Seahawks at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 12-3 - The Take

A few times through the first part of the game Saturday there were indeed penalty situations that did go the Chiefs way. Carlos Dunlap unnecessarily pushed their QB after he let go of the ball and it could've easily been roughing the passer. I agree, but no call. Then there was a really ticky-tack movement penalty on their center that should not have been called. Five yards back for the Seahawks, but it shouldn't have been. I agree.

I will be fair when calling out lousy officiating, even when it afflicts the other team.

Sure enough, however, the penalties started piling up for the Chiefs, and sure enough it was clear to me the refs needed to make sure the Chiefs didn't get too uppity. There was one scoring drive the Seahawks had in the middle of the 2nd quarter that was practically all Chiefs penalties, including a hands-to-the-face on L'Jarius Sneed that I think was ticky-tack but extended their drive as we'd just sacked their QB to bring up 4th-&-very-long.

Seems the Chiefs penalty-oriented penalizings are the ones that really hurt us the most. Please know that I'm very much not in favor of any penalizing items that favor us either, very much not. But I do know about the Scorecasting factor, and I do know that one thing that would help immensely (among several things) is to get those officials in the booth both with monitors to see everything and original calling-out privileges in order to make the right call. I'd add that they must be able to rule authoritatively on those so-called "judgment" calls, so cleaning all that up would also be very beneficial... but, um, yeah, there are the NFLers who may still be in the way.

Just a few observations about this game related to the actual game play and not anything to do with the always ugly reffing.

1. Mahomes and his "Cirque de Soleil" athleticism. This was what the television announcer said, that Mahomes should be in the Cirque de Soleil. What a great call after his phenomenal stretching touchdown that iced this one. He scrambled right, planted his foot into the turf at about the four yard-line, stuck his hand just in-bounds to brace himself, and polished the work extending the football just barely scraping the right side of the pylon.

That's a touchdown.

Thing is, couple plays before his acrobatics he hit Kelce on a couple of big-gain completions, and even better just before our second TD Mahomes threw a pass that dropped right over the defender's right shoulder and into Kelce's waiting cupped arms. Huge gain deep into Seahawks territory -- then Mahomes hit McKinnon for the TD.

There is no question that the most observant pro football pundits know Mahomes is the NFL MVP this year, and sorry, it isn't even close.

2. Our defense was beast in this one. Even with the penalties, we shut the Seahawks offense down. Our D-line in particular made a few plays that we can actually make very well -- batted-down passes. I think I saw we are first in the NFL right now in passes-batted-down-at-the-line.

3. Our running game with Pacheco did all right, but honestly, I get a bit frustrated when we rely on Jerick McKinnon on straight-up running plays. Don't get me wrong, McKinnon is fantastic, I've always liked him. But in this game, with the Seahawks actually doing a pretty good job against our running game? I'd have run a lot more with Ronald Jones, a bigger more bruising back who I really think Andy Reid is not employing nearly enough, especially in particularly relevant situations.

4. Those dropped passes. Uggh. Justin Watson had two brutal ones that both stalled good-looking drives. Kelce had a drop. And while not a drop. Valdez-Scantling caught a pass at the sideline and failed to get both feet down when it looked like he could have done so without too much difficulty. Was it the cold? Temps were in the teens across most of the country Saturday, so that could have been a factor.

5. Back to the defense just to give a kudos to our D-backs, and it still amazes me that we've got all those rookies there. They did a decent job of shutting them down, even though someone like DK Metcalf still had his way with us enough times. A couple times when they were in the red zone we benefitted from poor decision-making by their QB Geno Smith. On one play they really should've thrown a quick corner pass in the end zone to Metcalf, but Smith ended up throwing it away. No TD. Whew.

On another play Smith overthrew his receiver and the ball was caught at the side of the end zone by our guy, Juan Thornhill. Nice pick by the guy who I think is getting too much grief.

Yes, our defense needs to makes sure they stick their tackles, and they did do better Saturday. One nice play I remember was one of those rookies Bryan Cook tracking down their receiver who caught the ball a couple yards from the 1st down. Cook got to him making a nice open field stop, and as it was 4th down it represented a big stop for the Chiefs.

We're now 12-3 and still fighting for that No. 1 seed. Next week it is Denver again at home.

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The image is by Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

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Seahawks at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 12-3 - Christmas Preview

Today's game was right in the middle of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities. The minute it ended we were off to visit family and friends. Tomorrow is more time with family and friends, so I may get a post up but I'm just not sure.

When I do, see you then!

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The Chiefs, the NFLers, and Making It Right

Yesterday was another atrocious day of NFL officiating that may actually be getting people to pay more attention to what is going on with the American professional football game. The Chiefs themselves were hammered mercilessly by the most antagonistic reffing, as they are quite often, and what is actually pretty cool is that I'm not the only one seeing it. 

With new social media venues like Twitter people are screaming about how rotten it is. I've even collected a number of tweets, most of them from the remarks in a tweet by excellent analyst of all-things-Chiefs Seth Keysor. I've put a number of them at the end of this post. 

The Chiefs are not the only team that can suffer. 

Last night I watched the last minute of the Giants-Commanders game. I only saw the last minute, when down 20-12 the Commanders were at the Giants two yard-line. They handed the ball to a bruising running back who pounded his way into the end zone, only to have it called back because of an illegal formation penalty. The judgment was that the wide receiver on the right side was not covering up the tackle.

Please.

It was a wickedly bad call that cost the Commanders a chance to win the game. The television referee expert they consulted afterwards even said it was a technicality and it should not have been called. Never mind that the receiver was close enough to the line anyway especially when all the NFL team's receivers try really hard to situate themselves so the formation rules are followed and as such are all pretty much all over the place all the time anyway, never mind that the receiver even took a step forward to signify that he's working real hard to follow the rule, never mind that we know the NFL favors the big market teams and the Giants play in the biggest market in the game and that officials are categorically influenced by what the NFLers want with regards to game outcomes.

Thing is the Commanders had another chance to win the game right after that when on 4th down their QB threw a strike to his receiver in the end zone and the Giants defender pulled him down -- slightly but very clearly impeding his ability to catch the ball. Incomplete pass. Should've been a pass interference call, absolutely. No "interpretation" that it wasn't pass interference may be accepted, it was pass interference.

Still, no call. Game over.

I have to add that one of the several rotten calls going against the Chiefs Sunday was one in which L'Jarius Sneed got a PI for barely touching the receiver's left hip. He didn't turn him, the pass was a near-impossible one to catch anyway, it was just excellent coverage. Well, you know what happened. It was on a 3rd down giving the Texans new life on a critical scoring drive. 

The pass interference call is one of the most aggravating things in the NFL, and I know everyone knows it. The "interpretation" thing is just crap because it goes so many different ways, and more times than not it goes the way that the NFLers want it to go.

Another egregious call that was particularly noteworthy was in the Patriots-Raiders game. I am no fan of either team, but with barely any time left in regulation and the score 24-17 in favor of the Pats, the Raiders receiver caught a pass at the side of the end zone that was ruled a touchdown. Upon further review they confirmed it, but everyone watching saw clearly that the dude's foot was out of bounds.

At that point the ball game should have been over, Patriots winning. But, well, the Raiders play in that new spiffy stadium in Las Vegas filled with ravenous Raiders fans who've been ever-so disappointed so far this season and having a tie-game would just be closer and better and funner and much more conducive to not having furious Raider fans be ever-so unhappy with such an crushing defeat by just one single little toe that was actually out-of-bounds but ever-so close so just give it to them...

