Bengals at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 10-6

Okay so we managed to pull this one out with enough offense to put Harrison Butker in field goal range for six bangers. I mean, that's great, and I mean we did get the win, and we did clinch the AFC West and yet another playoff berth. Very very very very very nice.

And yes, after a messy first quarter when the Bengals took advantage of some Chiefs sloppiness to go up 17-7, our defense was absolutely ferocious keeping the Bengals from scoring any points at all in the second half. 

All --- Right.

The Not-All-Right thing about this game is our still-raging failure to score touchdowns on offense. We did get the big plays from Isiah Pacheco and Rashee Rice and Richie James, yes, very needed. 

But the again just watching Patrick Mahomes messing up almost cost us another game. To be fair, it could be our rookie tackle Wanya Morris messing it up by allowing a Bengals guy to come in and get a strip sack that led to putting the Bengals up 17-7. It was just like last week, like a recurrent nightmare none of us wanted to keep having.

I've actually been thinking about our 2018 season, only because I was wondering what we did then when Mahomes passed for 5,000 yards, 50 TDs, and we just salivated over what we finally got to have there at quarterback. Two things of note -- and there may be more but there are two things I can think of.

The first is those receivers. In 2018 our main wide receivers were, if you remember, Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins, DeMarcus Robinson, and Chris Conley. Remember too that we also had Travis playing at a very high level, and for a while Kareem Hunt. After he had to leave we had Spencer Ware and Damien Williams doing most of the running back work.

Who are our wide receivers today? Can I just put down a great big ::WHIMPER::? I watched much of the Rams game this morning and you know? DeMarcus Robinson actually had a pretty good game for them. I guess I wonder why we gave up on him. I know people were really down on him, and you've got to move on from some people, but the Rams have simply done a terrific coaching job this year.

Our coaching job? I don't think anyone believes Andy Reid and company have done their best work this year. I actually still believe, honestly, that this wide receiver crew is not this bad. I do believe our coaches have simply not done what they need to do to make Patrick Mahomes as successful as he could be.

That second thing is opposing coaches have done that one thing they know they must do to win games against the Chiefs, and I know you know what that is.

Hold on to the football on offense as long as you can.

Today the Bengals ran their first drive for, what, 57 minutes? Of course I'm exaggerating, I hope you know that, but only to make the point. Other teams' coaches know as much as you can keep the ball out of Patrick Mahomes' hands the better off you will be. And getting that nice little boost of getting even a single turnover from the Chiefs? That's bonus time burning-clock-on-offense-keeping-Mahomes-on-the-sideline.

What we do have that we didn't have in 2018 was a game-rescuing defense. I mean they went off all over the Bengals offense in that second half, and that was the key to keeping them from doing the burning-clock-on-offense thing. The Bengals simply could not keep anything going on offense after those first 17 points. 

So yeah, along with all the guys who played so well out there today, Justin Reid and Charles Omenihu just to name a couple, what we have that we didn't in 2018 was Steve Spagnuolo.

Very nice.

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Just a couple other notes that aren't exactly Chiefs related, but I just wanted to add to this week's post.

I kind of like college football mostly because I've been in a college football team fantasy league. We each have teams and follow the AP Poll each week to see which of our teams did best, counting the best four from each of our stables in the poll. It is like pro football fantasy but instead of players it is college football teams.

I had Georgia. And yes, I do think it is a joke Georgia is not in the final playoff. But they are not there because, yes, I do firmly believe, the powers-that-be just don't want Georgia in there again with a chance to win a third straight title. There is just not as much advertising revenue unless it is someone new -- there just isn't.

Thing is, let's face it. Not only is Georgia the best team in the nation, but college football has its big fat head up its big fat rear end.

Really, why not, when you think about it, how about we let Alabama Michigan Texas Washington beat each other up tomorrow and then next week, and then, for all of us who know better, have the winner then play Georgia. I'll take Georgia.

Yesterday Georgia plastered Florida State in the once highly regarded Orange Bowl, 63-3. Yep. Now I do know that those who know, know that Florida State had to play without, what, something like 20 of its best players -- all sitting out presumably to avoid injury and prepare for the NFL later.

Thing is, this is not unusual. Lots of teams are doing this, and it is stupid. I do get it, I understand why they say they are doing it, but what happened college football stars to your commitment to your school and your football and your all-paid-for education there?

Thing is thing is, this foolishness is on the college football leadership. That they allow the players to do this is just wrong. So this is getting-your-heads-out-of-your-asses Part One.

Part Two is how the college football leadership has not gotten the conferences to stay intact. Next year a number of teams are continuing this idiotic trend of moving into different conferences. This has basically destroyed the PAC-10 and put teams in ridiculous geographic positions. I do not keep track of any of it because it is so heinously stupid, but I do believe UCLA and USC next year are going to play in the Big Ten, and if I'm not mistaken that's way up in the Great Lakes region, far far away from us people out here in the west who actually enjoy the PAC-10 rivalries out here where they belong. 

