swooping eagle at 70 yards with their left guard's nose hair. Meanwhile we looked like we were straining a gnat from our asses just to do anything but simply had the overwhelming not-got-it mercilessly crushing us.

And here's the final touch. The network reviewed the final game from last season, Chiefs-Chargers, as if that was extra motivation for them. That was when our loss to the Chargers kept the Steelers out of the playoffs. Thing is, the Chargers had the help of a miserably blown call by the officials, and damn it it wasn't as if we weren't trying to win. It is as if today the Steelers brutally exploited our not-got-it as punishment for having such woeful not-got-it in that game last year.

That's nice.

I mean. This thing is one cruel mnkhfnnkger.

And you know? One final bruising anecdote to the whole Steelers-Chiefs nightmare. Remember back in 2005? Remember that season? If you don't it is typically vomitous got-it/not-got-it. I remember being in a pizza place for my son's soccer team post-season party, and seeing that graphic up there on the TV set there, you know the one, about who's got what playoff spot so far. It was after 12 games. There were the Chiefs sitting comfortably at 8-4, and the Steelers were on the outside at 7-5. In my tiny tiny tiny little brain I actually thought, "Cool, we've got this, we're in and the Steelers are out. Cool, for once already."

Wellll, the Chiefs went off the following week and barely lost to Dallas then lost again to the Giants, but won their last two games to finish 10-6. The Steelers ran the table, winning every single game in the regular season (to bump the Chiefs from the playoffs) and then every single game in the playoffs including a charmed Super Bowl win over the Seahawks aided by the notoriously bad officiating that destroyed Seattle's chances. There ya go.

It is one really cruel mnkhfnnkger.

So here we are, shades of 2006, sitting at 8-7, wondering what the hell happened to our season, and sure enough hoping and hoping and hoping and hoping that we really actually truly fabulously start having major got-it next week.

As it is, we need a Chiefs win, a Browns win (over Baltimore), a Jacksonville win (over Houston), and a New England win (over Buffalo)* just to get a playoff game we can never seem to win anyway. Yes I feel very resigned right now, but hey, I did back in 2006, and then, the miracle happened on New Year's Eve.

The reason I feel most resigned is I'm just tired of just not seeing the got-it happen for us, I just am. Not seeing it for long long long agonizing periods of time. Uhh. I will keep hoping it comes and stays, I really will. I always will, no matter how ugly this all gets, no matter how much I have to write all this for the therapy.
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(*Apparently Buffalo only needs to lose once, and as of this writing they are behind Oakland by a small margin at the half. How about that. Gotta be a Raiders fan now.)
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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 15 - Record: 8-6

Are you as tired as I am of seeing stuff like this show up in infographics on the television set? Here, look:

"Current streak of games without a 300-yard passing day: Chiefs 43, Dolphins 15, a bunch of other teams at something like 14, 13, and so on..."

"Chiefs rank: Receiving yards - LAST. Receiver touchdowns - LAST. Receiving anything - LAST..."

"Time since last wide receiver touchdown: 1 year, 6 days, 17 minutes [and counting...]"

The network showed that last one just about every time the Chiefs had the ball in Raiders territory, and indeed at one point showed a clip of the last one we had, Dwayne Bowe's nifty slip-&-slide into the Redskins endzone. But yeah, that was the last one.

Thing is, the commentators remarked that it is amazing that the Chiefs are in this thing with that situation. I mean, extremely nonplussed they were with their remarking. And extremely understandable.

Thing is, it was a Jekyll and Hyde day for our passing game. Damn, Alex Smith actually passed the ball down the field today. Damn, he actually made nice completions today. A lot of them! To his wide receivers even! Off the top of my head, a 48-yarder to Wilson -- yeah! -- a 48-yarder, down the middle of the field!!! A 37-yarder to Bowe. Another spiffy deep out-pass to Bowe starting the 3rd quarter leading to our first touchdown. Earlier a fine catch and run by Jason Avant -- let's get this guy more in the mix!

But then, especially at the end of the first half, there were lots of drops and much sluggishness. Some Smith passes were just bad, just plain bad. One play I remember had Smith throwing to his checkdown Jamaal Charles who got dumped for a loss. On the replay showing that view from behind it was easy to see two of his receivers get quick and easy separation from their guys. Now yeah I know there're safeties and stuff out there, but then, I read this piece my cousin sent me about Smith's overconservativeness, and as usual we all just go errrrrrghkkrrkkkkkkkk...

