Sunday, December 27, 2020

Falcons at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 14-1

Patrick Mahomes is mortal. Either that or Andy Reid just didn't stick with a game plan that would work today. Mahomes simply never got untracked, was off all day on plays where he needed guys to break open downfield. The times they had quick throws on timing patterns, it went really well. The times they had Mahomes step back and look for that open receiver -- look, look, scramble a bit, scramble a bit more -- either the Falcons got to him or he just threw the ball who-knows-where which included a pick and two other times it should've been. So why didn't we stay with that timing-route thing?

In our final touchdown drive to finally get this one, we just did the Mahomes-to-Kelce thing like we should. Why not? I just wonder why we don't just get done what we can get done all the time. Maybe playing all these close games keeps us on our game for the full 60 -- we will need it come playoff time. And sure enough, to win the game we just needed Mahomes to make one more amazing throw, this one to Robinson in the end zone for the game-winner from 20+ out. 

I have to add too a mention about the kind of luck we are getting. The play just before our game-winner the Falcons D-back dropped a sure interception that would've sealed the win for them. And my goodness what about their awesome kicker just barely missing a game-tying FG after the announcers were just raving about how Pro-Bowler great he was. Whew.

We got some fine usage from Darrel Williams, seemed like as the game went on they went more with him than Le'Veon Bell, though he did okay for us as well. Thing is, what about that play-calling? When we needed a critical 3rd down conversion in the 4th quarter Reid called for a weird option pitch that got nothing. On a 4th-&-1 deep in Falcons territory we tried the craziest dipsy-doo trick play with Sammy Watkins throwing an interception that was intended for Patrick Mahomes. Those things are delightful when the work, and excruciating when they plop.

You are not going to tell me the officials are now not calling any penalty they can against the Chiefs, especially against our D-backs with the splendidly ubiquitous PI call. At the end of the 3rd quarter we had the Falcons offense with a 3rd-&-long and Daniel Sorensen was literally tackled by their tight end about 10 or 15 yards downfield.

And they called pass interference on us.

That they are not calling it more often I think is a testament to the fine play of both our D-backs and D-line today. For most of the game we put a lot of pressure on their terrific quarterback Matt Ryan. The problem is Ryan and Calvin Ridley connected enough times for big gains for the Falcons to do well. Even with all the sacks, Ryan late in the game got to 24-for-27 on passing. One of those was a duck that we could just not get under to snatch, but their guy could.

Today we were really thin in the linebacking department. We'd already been without Hitchens and Wilson, and we lost Niemann with an injury relatively early. So the Falcons just ran the ball right down our throat. Kudos to Willie Gay and Darius Harris for doing their dangedest to hold the fort.

Here's a thing some Chiefs fans really need to stop doing: dissing Mecole Hardman. The guy is amazing, made some terrific plays all season, and today was one of the pretty good things about our offense. This is not to mention what he gives on special teams, regularly taking punts and getting some return yardage from them while getting hammered each time he does that. I admit I often think about how we could've had D.K. Metcalf in that draft a couple years ago, but I too have got to let that one go. Hardman is our man, he's a Chief, he's played as well as we could expect, and he should get even better.

The last time we had the Falcons over at Arrowhead was the opener of 2012, that horribly horrible year. We lost, of course. The last time we'd played them, in 2016 at their place, was what could be called the Eric Berry game when he had a pick-six and a game-winning two-point-TD-return. Interesting that the Falcons is one of the teams we've played the least in our histories, I believe now only ten times.

Thing is, I do feel for Atlanta sports fans. To keep my mind sharp, usually when I'm out on my long walks, I do thinking like this: which city has had the worst of it from their pro sports teams? I went through the list in my mind.

Seattle? Yeah, for a while, but then the Seahawks won a Super Bowl in 2013 and the Supersonics did get an NBA title. Houston? Well, the Rockets had two titles in the mid-90s, and the Astros have been a very good baseball team of late, all the cheating stuff notwithstanding. Go through the list. Sorry, but...

There is Atlanta

The Braves were the very best baseball team from the late-80s to the mid-2000's, and got one title. It seemed like every year there would be some lousy thing that would happen to them in the postseason. 

The Falcons have been very good a number of times, and even made the Super Bowl twice, but the first time they were distracted by some player issues and got pasted by the Broncos, then there was the Patriots comeback a few years ago.

The NBA's Hawks have never really had many deep playoff runs, and when they were very good the time Dominique Wilkins was on the team was the time the Lakers and Celtics were regularly showing up in the Finals.

So yeah, I am sympathetic to Atlanta fans, and genuinely hope they have some success in the future -- as long as it doesn't come at Kansas City's expense. 

Today they weren't able to keep the Chiefs from clinching home field advantage throughout. It is funny, and kind of fun, but this weekend so far we'd been rooting for all the teams the Chiefs beat this year so they'd have a better Strength-of-Schedule should it have gotten down to that at the end of the year. Thing is, again, our win today took care of all that.

The Chiefs are the No. 1 seed and we get the bye. Done deal.

And it is likely a very good thing that we are playing all these close games so we can get on top of what we do well.

It's not going to be so easy when our first playoff game arrives.

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Both photos are by Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Monday, December 21, 2020

Chiefs at Saints - Week 15 - Record: 13-1

We've been engaging in major Christmas family things this week, so I was only able to watch the first part of the game live, then had to watch the rest on the DVR. Just a few notes to share here.

I think the CBS color guy Tony Romo is a lot of fun. One thing he's said a number of times is the key to the Chiefs' great success is that "Mahomes Magic." True that. The guy is, well, whatever new extraordinary superlative you want to use. I don't know, we're definitely running out of them. He swam and slipped and slid and slung himself and his shoveling and shotputting arm all over the field to get this win against an excellent Saints defense.

Get the call right. There was a play where Mahomes clearly fumbled the ball but it looked like he threw a wild incomplete pass while being hit that guard Steve Wisniewski caught, but alas, he's an ineligible receiver. But he didn't catch a pass, he recovered a fumble. Of course regularly it'd be bad for our fumble to be ruled a fumble if the other team got it, but you know? At least the call would be correct. The Saints got a nice fumble from us later in the game when the proper call was made, so...

I don't know about you, but I'm kind of liking how our defensive backs are playing. L'Jarius Sneed is a tremendous find. Tyrann Mathieu is "The Landlord" (though no one can excuse him for dropping that easy pick). Breeland and Ward and Sorensen and gradually-now Thornhill are holding their own. We're still eagerly waiting to see what this yet-again splendid Brett Veach late-season pick-up of DeAndre Baker will mean. 

Our offensive line really needs an upgrade. It is nice that we got Wisniewski back in there to help with the injury situation, but it's still thin. Mahomes was scrambling for his life all game, and while I actually like that he does that because he makes so much happen from doing that, he did get pressured unmercifully and sacked a number of times. If we're going to have issues moving on through the playoffs, it could be our offensive line. You've got to give these guys credit, however, they did do well enough for our runners to close out the game late.

Having Le'Veon Bell is big, very big. CEH got that ugly leg injury and it appears he will be out for the remaining two regular season games, with everyone saying it could be longer. Taking nothing away from CEH at all, it seems Bell works better when he can get a feel for how the line is moving, he can get into a nice game flow rhythm, that's how he rolls. You could see it today out there as his amazing game is starting to come back to him.

Andy Reid is getting daring, which is wonderful. It is not only his ability to arrange amazing plays for this team giving them wonderfully fun opportunities to succeed. "The intellect meets the talent level, all the way across the board" is something Tony Romo said as the Chiefs were closing this one out. Part of this is when we've got to finish games, he's having Mahomes throw the ball to get those first downs. Awesome. Reid has developed the capacity to play to win, not to play not-to-lose. 

About those injuries, damn, that Superdome turf. I've always considered these artificial turf fields so dangerous -- like that Lucas Oil Stadium field one in Indianapolis. It just seemed today the injuries for both teams piled up more than usual. Maybe it was just because of CEH's injury, but I'm always thinking they could be doing more to limit those injuries. They're doing some, which is good, but these turf fields just don't help.

