Chiefs at Raiders - Week 12 - Record: 8-3 - The Take

As I shared yesterday I spent the afternoon with my daughter. I watched the game on DVR later that evening, and, of course, it was immensely enjoyable. The best part, again, is that we meant business in the second half. Our running game was productive, and sorry, Clyde Edwards-Helaire was an instrumental part of that. I do believe getting him involved especially in our short passing game will help the receiver play we've all been lamenting so much.

Rashee Rice had a number of fine catches, one of which he took from some distance out for the score. It is obvious his yards-after-catch ability is exceptional. He really is the one guy who is rescuing the stature of our receiving crew. I would have like to have seen the team finally employ Kadarius Toney downfield more, but he was out for the game -- whupp, hopefully his past injury issues are not afflicting the Chiefs too much now.

Otherwise a nice dominant win for once -- this team is too good for us to have so many uncomfortably close games this season. 

I did mention that I'd gone to see the Taylor Swift concert film with my daughter, and I thought I'd add a bit more about that since I'd mentioned it yesterday.

I am not a big Taylor Swift fan -- it isn't that I don't like her, I just pay no attention to much of anything about her. But it was obvious watching the film she is an extraordinary performer. Her music is actually pretty good, and she is phenomenally talented, as a songwriter and entertainer. Her music is quite seductive, in the sense that her lyrics speak to the lives and relationship experiences of her fans.

Thing is, as a follower of Christ, I was concerned about a number of things I saw, which I did address with my daughter. She was very good about understanding and conversing meaningfully about them. I could mention a number of them here, but the main one is just how devoted her fans are. And yes, it is clear this devotion borders on idolatry.

Really, how much is one's attention to, adoration of, even obsession with a given thing replacing the genuine devotion that should only be afforded to God? I actually only say this because I too can be guilty of this. 

Can I give the Chiefs too much of my emotional investment? I know I can. If you've read some of my blog before you know I can do the very best ugly -- I've ripped Chiefs people new aye-holes far more viciously than I'd like to admit, with I believe Andy Reid and Clark Hunt getting the brunt of my embarrassing ire.

On the other end of this unseemly passion, just as much as Taylor Swift endears herself to millions of devotees, her new beau Travis Kelce can do the same for all of us Chiefs fans. Like Taylor he is smart, committed, industrious, personable, charismatic, and on the field does things that win games. Taylor and Travis are winners, we can vicariously experience the glory of their success over and above the things each of us experience in our lives that are not so glorious or glamorous or gratifying.

It is exceedingly entrancing.

Thankfully God shares with me some things that keep me grounded. Two weeks ago we were privileged to get free tickets from an in-law of a relative who could not attend the Rams-Seahawks game at SoFi Stadium -- ironically the same venue from which all the Taylor Swift concert footage was taken. 

Sitting behind us was a gentleman who was, shall we say, quite a devout Seahawks fan. I mean rather expressively so. It wasn't as much his cheering for his team, one that actually played pretty well on the whole. It was his incessant grousing about every little thing that didn't go right for his team.

Huh.

Sounds like me sometimes with my own emotional commitment to the Chiefs.

And wow, was this Seahawks fan annoying. Just sayin'... I never want to be like that. Elation when we do well? That's great. Disappointment when we don't do so well? Not a good feeling. But when that obsession gets overwhelming it is far too painful than it should be, not just for me but for those around me. This is precisely because my perspective may get wildly out-of-whack.

I have been around some fans, especially when attending live sporting events in-person, who just can't hold a perspective. And it isn't just the scoreboard -- add in all the drinking and gambling and, as Scripture says "jealousy, fits of rage, and selfish ambition," along with whatever other ugliness is in the mix, and you've got a nasty idolatry. (That biblical verse is in the fifth chapter of the letter to the Galatians, by the way.)

