Just had a couple of thoughts, that this game reminded me of three different games in Chiefs history. Thought I'd share them with you now. In chronological order:
1. 1972, Eagles over the Chiefs, 21-20. It was a home game, in fact the third game ever at Arrowhead and after three home games (of six games altogether) we still had not won a game at our brand new state-of-the-art stadium. We opened the season with a home loss to, yes, the eventual undefeated champion Dolphins.
But this particular game, just the score. It was exactly the same score as last night's game, and one of the Eagles touchdowns that mid-October day was ridiculously silly. The Eagles QB, the immortal Pete Liske, threw up a deep duck that was a certain interception, going right into the hands of our D-back. He not only muffed it, but he let it drop right onto his foot, upon which it was booted right into the hands of their receiver who took it to the house.
We had no business losing that game -- we were actually a pretty good team that year finishing at 8-6. For their part the Eagles won only two games that season, one of them this one -- double ouch.
2. 2017, Chiefs over the Patriots, 42-27. The Patriots had just come off a Super Bowl season and they were having their banner reveal night, and believe it or not, it was not just a Thursday night NFL opener but it was also on September 7th, the same date as last night's game.
The Chiefs led by Alex Smith with a young Patrick Mahomes taking it all in from the bench, destroyed the Patriots and it was thought the Chiefs would take over as the AFC's dominant team. Well, the Chiefs stumbled midway through that season and lost a heartbreaker to the Titans in the playoffs, while, sure enough, the Patriots went on to yet another Super Bowl.
Maybe the Chiefs' loss to the Lions was good for the NFL, keep people watching. People like seeing Davids beat Goliaths, though it is not unusual that every fan wants their team to win every game 84-0. The problem is if the Chiefs did that no one would enjoy the great Chiefsitude we want everyone to enjoy. On the other hand I know we all like a good game, I get it, but I'm sorry I hate losing close games especially like the one we lost last night.
But then my point here is that, I do think the Chiefs could blow out every opponent. They still looked really good last night even without Chris Jones and Travis Kelce. They just did tremendously stupid things that cost them.
So take heart that perhaps just like the Patriots of 2017, one game does not a season make. In fact remember, we did the same thing to the Patriots in 2014, blowing them out at our place where the fan-noise decibel level reached a record for loudness, remember that? And sure enough, after all the postmortem talk about Tom Brady and the Patriots, they went on to win the Super Bowl that year and they won two more after that. Brady himself even won three more.
I think we're pretty good with Mahomes at the helm.
3. 2022, Colts over Chiefs, 20-17. This was just another game we had no business losing, one that featured just so many stupid things happening to the Chiefs to make it hurt.
The reason I mention this one is because the Colts just somehow got a late touchdown drive to put them ahead and it was very much like last night's late Detroit touchdown that put them barely ahead. Thing is, again, in each of these games, there was no reason to believe we couldn't then matriculate the ball down the field enough to get at least a field goal. But yeah, ughh, stupid things happening.
Again, one game does not a season make. Even the best teams have dumb things happen in some games, even the undefeated 1972 Dolphins endured barely squeaking out some wins that year. Ultimately the only way this Chiefs team isn't as successful as they've been over the past five years is if they themselves mess things up as they did last night. With Andy and Brett reviewing everything this week and Patrick making sure everyone stays hungry and positive, we'll be just fine.
Even with a silly loss to the woeful Colts early in the season, let's see if I can remember... who won the Super Bowl last year?
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