2019 Starts Today - Let's Roll!

Patrick Mahomes and a bunch of Chiefs are playing in the Pro Bowl right now. I'm not watching it, but I know, because my wife had the game on for a bit, that Mahomes threw a touchdown pass. Anthony Sherman even scored a touchdown. Wow.

Kansas City Chiefs players again doing marvelously in the Pro Bowl. Neat.

They're just not doing it in the Super Bowl -- again.

It is, however, a new day for our Kansas City footballers. And I must say I really like how buoyed the Kingdom is about our prospects. They are indeed very bright. I noted that they interviewed Mahomes at some point this past week and while it was tempting to watch, I didn't. I'd bet he said things like "Tom Brady is a fine quarterback I want to be as successful as him someday," and "Our team has a lot of promise we're all excited," and "We're all dedicated to working hard and improving and we'll get there," and "I like being here at the Pro Bowl this is fun." All good fun fine nice terrific things indeed.

I myself have done the standard yearly grieving about the yet-another crazy-ass stupid loss last Sunday, but I must say in speaking with the dozen or so people who know I'm a Chiefs fan it has been way better than at any other time. Everyone knows we've got a franchise-caliber drafted-and-developed quarterback to go with an extraordinarily well-stocked arsenal of weapons, and we all smile when we speak about the Chiefs. That is awesome, and we all know it -- we've all been able to enjoy that.

This is why right now, after the grieving, we can start to enjoy our legitimate Super Bowl potential right now, and truly revel in it for the entire year.

While that is a wonderful thing indeed, I can't neglect to add this one thing, something I wrote about at length at Arrowhead Pride. It is that it'd be really nice if the NFL actually did the one thing that would keep what happened to the Chiefs and what happened to the Saints from happening ever again. That thing is:

Get two officials in the booth with monitors and original play-calling ability including making calls related to penalties.

Thing is, while I do respect the people who honored me by making comments in that piece, not one of them addressed this main idea. Instead I pretty much got the typical, "You lost, deal with it," or "It's just a game," or "Stop being such a downer." This is just a very small sample, but I wonder: where were the thoughts on the solution? What do people think about that? Are there simply too many people who get caught up in the weeds before addressing the problem? Did anyone actually see what I actually said in the piece?

Yes, the truth of the NFL's duplicity, the officiating ineptitude (or even flat-out duplicity itself), and the conspiracy of large market complicity are all veritable realities. Are there just too many who respond by bleating, "Goodell makes lots of money so what're you going to do," and "The calls all even out" (no, they don't, and Chiefs fans know it too well), and "You're just a tin-foil hat-wearing conspiracy nut."

Except that I have offered the solution, it is right there, and it is extraordinarily reasonable. So what do you think? Why aren't more people talking about it? Why aren't more people on board with it? Why isn't the NFL seriously considering it? I'll spell it out again in bold so there is no mistaking it.

Get two officials in the booth with monitors and original play-calling ability including making calls related to penalties.

People may say it will take too long, they'll makes calls on too many things, too many ticky-tack incidents will be addressed, it'll slow the game down. I really don't think so. To be honest I think the only disadvantage is that the on-field refs may feel inadequate and inadvertently miss calls for fear of too often being overturned by guys in the booth.

The problem is that can still happen with the system we have now. How about we make it so we all get the right call? That's the biggest advantage.

It also removes the whole idiotic "red flag" component, when a coach is the one who has to miraculously divine things to make the call. Often an offense will know their receiver may not have actually made a catch, so they rush to the line to run a play before the coach can throw that red flag. This is just plain stupid.

They already have booth reviews of plays in the last two minutes of each half. Please, once again, how about doing it all the time and include all the things they say shouldn't be included, especially penalties.

Yes, right now I'm psyched about this upcoming football season -- every Chiefs fan is. It is truly delightful, it really is, an entire year of enjoying our future Super Bowl prowess, it'll be fun.

But I'm telling you, I'd like it a lot more if I knew Roger Goodell and the NFL, the officials, and the big-market powers-that-be are a lot less likely to derail our definitively legitimate shot at championship glory. If during the Mahomes tenure a team should overcome us any time and they do it fair and square, fine, I'm never against that, more kudos to them.

But let's make it truly fair.

Will the NFL do that? I don't know, as it is it seems that as everyone is quite excited about the Chiefs next year, could it be possible that the Chiefs are themselves becoming, ::gulp:: a media darling themselves? Sure it's justified when you've got a quarterback like the one we have. But I don't even want any of that to unduly influence or affect what we do legitimately on the football field to win.