So yes, I spent the afternoon with my daughter during an optimum opportunity to spend time with her. It was right at the time of the Chiefs game, and yes, just before the movie started I noted we were ahead 28-17. I did not check my phone again until the movie was over. The wonderful thing was settling in to watch a scintillating concert performance on film that was genuinely enjoyable, except for those things...

The main thing is the time spent with my daughter, the film experience was good and the conversation afterwards was good too. I have the same kind of vibrant interactions with my sons regarding all things Chiefs, all of that is good too.

But to keep all of it from being to destructive to my psyche, I know I must give all the glory for the ultimate victory to God. I humbly but heartily encourage my readers to do so too.

Blessings.

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The photograph was taken by David Gray at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Raiders - Week 12 - Record: 8-3

I did a very Chiefs thing this afternoon.

I spent the entire time during the game watching the Taylor Swift movie with my daughter.

It was a Chiefs thing! After all Taylor is dating Travis! Right! Doesn't that count?!

Anyway, all I know is that we did win, and that --

We scored in the second half!

I noted we even scored 17 needed second half points to take this one. Wow, awesome.

Just looking at the score, our D stepped up yet again to allow only a single FG in that second half.

So for once, a fine second half performance to get the dubya!

After I watch this on DVR I should put in another post. Until then!...

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The photograph was taken by Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Eagles at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 7-3 - Part II

Just a few more thoughts about last night's joke of a game -- err -- joke of a second half of a game.

First of all we can yell at the receivers all we want, but in some very real ways it gets back to the coaching and front office.

Front office first, for not swinging that trade when we could have actually truly had someone like DeAndre Hopkins. Please, do you really think Hopkins wouldn't have jumped at the chance to play with Patrick Mahomes if we really meant business? Right now he is stuck on a woefully underperforming Titans team.

I do understand, however, Veach's reluctance to make a deal when he could have earlier. Looking at our receivers it really does look like they should be performing way better than they are. This leads to the coaching staff, because failures this glaring for a group of receivers who should be playing better has got to fall a lot on those whose job it is to give them the best opportunities for success.

For now?

1. Get them on the business end of those tossing machines 24-7. Really, in every situation with every kind of throw at every kind of angle... I just can't see how professional pass-catchers making a million dollars a year just to put a projected weird brown ball into your hands aren't doing that. It is your job. So coaches, how come they aren't out there practicing that thing a million times a day?

2. Get those routes right. That's on the coaches. When they aren't out on the practice field catching Jugs throws, they need to be in the film room with you guys.

3. I happened to see a tease for a sports talk show bit that had Kurt Warner telling us Mahomes is scared to throw the ball to these guys. Please. Coaches, if true, you need to drill deeeeply into Patrick's head not to worry about that. Just have him throw the ball. He can't control everything. He's just got to trust his receivers and keep throwing the ball where he needs to. If he overthinks this too much there won't be any passes heading downfield. He also can't be favoring guys too much just to favor them. He seemed to do that with Justin Watson, and while Watson made some fine plays, he also made some dumb ones, with drops and just not making his routes right.

4. Along with that idea, the receivers need to know not to worry about what happens besides catching the ball. It really does seem our receivers "hear footsteps," get freaked, and just blow up at the last -- mostly just flubbing up when that football could easily be caught no matter how they think they'll get hit later. This happened to Skyy Moore at the end of the Detroit game we lost when his catch could've got us into FG range, and it happened last night to Watson on a terrific throw to him at the first down marker on 4th-&-25 that would've kept a critical drive alive.

5. And lastly, coaches, mix things up. Do different things. Set all of them up for success. One thing that would seem to be worth trying is getting Kadarius Toney untracked. Get him downfield more and try throwing it to him there. On kick returns he jukes guys out of their shorts like no one I've ever seen. Why can't he do that to his cover guys on pass routes?

I happened to catch an NFL Throwback episode on YouTube, "Ugliest Wins Ever," featuring teams that sucked throughout the game but still ended up winning. Well, you know?

Last night's game could've been on that show.