The Raiders ended up winning the game in the end.

In fact, as I write this, just now I thought I'd check. I typed into Google just these words, "NFL officiating Sunday." That was it. Sure enough, the page lit up with stories and tweets about how wretched the officiating was (again, see below). I can't help but put Brittany Mahomes' tweet right here, because one of the most ugly non-calls yesterday was when the Texans lineman body-slammed Patrick to the turf. 

So the NFL people really appreciate their most marketable stars and don't want them hurt? Really? They really want to protect their most valuable commodities, and please know, not just Patrick Mahomes? Really? They'll make a game-altering call against our lineman just for blurting "Yo momma" to an opposing player but they won't protect the physical health of our quarterback by penalizing an obvious unnecessary roughness penalty that could cause a serious injury? REALLY?

I could go on, but I do want to put down some things that can be done, and believe it or not none of these items include a call to get rid of this ref or that ref. Chiefs fans had it in for one particular official, not even going to name him here, but it has way less to do with any given official on the field than it does with what I've called many times before the Scorecasting factor.

Again, the Scorecasting factor comes from the book written by guys who did the research, provided the evidence, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that officials particularly in games like football and basketball can affect outcomes simply by implicitly -- or yes in some instances explicitly -- knowing what calls to make to please the NFLers. As I've shared here a number of times: I cannot urge you enough to read this book.

I will add that in looking at some comments made for a piece at Arrowhead Pride I was introduced to this book, The Fix Is In, one I know nothing about so I won't remark except to say that if veracious enough based on its premise, then it only adds to everything I've been saying here.

So here are five things -- good, solid practical things all of us can do to one degree or another to maybe perhaps possibly hopefully make all of this right and if not, maybe a little bit better.

1. Tell the NFL to get rid of the official gambling relationships. Please know this truth, no matter how much ridiculously rapturous fun it is or how much blamtastic interest in the NFL it generates, organizations like FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and the like are horrifically immoral operations and in my view should not only have their relationship with any official sports organization promptly terminated but should have their operations made totally illegal and completely shut down. Will illegal gambling sites still proliferate? Of course they will, but this shouldn't keep the NFL from upholding the integrity of the game by working to thoroughly distance themselves from any of that, as they always did for years and years up until just a little while ago. 

Really, this particular item should actually be something I've hoped for for some time now: Fire Roger Goodell. The problem is that he is just one of hundreds of what I've called "NFLers," these are those who have a financial stake or gain from the competitive duplicity that occurs as elucidated by the Scorecasting factor. Firing Roger Goodell would have to include firing those hundreds of wealthy, powerful, mostly commercial enterprise people who are exploiting all of this to their advantage. It is wicked as all get out, but what do you do. Can we still see if at least that one thing can happen though -- summarily ending that relationship with gambling interests? Maybe when enough people see how much it compromises the integrity of the game then maybe it will happen.

2. Call it out. It is amazing how little is said about this situation especially from those whose voice would be quite influential. But hey, I get it. As one wise person once said, when your salary depends on it, then "See no evil hear no evil speak no evil" is the rule of the day. Two of my favorite Chiefs sites, Arrowhead Pride and Arrowhead Addict have today said zero about any of this. The Chiefs Bleacher Report page which posts tweets like they are candy has also posted nothing about the officiating. Fortunately again there are tweets by the thousands out there calling out the horrific officiating in all the games where it occurred.

I will also add that we need to call it out when it is happening among non-officiating personnel. I have to tell you whenever I see Jerick McKinnon do as well as he did yesterday, it always makes me think about how Andy Reid so inexplicably failed to have him run like the wind against a three-man Bengals rush in the second half of that AFC Championship game last season. I already wrote about it in my blog last year, but I am convinced the NFL implicitly tells coaches and others to keep games close, you know, because those NFLers are paying a lot of money for all of this.

My hope is it gets to the point when people are calling for games to be voided -- even though I personally think no games ever should be voided no matter how much cheating was going on. Catch the cheating when it is happening and stop it before teams benefit from it. That's the solution, but I do think it has to come from enough principled fans calling it out and making it obvious.

3. Get the NFL to put those two officials in the booth with monitors. Even if no one quite sees all of this happening, and even if we all believe it is merely officials just missing calls, one thing that can happen that is the easiest thing in the world to do is get those original play-call officials in the booth with monitors to see these things clearly, immediately wire down to the on-field officials, and make the right call.

Easy examples, from yesterday's game, the in-booth officials:

"That PI call you made against Sneed? Didn't happen, pick up your flag. 4th down Texans. Good stop for those Chiefs, don't be the official that determines outcomes especially with calls like that that shouldn't be made."

"That fumble you think Smith-Schuster had? Nope, he regained control of the ball before he was body-slammed to the turf. Make that a possession Chiefs, and tack on the 15 yards for unnecessary roughness against the Texans. And that other call you made against McKinnon there on the same play? Not. That's not the infraction you think it is, sorry. Pick up that flag too."

"Pacheco did have a facemask penalty against him, address that now, get the Chiefs that penalty yardage. We know you may have missed it but, well, it's hard to see how because his helmet was pulled right off his head. Come on guys."

4. Pray for the players, all of them. This is one of the most important of all. Poor officiating is worst not when it affects game outcomes but when it threatens the health and physical well-being of the players. I actually fear for our Chiefs players when the officiating is so one-sided and they don't make the calls against actions that truly hurt our players. A few weeks ago JuJu was hammered as a defenseless receiver, suffered a concussion, had to sit out a game, and the defender was even fined later.

But there was no call on the field. This was absolutely inexcusable, it was inexcusable regarding yesterday's incidents, and again that no meaningful media organization of whatever stripe is contributing to the outcry about this is reprehensible.

So yes, besides calling these things out, please be in prayer for the safety and well-being of the players out there, all of them. Yes I do very much know it is a violent sport, but I am in favor of every precaution that can be made to protect them, even the ones so extreme that it leads to fans blithering about how soft the game has become. Officiating like we saw yesterday does not help.

I will add in that profoundly spiritual sense that along with prayers it is good to have an eternal perspective about all of this. For one it is best to accept that inherent in the game is need to keep all fans happy -- 17 straight Chiefs Super Bowl victories doesn't do that. The best fans are happy when the other team wins and their fans get to enjoy what we've got to enjoy. The thing is, that happens best when we all know the game was fairly and evenly called.

In the end God wins anyway, no matter what. This is besides the point that all this is just a game. It's entertainment. All this is just thrilling diversion, even this whole discussion about it, keeps us engaged, interacting with one another. For anything that is of value it is always nice to see players themselves treat it all that way -- after games they smile and give good-game handshakes to one another, and some even gather at midfield and pray, players from both teams giving God glory thanking Him for all our blessings. Very cool.

5. Encourage what Brett et al are doing. This is the main Chiefs-oriented thing that can be done to address the NFLer's competitive duplicity. Just enjoy Brett Veach and his staff working their tails off to make our team as good a team as they can. I do believe that Brett knows somehow, someway, that the duplicity is working against him and his team, and he fights it by doing what he does best -- putting together a competitive team that not only has to confront the other fine teams on the field but also the NFLer insidious duplicity and the antagonistic officiating that goes with it. 

In some ways it makes sense why so few are complaining about the officiating issue. In a very perverse way it is there because that's what they want. And in that sense it has made it that much more of a motivating factor to get Brett et al to work that much harder because they know what they're up against. In a way it makes our success that much more appreciated. 

