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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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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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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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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