Because the PAC-10 is no more, I see that Cal and Stanford have been forced to play, get this, in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Please. I kiiiiinda thought Cal and Stanford were prettttty close to the Pacific Ocean. Pacific over here, Atlantic waaaay over there.

Sorry, but all of this is just moronic. Yet it reflects a complete lack of leadership among the college football people who could have just all come together and simply worked it out.

So yeah, bottom line, kudos at least to the Georgia Bulldogs and its leadership, who took their contemptible playoff selection snub with grace and did a great job of keeping all their players on the field for a bowl game that really didn't mean a thing -- they didn't have to prove anything to anyone yet they still went out there and played the game.

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How about this story I just saw. The NFL has "downgraded" an officiating crew, whatever that means, for its boneheaded move allowing the Cowboys to win last night's game against the Lions. Sure enough the play in question was all on the stupidness of the NFL -- exactly like that call against Kadarius Toney in the Bills game. I could get into the details of the technicality ding-dongness that each of these entailed, but I'm not. Needless to say, the NFL leadership needs to take responsibility for this crap, not just slough it off on its hardworking officials.

It is funny, they also mentioned a missed call in the Chiefs-Packers game -- sure enough one that went against the Chiefs that could have easily cost them the game.

Huh. Funny about that...

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Finally, my fantasy football team won its Super Bowl today, so at least there was that! My son was actually the drafting expert, putting together a dominant team at the very beginning of the season. My brother-in-law set up a Yahoo league with 18 teams of his friends and relatives and friends of friends and relatives of relatives, and I did tell him I'd never done a pro football fantasy league before. He still graciously invited me to join.

So, checking with my brother-in-law and getting his enthusiastic approval, I let my son do most of the drafting at the beginning of the season while I followed along, adding some amount of input. We did so well we barely had to make any moves throughout the campaign. It was terrific from start to finish. 

Just to boast a bit, here were our key players on offense.

QB: Really split between the Jaguars Trevor Lawrence who did great to start, then the Rams Matthew Stafford who carried us the last part of the season.

RB: The Rams Kyren Williams was amazing all year. We even had the Titans Derrick Henry, and while he had some decent games he did have some duds.

WR: The Lions Amon-Ra St. Brown and 49ers Brandon Aiyuk were studs all year long.

TE: The Jaguars Evan Engram was also solid all year.

W/R/T: The Texans Nico Collins was the recipient of terrific play from CJ Stroud all season long.

My son also did great making those few necessary moves all season long to keep the team viable each and every game. At the very beginning of the season I did tell him he'd get half the winnings, happy to do it! Besides I just don't even really think too much about the money (though some of the participants would disagree!)

Just thrilled we could come away with the title! Very fun!

Now...

Can the Chiefs do the same in the real live NFL playoffs?...

::Whimper:: -- ::Sigh:: -- ::Unngh:: -- and whatever other sorts of viscerally expressive onomatopoeia there are...

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The photo is from Cassie Florido at the official Chiefs site. Thank you. The screenshot of the tweet featuring the I Think You Should Leave guy was taken after peeking at some Bleacher Report posts.

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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 9-6

"Run the ****ing play."

These were the words mouthed by Patrick Mahomes coming off the field after one of the several butt-munch plays the Chiefs ran today. We could blame the receivers yet again, and I do believe our receivers are still not getting the job done.

I also do believe that the receivers not getting the job done is resulting in something very, very concerning for this Chiefs team.

It is making it so Patrick Mahomes is simply not running the ****ing play.

And sorry, but much of that is on Patrick Mahomes.

I never watch any of the pre-, mid-, or post-game commentary, but for some reason the television was still on after the game and with all the milling around here on Christmas day I happened to catch Phil Simms' remarks. And I think he said something very profound about the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes.

He said Mahomes needs to stop being so gun-shy and, yes,

Run the ****ing play.

Of course Phil didn't include the colorful epithet, but he said as much.

He said Patrick absolutely cannot worry about whether or not a receiver is going to do one thing or another -- he just needs to run the play. He simply cannot try to control everything and if a receiver doesn't do his job that's on him and the coaches.

How many times did we watch Mahomes run around like a crazed banshee back there and ::ERRRGCK:: not throw the ball. When they showed replays of receivers downfield during the time Mahomes had opportunities to throw the ball, I hate to say it but it did look like they were open enough for him to get that football to them.

Let's just face it. This was an ugly bastard, mostly for Patrick Mahomes.

This is a decent Chiefs football team. It is very tempting to say things like, "This is simply not a Super Bowl football team." I confess I do that all the time when I see Chiefs efforts like today. But you know? 