There is no way we can't be proud of the Chiefs success. We just got our 7th straight AFC West title, only two other teams in NFL history have had such an achievement. We have two very significant Super Bowl wins, the last one of the AFL and the confirmation (after the Jets win the year before) that Lamar Hunt's league was for real and could compete just as well against the NFL teams; and the one on the 100th anniversary of the NFL and 60th of the start of the AFL. Both were wins for the ages, everyone knows about Hank Stram's "Matriculating the ball down the field" performance in the 4th one, and the Chiefs 21-point 4th quarter comeback in the 54th one stands alone among them all.

There are so many Chiefs Kingdom things to be proud of no matter what happens that is ugly and rotten and wicked no one seems to care to do anything about. 

Again, in many ways overcoming those things makes being a Kingdom member that much better.

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Here're those tweets, by the way, as part of this blog effort to call it out. (Will add that I know none of these individuals. I don't see why I can't simply reproduce them here since on Twitter they are open about sharing their identities in whatever form they choose to share.) It is easy to see there are so many who see exactly what I see -- it isn't hard actually.

I cannot neglect to add this excellent tweet from Jason Whitlock related to the Commanders officiating debacle, this one speaking to another factor that is wrecking the game and one I also addressed in a post at the end of last season.

One more! I know I'm adding this a bit after posting this, but I can't neglect to include this one. Again, I'm not the only one thinking these things, seeing what's going on:

Chiefs at Texans - Week 15 - Record: 11-3

Yes, I do think we now have a problem with our kicker. This many misses especially on extra points or even more critically on very-close-game field goals is just getting a bit concerning...

But that's really not the issue.

Yes, I do think we have a serious problem with our pass rush -- I've said before I think Brett should draft a front seven guy with each one of his picks next year. Okay, okay, extreme, but we are just not getting to the passer.

But again that's really not the issue.

The real issue is the NFL and its wretched officiating. I'm not even saying the officiating is necessarily bad, I'm just saying it is wretched because they make calls against the Chiefs that are either egregiously bad, negatively affect our chances to win a game, or both.

That is wretched.

I saw a posted message on social media from a Chiefs fan kind-of-guy who said every fan thinks the refs are against their team. Yeah, I understand that, but, well, it's worse for the Chiefs because we all know the NFL hates our team.

Some will say "How can that be when we have one of the most marketable football stars ever in Patrick Mahomes and he and his team are featured all the time in prime-time and all and they all seem to like that?"

No, the NFL just wants the Chiefs not to win games by so many points if they do win, or if they can to get them to lose a few more times so they'll be kept back in the pack keeping things more competitive. This is besides the fact that KC is a podunk prairie town that is not New York Boston Los Angeles or Dallas. This is a point made many times before and I know not everyone agrees, but I do think it has a great deal of veracity -- something I've also elucidated quite a bit in this blog effort.

Today was no different.

Any time the slightest offense could be called against the Chiefs, it was. A number of times the Texans messed with us in some major way, it wasn't called. I could spend much more time on this and share a number of instances of both.

Here was a classic example. 

About halfway into the third quarter, with the game still very close, JuJu gets a pass and after a step or two he is lifted off the ground and slammed to the turf. Penalty flag flies. Good thing, total unnecessary roughness call against those guys. A chance for me to give the NFL a "good guy" kudos for actually insisting the officials protect our players. Okay.

Umm...

Turns out the penalty was on Jerick McKinnon for an illegal block, one that looked perfectly legal but they nailed him on not putting his hands up for the block but instead slightly hunching over to make it some kind of dangerous block -- even though he was straight up facing the defender and the defender saw him right there in front of him the whole way. The announcers described it as such, as did the television officiating expert they regularly consult. It was about as ticky-tack as you can get.

Not the end of the story.

Turns out JuJu ever-so-slightly had the football come loose while high in the air before being body slammed to the turf, except that -- here's the key part -- he regained control of the ball securely before actually losing it when his body crashed to the ground. At first JuJu was just down there, as he should have been -- you know, ground can't cause a fumble, all that -- except Houston challenged that ruling and won. The announcers and the television officiating expert seemed to feel it was a fumble, and the call reversal was justified, and all the rest of it. Nonsense.

Not only was it now Houston's football, but they got an added 15 yards to boot. Whuttt... It should have been our ball with an added 15 yards for us.

"Oh but that's just an interpretation. They all even out."

No, they don't. And while the Chiefs players and coaches and personnel and other fans who like to join them can say things like "Don't blame the refs," I can, and I think I have very good reasons to.

My attitude right now is this. It is one about which I've shared many times before, but I must calcify it in the depths of my soul.

I like my team. I like Patrick Mahomes and his phenomenally tenacious play and winning attitude which rubs off on everyone else. I like all our offensive weapons even if none of them are Tyreek Hill. I even like my team's defense even though I know about its inadequacies yet will never criticize them in the way many have criticized people like Juan Thornhill. I will also always appreciate a fairly fought pro football contest if evenly and justly called even to the point of my team itself not being given any undue favorable calls by refs because I don't want to have any such advantages because those would compromise the integrity of my own team's win.

The main point is I simply must keep my emotions in check when it comes to our chances in the postseason, simply because it is obvious what is against us. The Chiefs have hosted four straight AFC Championship games. Are you absolutely effing with me, that is unreal. Some television pundits have been given to call it the "Arrowhead Invitational," how wonderfully unreal is that.

But it is wonderfully unreal enough to the NFL to do things to try to spread the wealth around to the other teams. 

We did win this game, indeed. It was neat to see us get the most significant turnover of the game, in overtime deep in Texans territory, and then watch Jerick McKinnon jet into the end zone from some 20+ yards out to win it.

The thing is it shouldn't have been this close, against this team in their present situation. For the 57th time this was made much closer than it needed to be thanks to the NFL and its consideration of unchecked Chiefs success.

I guess I should just cool my jets, but that's a lot of what I'm saying here. Maybe all the crap afflicting our team is a good thing because a nifty overtime win is always way more exciting than a 48-3 blowout.

And a win is a win.

Do you know that besides clinching our 7th straight divisional title today (which we would have done sometime coming up here even if we'd lost today) we've had ten straight winning seasons? I'd posted about this before -- that we'd had two other nine-straight-winning-season stretches. Two others! This one makes three! Hard to believe that the Chiefs can really be counted as one of the most successful franchises in NFL history -- what with our 70s team and our most-of-the-80s and most-of-the-00s teams.

I know I've shared this graphic before, but I'm posting it again here. Eighth best ever. Pretty cool no matter how much the NFL hates us...

Which of course makes it all that much better.

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The image of Jerick McKinnon is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Broncos - Week 14 - Record: 10-3

Okay here's my story with today's game.

We had the opportunity to see a good friend's son sing in one of those college music program annual Christmas presentations featuring a zillion orchestra people and a zillion choir singers. It was scheduled for right smack in the middle of the Chiefs game today, and as much as it pains me, family and friends and events-with-them and the accompanying participation in music that is all about praising The Savior takes priority, and, well, it always has.

So we watched the first few minutes and our failures twice to score touchdowns, settling for FGs each time. Errrghck.

On the way to the concert I took in the information shown on the gamecast, and saw that Jerick McKinnon scored a long TD. I did not know until later that this was the typically very very very fun play in which Patrick scampers away from the rush and flings a no-look pass right into his receiver's hands upon which he sprints for the long TD. Fun.

Just a bit later McKinnon scored another TD to make it 20-0. Before you could blink Willie Gay batted a Russell Wilson pass into his own hands and he scampered for another Kansas City score.

