Correction related to Once-Redskins vs Chiefs Head-to-Head Record

This weekend the Jets are playing the Buccaneers, and in the history of this rivalry the Bucs have not won a lot of games against the Jets. Since I've had some interest in just looking at overall head-to-head records I thought I'd peek again at what I thought was a Chiefs record: The best overall against another team with at least ten games played against one another. 

The point of this post is that in this blog effort I've made mention of our 10-1 record against the once-Redskins as the best of any team in the NFL, besting that one the Jets have over the Bucs. I thought I'd painstakingly looked at all the records, but I was just now gobsmacked by one I missed! Indeed the Chiefs do not have the best record head-to-head!

It is actually the record between the Jets and the Philadelphia Eagles! Weird, while the Bucs have rarely beaten the Jets, the Eagles have a perfect record against the Jets, 12-0! Yes, it is true, I missed it a long time ago, even after checking through all the head-to-heads twice! I'm disappointed I missed it, and certainly there are many who already know this well: In twelve meetings with the Eagles, the Jets have never beaten Philadelphia, never. This includes an Eagles win earlier this month!

So yes, here is my correction. I won't be changing my blog from earlier this year when I made remarks about it in my blog post related to the Chiefs game against the once-Redskins, but I'll put a note there.

Thanks still for your readership, and we get the Bengals in a couple days here. See you then!

__

Steelers at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 11-4

During the game the announcers brought attention to the Chiefs being without several of their best players because of the Covid stuff. They emphasized Andy Reid's philosophy, which is far better than mine that's for sure. I like it.

"Next man up." 

The idea: just go with who you got. It's why he's the coach of the Chiefs and not me. It's why he's the coach of our team and not anyone else, period. It's why he's a Hall-of-Famer who ranks among the best coaches ever.

But still. Ergh.

I thought about giving it another take, but I won't -- I posted about it here in may last one and that's enough. Sure enough today we did not have several key guys including Travis Kelce and Nick Bolton. Without Harrison Butker out there our one-game kicker missed a field goal and a PAT.

I'd love to say "I can't wait until this is over" but I just can't. These people should've figured this out over a year ago, but they still have their heads not where they should be, I'll just leave it at that. And that could go on for a very long time about some other variant scare or medical crisis or faux-catastrophe over which they may virtue-signal. Who knows?

While the NBA is itself still too much into the Covid silliness, at least they're making progress in moving on. I'd read that Adam Silver, the NBA Commissioner, has decided to dial way back all that stuff. They initially said they may cancel the Christmas Day games, but wiser heads prevailed and we got to enjoy pro basketball on the holiday. They're still putting players on the shelf, so that's not good, but maybe, just maybe there is a tiny sliver of hope.

As for the game, the uncharacteristically weak lines the Steelers put on the field allowed us to have our way with them. For once against the Steelers, it was us who looked like we had 14 guys on the field against their 9. In fact this is the second win in a row we've had against Pittsburgh -- the last time we did that was in our very first two games ever against them in 1970 and 1971. Otherwise the Steelers have pretty much had their way with us on a regular basis.

Melvin Ingram was clutch against his former team the Chargers last week, today he was clutch against his other former team the Steelers. Again he is a difference-maker out there and has helped make our defense pretty stout. Having Chris Jones back was also instrumental, our defense today was just all over the place.

And I have to put in a good word for Mecole Hardman, who made some fine catches, nice returns, and scored a nifty touchdown. Byron Pringle was a beast scoring two touchdowns himself. What is the deal with Josh Gordon? I hear so much about how not-good Hardman is, but today Gordon had two passes dropped. I'm not necessarily saying he's not-good because apparently he's good for blocking and route running, and I too hope for the world he'll have a breakout game.

So we've won the West for a sixth year in a row. I believe that has never been done, not in the Raiders heydays, not in the Broncos heydays.

Next week we've got a decent playoff preview game against the very good Bengals at their place. Maybe, just maybe we'll be at full strength so we can see how we look as we head into the post-season.

__

The photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

__

Chiefs at Chargers - Week 15 - Record: 10-4 - Addendum

Very early in the game on Thursday night Chargers tight end Donald Parham almost caught a touchdown pass, then going down slammed his head on the turf so ferociously he suffered a serious concussion and had to be carted off the field. Medical personnel rushed to his aid, he was stabilized as best they could, then he was taken to the hospital where he was further treated and declared to be in stable condition. As of this writing three days later, it appears he is going to be fine. That's very good news.

The medical treatment for anything like this was wholly justified and we are all blessed to have it available by professionals who take their work very seriously. Kudos to every single one of those people who have that commitment. In fact, great kudos to anyone who does a job -- any job -- honestly and truthfully using their talent, skill, and knowledge to authentically labor making someone else's life better.

The Covid lockdown stuff is not that.

The reason I'm adding this is because the NFL is experiencing a "pandemic," if you will, of pseudo-science, that all these Covid protocols must be in place for... for... what exactly? Oh you'll hear "Stop the spead," or "Save lives," or other such pithy plappings. In many ways it is just the opposite. Many of the Covid protocols whatever they are have actually led to more deaths, and more destitution. I saw in an interview a top medical officer categorically declare that the censorship of effective treatments has led to far more deaths and as such is the worst part of the whole lockdown circus.

Instead what we get is these sports leagues, like the NFL, following all the make-up-on-the-fly Covid rules they are supposed to follow without doing the careful thinking that they are all worthless. It is all just theatrical virtue-signaling with everyone passing the buck to excuse their complicity -- "Oh but so-and-so health officer told us we must do this!" Come again? Seek the pathway up the line of authority and no one steps up to take responsibility. You'll notice it is always shuffled up to someone else.

Regarding the NFL they've already pushed back three scheduled games -- I imagine so players could try to test negative for Covid by the time they play the rescheduled game. The Rams-Seahawks game for instance, scheduled for this afternoon, was pushed to Tuesday night. Why? They'll say it is because too many players are tested this way or that way or this Covid-related things is this way or that way -- huh, I wonder what the rule is for that? The Chiefs were down, what, four players I believe Thursday night and without them we almost lost the game. Why isn't our game pushed back to, oh, say a Thursday night in 2027 so we can reeeally be sure no player with Covid-something-who-knows-what is going to go out and wantonly kill someone?!

The point is some medical things like Parham's injury are serious for seriously factual medical attention. The Covid thing is not one of those things no matter how much fear mongering they spew. It just isn't. The NFL is even starting to realize this in that they have announced they now will be doing much less testing. Huh? I thought this disease was an apocalyptic plague?! Because it isn't, by far, many are coming around.

Over in the NBA, notorious pro-legitimate-health Kyrie Irving -- kudos to him for standing his ground on how ineffective, unnecessary, and dangerous these particular "vaccines" are -- was reinstated, but still had to endure the punishment of testing and testing and testing out of his rear end -- and apparently still he got Covid -- along with several teammates who themselves were "vaccinated." 

Here's the thing about all this. An NBA official, or a Brooklyn Nets official, whichever I don't remember, remarked about Kyrie's stance, "Each person has their own individual convictions, beliefs..." yada-yada-yada, something like that -- you know the song-and-dance.

The problem with this statement is it is made to try to absolve the Covid lockdown supporter of any responsibility for his actions. It is expressed to make it seem like Kyrie Irving has his own odd superstitious fantasy beliefs about things "but we want to respect him."

No. Please. You're patronizing him, you're actually being disrespectful. The correct answer is this: "We were wrong. While there are some instances where a given Covid thing is something to address, most all the things we've been doing for two years to address it have been preposterous. We're sorry.

"Now, let's play ball."

That's it. That's what needs to happen. This needs to come from every single person who ever believed masks or "vaccines" (in quotes because it is really not a vaccine), or wildly inaccurate testing or contemptibly worthless distancing or hapless contact tracing inquisitions or any of that stuff would do squat about the Covid thing.

Indeed one remark made in the mix of all the NFL sidelining players and pushing games back and otherwise doing any of the inane things it does was that here they're sidelining players for the tiniest confrontation with an illness that will simply not harm them, when every football game features some of the most gruesome injuries to the players on the field. 

We can certainly have the discussion about why I and so many others enjoy such a violent sport far more than we should, I get it.

