Chiefs at Falcons - Week 13 - Record: 9-3

Okay, so the number is now 13-14-15-16. That's the number.

The number of years in the Andy Reid-Alex Smith era the Chiefs have had a winning season.

Today we clinched another winning season, our 4th in row -- how about that, four in a row after that horrific nightmarish 2012 season. You have to admit that this has been pretty danged great. As much as we can say this or that terrible thing about Andy Reid and Alex Smith... dang-it -- they've been winning football games as Kansas City Chiefs people.

As much as I want the Chiefs to go to and win a Super Bowl, as much as Chiefs fans have slavered for that for years and years and years, I mean to even get into the conference championship game for cryin' out loud, you can't deny that this little run here has been quite impressive. I'm not going to look it up, but how many four-year winning-season streaks do the Chiefs have in their history? Probably a couple in the 60's, and certainly some in the 90's, but that's it. Not that it happens all that often for any team except for the ones that are perennially terrific...

Which leads to this team, and what this game says about this team.

Needless to say we won this baby on some very strange plays, but ones that reflected our daring coaching (for once!) and our skill players particularly at the position of free safety.

Yeah, our phenomenally exceptional free safety none other than Eric Berry.

Before we get there let's get to the offense, which was decent in the first half but pathetic in the second, except for the time we needed to get 1st downs late. We'll get there in a bit, but first,

Alex Smith.

I don't know what to think about this guy. Did you know he was 21-25 today? Are you kidding me? How was he this good? But when you think about it, he really did make most every connection today. He had fine work from Travis Kelce today also, so that was big.

Here's the thing -- it is the standard Alex Smith aggravation in light of the fact that he still won us the game today. With about 10 minutes left we're up 27-22 -- and we can now run clock, it's what we do.

But Smith did something I just had to emphatically note Super Bowl-bound quarterbacks just never do, they just don't. On 3rd down close to mid-field he escaped the rush -- something he does very well and it is a good thing we have that in him -- but then he just flat-out threw a rotten pass to a wide-open Spencer Ware with nothing but green in front of him. Ware was open --  I mean wiiide open breaking up field past the coverage -- Smith saw him, had all day to get it to him, and just overthrew him.

When Atlanta came back to score the touchdown with about four minutes left to go up 28-27, I thought that misfire was our undoing. I mean it. I mean think about that: Alex Smith has great stats, he makes plays smartly and effortlessly, then he makes a bonehead move of some kind that should lose us the game -- and we still win.

What kind of quarterback is this guy?

Examples: two notes I made early. One was about a call off splendid play-action where Smith rolled out, resulting in an easy long completion to Kelce. I'm thinking -- whuh? -- WHY don't we do that a million times more often?

The second was when Smith gets in open space and has time. How many times does he throw the ball just 0.1 seconds too soon, when if he'd waited -- yeah the pass rush is bearing down but you still have time -- if he'd waited that extra tick of a second, his receivers would break that extra step and he could complete that pass.

But then, ahem, 21-for-25 today. Yeah, what am I complaining about? But then again, the Chiefs had zero points from our regular offense in the 2nd half. Zero! Zee---row!

But then what about about that call on Albert Wilson's fake punt run for a touchdown? Were you shouting with glee as Wilson streaked down the field, not just because it was a great touchdown play, but because the coaches called something like that? I was! And guess what else there was about that play that was really cool for the Chiefs?

If you remember the Chiefs lined up to go for it on 4th-&-1, and the Falcons called time-out. This is early in the 2nd half! Those are the time-outs you need at the end of ballgames! The Chiefs then went out in punt formation but snapped it to Wilson for the TD run. That the Falcons did not have that time-out at the end of the game allowed the Chiefs to run out the clock when they had the very surprising 29-28 lead.

I'm feeling very schizophrenic right now, I have to tell you. I don't know what to think of this team. We have the playmakers, we have the coaching, but we get ourselves in these predicaments that people like Eric Berry have to get us out of.

Yes, we could talk all about the pick-six from Berry that really did a ton to save our butts from this explosive Falcons offense, that's great. But what about what led up to the two-point conversion interception return to turn a 28-27 Falcons lead into a 29-28 Chiefs win.

It really starts with the blocked extra-point early in the 1st quarter. Remember that? You'd think those things would come back to hurt us, but just like Bennie Fowler's quick touchdown in the Broncos game last week actually helped us by giving us enough time to come back and tie the game, the failure on the extra-point actually helped us late.

What if that kick goes through and everything is the same, only towards the end of the game the score is not 28-27 Falcons but tied 28-28. Think about that. Atlanta doesn't attempt that two-point conversion Berry picks and takes to the house -- instead Atlanta just kicks through the extra point and now they're up 29-28.

This game is very very very strange, and very very very fun when the Chiefs win out of it all.

Still, I can't help but shake my head about how we're winning. They showed a graphic that yardage-wise, the Chiefs are 28th and 29th -- something like that and I don't remember which was for which, sorry -- but apparently we're 28th and 29th in the NFL in total offense and total defense.

Ahem.

That stinks.

And you know, you know it. You just see it. We get stuck on offense far too often. We get very bendy on defense all the time.

But we find ways to win.

And the thing they showed right next to that stat was our turnover differential, at +14, by far the best in the NFL. 25 total takeaways, by far the most in the NFL. We also do things like stop them on 4th down in key situations -- we did that today. We rise to the occasion when we need a big play -- like with the Wilson fake punt run and Berry's picks. We got a couple big 3rd down conversions that were key -- we don't convert those very often but when we do, it's been big. We get them to burn time-outs they could've had for later.

Can this extraordinarily opportunistic team take us the promised land?

Can we get there with the heart and soul of a winning team -- yeah, a winning team for the 4th straight year.

That's really cool.

Now we've got to go beat the Raiders this Thursday night at home with heart and soul and passion and the leadership of people like Eric Berry.

Very very cool.
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