AFC Championship - Take Two

I have to pound out a quick blog post right now, late in the evening when I wasn't able to catch all the day's great post-game festivities and such because I spent another fine day with my elderly dad, but I've DVR'd all kinds of stuff and listened to podcasts during the drive.

Still amazing to experience it all.

There is so much to write about, a lot of stuff already shared in all the blogs and sites and sports shows -- one amazing thing I heard in the podcast was the Chiefs had five straight TD drives of 60+ yards. Remember the days when we'd have the ball back at our own 30 and it was like a miracle if we even got a field goal a few plays later. Remember when we'd appreciate how great a punter we had? Now we all know Dustin Colquitt is indeed a terrific punter, but... damn.

Anyway, the main thrust of this post is just pointing out that one key ingredient of our success. Well, yeah, there are a lot, Reid Mahomes Kelce Mathieu Clark etc. etc. etc. Got all that, not arguing against any of that.

But that one key ingredient I'm thinking of?

That crazy-ass insane play again did not happen to kill us.

Here's the reason I bring it up again so emphatically. Because that epic 27-yard touchdown run by Mahomes with eleven seconds left in the first half? You do know that he lost control of the ball, for a moment, just before surging into the end zone. I mean it really left his grip. You do know that don't you?

The reason I'm bringing that up is because of the wonderfully splendidly awesomely fantabulistically something-astoundingly-great way that ball didn't completely leave his grasp and go out of the end zone or into the hands of a Titans defender for a touchback.

See that play was indeed the critical play of the game. It wasn't just that it was terrific play, and that Mahomes is such a gamer -- all that's true. But the reason it was the critical play was that it put us ahead and forced the Titans to have to throw the ball to have a chance to beat us. In the second half we could drop one or two more guys back into pass coverage and let our pass rush do their thing, and that's precisely what happened to mercilessly put the Titans on their heels.

After crazy-ass insane thing after crazy-ass insane thing happened to us in the playoffs, we actually got some things like this heart-stopper to actually be really good for us.

Yeah, it seems like a dream. I've heard that a dozen times so far from a variety of places.

But wow, how crazy-ass insane it is to revel in the reality of a Chiefs Super Bowl!
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First photo from Sam Lutz, second from Jim Berry at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.
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