Are Chiefs fans as passionate about that, as much as the Saints fans were justifiably livid about the call that went against them? Seems to me New Orleans really went to the mat over their blown call -- but I heard barely anything about the blown call against the Chiefs. It seemed it was all just, "Well I think Dee Ford was offside so, oh well." I'd even heard some Saints fans of some stature ask Roger Goodell to employ Rule 17 Section 2 Article 1 allowing the commissioner to change the game outcome. That, by the way, would be dumb-- the game is done, bad call and all. But what if Goodell actually did that?

Would he have then changed the outcome of the Chiefs game as well?

As much as that'd be cool for Chiefs things -- no. What's done is done.

Thing is...

Are there enough in the Chiefs Kingdom -- indeed throughout the professional football world -- to stand up for our team and what is right and fair for every team in the future?

We can, right now, by insisting the new Chiefs/Saints Officiating Reform Procedure be implemented for 2019.

Get those officials in the booth and doing what's right and correct on the field.

On the other hand... Yes! I do agree! Let's have a Chiefs squad that is so phenomenally good we scorch through the postseason in 2019! No worries about any officiating! Leave no doubt! Let's do that! So for next season and beyond...

Let's roll!
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Patriots at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game

Thank you, Lord, for this team.

Thank you, Lord, for the season that this has been.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with enjoying the Chiefs Kingdom like we've been able to this year.

That's it. It really is. I do feel a great measure of gratitude right now, very richly so. I'm reveling in everything God has blessed us to enjoy with the team right now, and every member of the Kingdom really should be as well.

It does seem, however, like the Lord somehow, someway does favor the Patriots because of all the crazy ways they pull out wins. Taking nothing away from this team, they are indeed a phenomenally coached, finely disciplined, exceptionally skilled team.

But ya know? It can't be denied.

That crazy-ass stupid thing did happen to us in this game.

As I've said a million times before, against the Patriots the only way we were going to win is for that thing not to happen. I could point out how in one of the key Patriots touchdown drives, Chris Jones was called for a roughing the passer call when it totally wasn't, giving the Patriots new life. I could point out how on the same drive their receiver was gifted a pass reception that was unquestionably a very favorable interpretation for the Patriots. There may be one you can think of that was particularly notable.

But the key crazy-ass stupid thing to happen to us was when Charvarius Ward intercepted a Tom Brady pass to seal the game. We won. We had this game won right there. We run out the clock, it's all good!

Except Dee Ford was offside.

Now he may have been legitimately offside, I'm not against the call, even though I see guys just about that much offside all the time, and it is just never called. As legitimate as it may have been...

It doesn't make it any less the exact kind of crazy-ass stupid thing that gets the Patriots win after win after win after win after win after win after win in the postseason.

Another one was simply losing the coin toss in overtime. I thought a while back after winning the first, like, nine I think, coin tosses to start the season, that... well... The Patriots won this one and sure enough, just like they did in the Super Bowl two years ago, they stormed right down the field to score the game-winning touchdown. Thuh end.

And then you've got, yes, yet again for the Super Bowl, a big-market media-darling team against another big-market media-darling team. Hmm, Boston vs. Los Angeles, didn't we see this once before, like in October? Hmm. Not going to go into all the conspiracy stuff right now. Yeah, I still see it, feel the effects of it very deeply. (Oh, and how about that blatant non-call in the Saints-Rams game that essentially handed the game to the Rams, you know the one, everyone saw it -- umm, except the refs. What was it that I've been saying about adding two officials in the booth with the capacity to make calls to the field? Huh?...)

Here's the thing, though, don't lose sight of this.

We've got a real future.

Not going to review it, but just look at this last post from the Colts game.

Of course a lot of it is Patrick Mahomes, but this very tough loss is actually a very good thing for him. He learned a lot, very early. I don't know how much of an impact it would have made, but he ran himself out of a field goal late in the 1st half and we got no points. Would we have won 34-31 in regulation? Don't know.

But now he knows, and he is such a gamer, he is chompin' at the bit to be back out there right now.

And it isn't just Patrick, it's the entire Kingdom. Don't worry, Brett will be taking care of business and getting those key additions -- that is a very good thing to look forward to.

So yeah, I'm ready for next year already.

In the meantime, just remember.

The Royals' Lorenzo Cain still ripped a double into the gap clearing the bases in the 12th inning of Game Five to put the Royals up 7-2 to ensure the World Series.

