Not going to do that intense Chiefs football navel-examining here. I know I know, ahem, what is there to write about then?
Oh, I'll do a little bit of it. I'll make brief mention that the Texans have had the worst quarterback issues through the year, and they're settling on the guy we sent to the bench in the first regular season game. This alone should give the Chiefs a huge edge.
Ohh but yeah. Even saying that I know with any Chiefs playoff game, it seems extraordinarily likely some stupid thing will happen, or if necessary an astonishing string of stupid things will happen to inexplicably dash the Chiefs hopes.
This is precisely why I will reiterate something I wrote a couple posts ago.
Not worrying about it.
What I do know is this. The Texans are an NFL team. Any given Sunday, or Saturday as the case may be. The Texans have been doing some things right to get here. J.J. Watt is going to be showcased like crazy this week, and for good reason. I don't follow any of this so I know little about the Texans, but I hear they have a good defense and if I remember from the first game they've got one of the best receivers in the game.
Even so, right now every Chiefs fan is feeling confident about this one, reasonably pinning their hopes on the exceptional things the Chiefs have been doing regularly on the football field. Then again, don't forget that one of the key issues during that five-game losing streak was wondering how we could possibly beat a playoff team -- should we get there, and of course we did -- when we couldn't beat them then and there. We lost to four quality playoff teams during that run, Denver, Green Bay, Cincinnati, and Minnesota.
On the other hand we did beat Denver later, and we beat them good at their place. We did beat a good Steelers team, a decent Bills team, and a rebuilding Raiders team twice. We also had major personnel issues during the losing streak, playing with makeshift offensive lines suffering from key injuries and going without Sean Smith in the D-backfield. It was also at the beginning of the year when Andy Reid et al were still trying to find their way.
What does all this mean? What does the crystal ball tell us this time about our chances?
Again, it is simply because we don't need a playoff win to tell us this year's Chiefs are top-to-bottom the best team we've had since the Hank Stram team of the late 60's. It is. From Clark Hunt to James Winchester, this team -- yes, I'm not afraid to say it -- this team has that Got-It.
How much of it will we need to win on Saturday? That's the key to victory, really. After all the pundits' X's and O's have been hocked into the newsprint, it will come down to which team's Got-It will get them the W.
And because this team is a winning team, with quality people at every level wholly devoted to winning, that's good enough for me. Do I want them to win? Of course! It's just I'm not going to let the curse and its potentially deleterious effects take that away. It can't. That's an awesome thing.
As it is, I'd like to share a few historical notes. and close with a link to a post at Arrowhead Pride that says a lot about what I'm saying here.
Last year I lamented the poor Chiefs results related to two sets of six games during the season. The first was the six we played at the end of the season. The past few years we'd been terrible in and around December. Well, lo and behold, a season-capping 10-game winning streak does mean this year we finished that set at 6-0. Very nice.
The other set of six were those games played against our division rivals. We'd been miserable in that department, too. This year? 5-1, with the only loss that Monday night turnover catastrophe against Denver. This success helped us get a firm hold on a playoff spot early and gave us a shot at the AFC West title.
Then there's the Houston thing. Has anyone thought about these things related simply to the city of Houston?
January 16 1994. Know that date? You should. It was the last time the Chiefs won a playoff game, and it was against, ahem, the Houston Oilers.
Funny, too, that the Oilers won the first AFL title in 1960 (and the second in 1961), and the Chiefs won the last one (and the Super Bowl) in 1969 before the AFL and NFL merged.
And I can't neglect to write about this, just because I kind of think about these things. The Chiefs and their playoff woes? Well, have to say it. Houston has had its share too.
Yes the Hakeem Olajuwon-led basketball Rockets did win the NBA title in both 1994 and 1995. But other than that, it's been mostly heartbreak for them too.
Look at their baseball Astros. Heartbreak in 1980 when they blew a nice lead to the Phillies and lost the pennant. They did it again in 1986 when they couldn't put away the Mets. And yes, sorry, but I can't help it...
It happened again this year playing the Kansas City Royals. In the ALDS the Astros had a splendid 6-2 lead in the 8th inning, deciding game, and the place was euphoric -- it was in Houston. Sure enough the most ruthlessly relentless team in major league baseball postseason history chipped away until the Royals would pull out a 9-6 win and then win again two nights later to put them away. As we all know so well, the Royals went on the win the World Series.
Ouch. Houston must loathe Kansas City. In light of that, still, I agree -- the Chiefs should be just as merciless on Saturday. Yes, let's win. But it seems to me the curses in this case sort of equal out.
It only matters if it was meant to be.
And that's okay with me.
Someone who puts all of this in perspective with a thorough analysis of what it takes to win it all, especially in light of what the Chiefs have accomplished so far, is Andrew Carroll over at Arrowhead Pride. Great piece. Helps make all of this the truly exhilarating ride that it is. For more on my overall take on all the Chiefs football stuff, here's a recent post that is indeed a bit more expansive.
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