But still, it is yet another of the legion of examples of hypocrisies about this Covid response tyranny. Government officials enjoying going maskless while everyone else is suffocating in their face diapers. "Vaccinated" people screeching about others being vaxxed while real vaccines should be protecting the vaxxed anyway. One of the best ones of all: masked people walking into a restaurant then 10 feet in taking off their masks to dine. Good thing the Covid bug can't stand going near dinner tables! Maybe we should all be strapping dinner tables to our faces!

Fortunately many people are really starting to get the absurdity of all this -- indeed the lethality it brings. They are starting to reject these things in larger numbers, and we can only hope the government officials who feed off the virtue-signaling vote-glomming they can do by telling us how much they're doing gol-darn-it to save our lives will start backing off as they should be.

Maybe the NFL is starting to do so as well.

__

The image of Donald Parham was snipped from the CBS Sports website. Thank you.

__

Chiefs at Chargers - Week 15 - Record: 10-4 - The Take

Pro football is a game of single plays. 

Travis Kelce makes all kinds of very nice catches across the middle of the field, and often he tries out a juke move but almost always he gets tackled right away.

Except that there are those single times they work. Kelce had two of them work last night, one a long 50+ yard catch-&-run down to the one yard-line to set up a late touchdown, then another that went the distance to win the game in overtime.

Then there are our two punching-bag players, D-back Daniel Sorensen and LB Ben Niemann. Both were in there long and often because there was no L'Jarius Sneed or Willie Gay, two key players who've helped revitalize our defense over the past several games. Sure enough they were being pushed all over the place as the Chargers offense had its way with us.

But there are those impact plays. Sorensen batted down a 4th-down pass that saved a Chargers score -- why does it seem there is just that one play he makes in every game that makes a huge difference? Ben Niemann had a phenomenal stop on a Chargers back at the goal line setting up a Turk Wharton strip and fumble recovery by, yes, Ben Niemann. Another Chargers score critically averted.

Thing is our defensive line was also without Chris Jones, and it showed. Our run defense was horrific. Chris Jones himself is not the best run defender, but his presence in the middle mucks things up and puts our other fine defenders in great position to make plays. 

One of those guys is Nick Bolton, by the way, and if people like those over at Arrowhead Pride would stop their obsessive and completely unjustified dissing of Mecole Hardman for two seconds (yes, they did it again after last night's game), they might take some of that web space to instead give Bolton his due. The knock on him is he doesn't cover well, but besides making all kinds of major hits and stops, he did have a terrific pass defense on one short ball. He's all over the field in some way or another and is arguably the best rookie linebacker in the league.

Another thing the people at most of these Chiefs sites like Arrowhead Pride will not do because they are so kowtowed to the NFL and other powers-that-be is call out this Covid hysteria lockdown insanity for what it is -- idiocy that led to seeing these strong Chiefs players sidelined.

The reporting is always "Oh what an unfortunate turn of events that ___ Covid thing [likely they have no idea what it is] that is keeping ___ off the field." Sadly, no one tells the truth that there is no reason whatsoever for the NFL or anyone to keep anyone off the field for whatever Covid thing they concoct. Virtually all of the Covid protocol absurdity is ineffective, unnecessary, and even dangerous. Chris Jones, L'Jarius Sneed, and Willie Gay should have been out there playing ball and not being an unwitting part of the NFL/powers-that-be's propaganda machine. This applies just as much to any player on the opposing team.

Really, to some extent, I just have some serious consideration that the Chiefs Super Bowl win was the last legitimate one. A month after our glorious championship, potentates the world around started to virtue-signal out of their rear-ends trying to convince us that they could eradicate all bad things with the wave of the mask wand, or the vaccine wand, or the testing-distancing-whatever wand. And yes, it is has horribly infected our fine sport and the Chiefs Kingdom. How can we count anything that happens on the field as legitimate now when they unnecessarily jerk the game around like they have. But then, really, the NFL has been jerking it around for some time now, with all the racialist plap as well as its now quite openly broadcasted connections with gambling organizations.

I was going to remark more on some of the amazing game we got to enjoy last night, such as how good the Chargers QB Justin Herbert is -- how good it'd be to talk about the new Mahomes-Herbert rivalry we'll get to enjoy for the next several years except, yeah -- what Covid insanity will ensue to wreck it all then?

::Sigh::

__

The photo above is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

__

Chiefs at Chargers - Week 15 - Record: 10-4

What a comeback! Down 28-21 very late, Mahomes to Kelce to tie, then in OT Mahomes to Kelce with Travis bobbing and weaving through the defense for the game-winner!

I have work early tomorrow for a high-pressure time there and it is late, so I'm getting into shut-eye mode right now. The thrilling nature of this game was exhausting! Whew!

My take tomorrow!

__

Photo by Andrew Mather at the Chiefs site. Thank you.

__ 

Raiders at Chiefs - Week 14 - Record: 9-4

Jarran Reed! Mike Hughes! Harrison Butker! (Made the PAT!)

Chris Jones! Melvin Ingram!

Tershawn Wharton and each of our defensive backs!

Patrick Mahomes! Mecole Hardman! (Memo to Arrowhead Pride: Time to knock off the constant deriding of Hardman -- he's still a valuable asset to this team, always has been...)

Darrel Williams! Clyde Edwards-Helaire!

Daniel Sorensen! Tyrann Mathieu!

Michael Burton! Josh Gordon! (His first touchdown for the Kingdom!)

Mike Hughes again! (With the nice punch-out for the turnover!)

Each of our offensive linemen and CEH again! (With the amazingly slippery TD run!)

And finally, Andy Reid! (Yes I ride his butt quite often, but his skill at playmaking and getting this team to play its best is still unparalleled -- we're now looking to be back to our solid confident selves!)

That was just action from the first half. The second half was really all just a formality. Final score, 48-9.

It is nice to simply cover this post with lots of unequivocally earned kudos to our boys. 

With a blowout win over the Raiders, we've clinched our ninth straight winning season. Oh that 2012 is now such a distant memory. Switch those last two digits for a 2021 and we're now still blessed to enjoy this grand Chiefs renaissance. Seven playoff appearances with an eighth very likely. Several division titles -- how many in a row now? I've lost count. Three straight AFC Conference Championship games and counting. Two Super Bowls and one quite delightfully wonderful NFL Title.

This Thursday we try to keep up the momentum against the Chargers in Los Angeles.

___

The posted image is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

___

Broncos at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 8-4

Since it is late and I've got work tomorrow, I'm going to get going posting this guy right now.

Right now it is half-time, and we're up 10-3. We should be up 17-3, at least. We started out great, just slicing through the Denver defense like a hot knife through soft butter (sorry for the overused cliche but I'm tired).

Meanwhile the Broncos had two straight 3-&-outs, and we went to work again, flying down the field with the aid of that awesome screen pass and run by CEH we've been eagerly anticipating forever.

Then...

Yes, it is my fault, I'm sorry. Please, I am so sorry. I actually remarked, "This is not going to be close. We are smearing these guys. I feel sorry for the Broncos." Yes, yes, I did it, I'm sorry.

Because right at that point, it was different.

First of all we started dropping passes. Byron Pringle alone had two key drops, right away. We had to settle on a field goal.

The Broncos came back to move the ball and they ended up with a field goal. Willie Gay played terrifically, but here he even dropped an interception.

Our offense then looked pathetic. Mahomes ditching balls, others committing dumb penalties, including one that had Travis Kelce get called for pass interference on a play when he accidentally slammed into a Denver D-back running in coverage.

After a fine Tommy Townsend punt Denver got the ball at their own 3, then started heading downfield. We simply could not stop their big slippery rookie back Javonte Williams. Denver was employing one of the smartest things you could do to stop a Patrick Mahomes. Just have the ball forever on offense. Get our defense tired. Keep the ball out of Mahomes hands.

We could have stopped them in their 20-play clock chewing effort if, yes, Charvarius Ward had intercepted a ball right in his hands. Nope, another drop. Thing is, our D-backs were actually covering pretty well. The Broncos got deep into the red zone, yet tried for it on 4th-&-2 and were stopped.

Well, here we go -- we get the kick-off to start the second half.

Right outta the gate Tyreek Hill has two drops, the second getting picked. Errrrrgh. The second really wasn't as much his fault, as Mahomes let his throw sail on him. So after Hill's miss it made for the easy interception. The television broadcast is now just flashing Mahomes' QB rating for tonight so far: 49.7. Are you even kidding me. The announcers then mentioned something very profound.