Sporting KC's Jimmy Nielsen still resolutely protected our goal to help win the shoot-out for the MLS Championship.

And Willie Lanier still intercepted Joe Kapp to gloriously, wonderfully, delightfully seal the Super Bowl win.

I must add that my dad still caught pitches from flamethrowing Jim Golden in high school to capture the 1953 Kansas state baseball championship.

We're still champions.

Sometime, at some point in the next few years the Chiefs will be making it known more firmly in bright red and gold, they will.

That Lamar Hunt trophy is as good as ours.

Another Lombardi trophy will soon occupy a prominent place at Arrowhead Stadium.

Let's roll!
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Chiefs Playoff Preview - AFC Championship Game

I'm going to put in a relatively brief entry as a preview of our matchup against the New England Patriots this Sunday. It won't be long only because there is only so much to say about this game. I'm sorry if you're expecting a rabidly in-depth analysis of this or that matchup or this or that hitherto unknown factor that'll just get us that win.

I still consider the number one factor in us winning this game is the total absence of the terrifically awful ding-dong thing happening to our team. This requirement is doubled, tripled, quadrupled or more simply because of the absolute charmed way the Patriots have streamed through postseason after postseason ravenously devouring anything the other team may do to give up the game.

The very little that I've read and heard people say about this affair is that the Chiefs are favored and justifiably so. I too believe, from what I've seen, that the Chiefs are the more talented team, but remember, the Patriots are coached and quarterbacked by two of the very best ever, and are both right now scouring all things Chiefs to exploit any advantage they can get.

And they will, for sure. So here's to Andy Reid and his staff countering that with their own ingenious game plan, and they are very capable of that.

A few days ago they were saying it'll be 0 degrees after a couple days of heavy snow. The latest weather report, however, has got temps up in the 20s, still sunny. I'd like to think that'll help the Chiefs explosive offense. I was thinking about Mahomes frequent longer pass ducks from the game Saturday, and thinking it was probably a very good thing.

It made us take our time matriculating the ball down the field before scoring touchdowns. If we get those long sustained drives on Sunday, we'll be keeping Brady off the field like we did Andrew Luck, and our defense will be more rested. I do think having our defense off the field for long periods of time kept our guys fresh to play as exceptionally well as they did in the divisional game.

I saw very briefly that Eric Berry had a full practice today. Wow, if he could play that'd just be phenomenal. When the Chiefs defeated the Patriots in the season opener last year, Berry completely shut down Rob Gronkowski. Late in that game he had his Achilles tear. Remember recently, too, Berry was so instrumental to throttling the Chargers offense when he played the first half of that game on December 13. Here's to that rest he's had since then having him out there playing full throttle for the duration this Sunday.

Other than that, yeah. It is simple, once again.

Can the crazy-ass stupid thing not happen to us, can we consistently play to our strengths throughout the game, and can we exhibit enough got-it to match a team that always has a sickening abundance of it?

If those three things happen, we'll win.

Oh, and by the way, I have to add this. On Sunday night right after the game -- and yeah, we got the prime-time game, how about that -- a "Super Wolf Blood Moon" will rise over Arrowhead and be seen by the rest of the western hemisphere. I wrote a brief fanpost about it at Arrowhead Pride, and one of the writers there wrote a longer piece that included a note about how some societies have considered such a celestial phenomenon a sign of profound transformation.

Yeah, that's it.

Could it be the mantle of domination in the AFC is transferred from one team to the other this Sunday?

Go Chiefs!
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Colts at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game - The Take, Part II

Nkay here we go with the fine things about our game yesterday, going from left to right as we matriculate the ball down the field, in the way they line up. If you want more of my immediate overall impressions, please visit my previous post from this morning.

Running back. We all wondered just how much the NFL hosed us by mismanaging the Kareem Hunt incident, but I think this team got better after that. It convinced many that this was a team built on principle, that we weren't going to be a part of any of that, and it moved the team to work that much harder at addressing it. Veach had already done a terrific job of picking up both Damien and Darrel Williams, who were both terrific yesterday.

Of course much of the kudos goes to Damien for piling up 154 all-purpose yards, 129 on the ground. When we needed to grind clock he did splendidly, but he was clutch throughout the game.

Quarterback. We can still point out all kinds of great things about Patrick Mahomes, and even though he didn't have a touchdown pass the way he managed the offense was exceptional. For whatever you may say about Alex Smith's past failures to get us to the promised land, he was instrumental in shaping this kid, because let's be honest, he looked very Smithian out there just plain managing things. You so need that from a signal-caller.