We can blame Brett Veach all we want about not getting someone like DeAndre Hopkins when we could, but Mahomes needs to get the ball to the guys he has and not worry about what they do.

We can blame Andy Reid and Matt Nagy all we want about not running plays that will succeed, but the players need to perform -- remember today we lost 20-14 in a game where 14 of those points were from two single defensive plays where Mahomes really ****ed up. 

We definitely cannot blame our defense who is carrying this team right now, and our leadership has got to help keep them from being discouraged for working their asses off only to see us go 3-5 over the last eight games, because our offensive players including, sadly, Patrick Mahomes, are not doing their jobs. I mean get this, I'm pretty sure their quarterback did not complete a single pass in the entire second half. I mean, that's shameful, it is truly shameful we could not pull this one out.

Two guys who stepped up were guys I've been screaming for them to play more: Clyde Edwards-Helaire and Richie James. Sure enough those two guys did ball-out. And yes, it was me, sorry, I called it. I believe these guys can contribute way more than people think they can.

As far as where we're at right now, we're likely to make the playoffs and even win the division. The only way we can lose it is if the Raiders or Broncos win their last two games and we lose our last two.

That latter thing? I wouldn't put it past them if this actually pretty talented team doesn't get it together and start playing like they mean it. And yeah, sorry, but it requires -- it is hard to say thing because we've been so spoiled to have a guy like this play at a phenomenal level just about every single game -- but it requires Patrick Mahomes himself to, yes... just plain --

Run --- the --- ****ing --- play.

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"We could have had DK Metcalf!"

I am pounding out a special Chiefs Game Today post just for my two sons who have addressed one of those most profound items banging around in the heads of everyone in the Chiefs Kingdom.

Last night DK Metcalf was extraordinarily beast in his play helping the Seahawks to a thrilling win over the Eagles. Over the past several years we've watched Metcalf do phenomenal things for the Seahawks as one of the top receiving talents in the league. And sure enough, every time I see him do well I do think, as many in the Kingdom do I'm sure:

"The Chiefs could have drafted him when he dropped like a rock in the draft. He was right there for the taking. Instead we drafted...

"Mecole Hardman."

Let's just get this out of the way right now. A team with Mahomes and Metcalf would truly be a juggernaut. It would be wonderful if that whole thing turned out that way, we all know, it would. Ahhh...

But there are a number of things to note about all this, and why I'm putting up this post.

1. I firmly believe the reason the Chiefs selected Hardman instead of Metcalf was, if you remember, at the time there was widely published concern about Tyreek Hill and some domestic violence issues. It turned out to be nothing, but right at that time it was so much in the public purview that the Chiefs were afraid it would all turn against Hill and his future with the Chiefs. So they went after Hardman and his speed as a sort-of backstop option just in case.

Was all that stuff about Tyreek just more folderol from the NFL to derail Chiefs success? I wouldn't put it past them. I don't think they could have deliberately done it to affect this particular draft result, but the Hill stuff being so negative and so broadly blapped into the mainstream I do believe did keep the Chiefs from getting Metcalf and going with Hardman instead.

Could it have been the case that they shied away from Metcalf because of his reputation, that maybe he'd be a less-than-positive influence on the team? Maybe that too. He's had his troubles in Seattle, but they really haven't been so bad that he hasn't performed at a really high level when he wants to. What do you do with that?

2. I really don't believe you can say "What if" too much with the draft results. Anybody can do that with any player drafted before or after some other player. It is "Monday morning quarterbacking" on steroids -- or really: "Friday morning end-of-April general managing." How many times do we have to hear about the 198 opportunities a team had to draft Tom Brady? It gets annoying after a while, and yes, not only can you do that with anyone in pro football, but we all still do it, all the time.

Yes, I confess, I still do it with DK Metcalf. I do, I shouldn't, but I do. I can't help it. But then, what if the Chiefs did have Metcalf and we'd already had four consecutive undefeated Super Bowl seasons? That's nice for us, but bad for the NFL. And this is one of those very twisted things about having a favorite sports team to obsess over. They must lose every once in a while or it'd be boring. People already hate the Chiefs for having Mahomes and being as successful as we've been. We'd be downright abandoned by everyone if we won too much -- hey, I'm already convinced the NFL is doing its damnedest to impede our success in all kinds of other ways. Again, that ref call at the end of the Buffalo game? Absolutely inexcusable.

3. How many rings does DK Metcalf have? And how many rings does Mecole Hardman have? Lessee...

See, this is the key thing that softens the blow of a distinct absence of Metcalf in a Chiefs uniform. And really, it softens it a lot not so much as the rings as the fact that, as much as you may hate Hardman for not being Metcalf, the guy has actually performed for us.