Why isn't Mahomes throwing the ball down the field?

In fact the other day my brother-in-law mentioned something that was pretty insightful. Why don't quarterbacks throw the ball down the field deeper much more often? You'll either get a completion (yay!), an incompletion, or even if it is intercepted it is no different than a punt later. Thing is you may even get a PI call in your favor.

The announcer then said something else just as observant. That Mahomes is doing that side-slinging thing far too often. He just missed a receiver who was wide open and he could have just thrown the ball regular and got it to him just fine.

Shout-out though to Darrel Williams, who has already had two terrific catch and runs. We definitely have to keep getting this guy involved.

As it is, Butker gets the field goal to make it 13-3.

Annnnd... after a nice Thornhill pick, more penalties kill us. After the punt the Broncos guy pulls our guy into the returner who fumbles -- KC ball! But still, our offense can't do anything. Mahomes had another side-slinger throw that got tipped and almost picked. Grrghrgh.

Denver gets the ball back and sure enough their nice new back is pounding out yardage. It got to 4th-&-2 and how-about-that, Dan Sorensen pick-sixes a tipped ball, tipped by Ben Neimann no less. A big-time play from two Chiefs D players who've been a bit deep in the doghouse of late.

Buttt... Butttker misses the PAT. Not nice. Still 22-3 us.

They score a touchdown yet don't get the two-point conversion attempt, so with about 4:00 left we're up 22-9.

Annnd we close it out.

So we extend our regular season winning streak over the Broncos to 12 games. There will be a time, sometime, when the Broncos will win one against us. Really, today they had a good chance to do so. After that first drive of the game our offense was very flabby and the team got some nice breaks that devastated the Broncos chances. I'm sure everyone in the Broncos kingdom as it is is just sick having to endure all of that yet again. I feel them. Some of those games were heartbreakers. Cairo Santos overtime field goal comes to mind. Mahomes' astounding first start ever won on a late KC FG.

We'll be playing again in Denver on the last day of this regular season.

When playing this team I do, however, still think of all those games we played against the Peyton Manning-led Broncos and how spanked we'd get over and over and over again. Just got to enjoy the moment for now.

__

The image is by Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

__

Cowboys at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 7-4

The Chiefs have not traditionally done well against the Cowboys. This is one of the major rivalries in NFL history, really, because of the whole battle for Dallas when the AFL was born in 1960. These teams only meet once every four years however, so this match-up is always a special occasion.

Today: a really good thing to note and a really bad thing to note, as well as a somewhat good thing to note and a somewhat bad thing to note related to the actual on-field game action.

The really good thing was that the Chiefs did the best thing in addressing what happened to the little girl related to the violent traffic incident involving Andy Reid's son the Thursday before the Super Bowl. It has been my contention that this has been a huge weight on the Chiefs even affecting their play on the field ever since then. Yes, it may not have had anything to do with the incident, I know. But something has been afflicting the Chiefs play ever since then. 

As far as this particular incident that left a small child disabled, the Chiefs finally arranged to meet all of the girl's medical needs as well as provide her any care and aid she needs to get her going and enjoying a quality life. From the details of her story there is very good news about her -- she was able to actually start school earlier this year.

The really bad thing was how one of our players behaved today in an on-field incident that was absolutely shameful. After a Cowboys player grabbed Rashad Fenton's helmet for a blatant and violent face-masking, Fenton leapt out of the tussle and was making crazy gestures toward the Cowboys out there in the middle of the field. The most disgusting one was his pretending to cock and shoot a shotgun. 

Now I may be incorrect about all of this, but if that was the case, Fenton should not only have been penalized but ejected and certainly face a fine and suspension time. After seeing the Chiefs do the right thing and make sure to care for that little girl who suffered at the hands of a Chiefs employee last year, now we see another Chiefs employee, one of the players -- in fact one who has shown he's a pretty good D-back -- go off and do something like that. If what I saw was what it was, I can't see how there isn't more appropriate and severe censure of such actions.

As far as the game goes, the somewhat good thing was our defensive effort. Today it was again nothing less than excellent. Yes, the Cowboys did not have their fine WR and fine OT, so Dallas was a bit hamstrung, but our defense still did the job holding the opponent to zero touchdowns on the day. This is a team they said was the top scoring team in the NFL. Our defenders were hitting their marks, making plays, tackling with authority -- and our pass rush was ferocious. Frank Clark looked strong, Chris Jones was a monster yet again, and Melvin Ingram again made his presence felt. All this besides the fine play of our linebackers and D-backs -- Charvarius Ward made the interception of the year to stuff a real Dallas threat.

The somewhat not-so-good thing was our offense. Our first drive was standard Chiefs Andy-Reid-designed Patrick-Mahomes-executing amazingness. After that? Ugh. Clyde Edwards-Helaire was back in and actually had good runs. Mahomes did make some fine throws and our receivers did well enough, particularly Tyreek Hill who made a nifty move after a catch late to get a clutch first down.

But the problems with consistent Reid-arranged pass routes and steady Mahomes-hanging-in-the-pocket-just-long-enough-to-hit-those-receivers to get that needed yardage on offense was again just not there throughout the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters. Half the time Mahomes just looks too timid to fire that ball right in there through a small window. It just seems like he's expecting a receiver to be more wide-open than he can be, when he is good enough to make the throws he's simply not making.

Against the Raiders he and Reid had it down. Make your reads then get what the defense gives you. Don't worry about anything else. Dallas has a fine defense, give them credit, they have a rookie pass rusher who was as disruptive as anything.

Funny, we are at 7-4 right now, the same record we had in our Super Bowl year when our last loss was to the Titans -- same as this year. We have a bye coming up, then we play a tough Broncos team who earlier beat Dallas themselves in Dallas. We'll see if we can get our offense untracked, keep our defense stifling, and make sure our players don't do idiotic things that derail the integrity of the Chiefs Kingdom.

__

The photo is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

__

Chiefs at Raiders - Week Ten - Record: 6-4

Another prime-time game for our team. As up-and-down as we've been so far this year, as much as the heaviness whatever-it-is weighs on this fine team, we are a national television draw. Mahomes is still a marquee caliber player. This offense is still Hollywood spectacular quality.

For the first time it really looked as though Andy Reid was in the best form calling a football game. For the first time this season I'm sure we all got the feeling this team was being coached and our players were making the plays as they should be. 

Mahomes was doing more to simply step up in the pocket and hang there for just that tick more to get that throw to his receiver. He was doing less drifting -- when he does it is still messy. When it is planned, like his rollout to get their second touchdown, it is great! When he gets those short routes available to him, it is great! Williams, Pringle, of course Kelce were the main beneficiaries, very nice to see all of that making for very nice, long, multi-play drives.

Also nice to see more of those bang-bang plays, quick throws from Mahomes, tonight showcased by that quick TD sling on 4th-&-goal to Noah Gray who'd just dropped two passes. 

Thing is, Mahomes has just got to take something off when heaving his deep passes. He had a number of shots way down the field that just sailed.

Much kudos to the other parts of our game tonight. Our O-line did a terrific job of protecting our quarterback as well as getting our backs grinding. Andrew Wylie even did a terrific job of neutralizing their fine DE Maxx Crosby.

Darrel Williams had a phenomenal night, highlighted by an amazing catch at the end zone! I think he really wanted to make up for his drop back in the Super Bowl on that amazing Mahomes pass while he was in the air vertical.

Our defense also did fine work. It seems as though the pickup of Melvin Ingram has been a difference maker, but it is mostly Steve Spagnuolo just getting his players in the right places doing the things they do best. I think everyone agrees the Chris Jones-at-DE was an unsuccessful experiment. Juan Thornhill playing regularly is key, Rashad Fenton being given substantive playing time has been key. Willie Gay and Nick Bolton anchoring the front seven has been key. There were other contributors -- Jarran Reed for example, he had his first real impact game.

Overall it may just be the case that our poor play up to this point has lit a fire under these guys, moving them to realize they can't just rely on the raw talent. The way it looked out there tonight their extra work paid off.

If you can believe it, this team is now in first place. The Chargers at 5-4, Broncos at 5-5, and Raiders now at 5-4 have just been sputtering and we're looking revitalized. We'll take it.

___

Both images are from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

___

Packers at Chiefs - Week Nine - Record: 5-4

Today's game is that extra game they added to make the season's total 17, here right smack in the middle of the season.