Of course you have to give credit to his leadership ability. You can really see it out there, the team just responds when he's at the wheel. In the middle of the drive that got us our 3rd TD, Mahomes got crunched and came up limping. A loud gasp from the Kingdom could be heard across the country. But he stayed in, played hard, and scored that eventual touchdown himself. We heard nothing else about it -- I still wonder for next week: What's with the knee? Still, on our last touchdown with a few minutes left, Darrel Williams was being stood up at the one-yard line when guess who came from out of nowhere to make the final push to get him into the end zone?

I was a bit concerned about his inability to throw the long pass, he was just off, and some of his passes were real ducks. It might have been the cold, though it wasn't that cold, just a bit snowy which fortunately wasn't a factor at all. The weather for next Sunday, as of now, is sunny but cold.

I must add though that the play of the game was that sidearm sling around the lineman to Kelce who reached down and snatched it out of the air for 16 yards. It was just another of those "Did I just see that or what?" plays that we thrill to every time we watch him play. What a great time to be a Chiefs fan.

Tight end. What more can you say about Travis? Some will say he is the key guy on the other end of those throws, and as we marched to a 24-7 halftime lead, Kelce was indeed the main cog.

I have to add that to me, it seemed he was truly comfortable performing in a big game -- in playoff action before he just seemed to be nervous out there and not his regular season self. He's grown and matured and that makes a big difference.

Wide receivers. Sammy Watkins, wow what a big deal it is to have him back. In the few plays he had you could tell he is truly a factor. Yes we see Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce seeming to get all the looks, but one reason is because Watkins demands so much attention.

When Watkins does get the call he is amazing. One play occurred on the very first drive, when Mahomes hit him in stride and after a really nice juke ended up with a 30+ yard gain.

Offensive line. Solid. That's all you can say about it. We all know how well Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz have been playing, and having Mitch Morse back steadily at center is terrific, but special plaudits have to go to our guards Cam Erving and Andrew Wylie who both had to come in and fill holes and have really done a terrific job. They are so instrumental to Mahomes getting the protection he needs and Williams to have the running lanes to chew up yardage.

Defensive line. This new kid Derrick Nnadi anchored a defense that everyone is raving about, and rightly so. I can boast a bit that I knew on paper this defense was better than what we'd seen and better than the substance of all the vitriol spewed at defensive coordinator Bob Sutton. Meanwhile just back to Nnadi, another defensive play of the game was his explosive solo backfield stuff of a Colts run, one of a number of key stops that kept the Indy offense out of sorts the entire game.

Then there was Chris Jones, who batted down three Andrew Luck passes, and it seemed more like 17 of them. This Colts offensive line was supposed to crush us, but apparently our defensive scheme was to get those hands up. Jones was a Darryl Dawkins out there just pushing that line back with his big body and still able to leap swatting everything out of the air.

Pass rushers. Justin Houston. Dee Ford. Two All-Pros. The big question was would these guys be able to beat the vaunted Colts offensive line? Well, that question was answered in a big way. Three sacks. A strip and a fumble recovery -- which came at just the most opportune time because two plays before we'd fumbled the ball to the Colts at our own 20. What a play.

Andrew Luck was the least sacked quarterback this season, so the major battle here was between our sackers and their sack-stoppers. In this contest, the Chiefs won.

Run defense. I addressed this a bit in my previous post, because it was such a critical aspect of this game. Again, the punditry thought the Colts could easily run the ball against us, but as I'd mentioned before, I just thought Hitchens and Ragland were better than that. Of course it wasn't all them, but give them credit. Otherwise our safeties played better and we didn't even have Eric Berry out there. Oh my if we could get him back for next week...

Defensive backfield. Even without Berry and questionable talent at safety, our pure coverage guys are actually pretty good. Kendall Fuller and Steven Nelson are underrated yet get the job done. Throw in the mix this new kid, Charvarius Ward, who as I'd also mentioned before thought showed he's got something even when he got torched against Seattle. All that really made life miserable for Andrew Luck. You could tell most of the time when he was trying to pass he'd get frustrated, or even outright sacked, and much of that was the smothering defense by our cover guys.

Ward, by the way, had four pass defenses. He was also in on tackles all over the place.