(Oh, and point of fact. Smith had 297 yards passing today. That's nice. What is that now, 44 straight games now without a Chiefs regular season 300-yard passing game?...)

The commentators mentioned that Andy Reid felt mental fatigue had started to set in among the players. Great, that's just great. Sure we got it together and had a beast 3rd quarter, but this is the Raiders. Taking nothing away from the team and its effort, but ::nnkfnkk:: -- we have the Steelers next week in Pittsburgh, and we'd better be channeling Albert Einstein.

That's our season right there. It is true, every game from today's game on is "a playoff game." I put that in quotes because we may certainly win the next two "playoff games", but if we dang-it-all lose our first actual playoff game, well, well... The great thing is that we do control our own destiny. We beat Pittsburgh and San Diego in the next two games, and we're in. We hold the tiebreaker against both of them, so we're good.

Ahem.

We just have to beat them.

That's all.

Will we? From the little I know I see Pittsburgh's got a QB having a monster season. The commentators said they have this receiver (I really know little about the Steelers) who's phenomenal. And they have this running back Le'veon Bell who's pretty good. Because I just don't analyze everything about stuff, much less about any team not the Chiefs, I just can't be so expert about it all. This blog is just a fun riff on my thoughts.

What I do see is this.

Our defensive backs do cover pretty damn well. They said we still have a tremendously high ranking pass defense. They were even saying we haven't been allowing 300-yard passing days, like, ever. At least there's that. Thing is, we may just damn well need to make an interception or two to stop Roethlisberger. We simply can't have the dropped picks we had last week if we hope to win. Parker, Fleming, Gaines, Smith, Owens, Abdullah -- these guys do smother their guys, that's great. They'll have to step it up to an even greater level and make sure to grab those balls thrown within their reach if we're going to have a chance. Roethlisberger is just too relentless.

Our pass rush is decent. It was nice to see Dee Ford out there today getting some reps in, and showing his speed off the edge. Today we got a good push up the middle and we disrupted their passing rhythm on just about every down. On one play the QB couldn't even get the snap from center and the ball just lay there for us to cuddle. How great was that. We go crazy trying to get turnovers. That thing with Jaye Howard just plain not hanging on to that ball hanging in the air for him was preposterous. Every time there's a chance, we are just that close to getting them and just don't -- it was about time we'd get a gift one like that one.

Our special teams is actually pretty damn great, when you think about it. We scream about how much more effective the offense would be if they did this or had that. We beam about our pass defense and wince when our run defense is far too bendy. But look at this special teams unit! De'Anthony got a terrific TD punt return. Dustin did a goofy fake-fake punt and booted it down to the Raiders five. Our return guys were getting the ball down into great field position all day -- remember last year when they did that all the time? Thing is, our kicker Cairo Santos had a miserable day. He missed two FG's that were gimmes. That scares me. He's just too raw and too new to be trusted. Great with that game-winner against San Diego a couple months ago. What'll happen now???

And I still ask this. Not going to stop asking it. I just think it'd be amazing if they did it. When are they going to design at least a couple more plays with Alex Smith scrambling to open things up? One of the announcers for today's game even said he should have a different release point than the one he has far too often: three steps back waiting for a pass rusher to sack him. I think they should run at least five plays designed to get Smith into open space so he can have more confidence to scan the field and get it to those open receivers, with those receivers already running defined, lengthened routes with that whole concept clearly in mind.

Today, though, it seemed like he did have more confidence.

Maybe today's game was the game that'll get him untracked.

For next week,

He's going to need it.
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Chiefs at Cardinals - Week 14 - Record: 7-6 - Addendum

Just had to add a few things I'd thought about since Sunday, one of them an extraordinarily important thing in fact.

The first item is that I did get weak and I did peek around at what others had said about the Travis Kelce non-fumble. The most notable piece, this one at Arrowhead Pride, was about how Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians had so brilliantly handled the whole call, pretty darn near single-handedly winning the game with it. The point here is that there is no question we should tip our hat to him. Excellent move on his part, even if it went against us. I'd like it if our team does terrific things to win games -- it is indeed the only reason it means anything.

Still -- and the guy who wrote the splendidly detailed analysis also admitted -- it was still not a fumble.