I'm pounding out this post right at the beginning of the game, not sure how much I'm going to write here about the actual game. Just thinking about the controversy right now, much of it related to what happened with Aaron Rodgers this week.

Rodgers told the truth about Covid realities and he has been effectively ostracized. This is a guy who is a huge part of the NFL's success. The NFL is demonstrating its prolific idiocy yet again by benching him when the matchup between Rodgers and Mahomes is a marquee event. The last time these two teams met we didn't get that matchup because the Packers game was the one right after Mahomes messed up his knee in 2019 and had to sit out a couple games.

This time the NFL didn't like that Rodgers refused to get vaccinated, and anyone of entertainment must be on board with their marketing designs, and let's face it, the NFL is just entertainment with a bit of bone-crunching. If you are high-profile in the popular culture eye, you'd better be in with the hegemony's orthodoxy no matter how destructive it is.

I could spend some time getting into it, would love to do so even here, but I'm just going to go ahead and upload the post I wrote a couple weeks ago. It is my consideration of why the Chiefs are struggling. From the little that I see from the Chiefs web remarks, the reason we are not doing on the field what our talent should bring is any number of meaningless reasons. 

In fact right now as I watch this game, here in the middle of the 2nd quarter, the Packers are just better. They are not better with their talent or anything else except that are just that intangible kind of better. And it is my consideration that the reason is in the post that I'm putting in right now.

We may indeed win this game on the talent merits alone. Not because we're better but because they are and we just have this thing hovering over us. 

Right there, there's a play that exemplifies why I feel the way I do. Mathieu had a pick-six right in his hands, and let it slip through his hands only to have the ball bounce around and drop into the hands of the receiver anyway.

This is just a fine example of the team just not quite being right there where we should be. We're still committing penalties. Missing marks. Stumbling about. Appearing very unsharp. Letting the other team make crazy plays. Just not looking on-track at all in any way. You could even say the most important one of all: Patrick just regularly throwing the ball all over the place instead of into receivers' welcoming arms.

I have a theory.

___

Before sharing that, I'm now at the end of the game. We did pull out the win.

Be honest, give the Packers credit, their defense was terrific. Our Chiefs bumbling about can be largely due to our opponent's fine defensive play.

On our side, four quick notes.

L'Jarius Sneed made plays. That interception when he really just snatched the ball right out of the grip of All-Stud receiver Davante Adams was amazing.

Our kickers were also making plays. Butker had a key 50+ long field goal, and because of our generally inept offense Tommy Townsend was punting a lot today. That'd be bad, but he himself was booming them. One he got at the two yard-line, and twice their guy muffed his punts -- can't beat that as a punter.

The play of the game, however, was just a testament to the talent we have at QB and WR. On 3rd-&-10 at midfield only up 13-7 with just a couple minutes left, Mahomes had to scramble hard right and found Hill for the game-closeout first down. It was very reminiscent of the 4th-&-9 play against Baltimore three years ago.

But again, there we were, this talented offense only mustering 13 points.

I have a theory...

___

The image is from Chris Donahue at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

___

Chiefs Mid-Year Report 2021

[This post was written before the Chiefs game against the Giants last week.]

Even though it is only after the 7th game in a 17-game season, I can't not put down some thoughts about this Chiefs team. One of the things that is moving me to do this now is I'm watching a bit of the Packers-Cardinals game here on Thursday night football. I usually do not watch any of this other stuff because I just can't stand it, but my wife has it on the television and I'm seeing it.

And you know?

I just can't stand it.

All I've seen so far is the Packers drive at the end of the 3rd quarter. They scored to go up 24-14 over a 7-0 Cardinals team. The Packers themselves are 6-1. 

A far cry from the 3-4 Chiefs.

I just want to compare.

Now some say we'll be fine, and we may be. It may be like 2015 when we started 1-5 and ran the regular season table even winning a playoff game. That was very cool, it was.

Okay, maybe it'll be that way. I hope so.

But I have my doubts.

Let's get to this Packers drive. Aaron Rodgers is there just picking apart the Cardinals defense, and it isn't even funny. He doesn't even have Davante Adams out there, and the Packers are still getting it done. They're mixing up their plays, making those plays happen, running, passing, catching, blocking, holding on to the football all exceptionally well -- touchdown Packers.

Then there are the Chiefs.

I heard from someone saying all it is is turnovers. That's it. We clean that up and we'll be fine. We can fix turnovers, quit yer bitchin.

Bullshit.

I call bullshit on all of that because for one, good teams don't turn the ball over. They just don't. We can say all we want this is not symptomatic of a Chiefs team. The fact is we're still doing it. Solid, precision, executing teams don't do that.

But the Chiefs have been doing that. And they, and Patrick Mahomes, have been messing up all season long.

That is the second thing.

And it is the key thing that I do believe is afflicting the Chiefs.

Remember...

Against the Browns we were having our hats handed to us. Then we got three fortuitous second-half turnovers to rescue us.

Against the Ravens CEH fumbled at the worst possible time snatching sure defeat from the jaws of victory.

Against the Chargers early in the game we moved the ball really well then fumbled and bumbled and threw picks and lost a close one just not ever looking like we were going to win at all.

Against the Eagles their quarterback missed open looks all day long and we still had to work much harder than we needed to put away a poor Eagles team.

Against the Bills we were in it, being a bit outplayed even though we had a chance to win when at a critical juncture late Rashad Fenton intercepted Josh Allen only to have it wiped out because right after that Frank Clark couldn't keep from pile-driving the QB into the ground.

Against the Once-Redskins we played one of the worst first halves ever in our history, then played well enough in the second half against a poor team to win.

Against the Titans, well, ::ker-blarff:: you know, it was just his past Sunday.

In every single one of those games we've looked baffled, flummoxed, befuddled, just generally all around messed up. We have the talent, but we are so all-over-the-place that not even Patrick Mahomes has been able to put a nice window-dressing on all this. Whenever I look at the players faces underneath those helmets I just see defeat, I'm sorry but I do.

Why? Here's what I think.

This stuff has been happening since the Super Bowl. 

I know we can blame our Super Bowl failures on the offensive line all we want, or on any number of other things like those dratted dropped passes, but I've already shared my assessment of what happened. It is here for your review. It is simple -- what I am seeing on the Chiefs football field is merely a prolonged extension of that thing. And unless it is addressed more openly and fully and truly in a way where the spiritual connection regarding what happened is just not having an effect on making our team look like this, I think we'll still struggle. 

To put it simply, I believe that thing is what happened on that Thursday night just before the Super Bowl, with Andy Reid's son criminally negligent in a serious traffic accident that left a little girl permanently disabled, and the intangible fallout from that incident.

Now you could argue that has nothing to do with the Chiefs as a team. I respect that. I just disagree. I simply do not see the full-on competitive integrity -- just that feeling that these guys deserve to be doing well simply on a moral plane. You know over the past two years in every game before the Super Bowl, you could see the Chiefs players have that assurance, that confidence in their authentic merits. I'm sorry, but if you're convinced there is some moral issue weighing on you, it can impede anything you do well.

You may disagree with this assessment, but the fact is the Chiefs are still led by Andy Reid. They take their cues from Andy Reid, their very character as a team is formidably shaped by Andy Reid and who he is and what he does, not just with football. Maybe the thing with his son doesn't have anything to do with it, okay. 

But the truth is Andy Reid has just not been himself. After a game this season he even went to the hospital for a health scare. I hope he's okay, always, in every circumstance. Nothing against him personally, he's amazing. He may have made restitution or been genuinely apologetic and made his peace with all of the stuff that happened. I do know it was his son and not him. It is not for me to judge.

But there is still the football stuff, and something related to Andy Reid is not good for this team.

Frankly, all the football stuff has just not been what is had been, this Chiefs team is simply not the team that was last seen in the AFC Championship Game against the Bills. Every single game since then, every single one.

Maybe it will be addressed. Maybe I'm totally wrong, that's cool. Maybe it is something completely not-that and they'll address it, and we'll see the pre-last-Super-Bowl Chiefs out there again. Maybe Andy Reid will get back to his good ol' spectacular opponent backbreaking playmaking.

But I'm telling you I won't believe it until I see it. Until I see again those plays drawn up, run with confidence, and the players' thrill at doing it all shines in their eyes, I just don't think we've got anything for this season unless the thing that needs to be addressed gets addressed.