Special teams. This was a wild one for this unit. The ugliest moment of the game for us was that one failure to pick up that rusher allowing him to block a Dustin Colquitt punt resulting in a Colts touchdown. Naturally every Chiefs fan was going, "Uh-oh, here we go again."

Later however Colquitt got a booming punt off when we needed it, the ball downed at the Colts five-yard line, but lo and behold, he was ran into, five yard penalty, Chiefs first down. One of the great things about this game was that we chewed up so much clock with drives that Colquitt was rarely used.

Harrison Butker, our kicker, was perfect -- 4-for-4 on PATs and a FG -- so nice considered the kicking game has been such a nightmare for us in playoffs past. The ironic thing is that Adam Vinatieri, the Colts kicker and notoriously good playoff performer, missed a PAT and, believe it or not, had his only FG attempt bonk off the upright. How about that.

Fans. We don't give the Arrowhead faithful enough credit for helping make life difficult for the opponent. Often it is instrumental that the opposing offense will move offsides or get a delay of game call because of the crowd noise. That didn't happen once yesterday, but one thing that did happen was the number of offsides calls that went against the Colts defensive front, there must have been four or five of them. While it was the defense that shot themselves in the foot, they had to have known they were in hostile territory to make them so jumpy.

Thing is, it was so nice to watch the fans there at Arrowhead finally smiling and high-fiving as the clock wound down. It was neat seeing Twitter-posted footage of the patrons of Big Charlie's Saloon in Philly having their loyalty rewarded with a fine Chiefs playoff win.

Coaching, front office, ownership. Yes, these three things must be mentioned because these are the places where it all starts. Andy Reid, Brett Veach, Clark Hunt. This win is indeed a testament to the hard work of these three "players" and the people who work directly for them.

What can you say about Andy Reid. Just steady, smart, and some have been saying that for once in a playoff game he played to win for the duration -- meaning he didn't stop going for it after getting a big lead. We went for it on 4th down three times if I'm not mistaken, and made it each time.

Another key advantage for us was our time of possession on offense. We were able to keep Luck and company off the field for long periods of time -- credit both Reid and Mahomes for making that happen.

Brett Veach had already done a lot of the heavy lifting just taking care of business assembling this fine team, we'd all noticed this from Day One of the 2018 season. Kudos to him for always being on top of things and getting the job done.

And Clark Hunt. Of course I'd written tons about what may have been anything Hunt that has impacted the horrific Chiefs playoff experiences, but this win could not have come without his lasting positive contribution to the ball club in the number of ways he's done that. It is awesome that every time the Chiefs come into the locker room after a game they put raised hands together and shout "Fam!" That feeling of family is real and permeates the organization, and much of that has to come from Clark's leadership.

Bottom line in all this is something that is joyously delightful, it really is: The Kansas City Chiefs finally defeated a genuinely good NFL team with a genuinely good quarterback in a playoff game. I say that because, no disrespect, the previous four playoff wins we'd had since our Super Bowl in 1970 were all against teams that had so many issues there is no way we could've lost. Those four wins... compared to 16 losses over that time.

Yeah.

This time we defeated a team that genuinely could have beat us. Really.

Finally.

Thing is, some may say, "What about your conspiracy theories now Dave, after this win? You'd always said the NFL and the officiating and a number of other things have always been against us?"

Well, excuse me, but I still feel that way. Please, this isn't done yet. As I write this that Patriots-Chargers game is winding down and the Patriots are clobbering the Chargers. So here you go: Next week you'll see a game at Arrowhead that will feature the podunk little midwestern cow-town Kansas City cheering on a team that has had every disadvantage afforded them materialize on the football field in any postseason action, facing off against the eastern elite establishment charmed big-market media-darling Patriots from the Boston metropolitan area, probably the most favored sports mecca in the world (Boston's professional sports teams together have the highest title winning percentage of any area in the nation).

Now don't get me wrong. The Patriots win because Tom Brady and Bill Belichick together are pro football geniuses, avatars, powerhouses, whatever superlative word you can use -- not denying them that stature at all. But as everyone with eyes who watches this team on the field knows, this is a team that is filled to the brim with a history of benefitting from crazy-ass lucky plays and "fortuitous" officiating calls.

Let's just see what happens next week.

Let's just see if what the Chiefs do to overcome all that is good enough.

As I mentioned in my post right after the game yesterday, one of the most wonderful things I saw on the Arrowhead Stadium football field was a distinct preponderance of

Got-it.

Yes, very much so, we will need every ounce of it we have to win next week.