The Eagles were, really, when you look at it, kind of sucky. They were sacked half-a-dozen times and were thoroughly stuffed by our defense -- their best receiver was a total non-factor. They got a nifty crazy long pass towards the end of the game setting them up perfectly for their tremendously annoying tush-push touchdown to put them ahead. Mostly they just got blessed by a Chiefs offense that has been absolutely atrocious in the second half for weeks now.

Finally, some history, for what it is worth.

I took a peek at the Chiefs in 1970, the year after their first Super Bowl win. Remember that, when they beat the heavily favored Vikings? Do you know who they played in the very first regular season game after that, there at the beginning of the 1970 season?

The Vikings. And they got squashed, 27-10. Funny, no one remembers that game, and no one will remember last night's game either. Only last year's Super Bowl counts for remembering, really, so keep that in mind when distressed by all the goofy trolling that Eagles fans are doing right now.

Know who the Chiefs played in their second game that season? The Baltimore Colts, in only the second Monday Night Football game ever. They pummeled them 44-24. The Colts, by the way, went on to win the Super Bowl that year. 

Know who the Chiefs played in only their second interconference game ever (sixth game of the season)? (That Vikings opener was the first.) The Cowboys. The Chiefs got spanked in that one, 27-16.

Know what I noticed about each one of those games? Even the Baltimore one?

We sucked at scoring in the second half.

We scored 3 second-half points in the Minnesota game. We scored 13 second-half points in the Baltimore game (after scoring 31 in the first half). We kicked a piddly two FGs in the second half of the Dallas game.

Am I obsessed with looking for poor second-half performances just because of our total second-half ineptitude all year long this year? I dunno, just disconcerting what our team has been doing -- or of course not doing coming out of the locker at halftime.

Just gets back to the coaching, and the thought did cross my mind, it did: that Andy Reid has just somehow gotten back to his old ways of not making the adjustments he needs to make to counter their adjustments, and/or just sitting too comfortably on any lead he has and playing not-to-lose. Errgh.

Hopefully not. Hopefully it really is that receiver core situation.

But that is still a major ::Errck:: for all of us in the Chiefs Kingdom.

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Eagles at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 7-3

Well that was ugly.

Actually, no, the Chiefs first half was terrific. We did pretty well in every phase to go up 17-7.

Then the second half started. We lost 21-17. 

Did you catch that? Did you catch the final score there?

You do remember that two weeks ago we were up 21-0 on the Dolphins at the half, and went on to score zero points in the second half. Annnd do you remember the game before that? When we lost to the Broncos? When we scored zero points in the second half of that game?

Can you guess how many points we scored in the second half tonight?

The math is not hard.

The Chiefs second half tonight featured dropped passes, fumbles, no running game, inept routes, stupid penalties, and just a reverse image of the Chiefs in the first half, or really any time when they play football.

Let's face it, that drop by Valdes-Scantling close to the end of the game was just about the last straw for anyone's patience with this receiving crew. Valdes-Scantling in particular looked lost out there, scampering around wherever, flailing about tracking balls, and of course just not making the play that a Super Bowl-caliber player has got to make.

But he wasn't the only one. Justin Watson made some plays, including a touchdown catch, but he also had drops. Travis Kelce had a fumble in the red zone that, let's face it, really cost us. Skyy Moore has the athleticism to be that Julian Edelman-type clutch receiver for us, but he is about a trillion light years from being that. Kadarius Toney was worked in much more tonight, but he's still not catching passes down the field. Rashee Rice was okay, but he can't do everything.

Bottom line, it was a pathetically inept performance by our offense in that second half, and yeah, it is so crazy that the Chiefs got zero second half points for a third straight game. There was a stat the television broadcast showed, just phenomenal for this team, really brutal, that the Chiefs have an average of 5.9 second half points this season, lowest in the NFL.

5.9. You're kidding. That's not even a single touchdown with two full quarters of football play to get it in the employ of a Patrick Mahomes-led offensive unit.