27-0.

We arrived at our destination knowing the Chiefs must have been so sore from yet another ding-dong loss to the Bengals last week that they were taking it out on the poor Broncos this week.

We went into this wonderfully delightful live music experience knowing this one was going to be 57-0 when it was all over.

Ahem. 

Just before our show started I peeked at the score and at halftime it was 27-14.

Whaaattt?

Turns out watching the game later on the DVR, the five minute gametime-frame before and after the halftime break was a nightmare for the Chiefs. The Broncos put 21 on the board in that gametime span. Mahomes threw picks, goofy-dumb things happened, and back over at the Christmas music show intermission about 40 minutes later I again pulled out my phone and the score I saw at that point was 34-28 with an eternity of time left in the game.

Whut thuhhhh...

Turns out that was the final. Neither team scored again.

Before he got creamed Russell Wilson showed something of his former excellent self, there was that. He did suffer from sacks and mess-ups, but just as he did for Seattle he made winning-type plays when he had to.

You could say the Chiefs offense didn't take care of business as it should to keep it from being so close, but then you could also say the Broncos defense didn't do its job of keeping opponents' scores low as it has all season. You could also say the Broncos offense somehow scored 100 points more in this game than they did in any other game this season -- but then there were those goofy-dumb things the Chiefs defense had to deal with, like those critical 4th down conversions that gave Denver life.

And then there is yet again the Patrick Mahomes factor. He threw three nasty picks, that second one a particularly goofy-dumb one that led to one of those Broncos TDs. But then there was that notorious goofy-fun play everyone was talking about but that last Chiefs TD was just as noteworthy as Mahomes got crunched by a legion of Broncos D-linemen and still got off a strike to JuJu in the end zone.

That was the difference maker in the end.

There's more, but you know? I can't neglect to put in a good word for a player who is really one of our best players but fortunately rarely gets on the field, and that is our punter Tommy Townsend. This year he is booming punts, and when we needed it very very very badly late in the game he blasted a punt to put the Broncos way back at their five-yard line. They then went three-&-out to take more time off the clock and remove one more scoring chance for them.

Really, after this one, the only thing you can say considering everything that happened in it is whew.

Whew whew whew whew whew.

I'd like to think our defense is not an issue and we just had to deal with yet again those goofy-dumb things that plagued us again this week -- one of which was again those silly interceptions thrown by our fine quarterback that I know he can rectify. 

The learning from this that we can get even with a close win that shouldn't have been that close -- that's a very good thing from all this.

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The posted image is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Bengals - Week 13 - Record: 9-3, Part II

This was a post I just had to put down. It is yet another after-loss second-parter related to just how stupid yesterday's affair was. One reason it was stupid was because it was almost a mirror copy of the Colts game -- just a bunch of stupid things happening to our team that meant we were destined to lose. And by a bunch, I mean a lot of things.

I could get into them, there were so many crushing ones -- that Bengals defender just happening to get his arm deep into Kelce's grip to force that critically bad fumble, Butker missing a FG he should be making, four defenders not being able to corral their WR late and keep him from getting, barely, the 1st down that clinched it for them, Orlando Brown suddenly just not blocking when they rushed only three leading to Mahomes' sack on 3rd-&-short.

There were also the asswipe things the Bengals did, like that guy flopping in the end zone faking an injury to keep the Chiefs from catching the Bengals defense unprepared. You'd like to think we'd be good enough to overcome those kinds of things the other team does, but, well, sometimes the wicked seem to win far too often. That's just life.

What I wanted to do was just take a post and itemize the ways that yesterday, yet again, the officiating was instrumental in helping a Chiefs opponent win. 

First, I truly think it is idiotic to blap about how no one should blame any officiating for anything because the calls even out. The truth is no, they don't. While yesterday there were those calls that went against the Bengals, they were legit calls. So saying the calls were even says nothing. Far more questionable calls went against the Chiefs that cost them dearly, and anyone watching the game knows it. I've even seen several remarks made in whatever media venues to that effect.

Second, I don't necessarily know how much some of these calls cost us, but one of the keys to poor officiating afflicting one team is that it definitely affects the overall play of the team. Often a team's players really don't know how much they are doing they feel is legit that will cost them, so they may be dialing it back some to try not to commit some cheap foul. Also here I'm only citing particular ones I made note of.

Third, because the Chiefs were on the road and it is obvious the NFL does not want them to succeed too much, the Scorecasting factor is always in play, and generally mostly debilitating to the Chiefs. Remember that is the truth that officials can sway game events towards a particular favored outcome, even if they are not consciously doing so. 

So here you go:

Right out of the gate there was that pass interference call on Trent McDuffie that negated an interception and big return by Juan Thornhill. Sorry, but it was not pass interference, yet their WR really sold it, another asswipe thing the Bengals did to manipulate the game. I do believe the Bengals went on to score a TD after that, so really, effectively, that was a 14-point swing.

Right after that was a roughing-the-passer call on an incomplete pass from their QB. Sorry, but again, what the D-lineman did was not a penalty. It was just a regular QB drop the second after he released the ball, nothing excessive or out of the ordinary.

When the Chiefs had the ball they got a beautiful 3rd-&-15 conversion only to have it called back for an ineligible man downfield -- we did not later get the 1st down and had to punt. Apparently the rule is something like two yards or something impossible like that and you're flagged for it. And this miniscule infraction gave us an advantage on this particular play in what way now?

In the 3rd quarter, I believe it was against Justin Watson, the Bengals defender delivered an obvious helmet-to-helmet hit against him, but it was not called. Again, I can't see how our hits are so penalty-worthy but theirs are not.

Shortly after that, Marquez Valdes-Scantling made an terrific catch in traffic while the Bengals guy was all over him committing pass interference. MVS made the play, but still no flag was thrown.

At the end of the 3rd quarter the Bengals were called for holding for what I believe was the first time in the game. I'm not the best with seeing offensive holding, but it sure looked like Chris Jones was steamed quite a bit as the game wore on, directing his ire at the refs a few times. I have to think Jones had a case because the Bengals O-line has been notorious for poor pass protection. Their QB had been pressured like crazy this season and sacked at least twice in every game this season, but in this one he was free as a bird to do great damage against us. Did our Chris Jones-led D-line suddenly become that impotent or their O-line suddenly become world-beaters?

These were just the ones I noted, very obviously officiating gone bad yet again afflicting the Chiefs. Lots of bigshots can screech about how complaining about the refs means nothing, but their complaining about the legit concerns doesn't change that one-sided reffing does change game outcomes.

Now as a last word, the Bengals do have a talented, well-coached team. The Chiefs have a young secondary that in a dime defense could have four rookie D-backs on the field at the same time. And again, there were just so many goofy-dumb things that happened to the Chiefs to go along with the one-sided officiating, and...

After all that we only lost by three points.

Fortunately the Chiefs players are all "We'll learn from this, work harder, and do better next time." Good for them, that's the attitude they should have. That is the thing that will get them to overcome all these ding-dong obstacles because they'll surely still be there in games to come.

We, however, us fans who know better and are free to push back against those who tell us not to notice the idiotic things the NFL, its officiating, and the Scorecasting-oriented things do to us -- we can notice it and expose it and write about it all we want.

Good to know our team does fine, honest work out there win or lose, makes one proud to be a part of the Chiefs Kingdom.