We get to be home in Arrowhead for our last two regular season games and at least one more in the postseason right after that, so that'll be very nice.

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Photo is by Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Sunday, December 13, 2020

Chiefs at Dolphins - Week 14 - Record: 12-1

We returned to Miami for the first time since our Super Bowl win in February. Everyone had been mentioning that, a very cool thing. Today we clinched our fifth straight division title too, but it was way more dramatic than it had to be. It was sort of a tale of three games.

The first game of the game was Mahomes looking really iffy out there. He threw three picks on the day! Two of them were in the first quarter. He was also sacked for a loss of 30 yards when he tried to do his patented swimming-away from the rush but this time the Dolphins lineman got him. 30-yard loss! They'd mentioned the 30-yard loss Bob Griese took in Super Bowl VI, and I thought that one was huge! For this portion of the game we were down 10-0.

Then we went to work. Second game within a game. Our run D was actually really good today, so we were able to hold them off while Tyreek got his sweep special to get us a TD. Travis caught a short one, then when the 3rd quarter started Tyreek pulled in a 44-yard TD pass from Patrick. Add a spiffy punt return TD by Mecole Hardman and a safety by Chris Jones & company and bam we're up 30-10. The Dolphins QB, Tua Tagovailoa, was just having a miserable time of it during this game within the game.

Thennn there was the third game within the game, when the Dolphins started playing good football and the Chiefs defense started playing bad football. For one thing we were getting all kinds of PIs, one of them in particular was just not one, the one on Anthony Hitchens -- but then the Dolphins should not have been that close to getting a touchdown to begin with. I just couldn't see how we got so soft on our pass D, it was horrific.

One play in particular in the last couple minutes of the game that got the Dolphins deep into Chiefs territory was their receiver catching a pass with literally six Chiefs within five yards of the guy. Yes, I know it is really hard to play in the NFL, these guys are very good athletes, and I'm not out there, they are, I know -- but, well, I thought our guys were good athletes too! What was with that?

So it was just a very weird game. It was almost as if the Chiefs just went through the motions too often. Mahomes was crazy amazing just enough times, otherwise he was just really off his game. His third interception was a really terrific play by their defender, but why were we throwing that pass at that time, late in the game? Besides that, it was a little underthrown. I know, I'm complaining about a pass that was a littttle bit underthrown from the guy who is likely already the GOAT and is doing things for the Chiefs right now that should only be in our dreams. 

Let's be honest, today Hill was amazing, Kelce was amazing, CEH has amazing, Hardman actually made some terrific plays, one of which was just before he fumbled the ball away -- to be honest that was just the kind of the day it was. Our defensive line did very fine work, but then in that 4th quarter they may have just been tired. Yep, I'm not out there, they are, and they took care of business against a pretty decent Dolphins team.

Still got to get it done to get that No. 1 seed -- three games left and next week we're in New Orleans. No rest for the weary.

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Photos are from Kevin Sabitus at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Sunday, December 06, 2020

Broncos at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 11-1

We've now beaten the Broncos I believe 11 straight, but this game was brutal. Really, most of those games in the streak have been nail-biters.

We've now made the playoffs again and pretty much have a wrap on the AFC West for the sixth straight time.

But here's the thing about this game. The one play that mattered most was the wild catch Tyreek Hill made in the end zone early in the 2nd quarter. It was amazing. The ball bounced around between Hill and his defender and landed in his clutches right there smack in the middle of the end zone. Touchdown Kansas City. Undeniably, completely, unequivocally, thoroughly a touchdown as astounding a play that it was.

It didn't count.

The refs missed it, Tyreek missed it, Andy missed it, the Chiefs missed it.

The video didn't miss it.

I can't say this any more emphatically. I can't see how everyone in the entire universe of multiverses can't agree and declare the following truth as clearly and boldly and righteously as they can. I've shared this a million times here before but I see it rarely in any other forum where it should be screamed from the rooftops no fewer than a billion times a day until the NFL does what it should do. I'll make it quite obvious here using my specially acquired screenshots from around the web. Maybe this will make a difference.

One more time for as much zealously impassioned emphasis as I can give it:








I simply absolutely ridiculously can't see how this can be any more truthfully veritably stunningly more plainly truthfully truthful.

There is no reason the NFL should not be utterly jettisoning the whole red flag-throwing thing and replacing it with two officials in the booth looking right at video monitors throughout the game and watching everything that's happening so they can -- ahem -- 

Did you not happen to catch the message posted just above, or is it still too hard to get? 

Is anyone paying attention?

What is ironic is that last year's Chiefs team may have benefited tremendously themselves from this absurdity of just-plain-not-getting-the-call-right. And I mean the whole getting-that-first-round-bye-giving-us-a-tremendous-playoff-advantage benefit, really.

Remember the New England game when N'Keal Harry scored a touchdown for the Patriots but the official thought he'd stepped out of bounds? Well, Harry clearly didn't step out of bounds. No touchdown, and that poor call was instrumental in the Chiefs' close win. For some reason having to do with the inane rules related to this coach's challenge thing, Bill Belichick could not challenge the call. Now, I don't think we should have to apologize for Bill Belichick for anything because he's had a whole pride of lion's share of insane luck through his career (to take nothing away from his exceptional coaching abilities), but still.

Get the call right, even if it goes against the Chiefs. It is too easy to see that the simple reason is that tonight, Tyreek Hill made one of the most amazing plays in NFL history and it will be lost to the sad oblivion of plays that never counted.

As for the rest of the game, Mahomes is truly one of the best contortionist the pro football circus can showcase. On one play late he was running to his left, twisted his body into a pretzel and threw a strike to Sammy Watkins for a critical first down. Yet again, just head-shakingly incredible.

I know I'm nitpicking, but I was getting concerned about some of his very low sidearm slings. The big long-armed Denver linemen were batting them down regularly. After a while he did start working to get a bit more separation to get his throws off.

Other things could be mentioned of note: Harrison Butker's five field goals. Darrel Williams' proficient running to chew clock very late. Chris Jones yet again being a monster in the middle of that defensive line. Our defensive backs really smothering opponent receivers -- the Honey Badger had two picks tonight.

There are concerns too, especially related to our inability to score touchdowns in the red zone, but the main concern for the most serious consideration tonight is one I hope carries over to some real action. The way these games are comprehensively played out, please -- is there just any way it can be made so everyone can be sure that we all just

GET

THE 

CALL

RIGHT.

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The photographs are from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Sunday, November 29, 2020

Chiefs at Buccaneers - Week 12 - Record: 10-1

I hadn't thought about this but looked it up real quick: We had not defeated a Buccaneers team since Joe Montana did it in his very first game as a Chief, way back on September 5th, 1993. Since then five straight losses to Tampa Bay. We broke that streak today on the amazing touchdown streaks of Tyreek Hill.

Hill was a blur today. He had three touchdowns and nearly 300 yards receiving. As the game went on the Bucs doubled him and Kelce, so Mahomes simply went to Robinson and Watkins more often. If we didn't stall so much it'd have been a blowout. On the other hand if we didn't get those clutch interceptions against Brady we could've just as easily lost this one.

One time close to the end zone Mahomes fumbled the ball away, very uncharacteristic of him. Another time right at the end of the half, and again close to the goal line, we could've had six but settled for a FG when on three straight plays Mahomes just threw the ball into the stands. What was that ugliness?

But you can't shake it. Mahomes was still brilliant. He stayed strong in the pocket and hit his marks when he needed to. He bobbed and weaved through the backfield to run for yardage or just chuck it to someone getting open. His most impressive play was in the 4th quarter with about ten minutes left in the game. He faced a 3rd down and with pressure coming on the right side he just backpedalled left, kept backpedalling, backpedalling as he scans the field -- he is essentially running backwards mind you -- and he then throws a strike 25 yards downfield to Mecole Hardman. 1st down.

I could say more about this game, but I just wanted to add a quick note about Thursday's game. Guh? Thursday's game? Yeah, the one in which Alex Smith made the Cowboys look silly. I was just thinking, really -- I do firmly believe Smith should be in the Hall-of-Fame. The dude not only suffered that horrific football injury two years ago, he not only almost lost the leg, he not only had to endure surgery after surgery after surgery -- he almost lost his life.