Here's to watching it happen again.
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Colts at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game - The Take, Part I

Stevie Wonder has a song, you know it: "For once in my life there is someone who needs me..."

Well, that's the theme of this Chiefs victory yesterday. Indeed a number of things could be slotted there in for us, like, "For once in my life we actually beat the Colts in a playoff game..." That's cool, it's all good.

But the two I'm singing about right now are the two key things that for once in our lives did not horrifically plague the Chiefs in a playoff game.

For once that crazy-ass stupid thing did not happen, that thing that is so mind-numbingly huge that an otherwise decent effort by our reasonably decent team simply cannot produce a win in a first playoff game. I mean really, I was convinced that avoiding that thing was the main reason we had any chance to win.

There were a few opportunities for that thing to happen, certainly. A good clean pass defense by Jordan Lucas was considered a PI by the announcers, but it just wasn't. Even though he had his back turned as the ball arrived, Lucas didn't touch the receiver until after it bounced off his shoulder, and he didn't impede his vision. And glory be, the refs didn't call it. On Tyreek's long winding touchdown run for our second score, some said Demetrius Harris held the Colt's D-back. Upon further review, he barely grabbed his jersey and made a clean block. Not only not a hold but a good non-call by the official.

There were a handful of other opportunities for the crazy-ass stupid thing to happen, and maybe we'll talk about them as we go here, but that thing's absence in the game was wonderfully helped by the officials pleasantly avoiding being involved making it happen. Indeed throughout the game I was nervously waiting for that to happen, muttering often "No that wasn't a hold. No that wasn't a PI... Whew, good they didn't call it..."

I was even committed to waiting until the 4th quarter to see about anything no matter what the score -- that's always been the time when the worst happens. In this game I took a snapshot of the start of that quarter. You see it there, look close. We were up 24-7, we had the ball at midfield, it was 1st-&-10. If the crazy-ass stupid thing was going to happen in this game, it would definitely go down as one of the worst ever, hey, we've had so many. My cousin even texted us at about that time remarking he wasn't counting on anything after that 38-10 lead we had against the Colts a number of years ago. I don't think there was a Chiefs fan anywhere who wasn't.

I confess I did get nervous at this point because the score at halftime was, yes, the exact same 24-7. That means we hadn't scored at all in the 3rd quarter, and last year if you remember against the Titans we didn't score a single point in the 2nd half which really cost us the game. We did eventually score another touchdown late in the quarter to make the final score 31-13.

That second thing you could put into the second half of the "For once in my life..." lyric is that for once, our consistent strengths didn't vanish and our legitimate weaknesses didn't metastasize once we stepped on that playoff game field. In fact, FOR ONCE our strengths were a bit more amplified ::joy!:: and our weaknesses dissipated ::happy happy joy joy!!!::

Sure enough the one weakness I thought would kill us, something I discovered was echoed throughout the sports commentary world during the week, was our run defense. As I mentioned I paid attention to nothing anyone said during the week about this game, but listening to the announcers it was clear everyone thought the Colts were going to run the ball all over us. But on the very first Colts play from scrimmage their fine back was dumped for a three-yard loss. Sure they could have come back from that, but they didn't. That very first play sort of set the tone for the Colts offense throughout the game, and they even admitted they were frustrated not being able to get into any kind of rhythm.

A great big kudos then to Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Ragland, who we all knew had it in them.

For once in our lives we actually got to enjoy our team play well in a playoff game when they actually truly really SHOULD have played well.

There are a whole lot of things I'd like to put down in this entry, but I simply can't sit at a computer screen for too long at a time. I've got some time today, so later when I feel the itch, I'll pound out some more here -- thanks for reading. I'd kind of like to address each part of our game through the lineup, because each part of it requires some delightful measure of attention.

For now however, I do want to close this post with this extraordinarily notable thing.

Remember back, if you will, to that January day in 2004, Colts at Chiefs, January 11 to be exact -- trust me, it isn't so bad now when you know you've finally exacted that sweet revenge, and we're all so familiar with it anyway it doesn't matter... But remember one of the most distressing things about that game?

We ---- simply ---- could NOT stop them on 3rd down. Couldn't, wouldn't -- I distinctly remember almost shaking my head right off my body. "The No-Punt Game" they always call it. Ergggh.

Well guess what happened yesterday. It was almost as if our defense had The Jedi Force in them somehow to so thoroughly avenge that debacle that, yes, you know it...

The Colts were 0-9 on third down yesterday.