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Chiefs at Bengals - Week 13 - Record: 9-3

So tired of this. Not a big deal, though, really, because losing this game wasn't any big loss. I'd noted that last week when I offered a humble suggestion that we rest our best players anyway. Today we lost 27-24 when it wouldn't have made a single difference if we'd lost 78-0 with our second stringers playing.

Fortunately we didn't lose anyone to serious injury on that nasty-bad turf, even though watching Mahomes limp off field after his last failed attempt to do a good Chiefs thing was very concerning. Cincinnati definitely rivals Indianapolis as a hellhole I hope our fine team never has to go to play football ever again.

In my last post I'd mentioned the 1981 49ers with their rookie defensive backfield -- in the Super Bowl they beat the Bengals. They continued to beat the Bengals in the worst ways for the next several years, including in Super Bowl XXIII when Joe Montana beat them in the last minute.

Wow, did the Niners have the Bengals' number.

Well, ::Igghck::

The Bengals simply have the Chiefs' number right now. They've now beaten the Chiefs three times this year. Last season they did it twice (both games in January) and now this. 

Over and over again the Bengals just made some play to contribute to the inevitable beating. They've done it just about every time they've played us. With the exception of a 45-10 shellacking in 2018, take that game out and the Bengals have beaten us seven straight times. 

Today, again, there was just play after play after play when the Bengals just got some goofy-good play or were helped out by the refs. Just watching this game it looked like there was some kind of Bengals curse afflicting us yet again. Playing other teams the Chiefs just have everything in command, you can tell, everyone knows they'll take care of business in some way.

Not when we play the Bengals.

We had a chance to win this thing late. We were driving down the field just fine when on 3rd-&-short Mahomes faced a three-man rush and yet-again-as-he-did-in-the-AFC-Championship-Game-last-season he stumbled and bumbled and so unMahomes-like didn't make a play.

4th down, Butker in for a 55-yard FG attempt to tie it, should get it because his strength is his leg-strength. We got this...

Exceppppt this is the Bengals.

Sure enough it goes wide right.

Ballgame over.

I could say a ton more but don't feel like it. I could write more about our bendy defense and us just not putting enough pressure on Burrow -- okay I'll add that Brett has got to get going getting some D-linemen who'll take care of business. Carlos Dunlap has been okay but he's a fill-in. George Karlaftis has to grow into his game. Chris Jones needs to get re-signed. Otherwise we need to draft good, lasting, exceedingly ferocious pass rushers -- yeah I'm right now all of "Okay Brett every draft pick needs to be a D-lineman, let's go..."

Otherwise, yeah, I'm done with this ugliness. Thuh end.

Again not a horribly costly loss. We have a chance to get well now against teams like the Broncos and Texans coming up.

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Rams at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 9-2

At the end of last season I'd said we only have three defensive players who are keepers. Chris Jones, Nick Bolton, and Willie Gay. This year it is pretty much the same but I would add Trent McDuffie and L'Jarius Sneed to the keeper list. Maybe that's okay, that we have five guys who are "tagged" as so good they're among the best big-D guys.

Or is it bad that there are so few?

I mean, they showed a stat on the television that told us the Chiefs are 31st in the NFL in opponent quarterback rating as well as number of opponent touchdown passes.

That stinks.

McDuffie is a terrific find, very true. And there may be some promise with our very young defensive backfield -- I mean really, at any given time defensively we may have McDuffie as well as rookies Jaylen Watson, Joshua Williams, and Bryan Cook on the field at the same time. Danged... four rookies in an NFL crunch-time situation backfield. I think back to 1981 when the 49ers had three rookies in the backfield -- Ronnie Lott, Carlton Williamson, and Eric Wright -- and they did great, the team even went on to win the Super Bowl that year.

But still. Today we were facing the Rams third-string QB and an overall depleted offense.

This defense. Errrghnnckghcknnnnn...

Jones was a disrupter yet again. Bolton was getting his hits in. McDuffie was a smothering force on the back end. Sneed had a clutch pick late in the game.

But what about the bendiness of the overall? Yeah it's nice to have a Patrick Mahomes to match score with score, but then, against a pretty good Rams defense today, Mahomes was not at his best in the red zone today -- even once getting picked in the end zone.

We did get through today's game with a good win, not overwhelming, but expected -- jacking our record to a very nice 9-2.

Here's the thing. New thread here. Follow me on this...

We play at Cincinnati's place next week. As I noted in my last blog post, their stadium is one of the ugly six as far as that destructive turf goes. What do you think about this idea?

Here you go: We rest our best players.

Seriously. Some selected nine or ten of our top players just don't see the field, at all. Sure it is very likely we'll lose to a very good Bengals team, but that's exactly it. 

What happens when we throw our very best players and most laborious effort on that field, we lose the game with, really, not as much to gain with the record we've already compiled, and we lose a number of key players to injury?

A week ago the World Champion Golden State Warriors NBA basketball team had a road back-to-back. An NBA schedule is rather grueling -- a game every other day, flying all over the country -- when you have a road back-to-back it is very hard on the body. So what did coach Steve Kerr do?

He rested his best players on that back end of that series.

Against a fine New Orleans Pelican team he rested Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins. That's the core of the team, all their very best players. Every one of them, sitting it out.

Exclusively playing the second-string, the Warriors lost by 40 points.

It was a gimme loss. New Orleans fans did not get to see the Warriors' best, much less enjoy the amazing handles of the best player in the game, Steph Curry. The game itself was predictably lousy.

But the Warriors are smart. They're World Champions for a reason.

They know come playoff time in April and May those guys absolutely have to have their legs underneath them.

Is the NBA unhappy about that? Most likely. But ya know? I only care about the Warriors (I've shared before they are my favorite basketball team.)

So yeah, I say rest those Chiefs guys. Pick any nine or ten. Patrick Mahomes leads the list. Let Chad Henne get some good in-game work. Get Ronald Jones a decent number of reps. Give JuJu a little more recovery time. Absolutely positively transcendently seriously. Make it an extra bye week for some of our guys -- hey there is a lot of talk about adding that extra bye week as a regular season feature anyway. 

I mean please, I can only think of that nasty facemask against our fine quarterback today. It looked really ugly, you know about it, a little after the 4th quarter started and the Chiefs were close to the Rams goal line. In fact Patrick Mahomes himself wouldn't like not playing, but ya know? Who's the boss? And what are we about as a team, overall, with the overall goal in mind?

And please, I wouldn't even really be as serious about this if it wasn't about us having to play on the ugly turf there in Cincinnati.

The only real drawback is the way the Bengals, and again the NFL itself, will think of this as some kind of slight against the Bengals. "What, you're not willing to play your very best against us? What's wrong with you?"

Nope. It's just we don't want our players injured on your ding-dong fake grass, and ya know what else? We don't think you should be playing on that yourselves -- for your players' sake -- so who're the greater fools?

So yeah Bengals and NFL, how about removing that turf, like, yesterday? A lot of players have been talking about it, not just me here in a cheezy little blog. They've been seeking formal action against it, for all the players' sake.

It'd be nice if the Chiefs made a bold move and rested their best next week.

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The pic of MVS is by Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 11 - Record: 8-2

If I haven't shared this before, as a Chiefs fan -- well, I'm sure every fan feels this way about their team so it's not that unusual -- I'll share it again here. as a Chiefs fan I am perfectly happy with the Chiefs winning every game 56-0 on their way to 200 straight Super Bowl championships. Doesn't matter to me how few people are paying attention to anything NFL because everyone knows the Chiefs are so good. That's just fine. 