__

Giants at Chiefs - Week Eight - Record: 4-4

This very day is the 11th anniversary of my baseball team, the San Francisco Giants, winning the World Series for the first time ever in The City. It was a joyous day.

This is why it is kind of funny to watch my football team, the Kansas City Chiefs playing the pro football team named the Giants.

Still.

Errgh.

Errgh errgh errgh.

This game was stupendously aggravating. We should have won going away 34-10, but barely eeked out a 20-17 win. We had 12 penalties tonight, yet on our last FG drive we were bailed out by a couple of critical Giants penalties to keep things going so we could kick in what would-be the game-winner.

I could say a ton about this game, and may still post my mid-season report that elucidates the one key thing that I believe this Chiefs team is simply not the same one that left the field there after the AFC Championship win over the Bills last season.

That's for later. For now it's late for me, I'm tired, this game was utterly draining, I have work tomorrow -- all that.

I went ahead and charted every possession in my notes, and I could just transcribe it all, but again, whew. I will tell you I had a bunch of sad faces, but also a bunch of happy faces. Our team is still very talented and showed that talent out there tonight. To wit:

Happy faces: Hardman, Hill, Gore, Williams, Clark, Jones, Gay, Bolton, Butker... and I'm sure there are at least half-a-dozen other players who played well and hard to pull out this win. There were plenty, that's great.

The most rotten ugly gruesome drawn faces? Right there next to any stupid penalty, stupid turnover, stupid stupid thing that was happening all night long.

And hate to say it, but this is a heads-up to what I really think the issue is, and that is Andy Reid. Hate to say it, but the buck stops there. As a team we still look like very unsharp, undisciplined, unadjusted.

Here, here's a good one. Why was Derrick Gore in there being amazing mid-game, then in the second half he was barely touching the ball? This was a point just made by the television commentator talking about the Chiefs woes. Great point that.

What's with that, Andy Reid?

Of course now they're telling us the Chiefs have the most difficult schedule for the rest of the season, by far. That's nice.

Actually, that's nice, because really, let's face it, at this point we have nothing to lose, and if we do make a playoff run it will be because we've earned it. That's nice actually.

But it will mean squat unless that thing is fixed.

(Ah, I can't help but add what Ryan Clark is saying right now as I finish up this post, there on the ESPN broadcast review of the game. Damn. It is exactly what I am saying about our wonderful team... Stay tuned...)

___

The photo is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

___

Chiefs at Titans - Week Seven - Record: 3-4

When this game began I'd heard the Titans were weak in the defensive backfield. Okay, this could be a game that allows us to get back in this thing. Mahomes should be able to make it happen here. This is overall a good team we're playing and we've really got to prove ourselves against the best, as two of our wins so far have been against the not-as-great Eagles and Once-Redskins.

Speaking of the Once-Redskins, last week I pointed out we have a 10-1 record overall against that team. I must be careful of my pride, because for every one of those there is some team that can beat us at will. It was a wonderful, wonderful thing to have that playoff win against the Titans two years ago, but otherwise? The five other games in that time period we've been beaten by these guys. Badly. Remember that year's regular season game when we were ahead and lost in the last minute? Remember the opening day 2014 game we lost to a terrible Titans team that really cost us a playoff spot at the end of the season? Worst of all, remember the playoff game in 2017? 

Never mind the main problem is still the main problem. Our defense is just far too mushy. Time after time after time we don't finish, we don't hit our marks, we don't cover, we bail them out with some stupid penalty... 

At this point the season looks like we're done. Our guys will give it all they've got, that's fine. Even if we make the playoffs, there's a lot of work we need to do.

First of all Mahomes' rambling play has just set himself up to be hammered like he was towards the end of this game. He was being sacked and tried to make a play when a 400-pound (or so) lineman just plowed into his head while Mahomes was almost down. Our precious quarterback lay on the ground for a moment, got up wobbly, and had to be helped off the field. For his own personal sake, to say nothing about his profession, pray he's okay from all that because it looked brutal.

When he gets back at it he just needs to pick it up and learn more about what he can do over the course of the next few years if we want to recover that success he had earlier. Right now he looks lost out there. He's ditching balls. He's not trusting his pocket protection and waiting that extra tick for his receivers to uncover. In fact at one point he was doing his far-too-typical running left away from the rush and to avoid a sure sack he put the ball in his left hand that he used just so he would be able to heave the ball out of bounds. Ee-yee.

Our receivers themselves were not helping. They were not running good routes, forcing the issue against their coverage, making critical catches. Our offense also regularly bails out the opponent -- we get a fine play, then that penalty shows up that ditches it.

Whatever is happening on offense, whether it is Mahomes or his receivers, this is evident in the fact that Mahomes has to run for his life every other play. This should not be happening if our offense was what it should be like. Is it all really just the opponent simply doing a great job of smothering our receivers? I can't believe that is the case hearing about how average the Titans defense was, particularly in the backfield. Mahomes should've had a field day out there.

But he didn't. Again, he looked timid, scared, desperate -- really, it may be an exaggeration, but this Patrick Mahomes is a shell of the one who was in total command of that AFC playoff game against the Titans two years ago. Here's what I'm thinking. He is a phenomenal talent, and exceptional football player. Now he really needs to ratchet it up a notch and really master what it means to be a quarterback. Has he done amazing things as our quarterback? Of course! But today he just looked like a guy perplexed, flummoxed, overwhelmed. Solid experienced quarterbacks -- you can tell. One thing Mahomes has got to learn to do better is wait one more tick in the pocket after making his first and second read, then just firing that ball to that third read right where it needs to be. 

I honestly just don't see him doing that nearly as much as he must.

Overall we look like the 2009 Chiefs, really. Just hapless, insecure, incompetent. Late in the game we actually started to do some of those things that we're used to, but it was too little, too late. Notably catches by Hill and Pringle were amazing. But with a team like this that can just run the ball to keep clock moving, when you're down 27-3 in the middle of the 4th quarter, well, there you go.

So yeah, while I can rant on about how Brett should just draft for defense for each of the next several years, if this is what we look like and Mahomes is regressing in some regrettable way, then we may have the face the fact that we have so many needs that simply cannot be filled with a couple drafts.

Call it bad game and a bad day against a good team, that's fine. But here's the thing...

If our wide receivers aren't getting Mahomes good looks, we'll need another young wide-out or two.

If our running backs aren't keeping the defense honest, we'll need another one of those.

If our offensive line isn't giving Mahomes confidence to stay in the pocket, we'll need to address that.

And on defense, don't get me started. Do I have to say we need that Ray Lewis guy in the middle yet again? One player I like is Nick Bolton, but I hear all about how he can't cover in pass defense. So now what? We need pass rushers too -- I think I heard the guy on the television say the Chiefs are dead last in the NFL in sacks. I believe it! How often do I see us get close but not close enough. Boom, their QB gets it off and it's usually a 1st-down pass completion.

Our defensive backfield? With supposedly stellar guys like Tyrann Mathieu and Juan Thornhill? My goodness, their QB, who I was told is just not the greatest ever, sure looked great today. I have been hearing for years that we need some kind of a real playmaker cornerback. Maybe.

As it is for now, with what we've got with this team this year, we can at least have the attitude of nothing-to-lose and just hoping for a playoff spot. There's still that.

__

Chiefs at One-Time-Redskins - Week Six - Record: 3-3

This is our first meeting against the pro football team with no name, a victim of the Let's-make-victims-of-people-we-can-virtue-signal-about craze these days. It is just plain absurdity for people to refuse to see this whole thing with the once-Redskins is close to what the Soviets did to people they didn't like. In the name of establishing a communist utopia, they went back into history books to erase mention of people they did not like.

Thing is, the Redskins name is on all that stuff. In fact, excuse me, but the Redskins name is still on everything related to their past success. The Redskins have won three Super Bowl titles. To call them the "Football Team" is like insisting fans at the NASCAR race screaming "F*** Joe Biden" are actually shouting "Let's Go Brandon!"

Don't worry, I'm great with calling them whatever team name they come up with. That they haven't taken care of that for this long still speaks to the anxiety everyone has about picking a perfectly non-offensive team name -- it is ridiculous. I have seen too much "WFT" used to refer to this team, and sorry, I'm not going to use a reference that looks like a common texting acronym for stunned surprise.

