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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