Among all the fine numbered Chiefs things yesterday, that was the best, it really was. Check it out.

Oh-and-nine. Nine times the Colts faced a 3rd down, and every single time they failed to get a 1st down. Call it poetic justice of some sort, because that is just too rich. Of course, people fail to realize that even though our defense was much maligned throughout the season, we were actually, if you can believe it -- we were actually pretty good making 3rd down stops. We really were, consistently throughout the year -- the numbers bore it out.

So yeah, what fun that was -- our good team that was legitimately good through the year actually did the good things in a game to actually win a well-played, well-executed pro football playoff game.

For once in our lives...

(Don't forget, more to come! This is too much fun!...)
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Colts at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game

Kansas City will host an AFC Championship Game!

I've been watching the game with family, then we're heading off to other family events a bit later. I won't have time to do an immediate postgame post today, but tomorrow! I'm excited about spilling my heart into the blog about all the great things about this game!

One thing stands out that I just want to write now.

We had enough got-it to take care of business.

How sweet how sweet how sweet was that.
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Chiefs Playoff Preview, Part VI

Over the past couple of weeks I've been posting a series of Chiefs playoff preview entries when originally I'd only planned to write one simple one with one simple item that is the one simple factor in a decent Chiefs playoff run:

Not have an insipidly ridiculously crazy-ass thing happen to the Chiefs in a playoff game.

Really, that's it.

Otherwise, all this is therapy. That's really why I'm posting so much. Just to share with you thoughts about all things Chiefs Kingdom that help make it bearable, maybe even somewhat enjoyable.

You should know I've watched, read, or looked at absolutely nothing about anything Chiefs much less their playoff preparation or anything like it since the Raiders game. Sometimes, yes I confess, I have cheated and peeked at Arrowhead Pride or Bleacher Report's Chiefs page, two of the best by the way, but I haven't for some time and don't plan to. I did happen to see that some fans are vocally eager to have yet another shot at the dastardly Colts, and I did see that Mahomes confidently mentioned that this is a "new generation" -- and I only came across those things by accident.

But that's it. Why look at any of it? If they say we should win and offer up all kinds of fine reasons why, but then we then don't -- what a disappointment. If they say we'll struggle because of this or that, and we do and can't pull out the win-- what good is that.

So I'm blissfully ignorant.

Otherwise with all I have seen and do know from our extraordinary season, I've come to a place where right now I'm very content. And I will be very content even if the Chiefs lose Saturday. There are a number of reasons for this.

For one, I've rediscovered and embraced all the other wonderful things in life that make Chiefs things not as important. Oh I like the Chiefs and I like amazing Chiefs playoff wins, don't get me wrong. But as I've shared before my expectations are at about zero. We've been so horrifically burned so many times before there is no way to keep from considering it happening again.

Maybe all the crushing one-&-outs of the past are good for the soul today. It just doesn't hurt as much when it happens again. I mean, really, how many more times can we see graphic after graphic on the television screen showing how painfully NFL-record-breaking the Chiefs are in their various playoff failures before any more just don't mean that much.

So yeah, I'm content now, will be Sunday... and will be overjoyed if they actually win.

Another reason is I can enjoy this week in and of itself. We're in the conversation. We're being talked about. Everybody is marveling about Patrick Mahomes, and he's got an arrowhead on his helmet. We've got a very good team -- and yeah I think our defense is better than people give it credit for -- and we've got a number of intangibles that give us a solid chance to win, considering you-know-what doesn't happen. Just reveling in us being there this week is a very good thing.

There is also what lies beyond this season, and while much of that is the bright future we have with Mahomes at the helm of this offense, I'm just as much encouraged by what we can enthusiastically anticipate from our fine GM Brett Veach. Because we've already got that first-round pick QB we can now comfortably use our first pick to add a nice piece to our defense, or snatch a particularly good player who drops through the draft and Veach reliably covets. So yeah, here's to building that championship defense, building building building on the overall foundation.

Here's yet another reason for comfortably enjoying Chiefs wellness right now.

You may know from previous posts I'm a fan of a few other professional sports teams, one of which is the baseball San Francisco Giants. In the mid-2000s I was resigned to the idea that my baseball team would never win a World Series. They never had since 1958 when they started playing in San Francisco, never, even though many times they had an exceptionally fine ballclub. I figured it was just too daunting to win a division series, then a league series, then a World Series. Fughedabouditt.

Then came 2010.