Thing is, the NFL and much of the anything-pro-American-football interests everywhere have to know that this team is so good that it may actually start to get bit frustrating to see them beat just about every team they play. Now we all must be careful about this because in the very first AFL game ever, back in 1960 when the Texans were playing, yes, the Chargers, Lamar Hunt watched his team blast out to a 20-point lead and blurted at the half, something like, "Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on this opponent." I'm sure he feared his Texans in his new league of full of teams he'd love to beat would be so good no one would pay attention to the league itself because his team would dominate without ever giving the other team and their fans a chance to enjoy any winning!

He needn't have worried. The Chargers came back and won 21-20. So that's what happened with that thinking.

It does look overwhelming for the other teams in the NFL with the Chiefs playing so well, particularly our star duo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. They connected on three touchdown passes tonight including the game-winner with half-a-minute left in the game. We're 8-2 right now and the team we beat tonight is in 2nd place at 5-5. Thing is I do think what we're going to be like if we're so far ahead so early before the regular season ends that we have nothing to play for, and we get flabby and go into the playoffs ill-prepared.

I know Mahomes and Kelce won't let that happen. Especially when there're still evidences that we simply are not running away with any game we play.

Tonight we still had to work very hard to beat a team without traditional Chiefs-killer WR Mike Williams and several key guys on their defensive line. Last week we won a one-score game against a pesky Jaguars team, and the week before that the Titans defense really stood us up. Tonight we also lost to injury Kadarius Toney, Clyde-Edwards Helaire, and Juan Thornhill. I have no idea at this point how serious they are, but at WR we were already down JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman.

Skyy Moore did great work out there to fill in, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson, and Jody Fortson helped out too. I'll add that our running game was in gear tonight against a pretty weak run defense, with Isiah Pacheco pounding out a 100-yard running game.

But then, there was always Travis Kelce. We needed that good play from those other receivers to keep the defense honest, because really I don't know why teams don't triple-team the guy. Maybe they are doing that in some defensive schemes -- in fact Chargers safety Derwin James has always been one of the best defenders against Kelce -- but he still got free to make key plays and get touchdowns, just a testament to his greatness.

Crazy to think Mahomes has still never lost a divisional road game. Yep, every time the Chargers, Broncos, and Raiders have had the Chiefs in their place, every single game for the past four-plus years starting with Mahomes' first ever start in that final game of the 2017 season in Denver -- they've been beaten by the Chiefs.

Then there is the guy on the defensive side of the ball who is being regularly double-teamed, and that is Chris Jones. Dude could easily be Defensive Player of the Year. Even with the double-teams against him he still made plays and allowed our other guys to get to the quarterback. It is obvious our D-Backs are still very raw -- wow, how we're holding down the fort with those youngsters is amazing -- and our tackling can be spotty. Chris Jones makes things happen to keep us in games, especially as the game gets deep into the 3rd quarter and on into the 4th quarter, he always seems to raise his game to another level.

Anyway, what I was going to say when I first started talking about how much people perceive how good this non-media-darling non-super-large-market Chiefs team is, I still keep wondering about the refs calls. It was much worse in the first half but it really seemed the refs let anything close go when the Chargers did a penalty-worth thing, but they sure called the close ones against the Chiefs -- anything to slow down this team.

I feel like adding a note about the artificial turf field raising serious concerns. Several players have expressed their objections -- I don't remember the name of that brand of turf but they've openly insisted it causes more injuries. I looked up the six stadiums where they have that particular turf and sure enough, one of them is the hellhole that is the Indianapolis Colts stadium. But guess what.

That turf is at the Cincinnati Bengals stadium too, and the Chiefs play there in two weeks.

Sorry, but this stuff scares me. Of course a ton of it is I don't want my Chiefs to be lost to injury because of that turf, but really, no one should be injured because of it. Get rid of it, now.

Maybe it is good we build a huge cushion in the AFC particularly of the hazards like these that could detrimentally affect our team's success, much more the players' health.

We have a reeling Rams team next week, then the wonderment about how it will go against the Bengals, the only team we lost to last year after October, and we lost to them twice.

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The image of Travis Kelce is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Jaguars at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 7-2

One thing needs to be said here, but only for about the 57,239th time:

GET - SOME - OFFICIALS - IN - THE - BOOTH - LOOKING - AT - VIDEO - MONITORS - TO - MAKE - THE - CALLS - THE - FIELD - REFS - REFUSE - TO - MAKE.

Period. Thuh end. Get it done. Like ---- yesterday.

Today Ju-Ju got clocked by a Jaguars defender, hammered when he was in a totally defenseless position after trying to catch a short Mahomes pass across the middle of the field. He lay there incapacitated for a moment with his hands twitching. A yellow flag lay on the field nearby and we all felt a little better that at least there was the penalty on that hit.

Not. The officials picked it up.

No foul.

Guh???

Ju-Ju was helped off the field and while he did walk back to the locker room he was assisted by two trainers to help him get there.

The officials that should have been in the booth but weren't because the NFL is still too stupid to do such a thing did nothing, because, well, ::glurrp:: they weren't there to do anything. In fact, I do realize that they do have people in New York looking at monitors who are supposed to help with these decisions, so they effectively could be those officials in the booth at the stadium. That might work, buuut, it really doesn't because they did nothing about the Ju-Ju incident. Or they just don't like the Chiefs, which is always very likely.

In the evening game a similar incident happened when a Niners linebacker just tried a simple stop against the Chargers QB, nothing really meriting a targeting consideration, and the QB got something of a head snap when the linebacker's helmet collided with his. The penalty was called on that play, and the linebacker was even ejected from the game.

Guh???

Do you know what the officially documented reason from the head official in the Chiefs game was, as to why they didn't flag the Jaguars defender for his hit on Ju-Ju? Do you know? 

It was because he led with his shoulder, not his helmet.

Please.

Please please please please please please infinity.

This is why Roger Goodell and the NFL are a bunch of really ugly nasty words I just don't feel like putting down here, I'm just too tired. It is late on a Sunday night, forgive me.

I would think that a league that does really care about the very real instances of CTE among its former players not to mention losing their prime product because of concussions would make sure that any player who has anything like what happened to Ju-Ju is prevented. And today's game proved they just don't care enough, I'm sorry.

Or again, they just don't like the Chiefs.

Speaking of the game itself, as usual lots could be said about it. The Jaguars actually played exceptionally well, but our defense held the fort with lots of kudos to any number of our defenders. Kelce came through for clutch catches when we needed them most, as usual. Kadarius Toney has already established a firm place for himself in the offense, scoring the first of our four touchdowns today. And our running game got back on track a bit with Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon getting things done there.

We're up to 7-2 already and running away with the AFC West. All the other teams in the division lost today, with the Chargers up next who tonight played mightily against the Niners but simply couldn't get it done with such a decimated roster.

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The photo of Kadarius Toney skipping to his touchdown today was from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Titans at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 6-2

I was so rattled by this game I don't know if I really know what to write here.

I don't think I was as rattled, however, as Patrick Mahomes was through most of this game.

Give the Titans' defense credit. They played a smart and ferocious brand of football, and had it in their minds to intimidate our offense as much as they could. They got a ton of penalties called against them, and a few penalties they had that weren't called. They just proficiently made every move and every play they needed to win this game.

After all, the Titans are just one of those teams the Chiefs have always really struggled against. I don't know how in the world the oddsmakers had the Chiefs as 12-point favorites. A 12-point spread? Against this defense? I really didn't know anything about the Titans before this game, but they were absolutely stuffing us throughout.