And yet now he has won the Washington football team's starting quarterback job, and is playing great. When he was with the 49ers in 2011 he almost led them to the Super Bowl. When he was with the Chiefs he never had a losing season and took the team to the playoffs four times. And this return to football after what happened -- the guy deserves a place in the Hall-of-Fame, he really does.

Oh, and he taught Patrick Mahomes much of what he knows as a quarterback. That should get him more than enough votes.

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The photo is by Adam Parker at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Sunday, November 22, 2020

Chiefs at Raiders - Week 11 - Record: 9-1

With a minute and change left in the game we were down 31-28, and we definitely need games like this to keep getting Patrick experience with these last-minute instances when we've got to score. We'll be in the playoffs again this year, but this is very good, keep working hard. We simply cannot blow out every opponent and get flimsy taking things for granted. 

Indeed there've been a couple far-too-close wins we've really had to eek out this year. The Chargers game. The Panthers game.

But wow, did Mahomes take care of business. He was 6 of 7 for 75 yards in 65 seconds of play, capping it with a nice scramble hitting Kelce wide-open in the end zone. We got the very nifty late comeback win.

But the Raiders really played well, even with a defense crippled by Covid suspensions. Derek Carr had his second terrific game against us when in just about every game he'd played against the Chiefs before was not his best. We did a decent job of keeping that big-play pass from hurting us, and we actually did pretty well against their run. But their pass blocking was terrific and could have won them the game. Our defensive line simply could not get to Carr, and the Raiders really could have gone up by enough to win if their receivers didn't have several critical drops.

As for us, just some quick notes:

The Mahomes-Kelce-Hill triumvirate was astounding, yet again. DeMarcus Robinson ran a poor route leading to a Mahomes pick, but he did well later to make up for it snatching a critical 4th down pass.

LeVeon Bell got much more in the mix, and showed some of what he was so good at before. He even scored a touchdown.

Clyde Edwards-Helaire was terrific again, and having Bell in there is also terrific so CEH doesn't get overworked. We need both of them for playoff endurance.

We've got to keep our heads. No reason for Tyrann Mathieu to get an unsportsmanlike late in the game.

Too many penalties made me nervous, especially at the line. Mahomes hard counts though also got those guys to move all over the place to our advantage.

Our defense was far too bendy, but adjustments seemed to help as the game moved forward.

Next week we've got the other pirate team, Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, I'm pretty sure a "prime time" afternoon affair.

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Sunday, November 08, 2020

Panthers at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 8-1

This week I wrote a piece at Arrowhead Pride about teams using a sophisticated "Let the Chiefs score" strategy to take advantage of time of possession keeping Patrick Mahomes off the field. One of the problems with this newfangled strategy is that the other team may never think about it because they know the rest of the Chiefs team is not Patrick Mahomes.

The Chiefs shouldn't have any trouble seeing it if they keep fumbling after a decent drive like Demarcus Robinson did today. Or their kicker keeps missing field goals and more PATs (which almost really cost us this time!) like Harrison Butker did (and three years ago he was poached from Carolina, remember!) 

They may see it if you keep committing costly defensive penalties like we did today, allowing them to extend drives on 3rd down, especially since they have Christian McCaffrey who piled up 152 all-purpose yards on us today and doing his part to keep Mahomes off the field.

We do have Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, who just torched the field today (were the Panthers kind of employing the strategy? Hmm...) 

What we don't have is a truly reliable offensive line, and I'm joining all those Chiefs fan who hope Brett does his magic and can pull out of his hat some O-linemen that can get our running backs untracked. CEH and Le'Veon had a combined 22 yards rushing total today. 

That especially stank when we needed one first down to run the clock out end the game but got a total of -3 yards. We lucked out after they got the ball back with a minute to go and got a good 40 yards with no timeouts only to fail on a 67-yard FG attempt. Whew!

Next week is a bye and then the revenge game in Vegas against the Raiders on Sunday Night Football!

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The photo is from Jim Berry at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Sunday, November 01, 2020

Jets at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 7-1

A shout-out to the special teams today -- hey! Harrison Butker connected on all his PATs! Okay seriously now (But yeah, seriously, what has he been doing missing so many of them?) Anyway...

There was Tommy Townsend faking the pass and firing a bullet to Byron Pringle to get the 1st down. Then there was Armani Watts just blasting through the line to block the Jets FG attempt right before the half. Townsend's punts themselves and our kick coverage were terrific on the day. Even on a kickoff that was placed way back at the 20 because of a penalty, Butker almost got it out of the side of the end zone.

Right after Townsend's completion Mahomes hit Hill in the end zone for a spiffy 36-yard TD completion. Those two had another one later in the game, so let's hope the Mahomes-to-Hill relationship is getting hot again. Kelce also had a field day against the Jets.

And how about Mecole Hardman! The guy was amazing today -- scoring a nice jet sweep pass TD but also making ankle-high catches. Maybe taking him off the kick returns has gotten him focused on all the things he can bring to the offense. Hopefully his late-game injury is not too serious.

Concerned about the running game though. I think having Le'Veon Bell is critical, because it takes a lot of the load of CEH, so I'm not complaining about having them. But their yards per carry was abominable today. They didn't work much because Mahomes and his receiving crew were just nails today, so there is that. Darrel Williams did okay in his time out there except he almost fumbled the ball away when being used to try to run clock in the middle of the 4th quarter.

Something I really like is how our defensive scheme is always ready for those very important 2nd half adjustments. In the 1st half we were softer than we should have been against this team, but right outta the gate in the 2nd half we clamped down -- our coaches are doing marvelous at finding out what we need to do to get it done. The Jets got absolutely nothing going after that.

Of course the game rhythm has a lot to do with that. At the half we were up 21-9, and it is so true: if a game is close a Chiefs opponent knows if they can run the ball and keep Mahomes and company off the field. This is why our defense, which I saw was statistically one of the better in the NFL, has got to get those key stops. So far this year we've done that reasonably well. We just won't look at the ugly beast that was the Raiders game.

This was a Jets team that was 0-7 coming in. Before the game they were a whopping 20-point underdogs, that's just unheard of in today's NFL. And the Chiefs covered. Workman-like day at the office.

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Photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Sunday, October 25, 2020

Chiefs at Broncos - Week 7 - Record: 6-1

I don't know about this offense. I do know it was 14 degrees with flurries in Denver -- looked just like the game we played against them here at Arrowhead last year, so there's that. But wow, until the 4th quarter when we had a short field and Tyreek ran in one of those open-space specials in the red zone, we were just sloggin'. The announcer said that we'd been 0-7 on 3rd down in the game. That stinks.

Good thing our pass defense was fine and our run defense fine enough. We also got beaucoup help from our special teams highlighted by a booming punt from Tommy Townsend downed at the one and a super kickoff return for touchdown by Byron Pringle, as well as turnovers galore:

-  Pick-six for Daniel Sorensen,

-  Tershawn Wharton strip and fumble recovery.

-  Messed-up flea flicker scooped up by Frank Clark.

-  Interception by Tyrann Mathieu.

In a sense our own opportunistic defensive play and special teams weirdly kept Mahomes et al off the field. It just seemed like they were rusty every time they got out there. Le'Veon Bell's first run went for 16 which was really nice to see, but he did little the rest of the game. CEH had a few good runs but also dropped a short pass that would've been a touchdown. 

Overall with the elements affecting both teams' play it required those turnovers favoring us, a little bit better quality of football play to win the day, and excellent preparation to take on the high elevation and cold weather. 

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The photograph is from Mike Martin at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Monday, October 19, 2020

Chiefs at Bills - Week 6 - Record: 5-1

Before getting to the game, the Chiefs got even better this week. Yep, it works for us too, how stunningly joyful is that: The rich get richer.

After the Jets released uber-back Le'Veon Bell, Brett Veach did his splendid wining-&-dining thing and got Bell. In my view the best thing about this is how much Bell can teach Clyde Edwards-Helaire -- I've always thought CEH reminded me of Bell. CEH is a phenomenal talent in and of himself (witness tonight's performance), but he is still raw and could benefit from the refinement a Le'Veon Bell can bring to his game.