In fact, I went back over each game this season, just to look at the second halves. In only one game did we score more than seven points and score in both quarters -- that was the Jacksonville game. We did score 14 against the Vikings, but only in the 3rd quarter. Otherwise in every other second half this season our scoring has been wickedly abysmal.

Yeah, really, let's hope there is something that can be done with this receiver situation.

The Eagles got their Super Bowl revenge, but they sure got a lot of help from the Chiefs.

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Dolphins at Chiefs in Frankfurt Germany - Week 9 - Record: 7-2

I will confess I saw or heard none of this game, and only peeked a few times at what what going on at the web gamecast. A 6:30-to-around-9:30 game is kind of around the time I'd like to be worshipping the Lord, so I was there doing that with a few people at a pretty nice worship assembly. I might add briefly that if you are not believing on Jesus Christ I'd encourage you to do so.

One thing I did see after church was all done was what the Chiefs had going with about two or three minutes left in the game. We were ahead 21-14 when we really should have been ahead something-like 35-14. Anyway, here we were with a 3rd-&-1 and a chance to seal this one by getting one little tiny easy one-yard gain.

Of course, you know what I thought. I always think this when the Chiefs are in this situation.

We are so going to fail here. We always do.

And you know what? We did. Looking at the replay later Mahomes went back to pass and... and... had to throw the ball away.

For the 5,809th time when we have a 3rd-&-stupifyingly-short-yard-to-get --

We sucked.

You have to know, any time I watch any other NFL team in any other game and they have a 3rd-&-short, I'd say they get it, ummm, something like 99.93719% of the time.

When the Chiefs have 3rd-&-short, that rate -- I'm pretty sure -- is around 0.0027001502% I'm pretty sure, you can look it up, but I'm pretty sure that's it. Or pretty close to that, pretty close to reliably suck.

I don't know what it is about that except Andy Reid just has some kind of brain fart when it comes to having the right play to get that yardage. It just has that very palpable feel to it. It is almost like whatever it is the Chiefs plan to do on any 3rd-&-short, the other team just somehow by some psychic ability knows what to do to stop it. And they inevitably do. Do you feel that way too?

What saved us, really, was after Miami got the ball back and started easily matriculating the ball down the field on us our now-quite-reliable D managed to hold them to a 4th-&-10 at around our 30 yard-line when their QB could not handle the snap. Good thing too because we were blitzing and they had guys breaking open downfield.

::Whew::

There are any number of things I could write about here that I later happened to catch about the game, but the one thing that needs mentioning is the splendid defensive play we made just before the 1st half ended. We're up 14-0 and our good friend Tyreek Hill took a swing pass that our CB Trent McDuffie gets all over. He's very good at stripping the ball, and he did here. Mike Edwards picked it up yet was immediately grabbed by Hill, whereupon he flipped the ball to Bryan Cook who streaked down the sideline for a super-spiffy Chiefs score.

Very very fun.

Not so fun is our offense, and our now-getting-more-and-more suspect receiving crew. Rashee Rice was still okay, scoring a nice touchdown this morning, but everyone else -- at least from what I heard -- still: ::Yikes::

We have a bye next but then we face the Eagles. I'm not so much as worried about them as I am the Ravens. They absolutely crushed their opponent for a second straight game. This Chiefs team should be doing that -- I mean it looked like we were today but then...

Uggh. That 2nd half today. Zero points -- zero. From anyone, offense, defense, anyone. Fortunately our D held the fort, but what is going on with a team that has Patrick Mahomes? Come on guys.

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

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Dolphins at Chiefs in Frankfurt Germany - Week 9 - Record: 7-2 - First Quick Take

Whew we escaped with a win, after going up 21-0 just as the 1st half ended. Then our offense went dead and we didn't score another point the entire rest of the game.

What --- is --- with --- that.

Very busy today but I should be able to carve out some time today to put a few more thoughts down here. Until then...

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Image is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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