The Titans D was not only standing up our O-line on our running plays -- our backs had, what two total yards rushing? -- but they were doing a phenomenal job against Mahomes in the pocket. Their D-line was terrific and their pass coverage was smothering.

And I'm sorry, but Mahomes just looked way more rattled out there than he ever had. After scoring just nine points to start, we had seven straight possessions with no points. Zippo. He got pressured, he got sacked, he threw passes into the dirt -- it was miserable.

But when we got the ball with, I think it was five or six minutes left and behind 17-9, Mahomes went off. And it wasn't that he suddenly stopped being rattled, he just used that energy to make the key completions and then scramble. On one play he scrambled for a 1st down on a 3rd-&-17. He then capped the drive with a wild scramble TD run, and then topped that off with another scramble jet-sweep left to get the two-point conversion right at the pylon. Tie party 17-17 with a minute left.

The Titans were stopped but when we got the ball back we couldn't get down the field far enough to kick a game-winner in regulation, so in OT we were able to matriculate the ball down the field with the help of some amazing catches by our two tight ends, Kelce and Gray, and at least bang through the go-ahead field goal.

Our defense kept playing well throughout the entire latter part of this game, and sure enough we were able to stop the Titans on four straight plays to end it.

Yeah, it looked like there'd be enough of the standard number of ding-dong things that always seem to happen when we play this team that'd keep us from winning. Our offense just could not get untracked, but when it came down to it Patrick just took things into his own hands, and running like a madman seemed to be what it took to get the job done.

It was just enough for us to barely eek out this one.

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The image of Noah Gray's amazing catch to set up the game-winning FG was by Gavin Liddell at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Chiefs at 49ers - Week 7 - Record: 5-2

I have to admit, very sheepishly, that I thought the Chiefs were toast in this one. I confess I doubted our offensive firepower to get the job done today. Indeed, I'm ashamed of that when we do have the best quarterback in NFL history on our team, right now, today.

Last week Mahomes had a bit of a subpar game, and this week we were facing a team that I thought was too daunting, with its Nick Bosa-led defense and newly acquired Christian McCaffrey-led offense. I was convinced our line would get overpowered on both sides of the ball, and when the Niners opened with a very imposing effort and a 10-0 lead, I thought the rout was on.

But we not only have Patrick Mahomes, but we also have...

Mecole Hardman.

Yes, I agree, Hardman is tremendously aggravating when he doesn't course through or cut off or even improvise his routes when he must, I get it. But when Andy Reid uses him as he did today, it is easy to forget Tyreek Hill. Hardman had three touchdowns on the day, all on jet sweep type action. They were saying on the television broadcast that he's the only WR in the Super Bowl era to have two rushing TDs and a receiving TD in the same game. Very nice.

Our defensive line started out limp, but stiffened later and started to shut down McCaffrey. Having Willie Gay back in there made a difference. We also got the Niners line on both sides shook up and committing a lot of penalties that kept them from really finding their rhythm as the game wore on.

When the score was still relatively close there at the beginning of the 4th quarter, 28-16, the Niners were deep in Chiefs territory when L'Jarius Sneed had a pick-six right in his hands, and dropped it. I'm always thinking about the points lost when a defender just drops any easy pick. Sure enough the Niners scored shortly after that -- and there it is: a 14-point swing. Aagh.

Right after that, however, Mahomes connected with MVS on a long pass play, then slung another nice pass to JuJu to get closer to paydirt, then Mecole got his 3rd TD.

Never mind -- we're up 35-23 after all.

Add to that a nice TD catch-&-run from JuJu, a safety, and it's suddenly 44-23 us with only about six or seven minutes left of game time.

Mahomes had 400+ yards passing in this one, his highest total of the year so far. There was also a stat they showed on the television that I have to reproduce here. The Chiefs are successful at a 48% clip when facing 3rd-&-7+, in other words 3rd-&-long. That is actually really really good, especially when noting the league average is 25%. 

Indeed, apologies please for not giving these guys enough credit. Mahomes may indeed have a subpar game here and there, but not often. He is just so good. Another incredible television-broadcast stat: in his first 70 starts he has 56 wins. Wow.

Bye next week, then the Titans on another Sunday night prime time affair.

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The image is from a photograph by Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Bills at Chiefs - Week 6 - Record: 4-2

Just doing this as I watch. Real quick, in the 1st half:

On our first drive we got a TD called back because they called Creed Humphrey as illegal down-field. He really wasn't, but there you go. That opening drive ended with an interception that MVS couldn't hold on to. Errgh. Pay attention later here because, really, this one play very early was the instrumental one.

On our first-half TD to Ju-Ju, Mahomes maneuvered brilliantly in the pocket. Wow. It was another magical moment from our QB.

Our blitz package was actually making plays, when the Bills had the ball near our goal we batted down two passes and stopped them on 4th down. It was awesome to see, genuinely rattling their QB Josh Allen, but we were never quite getting to him! We really needed to finish with our pass rush if we hoped to win this game.

Our punter, though, dang. Tommy Townsend has quietly developed into, really, the best punter in the NFL. He boomed one pinning the Bills deep, we held and held and held until on 3rd-&-super-long we let them get away. Couple of pass completions and ::BAM:: a long touchdown pass that gave them the lead. Errrrrgh. It was against Joshua Williams, a very raw rookie who has size and speed but is just liable to getting burnt like he did then.

The contrast. We had the ball just before that Bills success at midfield and got diddly. During that attempt to get points before the half it seemed Mahomes lost his ability to move around. The Bills rushed four and he didn't move out of danger. Von Miller was in the mix of that rush, so I get it, but Mahomes has got to be ready to use his legs as well as he does.

So, to summarize, end of 1st half it was like this. Us: garbage - we're at midfield and get nada. Them: money - in the course of a minute, having the ball at their own one with 3rd-&-long, they still march down and get a TD. Literally 99 yards for a TD. Errgh.

In the mix was yet another ding-dong taunting call on us, Ju-Ju making some silly two-second gesture at the Bills bench. Please. Yes I agree -- Chiefs players: please don't do that. But they still should not be called for that. It is stupid for the NFL to do that, to make calls like that, stupid.

Finally I can't neglect to mention that we got the ball back with just a few seconds left in the half, and we did matriculate the ball down to get Butker a shot at a 62-yard FG.

He nailed it.

Second half. They just showed a stat. Bills have only given up 7 points in the 2nd half all season. Chiefs have scored 77 points in the 2nd half all season.

We got the kickoff to start! Woo-hoo! Buttt... We couldn't move the ball enough yet got a FG shot that...

Butker missed. Errrrrrrrrgh. That I think was a killer too, he just missed it by an inch, considering we lost 24-20.

So at this point it was 10-10, and sure enough again against Joshua Williams, they got a TD pass to Stephon Diggs. Let's see, who's going to win that matchup... hmmm... All-Pro All-Everything WR Stephon Diggs vs raw untested barely-ever-played-an-NFL-down CB Joshua Williams.

Our next possession, Ju-Ju. Nice slant pass to him and long run afterwards. We picked up this guy in the off-season and every Chiefs fan had to be stoked, the guy was a stud in Pittsburgh. Absolutely we've got to get him the ball more. We finished that offensive set with Mahomes connecting with Hardman for the TD to tie it, 17-17.

4th quarter time. The Bills had the ball at midfield and we got a great backfield tackle from Darius Harris and a fine stop on a 4th down attempt. When we got the ball we were doing great with our matriculating but the refs got involved with a crap call yet again. They called a very questionable offensive PI on Travis. Major errrrrgh because that stalled us out and we only got a FG.