Anyway, no, Kevin Durant is not joining the Chiefs, but I absolutely loved the posted meme here. As you may know I'm also a big Golden State Warriors fan, so the connection is just delightful. Both of my fave teams dominating their respective leagues right now. (Sure there are qualifications about that with regards to the NBA, but that's another story...)

To this game. I hate to do this or admit I'm doing this, but I'm going to pretty much just post my notes with remarks. Each of these blog posts is some version of that anyway, and really, here tonight you may even get more than I usually post. But I'm afraid these evening games (great that we're on primetime so often!) can be hard when you've got to sleep and get up for very non-Chiefs related work early in the morning.

We came into this one with everyone saying how much Josh Allen should be able to match up with Patrick Mahomes with his strong arm and raw athleticism and all, but really, it wasn't even a contest. With that in mind, into the notes.

Middle of the 1st quarter it looked as though the refs would do us in again as they did last week. On a QB scramble Allen was clearly a yard short of the marker but they gave him the 1st down anyway. A play later their O-lineman was holding Taco Charlton like crazy, but of course, no call. They got the 1st down completion.

Our offense started sluggishly, it seemed like we resumed playing like we did last week, as if the Bills had 14 players on defense. It was raining pretty good throughout the game, so it was good we were eventually able to get our running game going.

The wild thing about this game was our O-line. It was like major reconstructive surgery. We even lost Mitchell Schwartz to a back injury and had to move Mike Remmers from LG over to RT. We slotted Nick Allegretti in there, and I didn't find this out until halfway into the game that we'd replaced Austin Reiter at center with Daniel Kilgore. The only real mainstay through the whole thing, someone with even a few years experience there, was Eric Fisher.

But the interesting thing was they actually played pretty well. Maybe the shakeup, giving some of these kids a chance to shine, made the difference. I believe I'd heard the Bills run defense was not the best, but they were showing more than a few shining moments for our linemen. Hmm, might be nice especially getting ready to see if Bell can still shimmy and slice through defenses with his carries.

The Bills first TD was a terrific throw and catch, Allen to Diggs, at the side of the end zone. Just want to give credit where credit is due.

More rotten officiating. We had penalties up the wazoo tonight, but while late in the 2nd quarter the PI call on Ward was legit, the one against Breeland was not on 3rd-&-11.

Meanwhile Allen was throwing the ball who-knows-where. I'm sure he's a fine quarterback, and it even looked as though when he needed to be a runner he was pretty dangerous. But so often with his passing he was heaving the ball all over the place.

I tracked the possessions of the second in a somewhat sporadic way, but I just wanted to see what we were going to do only up 13-10:

Chiefs: 3rd-&-2 Williams picks up a nice 1st down. 3rd-&-7 Mahomes almost gets picked off, and we have to punt.

Bills: Starting at their own 12 we get a 3-&-out -- our defense does well outta the gate here.

Chiefs: 3rd-&-1 a very nice pitch-sweep left to CEH gets us the 1st down. Using this guy in open space is wonderful to see. Then deep in their territory on a 4th-&-inches Williams blasts past the push and streams into the end zone. 20-10 us.

Bills: Another 3-&-out. Very nice.

Chiefs: In this drive the Bills commit two egregious personal foul penalties, both times violently shoving our guy way out-of-bounds. That helped us a lot, but after again getting deep into Bills territory with CEH running all over these guys, we get to a 2nd-&-1 and can't convert on two straight plays. Ergh. Butker makes it 23-10.

Bills: We start playing soft to keep the big play from happening, and sure enough in a matter of not-too-many plays the Bills score a touchdown. Great, now it's 23-17 with six minutes left. This is not nice.

Chiefs: CEH is now getting stuffed, even fumbling the football away. That was especially scary, except that replays showed his knee was down before they stripped it. Whew. Majorly. Then came what really was the play of the game.

I believe it was 3rd-&14, and Mahomes did his extraordinarily deft scrambling thing to find Byron Pringle breaking open 30 yards downfield. Strike. That really did it for us. With three minutes left Butker came in to bang through the clincher. Final score 26-17.

Of course there's more, but that's kind of the play-by-play. Next week we're at the Broncos place, with Le'Veon Bell joining the squad. I can't wait!

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The offensive line photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Sunday, October 11, 2020

Raiders at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 4-1

It had to happen someday. Our defense's liabilities would be brutally exposed.

Interesting, do you know we'd been 28-2 against the AFC West since that game when Jamaal Charles fumbled it away against the Broncos at the beginning of the 2015 season? Those two games, both Thursday night games: the Raiders in 2017 when we were way ahead but they came back with the help of lots of PI calls on Eric Murray, and 2018 when we were also way ahead but the Chargers came back and beat us with a two-point conversion at the very end of the game. 

The turning point in this one was when we were in total command in the 2nd quarter, and Tyreek Hill was targeted on a deep throw and was totally PI'd by the Raiders defender. No call. There is a ruthless example of where the fourth horseman of the football apocalypse can really destroy us. Right after that obvious non-call we had a chance to keep things going and Mahomes made a great play throwing the ball right into rarely-used Nick Keizer's hands, but he dropped it. A guy like that simply can't afford to drop that ball. 4th down, no points, when we should have had the ball close to the goal line.

It was all downhill from there.

The refs were all over us all day. There were a number of questionable holding calls on our O-linemen that cost us big, a cheap-shot pick call on Kelce that eliminated a TD... I don't know. I could complain about the NFL notifying the officials to start being really picky against us because they had been pretty light on us for the past year and a half. 

As far as our D goes, ouch. We so need better linebackers. This is not news. Ben Niemann is just not getting it done back there. They ran over us all day. Our D-line did okay, but they can only do so much.

The Raiders ran the football against us, which really is the strategy to keep games close against us. Other teams are realizing that because we just don't have that Ray Lewis guy there (oh the years and years I've been shouting for that.) By doing that they are taking possession time away from our offense. That's the secret to beating the Chiefs, and let's face it, if our D cannot stop the run, we won't repeat no matter how great Mahomes is. Our D was not good today. Throughout much of the 2nd half the Raiders played us like we had 8 guys out there on defense.

Their O-line was good. Our O-line, let's face it -- CEH is simply not getting untracked. We lost our fine new LG Osemele early to injury. 

Meanwhile, for much of the 2nd half it looked like the Raiders had 17 guys on defense against us. Mahomes just looked frazzled far too much. We managed to get a late TD score to get us to within one score, but we simply could not stop the run when the Raiders needed to chew clock.

Well, any given Sunday, that's the NFL. We should do fine adjusting our match ups against other teams, and we've been doing a terrific job against our AFC West opponents for a long time. And in a perverse way, we can now really grasp what others know about our team and we should get that worked out.

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Monday, October 05, 2020

Patriots at Chiefs - Week 4 - Record: 4-0

Is it that NE mystique? Is it that this is the NFL? Is it that any big play can hurt you in this game? Is it that with such an overwhelming advantage going in you're bound to have a let-down?

I don't know what it was but it was kind of a surprise to see that we were ahead only 6-3 at the half. This game should've been in the bag from the opening kick. The Pats were without their starting QB, a rejuvenated Cam Newton. They already had a number of players who'd opted out when the season began. They were also without their No. 1 back, Sony Michel.

Thing is, to the Pats' credit that NE mystique is indeed still there. They still have Bill Belichick coaching, and the dude really is a phenomenal coach. With what he's got he's always devised a game plan to mess with us. He was running the ball effectively against our 27th ranked run defense -- yeah, you read that right, 27th is what the graphic said. Abysmal. 

And they did run the ball really well. They chewed up clock and yes, did what they wanted to do -- keep Patrick Mahomes off the field. I am sure moving forward we will play a team that will successfully do this, beating us 18-17 on the strength of the six FGs they'll kick after each time they methodically execute their eight minute drives running the ball ten times in each one. 

So yeah, look out Chiefs Kingdom, I can't see it won't happen. It is pretty obvious that most of us think we're going to wallop everyone 41-2. Well, again, this is the NFL. In fact, we play Buffalo in ten days, in Buffalo, and you can bet they're watching our film. If we can't get more pounding from that front seven watch these teams do exactly that thing.