I'd just like to add something I'd thought about in all this. You'll note the call was made by a sweating first-year official in favor of the home team. Ever read Scorecasting? The authors demonstrate clearly that the major reason -- if not the only reason -- home teams generally do better at home is that referees inadvertently, unwittingly, unknowingly make calls that favor the home team because of that implicit pressure surrounding them.

The second item is that in the haze of getting jobbed last week and feeling yet again the curse's pull against us, I forgot to make mention of the amazingness of Jamaal Charles with regards to his injury-then-not-injury. I mean, it's true, the guy is indeed Superman. The way he got crunched in that pile in the middle of the first half, then hop back up a few plays later and even score a touchdown later, is just beyond me.

Having him in there means, hey, we're still in this thing. Not that he's the whole team -- I'm one to chafe at the spewdom that Charles is the Chiefs. We have so much else to our team.

I'm just still waiting for Andy to employ them more fully...

This leads the last and most important item.

The news on Eric Berry came back, and it is very good. He's got Hodgkins lymphoma, and they're saying it is very treatable, very curable. Praise God! How great is that.

Yes, it'll be good when he battles this sucker and wins, that's 98.3% of this. But the other 1.7% that makes it totally great?...

When he's back on the field leading the Chiefs defense!
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Chiefs at Cardinals - Week 14 - Record: 7-6

Ya know, it's funny (if you want to call it that) that I'd mentioned in an earlier post that this season was looking a bit like 2006. We actually played very well in a number of games that year, but other games, well...

And then there were those games like this one.

Back in 2006 there was that Sunday night game against San Diego that we really should've won. In that game there was that punt we blocked that went completely idiotic: this happened and that happened until... the Chargers had the ball again 1st-&-10. Guh? The very next play Tomlinson takes a hand-off to the house for a TD, the difference-maker.

I remember just being incensed about it, that we'd made a genuinely good play annnnd, it just turned into crap. Funny thing is that I watched all of it on the TV at the home of a Christmas progressive dinner host, an event my wife's family has every year around this time.

Well, today the same kind of idiotic thing happened in the Chiefs game today, just before we enjoyed this year's progressive dinner event. Again a game we should've won but lost because of astounding stupidness.

Today's idiocy:

The Chiefs are down by three in the 4th quarter and Smith hits Kelce with a sweet pass that Kelce carries deep into Cardinals territory. After the tackle the ball slips from his hands, and a Cardinals player just happens to pick it up -- this after everyone has stopped playing the whistle having been blown.

The Cardinals coach throws the red flag and I'm thinking, "Are you kidding me? What are you looking at? He was clearly down years before the ball slipped out."

The replay shows that just before Kelce went down, the ball did move around in his grip, but when he went down he regained possession and he was down down down. Kelce even flipped over, holding the ball firmly in his hands before the defender batted it away as he was flat on his back.

Travis Kelce firmly holding the football

Of course you know what happened. These officials. That nfkning curse.

They should have said, "The replay shows that while the runner did fumble the ball before going down, it was clear that he had regained possession before the defender jarred it loose. Chiefs ball, 1st down."

Did the official say that, say the correct and proper ruling? Did he do that? Of course not. This is the Chiefs.

I'm sorry, but this kind of stuff is preposterous. And I'm sorry, but we Chiefs fans just take this stuff with a kind shrug and golly-shucks. This is one reason the curse just kills us. And I just don't look around at the web stuff said about it because I have to maintain my sanity, but really -- what if I did look at the Star, or Arrowhead Pride, or any other site or blog that gets into Chiefs things? Who's really going to step up and say we got thoroughly crapped upon? What happens is no one ever does with great conviction and vibrancy because we seem to be so afraid of sounding like it's sour grapes or that we're whiners or something like that.

I dunno. Maybe people are saying something. I don't look at any of it simply because I just wouldn't be able to handle that absence of people insisting it was a crappy call, one that cost us the game. We're a piddle little midwestern town to the powers-that-be anyway -- if this kind of thing happened to the Dallas Cowboys or New York Giants or New England Patriots it'd headline every news report, there'd be outrage, there'd be an investigation.

And all that is not the goofiest thing. The Cardinals kicker boinked not one but two field goal attmepts off the upright. How on earth can they do that and still win the game?!! Ahhh, forgot, that curse thing, errrrgh...

Thing is, we still haven't gotten into the contender class yet. Even with the curse idiocy of the day's game, we still aren't a playoff caliber team. Yeah, call it brazen resignation, but really, it's been a nice season. I know I said that in 2006 at about this time, and there was the miracle playoff qualifying, but we lost the first playoff game that year too. What's new.

