Let's get this out of the way, the excruciating gratuitous disclaimer that Travis Kelce should never have behaved like he did. I'm not being facetious in any way, it was a boneheaded move by Kelce, I hope he apologizes to everyone, accepts his heavy fine and even a possible suspension, all that. Full culpability.The reason it is so painful, however, is because there is not a decent soul on the planet who doesn't feel that way. That's really not the issue. The issue is that he had every right to be angry.
Earlier in the game Steven Nelson was called for pass interference in the end zone and it should've been a non-call. Nelson was physical with the receiver but did nothing to directly impede the receiver. Every defender gets away with that all the time, yet we get called for it. The should-have-been-non-call-but-wasn't led to a Jaguar touchdown a couple plays later.
On the Kelce play, he went up for a high pass in the back of the end zone he could have easily caught, but he was grabbed by the collar at the last second and pulled down. It was definitely pass interference, but no call by anyone. Kelce went around to find a ref who'd actually have the guts to make the right call, but there was none -- not a penalty flag to be seen. He squawked, got an unsportsmanlike, then threw a towel at a ref and got another one. He was summarily and very justifiably ejected, but still...
What was with that officiating.
But here's the thing...
The officiating went against the Jaguars too.
Oh the times I've lamented the times when the officials just made the wrong call against the Chiefs even after reviewing the play on video. Last week they did it when Kelce made a fine catch and the replay shows he made the catch, but they just decided he didn't.
Today, wow. The opposing team was the one that got jobbed.
After Marcus Peters got beaten badly on a long pass play with plenty of time left, the Jags' Chris Ivory took the handoff and looked to put the ball across the goal line when the ball popped out and the Chiefs (Peters, by the way) recovered it in the end zone. The replay sure did seem to show that Ivory had that ball just as it went into the end zone, but right as it did it went loose. Yeah, yeah, ya gotta have irrefutable evidence. It could be said to have gotten loose in his grip just before it crossed the plain, but I don't know.
I think it was a touchdown.
In the end it wasn't. In fact it was merely another addition to the many miscues the Jaguars had on the day that helped the Chiefs win.
And that is the most troubling thing about it.
Really. Let's face it Chiefs fans --
We were bailed out today, we really were.
Our run defense was horrible. I'm pretty sure Ivory ran for 100. Their offense got too many easy plays, and even then their quarterback missed open receivers and their receivers dropped passes all day long.
This is a team that has gotten torched all year long. We should've beat them 30-7, at least, and yet the way we played today we should've lost 30-7. We lucked out because they just messed up so much, fumbling it away something like three or four times, throwing interceptions -- in fact we dropped interceptions, one of which would've prevented the Jags from scoring their first touchdown.
What was really neat in spite of our obvious woes was watching guys we jettisoned earlier come through today. Knile Davis, what a weird story, traded to the Packers then dumped, then picked up by the Jets then dumped, now back with the Chiefs because we suddenly needed backs, he was our No. 2 back today and actually ran the ball once and got decent yardage! Then there was Ramik Wilson, who I said a long time ago really needed to come through in the middle for us. Sure he wasn't a world beater out there -- again our run defense was pathetic -- but he did get a key interception for us and was part of clutch defensive stops when we needed them.
Yes, we've got the depth, but the team is being really stretched -- this truth was so evident out there in this one.
Those injuries were clearly a major factor. Everyone who wasn't there: Jamaal Charles, Spencer Ware, Alex Smith, Jeremy Maclin, Parker Ehinger, Justin Houston, Allen Bailey. Some are out for a long time, others will be coming back soon (Smith, Houston), other went out just today (Maclin -- still waiting to find out about that). There are simply too many of our big-time players absent, and when we start playing the big boys soon, like Denver, we've got to have a few more of them in there and healthy.
Yeah, we got the dubya, but this was definitely not a game we can really boast about, by far. Is it cause for concern? Is this looking just too much like 2013 when we rolled over a bunch of easy teams early in the season then couldn't do diddly against teams like the Broncos later?
Will we get our injured players back, and will the Travis Kelce incident affect morale? That latter item shouldn't be a factor, but you never know, I mean -- will he put the incident behind him and put the team first so it can rally around him and they can play like they all should?
Next week we are at Carolina, and remember, this is a proud Super Bowl team from a year ago who has got to be frustrated with their 2-5 start this year.
If the Chiefs team that showed up today shows up next week, I really think we're headed for an extraordinarily rude awakening, I'm sorry.
__
No comments:
Post a Comment