I knew about midway through the 2nd quarter that this one may just be decided by the big play. In a way, it was, and the two plays that stood out were courtesy of our defensive ends.

At the very end of the 1st half New England was around our ten with seconds to go, and QB Brian Hoyer went back to pass. He waited too long to throw the ball and got sacked by Frank Clark. 0:03, 0:02, 0:01... no time left... NE had already used all its timeouts and Hoyer was supposed to have at least thrown the ball somewhere. Now, not 6-6. Or worse.

After a super-long run-laden drive to start the 2nd half, the Pats again got down to about our ten, and this time it was Taco Charlton with the strip sack to stop that ugliness. That's a potential 14 NE points snuffed out by clutch pass rusher action.

The biggest play on offense was a huge pass completion to Travis Kelce right after that turnover. That got us deep into their territory, and we finished that off with a nifty jet sweep TD to Tyreek Hill. Later we got another one just like it to Mecole Hardman to make the score 19-10 (Butker missed another PAT...) 

We closed it out when Julian Edelman dropped a pass right into the hands of Tyrann Mathieu for a pick-six.

Still, far too close for comfort. This game felt a lot like the Indianapolis game last year, remember that one?  Home game, and were were 4-0. Our offense just couldn't get anything going. We looked like slugs out there with the scant exception of that amazing play when Mahomes hit Byron Pringle in the end zone. Other than that, it was brutal.

Tonight for most of the game, let's face it, it was brutal. The NE defense knew what to do, it played really well -- again give them some cred. We got just enough from Mahomes to put this one away, but our D was facing a 2nd string QB and later a 3rd string QB with whom NE Belichick'd this thing -- you know, like MacGyver'd this thing -- to keep us honest. 

Maybe that's a good thing moving forward, this keeping us honest. We're all reading the Chiefs' press clippings about how dominant we're supposed to be, let's hope the Chiefs aren't.

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The first photo is from Andrew Mather, the second is from Jim Berry, both at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Monday, September 28, 2020

Chiefs at Ravens - Week 3 - Record: 3-0

"The Chiefs are having a party."

Those were the words of the television announcer right after Mecole Hardman took the wildcat snap, tossed it to Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who then pitched it to Mahomes coming from the left, who then threw a strike to back to Clyde wheeling over to the other side of the field who ran for a first down. 

Wow, what fun. We were already ahead 27-10 and just having a blast mowing down the Ravens in a game everyone thought would be closer. Thing is, right after that play early in the 3rd quarter, Darwin Thompson fumbled the ball away allowing the Ravens to put up 10 unanswered.

Thing is, we should've been up 31-10, but Harrison Butker who couldn't miss on 15 attempts from 78 yards away last week (okay, an exaggeration but he was nails with the kicks) missed a PAT and an easy very make-able FG tonight.

Turns out we still finished them off 34-20, but wow, that we put up a 27-spot in the 1st half on one of the best defenses in the NFL is just amazing. Mahomes was his usual amazing, throwing incredible deep-strike TDs to Hill and Hardman, as well as a little shovel-pass TD thing to The Sausage and a nice tackle-eligible TD toss to The Sausage II, Eric Fisher!

We were so much sharper than we were last week. Clyde Edwards-Helaire turned it up this week, really showing us what he has in the passing game. We heard all about how good he was catching passes, tonight he showed it. When it got down to when we needed to score that game-clinching TD, he carried the ball well snapping up those critical 1st downs.

On defense it was nice to see Chris Jones be the manhandler he is on the defensive front. When the Ravens got down early and had to pass, Jones could get his game on. I also liked seeing much better play from Juan Thornhill. He was all over the field, seeming to really get his feet back under him.

As strong as our defense was in the 1st half we were not as much in the 2nd when the Ravens tightened things up and got Lamar's legs moving a bit more. At the very end of the game when they were threatening our pass rush stepped it up, keeping Lamar in the pocket a bit more forcing him to have to pass.

Next we've got the reconstructed Patriots! Brutal first few games of the season this year!

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The photo is from Steve Sanders at the Chiefs Official Site. Thank you.

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Sunday, September 20, 2020

Chiefs at Chargers - Week 2 - Record: 2-0

We had no business winning this game. Wow was our defense the most melted butter -- we lucked out far too often when their fine very-1st-NFL-game-of-his-career QB misfired a few too many times. And their D-line just overpowered our O-line. Did we actually even win this game? And next week, we have Baltimore. We're going to have to play a lot, lot better if we have a chance next Monday night.

The four horsemen of the football apocalypse started to rear their ugly heads again in the Chiefs Kingdom. The last time we had to withstand their cruelty was after this game, the last time we'd lost a game. Seems like eons ago.

To start we'd gotten hit pretty hard with the injuries. We'd already been down a few key players, but today at different times our linebackers got shaken up. Frank Clark also had to leave, Darrel Williams left, Sammy Watkins had a blatant helmet-to-helmet personal foul against him that wasn't called and will be in the concussion protocol.

The penalties started to pile up again. Last week we had one, and we all thought, woo-hoo! We'd finally got the discipline down. Today, it was gruesome.

The poor play calls, especially by our defense. We just never looked like we were ever in a position to do any serious damage on defense. We did pick it up a bit in the second half, with some people like Mike Danna showing some promise and Tyrann Mathieu making TD-saving plays. Our tackling was atrocious. Our defensive line couldn't stand anybody up if they wanted to. With our linebacking core already our obvious weakness, we need those stout guys in the middle. Here's what I'm wondering: We paid Chris Jones $80 gazillion? Already knowing how poor he was with run defense? 

The one horseman that didn't really hurt us was the turnover, so yeah, we did manage to take care of the ball. In this game if we lost it even once we would've been toast.

Mahomes just looked miserable in the first half, but then that's his game -- find a way to make it so you absolutely have to perform. I think the late game issues get him to step it up -- that's a very good thing for sure. Their new QB Herbert looked really good for his first game. 

Travis Kelce really kept us in it. And of course Tyreek Hill had the catch-and-flip-into-the-endzone of the game! With 12 minutes left we were down 17-9 and Mahomes flunk his patented long ball on the run, and Hill made a diving catch much like the one he had last year against Minnesota. They say he got away with taking his helmet off for an unsportsmanlike penalty, which would have made our two-point conversion attempt much more questionable, but Hill later said his helmet was coming off on its own. Whew... got the conversion to make it.

And then there was Harrison Butker, really saving our buttkers. He'd already had a 58-yarder, then in OT he banged through a 53-yarder to win it, except we had an offsides call against us. So now he has to hit another 58-yarder, and he does, except they call time out just before the snap. So then he has to kick it in again from 58 yards, which he does to win the game.

Very exciting, but way more than it needed to be! Maybe this is a nice little wake-up for us and we get a real idea we are not invincible.

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Friday, September 11, 2020

Texans at Chiefs - Addendum

I really feel I must add this note about last night's game. It does relate very much to the substance of the post I made a few days ago about Larry Johnson.

Our Chiefs right now are a thoroughly dominant juggernaut. Sure anything can happen in the NFL, and certainly there is a team out there that will play us very well. But it is clear with the addition of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, and for that matter Kelechi Osemele (how about our O-line!), unless something weird or crazy happens we're coasting to another Super Bowl title.

Everything seems to gravy for the Kingdom...

Except for this one thing.

The insane folly of the coronavirus and racialist hysteria.

The coronavirus hysteria first. How in the world can they continue to say this thing is anything except a threat to the very elderly, the chronically ill, and distinctly obese, when there are so many people out and about without masks and not social distancing and not getting this thing? How can they say it is anything when the case and death numbers are so miniscule, and those numbers are largely bogus and inflated? How can they lock down restaurants, churches, schools, and for our purposes, stadiums when everyone is still out in droves shopping at the grocery and retail stores?

Andy Reid was wearing one of the clear plastic shields, and it got so fogged up that he had to lift it to see his plays. Andy Reid STOP you're going to kill somebody out there! 