We could get in this year also, but so what. We don't have the team to make any kind of run in the playoffs. Oh we've got talented players, and good coaches, yeah, but we have a curse shredding this team that causes the stupidest things to happen to us in spite of those things, and -- oh yeah, here's the thing. Do I have to spell it out in big bold letters?

WE HAVE NO PASSING GAME.

For those of you touting those few times we make plays with the pass -- hey, nice leapfrogging play by Bowe to lead to one of our touchdowns, hey, nice catch and run by Jamaal scoring that TD, hey, nice catches by Kelce still the same, hey, nice work by Albert Wilson and Jason Avant some of the time -- you have to remember that except for those nice plays which is only about a third of the time, except for that, Alex Smith is doing nothing with the pass.

Sure he can run, but dammit he looks like Steve Pelluer out there. Pelluer could run like the daylight, but he never won for us and was never going to.

Remember when I said in that pre-game note that Alex Smith would get sacked four times today. He did. Four times. Okay, guess that's how things go. But did he make up for it by doing the scrambly thing to make things happen the other times? He didn't. Predictably, regrettably.

In fact there was one time the play broke down, and sure enough he's running around in the backfield, running around, running around... and sure enough, he hits Jason Avant with a big gain to get us into field goal range. There it is, the genius of that play! Buuut then right after that he throws another pick at the line of scrimmage just like he did last week against Denver. Dang it Andy Reid will you get Smith to take that deep drop?!!

See this is the thing. I'm beginning to believe that the reason we don't have a passing game is not because of our receivers, but because of Alex Smith and Andy Reid. I'm sorry, but I'm starting to think about the tremendous liabilities of the "Alex Smith conservativeness." Come on, think about it. He's been with us a good near-two years now, and he simply can't make that rifle throw on target in traffic? Down the freenkin' football field? He's too afraid too! We always call it "being conservative" and excuse it away.

But dammit (there I go again -- just the frustration speaking) if Smith doesn't step it up and start throwing more fine accurate darts to receivers -- and throwing down the field for cryin' out loud -- we're going to be waiting a long three more years after this for that (oh I pray oh I pray oh I pray) (dare I say it) that drafted and developed quarterback of our very own to emerge. And then we have to wait a few more years for him to grow into the contending team quarterback.

Yes, I know, resignation resignation resignation. Just feeling it, sorry.

One more thing, just have to mention this because I did note it, another key to why we lost today. You know what it is. Maybe they'll do something about it. I don't know, maybe, maybe not.

But we just can't intercept the damn football.

Sure enough our failures in this area were just as glaring today, and indeed did cost us dearly. Here're the four missed picks, I actually noted them: Sean Smith, I think that failure led to a Cardinals FG but I'm not sure. Phillip Gaines in the endzone, but that one was just before one of those boinked FG's, but still. Josh Mauga  dropped one that did allow Arizona to get a FG (see how it kills us!) And Husain Abdullah had to reach for one and couldn't quite pull it down, but that's no excuse.

Thinking about my pre-game note, my concerns about our run defense weren't as justified, but then I discovered they were without that main running back, Ellington (sorry don't remember his first name). On the other hand, the Cardinals were still able to run the ball and their second-string QB helped them make those key plays when they needed to, so the spirit of the pre-game note still materialized in today's game.

Sure enough, here we are at 7-6, needing a prayer.
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Chiefs at Cardinals - Pre-game

A few times I've blogged while the game is on. You know, just for the therapy. Very rare.

This is even rarer -- in fact, I never do this, except for before a playoff game. But I just felt like doing this now.

Just want to get down some of the thinking about things, just for the therapy. Chiefs fans know this, as you know. And as you may know, I just don't deliberately look at anything Chiefs, but yeah, I do pick up all kinds of things from the news, from friends and family who let me know about things, that kind  of thing. Sometimes with circumstances like Eric Berry's, I will peek around online for more information.

Here's what I know about this game, here's what I'm thinking.

- The Cardinals quarterback is not Carson Palmer who I know had a season-ending injury. They do have this guy Drew Stanton, and I'd caught from seeing stuff about other games while watching Chiefs games that he had been doing pretty well, but lately not so much. Will our pass defense be as good as it has kind-of been for much of the season against a second-string QB? If we don't, furgit about us really being anywhere the contender we want to be.