Anyway, when I was 11, 12 years old I loved watching the NFL highlights of the previous week's games. They put them on the television every Saturday at 4:00. They had a five to ten minute vignette of each and every game, accompanied by Sam Spence's amazing musical scores that helped make this show the most dramatically compelling thing you could ever enjoy.

At that time there in the early 70s NFL Films also put out a half-hour special feature about a particular game of interest, the "Game of the Week." I did not watch as many of those, but they now have a lot of them on YouTube. A few years ago I came across a GOTW from 1971 that showcased the contest between the Chief and the, yes-then Redskins. It was the first time they'd ever met head-to-head. Not unusual, after all, the AFL-NFL merger had occurred just the year before.

The Chiefs won that game on a nice late-game touchdown pass from Dawson to Taylor, and here's the thing.

It was the first of many wins against the once-Redskins. In fact, if you look, for any head-to-head matchup in modern NFL history, the team with the best record against any other team - minimum ten games total played against one another - is the Chiefs over Redskins. Today's win means in the history of Chiefs-Redskins (and "Football Team") play, it is Chiefs 10, Redskins 1. 

Yes, every single game we've ever played against the once-Redskins has been a win except one. That was a loss to the eventual NFC champions in 1983. That was it. That means in those eleven games, the Chiefs own a .909 winning percentage, the best of any team over another team in modern NFL history.

[Dec 31 2021 Correction! I did put up a post to elaborate that we indeed have only the second best head-to-head record! I explain there.]

Now on to the game itself.

It was definitely the story of two halves. The first half was a Chiefs team we've seen too much of this year. Three turnovers. Sloppy play on both sides of the ball. A terrible blown coverage to allow a TD pass to, of all people, former Chief Ricky Seals-Jones who was a total non factor with us last year. Patrick Mahomes looking like he was trying to do too much and just plain messing up. 

There were any number of other things to mention that just got you to wonder. How could this Chiefs team be playing so miserably?

Kudos to the coaching staff to make critical adjustments. They put Mike Remmers in to replace Lucas Niang at right tackle. They adjusted the defense by getting Juan Thornhill and L'Jarius Sneed in position to make the plays they can make. They employed Willie Gay and Nick Bolton as nickel linebackers. How about that: our defense shutout the once-Redskins the entire second half.

That second half may very well have been the key to giving us hope.

On offense Mahomes, Williams, and Hill got it on. Darrel Williams showing his grinding running style can really make a difference. 

And Mahomes and Hill. Both were off in the first half. Tyreek let a ball go through his grasp only to be intercepted yet again. And Patrick flinged a hopeless ball in a tough situation and it was picked.

Thing is, in the second half he made one of those amazing plays that wasn't much different from that wretched play -- running left and shoveling the pass from his chest for the completion ten yards downfield to Travis Kelce. Afterwards Danan Hughes, the radio color guy, remarked that his dad once said, "Things that make you laugh make you cry." 

That is Patrick Mahomes. Sometimes it takes just a single halftime for him to pick it up and start doing the things he knows he can do.

If we can play more consistently like we should, as we did there in the second half, we'll reestablish our prominence in making that expected playoff run.

__

Image of Patrick Mahomes is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you. The image of "This Week in Pro Football" is a screenshot.

__

Bills at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 2-3

Before the recent major league baseball draft I'd thought a single thought considering the way things are in baseball these days. The thing to do, really, is

Only draft pitchers.

Seriously. Only draft pitchers, period. You can always find decent everyday position guys other teams get rid of or are just there on the market who'll do those two critical things you need in everyday players: (1) make contact at the plate and/or (2) play solid defense -- and if you get both you're good. Or if you can get one of those things and teach the other thing they don't do as well to do better at that thing, you're also good.

But it doesn't matter if you can't get the other team's batters out.

So yeah, just draft pitchers. Draft no one else, unless of course you're drafting a certified Ted Williams or Stan Musial. Otherwise, why waste a single pick on some regular position player schlub who's taking a spot of a pitcher you can work with and see if he can be one of those rare guys you can put in your rotation or make your closer. 

But you may say there aren't enough spots on minor league pitching staffs to hold all those guys. So? Who cares what happens in the minor leagues. Just throw all your pitchers into all the regular position player spots. But still fill up your minors with them so you can see who's for real. You are much more likely to squeeze from that haul those few that will be studs on the big club.

Well, guess what.

This year there were some ten or so teams who did just that. Of their 20 picks, those ten or so used somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 picks on pitchers. All 20? Ee-yepp. The Los Angeles Angels did it. All 20. Look it up. The Angels used every single one of their 20 picks on pitchers.

I was right.

Sorry, but I am humbly right also about what the Chiefs need to do in the draft for the next few years. Well, me -- along with the Buffalo Bills. Just like the Angels were right too (we'll see, pay attention to that baseball team in the next few years...)

During tonight's broadcast they mentioned something that is strikingly similar to the Draft-Only-Pitchers strategy, for pro football. The Bills have, what was it, something like ten guys who rotate in and out of play on the defensive line. The guy with the most playing time (by number of snaps), at 55%, was the lowest in the entire NFL for the guy-on-the-defensive-line-with-the-most.

Sure enough, I thought, wow. That's genius.

It is genius because defenses get tired. And after 30 minutes on the field during one long dragging draining opposing offense's drive, you're gassed, and it affects the rest of your game. It eviscerates your entire defensive effort. And if you're the Chiefs, this is an eventuality that simply cannot persist.

Let's face it. This isn't news. Sometimes the truth hurts...

Our defense stinks beyond belief. And that's when they're not gassed. I happened to stay around to see the graphic on the television that says everything about how historically bad this defense is. It told us the Chiefs have tied the record for allowing 29 or more points in each of its first five games. It's been at least 30 in the last four. Think about that. In a league that regularly sees 17-14 final scores, this is about as abysmal as it can get.

So, it is simple. Just a reminder about something I mentioned in an earlier post. You may know what it is.

Brett.

Brett Veach.

Please.

Do the Draft-Only-Pitchers thing, for us, the pro-football version -- and in the next few years...

Draft only front-seven guys.

No, do not mess with defensive back guys. Just like those regular position players in baseball, you can pick up guys here and there, they'll be serviceable. And no offensive players. Sorry, but Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes will do wonders with any serviceable player there. Besides, our O-line is good, young, and in the fold for the next few years. Nothing against the Travis Kelces and Tyreek Hills on our team.

But please. Please please please please please infinity --

If you can't stop the run -- and you can't rush the quarterback -- fughedabouddit.

I'm glad not many people read my blog, I wish there were way more, but you know? That could be a blessing right now. I do know Brett Veach does read my blog (yhee-hee), so maybe no other team will discover the genius of this plan.

And you know? Humbly speaking, even if it isn't the most spectacular pro-football insight ever, let's face it...

We need something.

Because we'll go nowhere with this defense.

So again, you got it. Maybe if you know Brett, and you are reading this right now, you can help whisper it in his ear.

Again, for emphasis.

Draft.

Only.

Front-Seven.

Guys.

I think that's all we need to say right now because, really, well, you know.

__

Chiefs at Eagles - Week Four - Record: 2-2 - The Take

Everybody was wondering if the defense would make the corrections needed to actually stop opposing offenses. I think after yesterday the answer to that is a resounding kind-of. They were still very bendy, way way waaay too bendy. 

All the same issues remained: Pass rush refusing to be anything above tepid. Chris Jones refusing to be a force on the edge when they run. Linebackers refusing to fill gaps. Tacklers refusing to wrap at the point of contact. Our D-backs refusing to be any better than the Eagles phenomenal new receiver DeVonta Smith -- I mean, no wonder the dude last year won the Heisman leading Alabama to another college football title.

Well, you can't blame our D-backs too much for that. Smith is just an extraordinary talent.

But our front seven. Still. Ugh. To their credit they finally did stiffen up in the red zone. At least a few times they held the Eagles to field goals. Those are wins for us.

There was also that nice play by Ben Niemann stripping the ball from their guy right before the goal line causing a fumble we recovered... excccept... It wasn't so obvious he actually fumbled, Niemann didn't hollar like a madman about his obvious play so we could stop things, and Andy Reid did not throw the red flag. Next play, touchdown Philly.

Again, just get the call right. It is encouraging to see New York now starting to buzz in to stop things when they see something that refs missed. At least they are moving toward that magical point. It is good to hope -- you know -- for those times when the insanely stupid bad call is about to wreck us yet again.

