Chiefs at Raiders - Week 13 - Record: 7-5

You know that the Chiefs were 7-5 last year when they'd just lost to the Broncos, right after they'd lost to the Raiders, right after they'd stormed out to a 7-3 record. The difference this year is that our storming is coming right now, right at the time it needs to.

Last year we collapsed over the last six games -- this year we've started those last six 2-0. And beating another AFC opponent is critical for any tiebreakers we may need to get into the playoffs.

What is especially sweet is three of the next four games are at Arrowhead.

Once again, a huge amount of the credit for this game has to go to the coaching staff. The game started with the Chiefs looking beaten. The Raiders marched right down the field like a knife through melted butter, scored a touchdown, and I thought, ugh, this is going to be a long day.

In fact, the anxiety about this one lasted all the way up to a splendid completion from Derek Carr to Amari Cooper to get the Raiders deep into Chiefs territory, already up 20-14, beginning of the 4th quarter.

Then the defensive adjustments took hold.

Our pass rush started to make its presence felt after being AWOL most of the day. Sad that Dee Ford is not Justin Houston, not even close. In fact, he is so not Justin Houston that they put Frank Zombo in for the last minute and he had two sacks. It really doesn't look like Dee Ford is much. I can't be unfair, though. Maybe just expectations are a bit high, I mean, Justin Houston. Hopefully Dee Ford will work his way into being a great Dee Ford.

But back to the beginning of the 4th quarter when it looked really gloomy.

That's when our interception crew went to work.

First it was Josh Mauga snatching a duck floated up by a scrambling Carr, then rumbling forever until a speedy Raiders WR caught him and dragged him down at the two. (Oh, and by the way, it was Dee Ford who hit Carr's arm as he tried to throw, yeah.) Couple plays later Maclin took a swing pass into the end zone.

Then it was Marcus Peters peeling off a route to pick a poor timing pass and he sprinted for miles and miles, until finally being pulled down at around the 10. Maclin again got the nifty swing pass catch and the touchdown.

Then it was Tyvon Branch, the former Raider, with the play of the game. Peters got his hand in the face of a Raiders receiver who let the ball bounce off his hands. Behind him was Tyvon Branch who lept, bobbled it in midair, came down with it flat on his back, and hopped up to -- get this -- run it back for a touchdown, almost 40 yards untouched.

In a sense, this was make-up for last year when we dropped interception after interception, one of which was in the Raiders game in Oakland when Husain Abdullah dropped an easy pick that would've kept the Raiders from getting the eventual game-winning points. If I remember I'm pretty sure Josh Mauga dropped one in that game too.

Today we made the picks we should've made.

So kudos to the defense, who for yet another game made the adjustments and played the full 60, outlasting their opponent when it came down to crunch time.

That is indeed a strength of this Chiefs team -- they go the distance. Yeah, there was that awful Minnesota game, but that has appeared to be an aberration -- everyone considers that the game when we just didn't show up. Every team has those. Yeah, we were terribly choke-worthy in the Broncos and Bears games, but we lost those after playing very well because the breaks went against us in the most gruesome way.

Are the breaks going our way now? Unquestionably. But you can't say this team hasn't been setting themselves up to take advantage of them. Today was a classic example of that.

You know what else I like about this team?

It is fired up. It is almost as if those five losses in a row early were a really good thing for them. Again, the points I made in my first Broncos game post are most applicable here. A losing streak like that can be a terrific thing for a team with a great deal of pride.

And the other things about that -- at least by virtue of the story from the game announcers -- is that the players really responded to Andy Reid who told his team after the fifth of those losses, essentially, "Hey, I'm all in. Join me and let's be all in together." I don't know, but there's just something about that you can see exuding from the players on the field.

Yeah the Chiefs may look awkward when things start, but again.

They play inspired ball for the full 60.

To me that's making a world of difference right now for them.

Other things of note related to that include Alex Smith and the passing game. He was sacked three times in the first half and the head-shaking by all Chiefs fans was off the charts. But he was only sacked once in the second half, early. Now yes he did have the advantage of getting those three picks and enjoying phenomenal field position for two of them.

But then, that's a characteristic of Chiefs football, working to get good field position. They really take advantage of the field-position game. And I will tell you, Alex Smith does great things with good field position. He really did well late, being a fine commander out there.

Here's the thing about our quarterback -- I mean, does it seem this way to you? It just seems that he is someone who needs to get his feet wet in a game, and early he's just rusty. "Throw the ball" "Throw the ball" "Throw the ball" over and over and over again. But he does settle in and get a feel for the rhythm of things, and most times he does fine.

He did also move into 3rd place all-time in passes attempted without a pick, kind of a neat thing that for all the sacks and poor throws, we should appreciate more, I guess.

I have to add that I can't say enough about Derrick Johnson. He was all over the field today, doing everything, being everywhere, inspiring everyone else around him. How great is it to have him out there every game now. It could very well be that our collapse over those last six games last season was in part because we just didn't have D.J. to rely on when we needed that kind of play.

Because we played so robustly in the second half, particularly the 4th quarter, those goofy kicking things didn't come back to hurt us. We bricked two PAT's, (that new 33-yard PAT rule is truly hateful, truly truly), but the crazy thing is that the Raiders' Sebastian Janikowski, one of the best kickers in all of NFL history, not only boinked a PAT off the upright, but he boinked a field goal attempt off the upright. Dang. I thought that could only happen to us!

Turns out none of that mattered in the end.

Turns out that when it was bad early, the Chiefs dug their heels in and got the job done. This was a very very very fun win.
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