- The Cardinals running game is pretty good, because they have some small quick back whose name I just don't have in my brain right now. Thing is, the Chiefs run defense has been pretty crap recently. We were crap against Denver. We were crap against Oakland. We were crap against Buffalo. We were kind of crap against Seattle but were able to stop Marshawn Lynch when we needed to. What's this going to look like?

Really, we have to rely on Josh Mauga and James-Michael Johnson in the middle. Not Derrick Johnson. Not Eric Berry. And not that Ray Lewis-type I've been slobbering that the Chiefs draft for years and years and years. Run defense? ::Whimper::

- How about that scrambling shake-&-back offensive scheme I introduced last time and which we should be employing to light up our offense? Consider the following, just consider: Alex Smith. Jamaal Charles. De'Anthony Thomas. Travis Kelce. Knile Davis. Anthony Fasano. Dwayne Bowe. Donnie Avery.

Take all those guys and put them into a dynamic, imaginative play package and we should put up 52 today.

Orrr... Are we just going to do vanilla play - vanilla play - vanilla play until you just want to splatter-barf all over your set? I got the idea the Cardinals defense was pretty beast. So how many sacks will Alex Smith get today? Let's say four. Okay, fine, but if he's not countering those by running the designed, arranged scramble plays to get the field wiiide open for these guys, then get ready for 7-6 and more praying for any remaining chance at the playoffs.

But then, if we can't beat the Cardinals, how much do we deserve to be there? Sure we've beaten those NFC teams handily, so yeah, we should beat them. (After all we can't beat the teams in our own division.) But how long is our streak against the NFC and the Cardinals going to last? I can't even remember the last time we lost to them.

So yeah, there're some thoughts. We'll all behold what happens to see if anything I think or say is worth a darn, we'll see. Just a note: I may not even be able to put up a post today because right after the game we've got family Christmas things going, but I'll see what happens. If you don't see my standard post-game post here soon, you'll know why. Stay tuned, but in the meantime you can ruminate on the quasi-meaningful thoughts about Chiefs things related to this one.

I mean, what else do we do with our lives?
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Broncos at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 7-5 - ADDENDUM

I simply couldn't help but add an addendum with a couple of thoughts about last night's game. I rarely ever do this, also, but I just have to write. My first post on this typical Broncos game debacle is just below, or here if you want to get right to it.

The first one has to do with a suggestion I'd love to make to Andy Reid. I don't know if anyone else has thought this, but I'd sure like it if Reid heard it and found a way to do it. Yes, I'm not an NFL coach. Yes, I know it's a lot harder than it looks, I got all that.

But I couldn't stop thinking about Alex Smith and his mobility, his vision, and his intelligence. Throw in the mix that he does have so many weapons -- for the passing game here, mind you -- that aren't necessarily his least talented receivers. Those weapons are namely Jamaal Charles, De'Anthony Thomas, Knile Davis, Travis Kelce, Anthony Fasano, and yes, wide receiver Dwayne Bowe.

Look at that mix right there, look at it. I'm sorry, but I'm not just looking through rose-colored glasses to say with some accuracy that these guys are all pretty damn good football players.

What I saw last night was Alex Smith drop straight back a couple of steps to pass while a bunch of receivers ran vanilla routes, and he did this virtually every single time the Chiefs ran a passing play. And sure enough far too often it was snuffed. Smith was sacked six times last night, and one of his passes was batted up and intercepted when he threw it too close to the line. That stinks.

I blame Andy Reid.

I blame Andy Reid because he has stopped being imaginative. It seems in the name of ingeniously disguising his play calling intentions, he refuses to open things up with the weapons that he has. It's almost as if he's bent on showcasing his genius coaching talent at the cost of allowing the skills of his players to just do the work for him and the team.

Added to all of this was the other thing I saw last night, that made me think of the wonders this team could show us. It could be wonderful, really! Did you see it? It was hard to catch because it only happened a few times, and it was when Alex Smith looked the most troubled. Ironically it is in those plays that I truly believe is our salvation.

Those few times Smith scrambled and got away from the rush he was easily able to complete medium to deep passes to all these guys in one way or another.

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

Here's my suggestion -- are you listening Andy Reid?

Will you deliberately put in plays that take advantage of this situation: quick smart quarterback with a mix of fast and strong receivers? Will you literally design and employ plays that effectively get Smith to scramble, with an deftly arranged but wildly loose deep-drop moving-pocket, one that utilizes Smith's ability to evade pass rushers in the open field and the receivers' ability to find wide spaces down the field for Smith to throw to?