Our offense put this one away in the 4th, they just got the job done today. Very nice.

Mahomes was solid, making all his standard incredible plays. On his last touchdown pass to a wide open Tyreek Hill, he backpedalled to avoid the rush and heaved the ball, dropping it right into Hill's breadbasket for the score. Just standard incredible playmaking.

Hill himself matched their Heisman Trophy winner for receiver excellence. Hill was on track today, making catch after catch and piling up lots of needed yardage.

Our running backs were stellar, with both CEH and Darrel Williams -- and we should add, yes, Mecole Hardman with his jet sweep runs --  doing the damage on the ground. And because of that it was encouraging to see our O-line continue to gel, particularly with its run blocking.

And of course there was the news of the week: We've got Josh Gordon on board. I'd heard he's been terrific in camp getting ready and showing what he's got.

Wow. If we can score 70 points a game, we may not even have to care how our defense plays.

___

Image is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

___

Chiefs at Eagles - Week Four - Record: 2-2

Can't get a full post here now, because it is late and we just returned from a long drive after being out-of-town for the weekend. We did catch the game, however, and while our defense still stinks, our offense with Patrick, Tyreek, Clyde, our now-gellin' O-linemen, and few other people did get the job done for the much needed win.

Should be able to put up something of a take tomorrow.

__

Chargers at Chiefs - Week Three - Record: 1-2

This was an abominable game. Yes, it is still early and the Chiefs will come back this season to make something of a run to the playoffs.

But with this defense --- ugh. And that we thought we'd go 20-0 --- double ugh.

I could say a million things about this game, but just not going to waste my breath. We all know we had three ugly turnovers at the very beginning of the game. That alone was enough to cost us the game.

But what really cost us the game was not having a good enough defense to stop teams who will now be playing four-down football on a regular basis. Did you get that? Teams now know never to punt the ball ever again if they can help it, just to make sure Patrick Mahomes cannot get on the field. No matter what, the rule is, don't punt against the Chiefs. Even if you don't convert, Mahomes will have the ball back anyway. But why not take the chance? Why give him the ball anywhere on the field? Why do that when you've got that one more play to use to keep him off the field?

On my count there were three different times the Chargers went for it on 4th down, and converted each time. On that last one they had a 4th-&-9th late in a tie game, and got it. They then went on to score a touchdown to win the game.

Patrick Mahomes has indeed changed the game.

And because of that, Brett Veach's job is now that much harder.

Why?

Well, first, I just don't think the go-for-it-on-4th will work all the time. And for another thing, this was a game where insanely stupid things did us in. Those won't happen all the time either. The Chiefs dominated the Chargers in every statistical category except the score, turnovers, and luck. 

Well, I can't refuse to add that -- give them credit -- their receivers were catching the tough passes, and ours were not. That last drive with seconds left, Hill and Pringle really should have caught passes that would've given us a decent chance to win. Those same kind of throws from their quarterback were caught by their guys.

But here's the thing about that other-team-going-for-it-on-4th-down thing.

If we can't stop them on four downs, we simply will not win.

We'll win games, but we will not win like we expect to win with a talent like Patrick Mahomes in there. There is this idea that we need to surround Mahomes with the offensive talent he needs to succeed.

But that applies just as much to the defense. If we can't stop four-down offenses, who really now have an extra down to do things with, then we are going to make Mahomes' job impossible over on the offensive side.

Yeah, I could say a ton more about this ugliness today. But here is the conclusion of this one.

It is simple.

Brett.

Brett Veach.

Please start drafting defensive player after defensive player after defensive player after defensive player after defensive player after defensive player, ad infinitum. If I see you draft a single offensive player, unless it is the second coming of Jim Brown or Jerry Rice, I will run down to the Chiefs draft war room and bop you quite resoundingly upside the head.

So there.

__

Chiefs at Ravens - Week Two - Record: 1-1

Okay, well we can stop with all the 20-0 talk. That's a relief. 

The score was 36-35, and we're moving the ball in Ravens territory ready to run clock and kick the game-winning field goal with no time left. Easy-peasy.

And Clyde Edwards-Helaire fumbles for the first time in forever.

Oh wow. It should never have gotten to that point. In close games like this anything insane like that can happen, games turn on these horrors. But it shouldn't have come to this -- we should've put this game away early.

But our defense. Owwwwwch.

We even had a chance to stop them on 4th-&-1 with good minute of game-time left for us to get the ball back -- yet sure enough they still get that 1st down to end it.

To open the game we were told the Ravens had tons of injuries. Their replacements played pretty great to keep this one close. Thing is, Lamar Jackson's running abilities made the Ravens in this one. The Chiefs just cannot stop the run. In fact, I really wonder why the Ravens simply do not run Jackson just about every single play. After a while it seemed they did.

The game started with Ray Lewis making an appearance inspiring the Baltimore crowd. That said everything when it comes to the Chiefs. Yep. I can't not say it again: we just really truly actually need a Ray Lewis in there. Yes Derrick Johnson was wonderful, I got that. Yes Ray Lewises are a rare breed, I got that.

But these Chiefs. Ugh. Maybe a Nick Bolton can step up and be something even remotely close to that Ray Lewis type. If we can't get that play, look out. The Ravens ran all over us tonight, even without their best running backs in there.

Then there is the reality that we absolutely cannot stop teams in the red zone. I know we were bad, but the television people went and pointed out that we're the absolute worst. No team is as bad at stopping a team from scoring a touchdown once they get into the red zone than the Chiefs. Errcgck. Here's what I think. Many may disagree, but here's what I think. Next year -- in fact the year after that -- in fact for the next ten years: draft no one but defensive players, please. Nick Bolton looks like he's the only tackler out there, but he can't do it by himself.

What about the offense, and players to get there in the draft? I just think Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid will do fine with whoever we can get out there. But dang do we need some bodies who can win the line on the defensive side, we so need them.

It seems like we have good players there on defense, yes. But wow. We just got steamrolled tonight. I don't know how when we're told we have Chris Jones and Tyrann Mathieu and Frank Clark and everybody who is supposed to be good. What I see in real life is our defensive guys getting shoved right out of just about every play.

Then there was our braindeadedness. One time we had the Ravens at 2nd and 24 on their side of the field and right after that two blown coverages on two consecutive plays gave the Ravens a touchdown. Errrrrgcghck.

Our offense meanwhile showed some amazingness as always. Mahomes used a bunch of different receivers tonight: Robinson got a long TD catch, Pringle and Kelce both took short passes the distance. That's great.

But because we lost by one single point, there were two instances that got us severely messed up tonight. Either one of those being turned into points might have made a difference.

Creed Humphrey made me nervous last week with some snaps that were not sharp. He totally missed one tonight, a wretched snap that put us way back and we could not take advantage of that series. After that though he was solid.

Then we could have put the Ravens away in the 3rd quarter but Mahomes made a poor choice when being dragged down he tried to fling a ball to someone and his wobbly pass was intercepted. That was the turning point.

The Ravens really took over from there.

Still, the key is the work Brett needs to do with that defense. Go for it Brett, I can see the wheels spinning right now. I see him reviewing the college ranks right now preparing for the next draft when we select the most ferocious defender with every single pick. I can't wait until he attacks that defense like he attacked the offensive line this off-season.

But this season? For now? We won't face Lamar Jackson every game, that's cool. But still, it just seems our offense must be perfect on every single drive to make up for whatever ugliness the defense spews up.

___

Browns at Chiefs - Week One - Record: 1-0

First the good news.

We have Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce out there playing football for our team.

We also sometimes get the very spiffy benefit of some very fortuitous turnovers by the other team, three critical ones that were really significant to us winning. We were down 22-10 at the half, and ended up winning 33-29.

After scoring a touchdown on our first drive of the second half, their excellent back that we simply refused to tackle the entire day fumbled the ball over to us. We got a FG, but when they got the ball back they scored another touchdown.

The play right after the kickoff, though: Mahomes to Hill for a nifty 75-yard TD pass completion.

Then the Browns messed up their next punt attempt, we got the ball on a super-short field and sure enough Mahomes-to-Kelce, and we have our first lead of the day.

Now the bad things.

Our O-line does indeed really needs to gel. We were getting pushed all over the place at the line, and that always means doom. Again those turnovers saved us. But back to the O-line, two new vets on the left side, three rookies on the right. It was obvious -- sometimes they very much looked out of sync. Edwards-Helaire could never get really untracked and Mahomes didn't look fully comfortable back there. Of course give the Browns credit, they had Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney on their D-line. Both sandwiched Mahomes for a 4th-down-forcing sack very late when we could've run out the clock with a couple first downs.

