Right now every Chiefs fan is ruminating madly about which scenario will transpire next week. It is pretty simple. This year's week 17 slate will not be one with those crazy smatterings of playoff possibilities -- the six teams are already set in the AFC, it is just a matter of who's going where.
The best: If the Chiefs win and the Raiders lose, we get the No. 2 seed AND a bye AND a home game. That's big, but then I can only say that (1) the Broncos could easily fail next week looking at them last night, even playing at home against a Derek Carr-less Raiders, (2) the Chargers always play the Chiefs hard (don't forget about Chiefs-killing quarterback Phillip Rivers) even though they just allowed the Browns to get their only win of the season, and (3) how many times have we had home field and still found a way to tank divisional playoff games -- Arrowhead has always been splendid for us in regular season play but there's always been something nasty about it in postseason play.
Still, not denying that everyone still really really really wants that game at Arrowhead this season.
The not-as-best: The Chiefs lose, Raiders win, and Dolphins win -- the Chiefs then must go to mega-house-of-horrors Pittsburgh where we regularly lose whenever we're there by an average score of 56-2. Thing is, if we can do the run-the-table thing like the 2010 Packers or 2011 Giants and start from a low seed and first miraculously beat Pittsburgh at their place, then later we may get Oakland (should they win their divisional game) who we've really matched up well against.
Of course everyone is thinking if we don't get that No. 2 seed we'll most likely face the Texans at Houston again, and this year with a new messy quarterback situation we should be salivating. Thing is everyone is definitely pondering our path to Super Bowl glory --
Having to go through New England again.
So what about it? Do we have a chance? What about where we're at now heading into the postseason in relation to last night's game?
Throughout the first half I honestly felt as if Chiefs decision-makers actually read my blog post. Thing is, what I shared there was not something revelationarily revolutionary or anything, by far. As I pointed out, every Chiefs fan knows it. It seemed as though Chiefs people did too, glory be. You know what it was.
Know what?
They did.
And guess what?
It was glorious.
It worked, as we all thought it would.
In and around the thousands of plays those two handled the football in the first half, Tyreek had a 70-something-yard touchdown run, zipping right around the left end helped by a Travis block that obliterated their safety. Travis himself had an 80-something-yard touchdown catch from that neat wide-out pass they do, taking the ball and just streaking up the sideline for paydirt with the help of blocks from everyone.
That's the main cause of concern, however, and all of us know it.
Again we just refused to score points in the second half.
But we still stall far too often in the second half.
We could all see that Andy Reid was much less conservative, actually doing the things he needed to do to play to win, which was nice to see. But Denver's defense stiffened in the 3rd quarter, and it made me think.
Are teams doing a really good job of adjusting to whatever we throw at them, and we're just not doing the job of adjusting to their adjustments? So yeah, here's my new thread in whatever preview posts I do leading up to the playoffs:
Coaches: ADJUST.
Yeah, that is: Not just adjust to them, but adjust to their adjustments.
Thing is, Andy Reid et al are showing everyone that they're willing to take chances and do crazy-ass things and that's the key. I can't help but share this link to a piece about that exact thing -- absolutely something that's been scorching through every Chiefs fans brain in the Andy Reid era.
Thing is thing is thing is, does Andy Reid do the Bloated Tebow Pass kind of thing with the game on the line? Does he do that in the AFC Championship Game when they're at the New England two-yard line, a minute left, and we're behind by four points?
And even not that exact thing! Look what happened when we kept trying to run Tyreek out of the backfield? They started to snuff it out, regularly.
How about this, something he hasn't done but I think would be fantastic, I've mentioned it before: a halfback option pass with Ware. How about the wildcat with Ware then do the option, or a Ware Tebow pass thingie?
It doesn't have to be anything anyone says it must be, I mean, opposing teams are certainly scouring blogs like this trying to get an idea of what kinds of things Reid et al are being told to do by genius bloggers like me, certainly. But the thing is-infinity: seems like Reid has started to get a feel for when and how and when and when again to do the stuff that really keeps teams on their heels.
And it doesn't even have to be any wild special crazy-ass thing either.
It is just knowing when and when again and when another time to do the thing that best utilizes our talent.
That is big, really really really big.
As it is, here are a few other items giving Chiefs fans some very nice chunks of hope.
Dee Ford is very fast, and that is a very nice thing. In fact this is a major thing if Justin Houston is slowed. Houston is still having knee issues so that's a huge concern, but our D-line was sufficiently ferocious last night. Chris Jones was his typical bulldozing self. Tamba Hali looked sharp. They had no sacks but pressured their QB very well to shut him down.
Some of that was the play of our D-backs. Bob Sutton, Emmitt Thomas, and Al Harris have got them playing like world-beaters. Daniel Sorenson is a fumble recovering machine -- he got two in this game, one of which he caused himself. Our cover guys smothered their receivers, and it had been announced this week that Eric Berry and Marcus Peters were among the four Chiefs named to the Pro Bowl (guess who the other two were?) Last night Emmanuel Sanders and Demaryius Thomas were completely invisible -- that's major.
Jeremy Maclin is getting back into things. He still only caught one meaningful pass, but if we start using him to offset what we do with Tyreek, then damn. Chris Conley is still underutilized, and wow, if we can get balls to these guys more often -- I'm hoping hoping hoping they're strong so we can do the adjusting we need to when the other guys start radically keying on Tyreek and Travis. The concern is our difficulty in converting on 3rd-&-long -- our wide receivers have to be there.
Finally this was a game you got that feeling that Alex Smith could get us to the promised land. Yes he did have his typical two or three bad passes, but he may just be good enough to to make those innovative Andy Reid plays work, that he may just be good enough to do a fine job of initiating the plays to Tyreek and Travis and even some of those other guys that we can get past a Pittsburgh or a New England on the road.
Yes, very tough tasks indeed, but that's what makes winning these games worthwhile.
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