The team's GM Brian Sabean brought together what was justifiably considered a band of misfits, assembling a team led by a dynamo rookie catcher, deep pitching staff, and genius maneuvering field manager. We first defeated a fine Braves team, then a strong Phillies team, and in the World Series made a heavily favored Rangers team look like Little Leaguers.

Well how about that.

The crazy thing is we actually went on to win two more World Series over the following few years.

Point being, I just don't know what will happen. Yeah, I confess, I'm so convinced the worst will happen. But ya know. It doesn't have to. Again, if it does, we have a phenomenally bright future -- I'm already looking forward to 2020, 2021...

It's all good. No matter what

It's all good.
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Chiefs Playoff Preview, Part V

If I'd had my druthers I'd watch no football until next Saturday at 1:35 PST. But I am among beloved family members who like having NFL playoff games on, so, well, there ya go.

I'm here now having to endure this Eagles-Bears game, and sure enough I happened upon them showing a shot of Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy together there on the television, split screen. Uhh. Yeah. Both previous offensive coordinators under Andy Reid with the Chiefs. That's rich.

A bit later they showed all kinds of graphics about how amazingly awesomely amazing Nick Foles was in the postseason last year. Yeah, the Chiefs backup quarterback the year before, he finished last season tearing up the field there winning the Super Bowl for the Eagles.

Thing is Nick Foles was never going to be the long-term answer for the Chiefs, and neither was Alex Smith for that matter, which moved us to pick up Patrick Mahomes -- so it's worked out for the Chiefs good. In fact at one point in this game the Bears QB Mitchell Trubisky tossed a fine sidearm pass and as the announcers crowed about it, I thought, that's Patrick Mahomes, uh-huh. Sure enough, right after that the announcers added, "That was like Patrick Mahomes there."

How fun is that.

For now.

You see, yesterday I had to drudge through the Colts defeating the Texans, which meant we all couldn't help but feel that deja-vu all over again.

The Chiefs are hosting the Colts next Sunday.

Yes, yes it did make me think of that New Years Eve day back in 1994 when the Colts beat the Chargers and the Chiefs would get the Colts at Arrowhead to move on the conference title game. And please, it wasn't just the kicker everyone wishes they could forget -- Marty had a miserable day calling plays, Steve Bono did horribly, Marcus Allen was underwhelming, and the temperature was 800 degrees below zero.

Then there was that first weekend of 2004, when the Colts beat the Broncos to move on -- yes, to play the Chiefs at Arrowhead. The Colts were about to face one of the greatest offenses in the history of the game -- in fact I'd seen a thing the NFL Network put out that showed the three year period of 2001-2003 was the greatest by any running back in NFL history. Priest Holmes. You remember him, his phenomenal exploits. Thing is, in that divisional playoff game our defense just could not make a single 3rd down stop, ever, and we had to agonize through yet another one-&-out.

So yeah, it was agonizing yesterday, watching the Colts and their fine offensive line do in the Texans. The Chiefs do have a fine pass rush with Justin Houston, Dee Ford, and Chris Jones. We do have decent cover guys in Kendall Fuller, Steve Nelson, and believe it or not Charvarius Ward, and a perennial All-Pro safety Eric Berry who can bring it all together nice and tight.

So yeah, can our fine pass rush actually help us win against a team that does very well against the pass rush?

Maybe, but again, the game turns on one, single thing. Once again:

Will the Chiefs avoid suffering through that insane, stupid, crazy-ass thing that happens every time they take the football field past Week 17?

That is really the key, and because yesterday's events evoked the trauma of previous Colts-oriented experiences, I just don't have much confidence, I don't. That's okay though, because for one, I can keep my expectations to the most minimum level they must be, and for two, I don't have to have that confidence. Hey, I'm just a piddle little nobody blogger, what difference does it make what I think about our chances. I'm just holding zero expectations for the therapy -- thanks for joining me in this group therapy session, really.

So yeah, I don't have to have any confidence. I do like that many Chiefs fans are saying they do, many of them enthusiastic about finally taking down the Colts this weekend. That's nice. But it doesn't matter whether they have it or I don't. It just matters that

The Chiefs do.

And from what I've gathered, they are brimming with confidence. That's very cool. When Patrick Mahomes was asked, "So what do you think about the notoriously horrific Chiefs playoff game past?" he replied, "This is a new generation."

I love this guy.

Here's to hoping that confidence turns into the major got-it required to actually get this team to the conference title game in Kansas City for the first time ever.
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