Please stop. Please stop yelling at me for not wearing a mask. Please stop calling me a conspiracy theorist nutball when I'm the one who knows and shares the truth about this thing. And please stop your idiotic virtue-signaling by wearing a mask when it is scientifically proven to be pointless, and go back to letting us all go to the ballpark (and restaurants and churches and schools) as we always did. Quarantine and do the very best to care for the elderly, sick, and for cryin'-out-loud if we're going to do anything let's tell the obese to diet and exercise already. And if you don't want to go out and enjoy life because you're afraid of the virus, then please stay home smothered in disinfectant ooze if you want. No one is stopping you.

Then there is the racialist stuff. 

When I watched the postgame sports reports about the glorious play of my Chiefs, I got an earful of how transcendently righteous and progressive everyone was, especially the players. Bullshit.

When you do anything untoward when an anthem is playing for the purpose of exhibiting some measure of respect for something somebody believes in, you are making a statement. It doesn't matter if it is kneeling crouching arm-locking fist-raising or even, as many teams are now doing, staying in the locker room, you are saying something.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not a big fan of the national anthem thing to begin with. It isn't that I'm not patriotic, it is just my allegiance is to Jesus Christ, not a colored cloth. Whenever the national anthem is played in a setting like the pregame ceremony of a football game, however, I stand with my fellow fans out of respect for their feelings about it.

When these players do what they did, again it doesn't matter what it is, it is clear that they are saying one thing in particular. We all know it. They are saying in no uncertain terms:

You are all racist, especially you white people, and if you don't give up a better portion of your wealth to hand over to irresponsible people who blame others and refuse to have a reckoning with themselves to make something of their own lives, then we are not only going to browbeat you with the aid of the powerful news and media organizations who enable all of this, but we will seek government redress to accomplish those ends, at your peril.

This is precisely why quite a few of the some-17,000 fans at Arrowhead last night booed when the players did all this stuff, which apparently included some kind of lineup across the middle of the field with both teams' players arm-in-arm. This is precisely why the ratings for last night's game was crap, down 16% from last year's Thursday night opener, an exceedingly dull 10-3 Packers win over the Bears.

It is simply because so many people, including many blacks by the way, know that this is the message, loud and clear, and when you tell a paying customer the government and whatever other powers-that-be must prosecute you for something you didn't do, then they are going to take their dollars elsewhere.

That is a critical part of this equation. I can't deny that there are some people who may be horrifically racist. That's bad, I wish they weren't. I'm fine with talking with them about it. But what these people so hypnotized by the major race-hustlers are doing is grossly violating the Ninth Commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness. 

They don't know dick squat about what any given white person does or has done out of their own individual, actual, real love for black people. I'd venture to say most white people have worked their asses off at their jobs so black people (and everyone else) may have a great life in this country. I'd venture to say most white people have done any number of other things that blacks have benefited from enormously: done community service work, given money to charities, donated blood that saved the life of a black person they care about. How many others?

This is precisely why when these "Black Lives Matter" aficionados thrust their middle fingers in the face of any large group of white people they encounter -- such as fans in the stands or those with their televisions on at the moment, they shouldn't be surprised when they get the middle finger right back. The few times I listened to TV pundits address it they plaintively bleated "How could they boo when this is about wonderful unity?" They don't get it. There's not much unity when you're interminably sneering at people about how intractably racist they are.

So here's the reality. I saw something there last night on the telecast about making sure more money is spent on helping out the disadvantaged black person. How should that money be spent? That's a fine question. Let's think about the best use of our financial resources to truly aid the disadvantaged.

The typical idea that is feverishly being heaved into the mainstream is wholly Marxist: tear down all the institutions that make our society decent and orderly (they're all so racist we are told) and rebuild it so the wealth is much more evenly distributed. Essentially, again, we're going to take your money and hand it to others who did nothing to contribute to the wealth to begin with. If that happens, behold a country that will be a communist hellhole. At least right now all those booing fans still have some capacity to say and do what they can to prevent that from happening.

But yeah? How about that glop of money now? What can we do with it?

Two key things.

First, spend more on the police, specifically to find and corral all the men, and yes, many of them are black men, who sire children they do not care for. For that matter, let's make more laws governing what happens with sex to begin with. That's really one of the core elements of this present quasi-dystopia. Here in California where I live there's a new law, AB 145 -- many people know of it because it is so disturbing -- that will make it easier for rapists to get away with sexual assault. There're a lot of technical details about statutory rape and sentencing, but the fact is we've gone so far away from the truth that marriage is so important to a stable society. So first, restore the firm sanctity of marriage and family. Make men accountable for their behavior related to sex and children.

Second, I know many will say "But you can't arrest an irresponsible man and force him to take care of his children beyond providing whatever child support he can." True. This is why one of the stupidest things to do is to enlist government to just hand him someone else's money because we feel sorry for him. One of the smartest things to do actually is to spend money on missionaries -- yes, that's right, missionaries, people who can minister to those men with the love of Christ so they will turn to the one who does heal and deliver and restore and empower a man to be the man God made to begin with. And don't get me wrong, women need a good measure of that too, for them in the way God created them to be!

I'd love to hear that feature of the solution moving forward. What blows my mind is it is not hard for anyone to readily acknowledge the millions of black people who are faithful followers of Christ and do understand exactly what I'm talking about.

Instead we only hear the propaganda from the progressive wings in government and the atheist materialist organizations, all who believe an army of social workers will get the job done. Not even. We've been trying to do that for years, and we've reached the boiling point. Look where we are. Hmm, that kerosene helped make this fire worse. To put out the flames... shall we add more kerosene?

The things you see at places like Arrowhead last night represent just another chapter in the expanding vitriol and violence.

I love my Chiefs. I loathe their racialist browbeating. It'd be great for pro football to get back to what it was like before with, yes, maybe a bit more actually meaningful support for getting more resources to enforcing the law for the exclusive purpose of then sharing the Kingdom with those most racked by their sin.

And I don't mean the Chiefs Kingdom.

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The image above was from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Thank you.

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Postscript: Right after I uploaded this post, I got word that Jason Whitlock wrote this. The dude is amazing. So encouraging that there are people who are insightful and considerate and get it. There are many more than just us -- there is hope

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Thursday, September 10, 2020

Texans at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 1-0

Can the Chiefs be any more dominant this year? Everyone had an inkling Clyde Edwards-Helaire would be special, but wow. 138 yards rushing on 25 carries, and I don't even think he caught a pass -- maybe one if I remember when he picked up eight or nine yards. What will it look like when he does the other thing he's supposed to be very good at -- catching passes.

Oh my.

His touchdown run was an ankle-breaking sensation. He got a crease then juked two guys out of their shorts to get free. Our O-line played splendidly as well, just sealing off linemen to give CEH his space. They were speaking all night about an Andy Reid team just never running the ball -- I think they displayed a stat that said the Chiefs were the lowest run percentage team ever to win a Super Bowl.

When you've also got Patrick Mahomes there, no wonder. He was his standard excellent self, throwing a touchdown pass to Kelce first, then Watkins, then later in the game ice it.

I mean. We have a phenomenal embarrassment of riches.

Ah, to be a Chiefs fan.

And the Chiefs actually allowed fans in the stands, and the some 17,000 who were there were making noise. It was wonderful.

There are a number of things I could add to this post about our delightful opener win, but I will share something right now about the whole political thing. I actually DVR'ed this one for the first hour simply because I didn't want to have to endure looking at a bunch of coronavirus hysteria stuff (needless masks, pointless spacing, unnecessarily empty seats) and racialist insanity (slogans & PSAs telling me about how racist I'm supposed to be). I did fast forward past a lot of it, at times I did happen to catch a couple seconds of the racialist stuff before I hit FF, and I do know about all the grandstanding they did at the start of the game.

But to be honest, it did seem to be toned down. The painted and pasted on slogans were not as brazenly exhibited. I really think they toned it down a bit because they know how questionable it is to basically give the finger to so many who pay these players' salaries. That is encouraging. 