What? Yes, literally, after the snap you have Smith drop back deep and to the side one way or the other, then have him reverse field even if it means he drops more. He can easily evade any pass rusher, he has shown the ability to push the ball back up the field, and he has already proven he can throw the ball to open receivers out of that improvisation. Why can't plays be set up where our receivers have routes for this madness that are somewhat choreographed, and our O-linemen have blocking schemes arranged to help Smith get untracked to make this happen?

I know this can't work all the time, and I know most teams with their skill set can't accomplish this. But ya know?

The Chiefs can.

And I believe they can make it work most times -- we have the requisite players and yes, we have the coaching acumen to make it happen.

May I?...

Let's take that Denver game, and say we did this for each of the six times Smith was sacked. Here's how I see it would've worked.

Six plays, each one a designed scramble. Look at this. Take three of them and let's just say we get sacked, the play just doesn't work each of those times, and we even lose a few more yards because of the deeper drops. The fact is we aren't losing any more, really, than we lost when getting sacked as we did anyway.

But let's say they work, big-time, just three of those other times. We get big plays each time. Thomas scampers after the catch for 30 yards. Bowe gets a nice sideline catch 20 yards downfield. Kelce gets a grab and rambles for 40. Each time we get a first down extending our overall possession time, that takes out one more of those Denver possessions and the accompanying FG, so it's now 26-16.

Now take each of those three big plays individually. One of them, let's say afterwards we don't get any further with it. We've still pinned Denver deeper on that particular possession, so after a stop they can't get a FG and instead have to punt. Now it's down to 23-16. Another one gets us into FG range and we get the three points, making it 23-19. (Oh, and now since we're not desperate for points, we can kick the conversion instead of failing on the two-point try after the TD we already had, so it's really 23-20.) With the third one, we do it again, run some more imaginative sets, and we actually score the touchdown.

That is, we get just one more touchdown overall from using the six designed scramble plays, and just like that, the score is now 27-23 us.

Thing is, we have to have the balls to do that. Really, come on, when you think about it, what would we have had to lose? Really?

This relates to that second thing I thought about after last night's game. How much more annoying is this getting, just how awful we are against the teams in our own division. Has anyone else been seeing this? I mean, we just stink against the Broncos, Chargers, and Raiders. Have you been watching?

Look at this. We blast the Patriots. We handle the Dolphins. (In fact this year we amazingly went 4-0 against the AFC East.) We destroy the Rams. We stick it to the Seahawks. All of these teams are in playoff contention this year.

But against the AFC West teams, the teams we're supposed to beat, the teams I'm told we're really working hard specifically drafting and developing to beat? Damn we stink. We've stunk for a long time against them, and we still do. Yes, we did beat the Chargers (barely) earlier this year, but that's a rarity recently.

Here's the scoreboard, just over the past ten years, encompassing 19 to 20 games each, meeting each team twice a season. Here it is:

Raiders: 10-9 record with one more game against them coming up in two weeks. That doesn't sound so bad until you note that the first five of those 19 games were Chiefs wins to close out a 9-0 winning streak against them. That means since then, we are 5-9 against the Raiders. The Raiders. (Oh, and just make this whole thing much stupider for the Chiefs, the Broncos record against the Raiders in these past ten years is 13-6. The Chargers record? 16-4.)

Chargers: 6-13 record with our final game of this season scheduled against them this year.

Broncos: 6-14 including last night's piddle, their sixth straight win against us.

This  ---  is  ---  abysmal.

Yeah, I'd say this curse thing is blistering us, blistering us real bad right now. Right now every single game we play against these particular teams it just looks like they're governing everything. We look like weak limpets out there, allowing them to set tempo, to get off their marks quicker, to dictate what'll happen on every play -- on both sides of the ball.

And this has been happening every single time we play these teams. It really has.

If we're going to be genuine contenders, genuinely sustaining that stature as an NFL elite football club, we absolutely must step it up against those teams in our own division. It's nice to dominate the NFC teams, which we've done for some years now. It's nice to do well against the other AFC teams, again, that AFC East domination this year -- sweet. That's all really nice.

But fughedabowdit if we can't turn this thing around with the AFC West. Wanna be a contender in the NFL without soundly beating the Broncos and Raiders and Chargers on a regular basis?

Fughedabowdit.
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