Our tackling was atrocious. Ay-TROHSH-eeus. I know the Browns have very good backs in Chubb and Hunt, and likely very good O-linemen (after all they are forcing the issue all day), but the times I watched our guys whiff at the point of attack was... UGGH. Our linebacking crew -- Hitchens got injured at one point, Willie Gay was already out. Ben Niemann was being shoved out of every play even though he did recover the Chubb fumble and did make a strong play just before the 2-minute warning to stall Cleveland's last drive -- I still wonder if there is anyone else we can get out there any better. Nick Bolton looked very good at times, and maybe he just needs to get out there on the field more.

The scary thing right now is that -- our run defense. Chris Jones was still monstrosious today, but we do just need people like Willie Gay, Frank Clark, and Tyrann Mathieu back in there soon.

Otherwise, wow.

Having a set of all-time great quarterbacks and receivers, coupled with some real helpful turnovers means you've always got a chance to win.

___

The photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site.

___

2021 Chiefs Season Preview

I always try to pound out a preview post every season, and sorry but this one will be short. I appreciate your readership and know there is much more at places like Arrowhead Pride and Arrowhead Addict, among others. That's terrific, I like those sites also.

Each year we seem to tease out our thoughts with the greatest agony, but this year, none of that is in store. This team is about the most stacked team ever in Chiefs history. In fact my real preview post was the one I put up here back in March when I spoke about the tremendous value of Brett Veach. It goes without saying now, but the dude is a pro football visionary. I was thinking the other day when I grieved over the loss of John Dorsey -- but Brett Veach? He's twice the talent evaluator, thrice the team assembler, and offers what Dorsey didn't -- the ability to torture the cap until he gets what he wants on the field.

Any preview is just marveling over what Veach has already done. We now have 80 players we all like. But we'll only get to keep 53 of them with a handful going over the practice squad. Remember the days when we'd think to our wholly delusional selves, "Hey, we should be okay... right? I mean... we've got him and him, oh and there's him who we picked up off waivers, he looks okay, right? Okay?"

Ouch.

Not any more.

So this Tuesday we actually get to be blessed to agonize over guys who actually looked really good in camp and in exhibition play and just hope they'll do well in life after they get cut. With this team, if you get cut and you're that decent, it just means the guys we're keeping are pretty decent themselves.

Couple more things.

First of all I have to remember my sentiments back in '98. I thought we'd go 19-0 that year, and we didn't, we really didn't. I'm hearing Tyreek boast about the possibility of 20-0 and it makes me nervous. I've said this a million times before, I hope we go 160-0 over the course of the next eight seasons, but losses to keep the team focused are not bad things. Not wanting them at all, but some excessive braggadocio can come back to hurt you.

I'm also a bit nervous that Patrick Mahomes was voted No. 1 by his peers in the NFL's top 100 players list this year. I liked it when he was as low as No. 4 last year because it meant he had the motivation to prove everyone wrong. Will there be the same when he has to prove he deserves to be No. 1? I really don't think any of this will affect his play though. He's above it, which is one reason he's there. Everyone knows what kind of character he has as well as the player he is.

Still, this is the NFL. Anything can happen. These teams are pretty good, and you never know who will emerge as a surprise and legitimately challenge our Chiefs. We also have to stay healthy, but again, you see the Veach magic working in the off-season to get the depth so if anything happens we'll be okay.

Anyway, there you go, the official Chiefs Game Today preview for this year.

On to opening day!

___

The image of Brett Veach is courtesy of the Kansas City Star. The image of Patrick Mahomes is a screen shot of his NFL Network feature.

___

The Brett Veach Factor

I was going to title this post "The Patrick Mahomes Factor," and while this could very well be perfectly justified, we really have to look at what Brett Veach has done to change the game of pro football.

On that beautiful, wonderful, marvelous April day in 2017, the Kansas City Chiefs drafted Mahomes and traded up to do it. Even though they only made it up to No. 10 on the draft board, Mahomes was still there for KC to nab. Everybody wondered whether or not this Mahomes kid would pan out.

Except for Brett Veach.

He wasn't even the GM at the time, but working right underneath John Dorsey he lobbied ferociously for the Chiefs to go after this guy. The rest is history -- indeed much of the glorious Chiefs history is still to be written.

Why is this about Brett Veach as much as it is about Patrick Mahomes? Because I happened to catch a couple things recently that caught my eye about how much Veach did to impact NFL front office activity that wasn't as dramatic then as it is now. 

One of the things that struck me was several pre-draft prediction boards have had something like four or five quarterbacks going at the very top of the draft, at the very top, picks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 -- that kind of thing. 

Huh.

Then there was the 49ers trade with the Dolphins to get into that No. 3 overall slot. Why? It is clear, they are angling to get that Quarterback-Of-The-Future.

The Niners GM saw what Veach did for the Chiefs.

It is very clear. It is very clear what the Chiefs have shown the rest of the NFL over the past two years, something I'd pointed out several years before.

You cannot win without that guy.

You just can't.

And this is what is happening right now in the world of pro football. They saw what happened in 2017 when the Chiefs waved the magic wand in Veach's hands and are now clamoring to do the same, hoping they will be the team that lands that quality QB high on the board and get into the elite class of very few real genuine Super Bowl contenders...

Like the Chiefs.

Right now it seems Veach is being a shredded a little bit too big of an aye-hole because of his perceived inability to stockpile free agents to shore up our Superteam.

Please.

I'd laugh if it weren't so stupid. Chiefs fans were spoiled last year because Veach was so good at shaping our perennial Super Bowl contender, and because it doesn't quite look exactly like that this year?...

Oh please. I have one thing to say to these lounge-recliner potatoes still living in the Monday after the Super Bowl.

Doan-wohrree-abouditt.

Please. Let's look shall we.

First, Veach immediately snatched two of the best offensive linemen available, even after it was obvious our O-line problems in the Super Bowl had nothing to do with the O-linemen themselves but with the fact that (a) they were replacing several injured O-linemen, and (b) coach Andy Reid did a totally crappy job of preparing our team and getting us to matriculate the ball down the field for the goods we actually had available or on the field.

Really, come on, Joe Thuney and Kyle Long will do just fine making sure Mahomes continues his stellar play, and with Duverney-Tardif returning and Lucas Niang ready to start things up on his end, we'll be fine in that area.

Second, we do have key assets locked up for a while. Travis and Tyreek aren't going anywhere. Mahomes is a Chief-for-life, that alone is cause for celebration every day of the next ten years. Our young players committed for the next few years are solid, particularly CEH, Hardman, Gay Jr, Thornhill, and Sneed. These guys have shown they can be studs, and it is always two to three years after a draft that you can see whether or not those picks pay off.

Thirdly, there is the "Tershawn Wharton factor." Veach has shown not only a deft ability to see the right talent in the draft (that's an entire Veach positive right there) but to see it in post-draft free agency. Wharton turned out to be an amazing find, anchoring the interior D-line exceptionally well.

Fourthly, Veach has shown himself to be a master salary cap exploiter, getting every single dollar he can out of the key limitation impeding every team's efforts. This is precisely why John Dorsey was let go, he didn't get the bang for the buck that Veach has. And wow, has he done it. Other teams are marveling over Veach's ability to move money anywhere and everywhere he possibly can to get those players on the field. Appreciate it Chiefs fans, deeply appreciate it because I can tell you the Chiefs are up against it being a small market team most NFL'er power-thwackers wherever-they-are hate to see our team succeed.

You know, as they say, trust the process. Let Veach work his magic, and then enjoy the ride. Let's get into seeing how the season unfolds, especially when perhaps we don't have a "Superteam" this year. That's great. That means nothing is guaranteed. That means we have to work harder to earn another ring. I almost think it was too easy last year.

So yeah, maybe all the sneering detractors is a good thing for the Chiefs. Maybe they will see the ridiculous discontent and that will actually motivate them even more. That's cool. Already Mahomes is steamed he couldn't get it done in LV. That may actually be the best thing that could've happened.

Because now Brett will be just as motivated to get it done in the front office.

Doan-wohrree-abouditt.

___

The image is from Getty Images, thank you.

___