To be honest, I think it was awesome to see Patrick Mahomes wear a Negro League jersey at the postgame presser. Kansas City is proud to have downtown the Negro League Museum, and there is no reason we should not celebrate the accomplishments of those players in the face of the discrimination they faced. I totally understand that. Not going to get into it now, but let's hope more is in the mix to address the disadvantaged than just meaningless on-field demonstrations and lethal Marxist-oriented suggestions which if implemented only make anyone and everyone's lives so much worse.

For the bulk of it, however, an extraordinarily fun evening. The anticipation for Chiefs greatness just continues even further beyond 02/02/2020. How fun is this ride.

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The photo of CEH is by Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Wednesday, September 09, 2020

The Season

It has to end sometime. While everyone is waiting eagerly for the season to begin tomorrow, it is the end of a marvelous off-season just reveling in Chiefs Super Bowl glory. Yes, I do want it to continue, and sure enough, everyone on the planet, and maybe a few on other planets, believe this Chiefs locomotive isn't slowing down.

Marvelous.

But still, it is bittersweet. Tonight the NFL Network premiered its 2019 version of "America's Game," that amazing hour-long feature showcasing the year's Super Bowl champions. It barely started and I was in tears, with that majestic opening theme going. Thing is, I was extraordinarily familiar with practically everything they showed I'd so deeply bathed in it all over the summer.

Now we're starting a new chapter.

Every Chiefs fan is eagerly looking forward to it. We all know what's happening. It is so very fun.

A whole new episode in the great Chiefs Kingdom history is tomorrow.

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Friday, September 04, 2020

Larry

The best Chiefs blog out there is Arrowhead Pride, and I've written a few Fan Posts there. That is a neat feature, and I've been honored to contribute a bit.

About two or three months ago, during the dog days of the off-season, the AP people launched a series about their top five Chiefs of all time. Great topic, got a great response. The top AP writers each had their take, and I noticed a distinct lack of mention of the best running back the Chiefs ever had. I knew why they weren't mentioning him, and I pointed it out in response to a remark made by one of those top AP people -- sorry I don't remember which one. That remark was "There isn't a wrong answer in this."

To his credit I know why he said that. He was cautioning against how upset people might get if someone didn't quite agree with their selections. That's fine.

But I boldly went where no one had gone before, so to speak.

I put a comment or post or something in that declared, "Yes there is a wrong answer." I brought up the truth that to the AP people and everyone who is hypnotized by the World System propaganda about what we're supposed to believe about things, some answers are simply, and politically, unacceptable, even though they say we're not supposed to get political in these kinds of blog efforts and they would vehemently deny that they are.

But they are.

Who is the best running back in Kansas City Chiefs history?

It is Larry Johnson.

Before I share what happened with the AP activity, let me provide a very brief but lucid explanation about why Johnson was the best.

He is one of only a handful of running backs in NFL history to gain 1700+ yards in two different seasons. The others were people like Eric Dickerson and Barry Sanders. In 2006 he carried the ball more times than any running back in NFL history -- yes, you got that, his 416 runs were the most ever. Those two huge rushing years were both winning seasons for the Chiefs, and the team was only derailed because our receiving core was crap (some of why he so often carried the ball -- and the team itself, really) and our quarterback, while excellent (Trent Green), was getting old and injured too often, particularly in 2006. 

In 2007 Johnson was rewarded with the largest contract for a running back ever, but the negotiations were contentious. He was primed to continue his football excellence, but our fine QB Green retired and was replaced by Damon Huard who was an aging journeyman. In 2008 we handed the reigns to Tyler Thigpen, a fine athlete who was not a quarterback. Our receiving core was just as crappy (all due respect to Tony Gonzalez), our defense was weak, and our coaching was miserable.

Johnson himself suffered injuries during those seasons, continued to play through them into 2009 when his off-field troubles caught up with him. He was unceremoniously shipped off to Cincinnati in large part because it was discovered he made boorish remarks about certain people it has become unacceptable about whom to say anything untoward.

Yes Larry Johnson was kind of a butthead when he was on the Chiefs. Yes his formation of a triangle with his two hands together after every touchdown was an occultic signification he considered was merely an ad for his clothing brand. Yes Larry Johnson wore out his welcome in Kansas City, and is still persona non grata because even though he has found Christ and admitted he grew up a lot after his tumultuous early life that did include justified run-ins with the law, today he shares frequently about his convictions about the legitimate conspiracies among us. Ouch. Tin-foil-hat-wearing nutball. Too controversial.

None of this takes away from the fact that he was the best running back in Chiefs history.

Please know that I am saying nothing dismissive about Jamaal Charles and Priest Holmes. They were studs above studs. They were amazing. I love them to death, I do, just like any red-blooded Chiefs fan. They were both excellent excellent excellent football players and devoted Kansas City Chiefs. Charles and Holmes deserve every single accolade they can get.

But Larry Johnson was better.

Objectively so.

Don't misunderstand me. Is this opinion? Yes, I know that. I just have the goods is all. I have the evidence for my opinion to prevail. Will others disagree? Yeah, they can. Free country. That's a good thing. It's just they're still wrong.

Here's what happened at AP, however, after I pointed this out. I was called stupid. I was told I had no idea what I was talking about. There was one commentator who was actually respectful and gave me some cred, at least there was that. There was also a remark in there about toning it down.

I went back there with one last remark and it was something like this. "Everyone believes they are right. What I wrote was mostly about why I believe Larry Johnson isn't getting any mentions. Can you see why? Calling people names, however, doesn't accomplish anything. If you have a take, share it. I don't care if you tell me Junior Siavii should be on your list -- if you have reasons, share them. I'll respect that."

Then I left. I never went back. I just don't deal with being called stupid very well, not at all, even though I knew it was likely to happen. I would love to have seen someone write "Yes. Good call. I too know why Larry Johnson isn't getting any considerations." Maybe someone did. Bless them if they did.

Once again, the reasons Larry Johnson got barely any mention?

It is because of the politics.

It is because Larry Johnson was perceived as someone not worthy of the very well-deserved attention he should have gotten, and should still get right now. The negative press he received, much of it wholly deserved definitely colored people's considerations of him, and most judgments have been made with little consideration of his actual football talents.

It is a truth that is denied by people in tremendous denial about it:

Politics does impact what we think about people.

And it takes a lot of fortitude to see that and address it magnanimously.

What do I mean by that?

The object lesson is right before our eyes right now with what is going on in the NFL, and our beloved Kansas City Chiefs.

The NFL has become a rotten festering vat of racialist puke. It has been reaching this point for some time -- but now? It is absolutely grotesque.

I will tell you, and I've shared this many times before. The Kansas City Chiefs are my team. There is virtually nothing that will get me to not appreciate them. I'm honestly not crazy about my far-too prominent sentiment that I don't care if a Chiefs player is a serial murderer, I hope he scores 100 touchdowns.

Patrick Mahomes may very well be the greatest player ever to step on a pro football field. Already, right now. There're likely a bit more than just a few who would agree with this. We are a week away from the start of what most think is a long run of astounding Chiefs glory led by this phenomenal young star.

But what in the world is he doing joining his teammates and taking this racialist filth and spewing it out? What on earth are these people doing? Yes, I can excuse Mahomes for being only 25 years-old -- he's just a kid being browbeat into taking on the mantle of the "face of the NFL" and feeling pressured into being the voice of the "disadvantaged and downtrodden." I got that.

The problem is the racialist stuff he's sharing is just the grossly obtuse propaganda leftists want to splatter everywhere -- it is has gotten to the point where it is a racket. If you don't proclaim that you're not a racist -- or now: that you're an anti-racist and on board with all kinds of autocratic, draconian policy provisions and prosecutorial activity to ensure we rid the world of all evil racist troglodytes, well then we'll just torch your establishment.

I'm not necessarily picking on Mahomes. So many NFL players are seduced by it. But let's just take Mahomes in terms of the future reality. Not even saying I'm for or against anything, but look at the political landscape and I truly wonder how far Mahomes plans to be the face of the racialist crusade. By the way, the term: Racialism: Calling a whole classification of people racist and doing so with the most institutionalized vitriol. Yes, when people say things like "Black Lives Matter," they are definitively calling another person a racist while knowing nothing about that person. Seems like the most brazen example of bearing false witness there can be.