After a nice drive the Bills got a go-ahead TD, and then after we got the ball with a minute left we got to thrill to experience the standard issue confidence that Patrick was going to get our go-ahead TD with seconds remaining to win it!

Not.

Instead he threw a pick and that was it.

Thing is, to be honest, against a very good Bills team we had two rookies at the corners, and neither of them was Trent McDuffie. Where was he? He was nowhere. I'd heard all this chatter about how spectacular he was as our real savior D-back defender, and I don't think I saw him out there at all today.

Now here's the thing. We lost by four points. Remember at the very beginning of the game when MVS had a touchdown catch, and it was called back because they thought Creed Humphrey was too far downfield? And the penalty took the TD off the board? And we only got a FG? Really, that was the key play of the game. What if that play occurred with less than a minute left in the game?

Yet another poor ref's call that no one challenged because it was so early and it was kinda hard to tell because it was so close and all the rest of it. It's early, let it go.

Most of the ref calls in this game were fine, on both sides. The problem is the call on Humphrey is just one that should not have been made. It is one of those calls that you don't make unless it is so obvious, much like the off-sides call on Dee Ford in that 2018 title game.

Refs do change game outcomes, and the Chiefs have had to deal with that all season-long so far.

Fortunately this is just one regular season loss against a fine team, one that provides a lot of good learning opportunities for these guys. Hopefully we can get McDuffie going in that D-backfield and guys like Watson and Williams can grow enough to effectively use their talent to shore up our relatively porous pass defense.

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I cannot neglect to add a final note to this blog post. I did post this one already, but after peeking a bit on Twitter some things were shared that make it even more evident how much the refs' calls, or in this case one particular non-call severely hindered our ability to win this game.

I'd mentioned the PI call on Kelce there a bit earlier, but in watching the tweeted replay of that TD catch by Gabe David against Joshua Williams, it was so plain that Davis pushed off on Williams. It was far more egregious and had far more of an impact on the game. But yepp...

Should've easily been a PI call against Davis.

But then, you know, we're the Chiefs. It just seems the only way the Chiefs can lose is if just the right number of stupid things happen against us.

So typical.

So in some ways, my apologies to Joshua Williams. The dude looks like he can be a really good D-back and he definitely deserves a shot. We'll surely need him with his size to take on the Mike Williamses and Davante Adamses of the division. Here's to watching him grow and improve.

Maybe the refs will actually make a few more correct calls that should be made in a Chiefs game.

Not sure though, knowing how the NFL feels about the Chiefs.

So very typical.

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

I couldn't resist. I just had to add a few things after last night's thriller today after also peeking around a bit at what people have said about the affair.

First, the Chris Jones roughing-the-passer call that shouldn't have been. Afterwards Jones was extraordinarily gracious and deferential, but profoundly truthful. What was the main takeaway from his postgame remarks?

That there simply must be officials up in the booth making those calls.

It is simple. The refs on the field simply can't get it, things happen so quickly. Officials that are in the booth with initial authority to make calls wire down to the field, tell them it really wasn't RTP, and no one is worse for wear. Are there other things the NFL can do to protect the QB? Perhaps, but you can't take the game away from the players.

Second, there was a play Mahomes made that was one of his most spectacular. It was when the Chiefs were driving for their first score to start catching up after going down 17-0. He'd already been sacked, but this time he dropped back but then stepped up right into the teeth of the pass rush, bobbed and weaved a bit, and flicked a -- what, 10 or 15 yard pass? -- right into the mitts of MVS.

First down.

A few plays later they had the touchdown. I actually believe the image I led with in the first post last night right after the game was of that exact throw. I'm just surprised more wasn't made of that amazing play. But then again, yeah, ho-hum, just one of the hundreds of the many Mahomes Mahmazments we've seen and continue to enjoy seeing.

Lastly I did see some people remark that Arrowhead was even louder than when it broke the decibel level record back in 2014. Nice. The reputation Chiefs fans have for their unmatched passion is really pretty cool. And last night's game: again, we can screech all we want about the injustice of the Chris Jones call, but the loudness is assumed to have even shaken the refs to make sure they call the game right. Did that give the Chiefs a bit of an edge in ref calls? Maybe.

Did it rattle the Raiders? I can't think that it didn't.

But then I just think about the other Chris Jones goofball call in the Indy game. Oh my. He tackles someone perfectly legally and gets flagged. He blurts "Yo momma" while just standing there and gets flagged. Yet to his credit he treated each instance with tremendous poise and respect. Yet he'll still join his teammates and Kingdom fans fighting like crazy for the win.

Wow these Chiefs. The Kingdom.

I like it.

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The image of Chris Jones is a screenshot of a posted video from a postgame interview.

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

Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes.

Travis Kelce Travis Kelce Travis Kelce Travis Kelce.

Brett Veach Brett Veach Brett Veach Brett Veach.

We won a heart-wrenching squeaker and the reason I mentioned those guys is Mahomes threw four TD passes, Kelce caught four TD passes, and Veach is just a beast at putting together a team that has enough depth to make "next-man-up" keep us competitive in a given game. 

We suffered a number of injuries today and it will take a while to gather the extent of those injuries. We started the game at a disadvantage from the injuries we already had. No Willie Gay to stop their fine run game, no Trey Smith to better protect Mahomes, no Trent McDuffie to cover a Davante Adams, no Harrison Butker to actually make field goals (even though fill-in Matthew Wright nailed a 59-yarder which really was the difference in the score)... not having any of those guys helped make this affair much closer than it should have been.

Thing is, the Raiders were suffering their own slate of injuries. First their fine tight end Darren Waller was out, and at the very end of the game their terrific running back Josh Jacobs went down when he was doing great slashing his way down the field to try to get the Raiders in position for the game-winning FG.

This game started when we had the Raiders at 4th-&-1 and they threw a 58-yard TD bomb to Davante Adams. Yhee.

A bit later we had 4th down deep in Raiders territory, and our replacement kicker missed a gimme FG. Errgh.

We must have done something to help out our young D-backs trying to cover him because we did a decent job of neutralizing Adams for most of the rest of the game, until very late when they got a TD pass to him to almost tie the game bringing the score to 30-29 Chiefs. They burnt our young D-backs yet again.

As it was we did poorly in the first quarter, going down 17-0. We then poured it on and went up 30-23, but then let them right back in it with that second long TD pass to Adams. They failed on the two-point conversion, and when we needed what Shawn Barber called "Attitude Runs" with four minutes left we just didn't get enough. We we started off well, but stalled. No points, not even a FG at least to get us up by four.

Thing is, our defense held.

It held.

Keeping Davante Adams from beating us was big. There was a play on 3rd down when Adams barely did not get his feet in bounds for what would have been a 16-yard gain to get the Raiders closer for a gimme 67-yard game-winning FG from their excellent kicker.

We could talk more about the horrific officiating calls, especially the one when Chris Jones got a splendid strip sack fumble recovery and sure enough they called roughing the passer. I think this actually lit a fire under our butts and helped us more than hurt us. It was great seeing Andy Reid just light up the refs after that one. I like it when he does that, I think we all do. Defend what is right, awesome to see!

A close one with lots of story lines but as it is a Monday night and I have work tomorrow, a potential second post will have to wait.

Next week, though...

Da Bills.

4-1 verses 4-1. Rematch of that amazing divisional game last year.

Prime time on CBS, late Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo announcing, game of the year so far...

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The first image is from Chris Donahue, the second from Gavin Littell, both at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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