So Mahomes is planning to get in the neighborhood of $500 million over the next 12 years. That's awesome for the Chiefs, for him, for everyone all around. I cheered this news as did anyone who is a likely bit too impassioned member of the Kingdom.

Here's the problem.

How's that money going to get there when there is no one in the stands?

How are any of these guys going to get paid when no one is watching because they are tired of seeing all the racialist slogans painted all over the field, of having splashed in their faces public service announcements about how much of a racist asshole you are? I don't know if you noticed, but last year most NFL stadiums were half empty. This year many will be totally empty because of another lie sold to the American people, the one that a killer virus will kill you if you don't stay in your rooms until the government tells you when to come out.

You know, it is kind of funny, I'd thought about some of the weird similarities between the world champion Chiefs of 2019 and that of 1969. I'd shared a few before. For instance, did I share the one about both our starting quarterbacks being injured and both missing at least a few games? And that their replacements (Matt Moore in 2019 and Mike Livingston in 1969) actually did pretty well?

Well how about this one. That in 1969 the country was in the midst of racial turmoil and a virus (supposedly from Hong Kong) that was actually killing about as many people as they say the coronavirus is killing today. I mean that is just too weird.

What is weirder is not only how hysterical everyone is told to be about today's racist and virus phantoms, but how many people are buying the lies. It blows my mind that I feel I have to say "No I don't dislike black people" and "No I don't want old people to die." That I feel I have to say those things speaks to the power of the political deep operatives who are maneuvering public opinion in these insidious ways.

Really. Watch what happens with the NFL this year. Watch and see if anyone really wants to interminably endure, essentially "You're just an evil racist troglodyte" plastered everywhere a good, thoughtful, humble, paycheck-providing fan looks when trying to enjoy an NFL game.

Already the NBA's ratings have utterly tanked. Their racialist browbeating has been some of the worst.

So yeah. Not only is Larry Johnson the best running back the Chiefs ever had, but it is so good to see him in the mix of calling this stuff out himself with principled takes, especially those that point out what's really going on with things like child abuse. It simply isn't what most people think it is.

And here, you may want to look at this piece by Jason Whitlock. Awesome. It totally echoes how I too feel and what I too see about how pusillanimous these athletes have become. They may have great athletic prowess but they sure aren't behaving like men. That we simply don't have enough men authentically displaying the most positive masculine qualities as they should is one critical reason our country is going to hell, having to endure all this racialist garbage.

As it is, I sure hope I can enjoy Chiefs football this year without them telling me how rotten I am all the time. Oh it isn't that I'm not rotten -- I too am a sinner saved by grace. My own sin is far worse than any racism I might display. But that's why a great savior like Jesus is there for me. It is always my prayer that racists will come to Him and find their redemption and salvation.

But I pray that for racialists just as much.

Oh, and my five best Chiefs of all-time? Just FYI, in no particular order: Bobby Bell, Larry Johnson, Travis Kelce, Patrick Mahomes, Will Shields.

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The image of Larry Johnson is from Dave Kaup of Reuters. Thank you.

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Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Patrick

Just putting in a few words about the latest amazing Chiefs news. As if the Kingdom hasn't been swimming in enough rapturous joy for the past five months.

Patrick Mahomes was locked up for the next 12 years to lead the Chiefs to Super Bowl after Super Bowl title, and after hearing about it the Chiefs, their fans, and the entire pro football world were ecstatic -- well maybe except for the other NFL teams particularly those in the AFC West.

Well, we shouldn't count the chickens and the eggs yet. This is the NFL and while Mahomes is undoubtedly the best player in the league and likely the most popular in North American professional sports right now, this league is tough. Mahomes isn't Superman, yet that is precisely one of the reasons he deserves what he's getting, he knows that and is such a person of character, industry, and responsibility -- he doesn't take anything for granted.

His new contract smashed all others, and there are a bazillion things being said about it right now. I'm not going to repeat a lot of the fine commentary, except to share my own considerations.

The main one is Brett Veach has already done a great job of convincing Mahomes that even though he will be taking the lion's share of the permitted salary amounts teams may spend, he is going do everything he can to find those diamonds-in-the-rough to surround Mahomes. See, Brett is the key in all of this and it goes beyond his ability to work out a deal like this.

It is in his ability to find undervalued players who can contribute. He's done it so many times before and there is no reason to believe he can't do it again. I mean, remember this too, he was the guy who saw Mahomes for who he was and what kind of player he'd be, when not even his own Chiefs staff believed him.

Look at how it's paid off.

Unless something dramatic happens, Mahomes will be just fine with his supporting cast, again because Brett Veach takes care of business. We are not only blessed to have the best quarterback in the game, but also the best general manager.

Wow.

And to think.

For years upon years upon years upon years our lack of a drafted and developed QB has been our catastrophic undoing. Mahomes has not only obliterated pro athlete salary records, but he's blown The Quarterback Project to bits. I'm very very very glad to see it experience a well-deserved and extraordinarily painful death.

In the meantime, we can revel in the theme of this whole thing, no matter what happens. That, right now at least, it is all about "chasing a dynasty."

Have we talked about how sweet it is to dwell in the Kingdom right now? Have we? Oh yeah. Well we can't do it enough...
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Thursday, May 07, 2020

Alex

Today is Alex Smith's birthday, and I thought I'd just put in a post just to give him a modest but resounding thumbs up.

Recently I saw a bit of sports punditry talking about how much Alex Smith should be considered a Chiefs great. Yes, great. Not just okay, not yet another fill-in former Niners QB who did decently. No, he was great. True that.

Sure we all got frustrated when he'd check down incessantly, but he did it because he was exceptionally smart and more times than not, he got the play to go how he wanted. I myself especially must've written "Throw --- the-damn-ball --- down-the-field" some 8,000 times during his Chiefs career, just cringing when he'd take a sack. Well, now that isn't such a concern after what happened to him season before last. And most times when he didn't throw it he was living to play another down.

Otherwise, the dude was beast. He played five years for us, and every year he led the team to a winning season. Every year he played with intensity, athleticism, intelligence, commitment to excellence, and sorry, but he had a ton of talent that was never fully appreciated. Go ahead and watch some of his plays. This particular one gets lost in the mix of a difficult loss to New England in the playoffs after the 2015 season, but take a peek at that throw he made to Jason Avont. Well, here it is if the NFL will let it be shown here, but you can still see it at YouTube:


This is just one play, but go look at any compilation of his plays.

He'll certainly make the Arrowhead Ring of Honor as someone who should be a extraordinarily celebrated member of the Chiefs Hall-of-Fame. He probably won't make the NFL Hall because of his playoff failures (although his divisional game against the Saints when he was with the 49ers during the 2011 season was one of the best ever) and because of his misfortune to have such a rough time of it for the rest of his Niners tenure, what with the carousel of offensive coordinators and coaches he'd have to endure.

And one more important thing about Alex. Every time you go "WOW PATRICK MAHOMES!!!" think about Alex. Mahomes in his rookie year played in one single game, that's it, the last one of the season after we'd made the playoffs and could seed no higher. Mahomes played at no other time. And yet during that entire season he cut his teeth on what Smith was doing out there. Smith showed him the ropes unselfishly, continuously, and happily, knowing all along this kid would take his place.

That says a ton.

There could be a lot more to be said about Alex, and I'm happy to say that I think most of what I wrote in my blog over those five years was positive about him and his stellar contribution to the Chiefs Kingdom. I am hoping like crazy that he does come back from his leg injury and does amazingly great things for the Redskins. Knowing how horrible the injury was and grueling the recovery has been, that would be a story for the ages, really. Indeed airing right now is a pretty well-received ESPN documentary on it, I hear.

And that picture up there at the beginning of this piece? It is the one that is there by default on my computer home page "photos" link whenever I log in. It's just the one the computer has randomly put there followed by the showing others in my album. Alex demonstrating himself to be the Commander-of-Chiefs there on the field is the first one. I like it a lot. It isn't going to be replaced by one of Mahomes, it just isn't. Because in many ways, that is Mahomes right there.

That's the Kingdom, right there.
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