And not only that, but he's been notably instrumental in helping us win games leading to Super Bowls. Notably so. The key things I can think of right now are his game-changing kick returns in both the final game of the 2019 season leading to getting the bye that year, and the playoff game just a couple weeks later that changed the tenor of a game we were losing 24-0.

He's also been the best jet-sweep runner in the league, really, and while much of that is the coaching and execution by the blockers, you can't deny that they guy gets to that edge and finds a way to streak past everybody to get clutch yardage. Last year in particular he almost single-handedly used this skill to annihilate the very good 49ers, I mean we blasted them, with Hardman scoring three touchdowns largely on his ability to do this very thing.

So yeah, I am just as human as anyone in the Chiefs Kingdom. I don't think anyone looks at the fantastic ability of a DK Metcalf and wonder, "What if?" 

But keep in mind that we are tremendously blessed in so many ways. We have Patrick Mahomes -- really, those fans of the teams with the nine picks before he was taken in 2017, how much are they still pulling their hair out? We have Brett Veach, who does get it right most times, in fact far more than any other GM, he really does. Scream at him all you want about his inability to get this guy or that guy, but face it, you want to go with someone else in the front office? Really? Take some time to look at the draft history of pretty much every other team and you'll start to really appreciate what we have.

So in that sense, let's genuinely hope Mecole Hardman returns and can play at the level we know he can. With a largely ineffective Skyy Moore now done for the season, that may be in the works.

And that should be a very good thing for the Chiefs Kingdom.

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The photo of Hardman is from the Fox 4 news website. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Patriots - Week 15 - Record: 9-5

The main questions we are always asking, let's face it. In no particular order:

Will our defense maintain its excellent play on the season?

Can Patrick Mahomes be as consistent as he had consistently been in all his previous quarterback play?

Will the referees let us play THIS week?

Will our receivers for once actually play like they belong in the NFL?

And the number one question of them all:

Will those who have interminably annoyed us all with their incessant and completely unjustified disrespect of Clyde Edwards-Helaire admit that they'd been major league buttheads about him this entire time?

That last one first. Sorry, because CEH is not Barry Sanders does not justify the constant and contemptible dismissal of the skills he does have. Yes Isiah Pacheco is on the whole a better option, but I'm really glad the Chiefs did not give up on CEH because replacing Pacheco today he did marvelously. His ability was highlighted by a phenomenal leaping catch in the back of the end zone for the Chiefs clinching touchdown.

So yeah, no matter what he does from this point forward, please afford CEH all due respect he rightly deserves, please.

As to the other questions...

Defense. It was pretty much as good as it has been, allowing only 17 points and just generally aggravating an average Patriots offense all game long.

Mahomes. Eh, he's still not what we'd like to see, just what we've been so spoiled to see, but he still did pretty good matriculating when he needed to. He threw at least a couple picks if I remember, and yeah, that is always cause for concern.

Referees. To be honest they were making some ticky-tack calls... against the Patriots. To be fair it did seem to go against the Patriots a bit more in this game, although there was one call in particular against Rashee Rice, for a pick he was essentially pulled into, wiping out a big Chiefs play.

Receivers. Still -- not. It's just ----- not. Our tight ends are great, which includes Noah Gray who is not Travis Kelce but still plays well. We have our backs doing great receiving -- besides CEH's TD catch there was Jerick McKinnon's nifty screen-pass touchdown. 

But our wide receivers. Umm -- yeah -- not. 

Kadarius Toney dropped two passes he should have had, one of which he dropped right into the hands of the Patriots defender. Not.

Skyy Moore caught a pass he made himself open-for very nicely, and the proceeded to fumble it away before the relief that it didn't count because of a Patriots penalty. Whew. And not.

There were other drops here and there, and other routes not-run or openings not-had that made Mahomes' day again a bit of a struggle.

The only receiver who actually did well was, yes, our rookie Rashee Rice who is again singlehandedly salvaging the reputation of this group. He caught nine or ten passes today and they were saying he is about to break Dwayne Bowe's rookie record of some sort. That's cool. 

They were also saying Mahomes has never lost three games in a row. We got the win today to avoid that, so we were able to stop our two-game losing streak, so that's cool too.

As it is we're 9-5 and with the Broncos loss last night we've now got a two-game lead again. We may snatch yet another AFC West title still.

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

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Once Again Because People Still Don't Seem to Be Getting It: The NFLers Do Not Want the Chiefs To Win Again, or Ever Really

For review, here is what I knew from yesterday's game during the time I was at an all-day family event:

1. We had a very bad interception.

2. We had a very bad fumble.

3. We had a very bad final score.

That's it.

Thing is, while still avoiding looking at any of it at all, I discovered three other things, only from catching it on my Twitter feed when I looked at it at the very end of the day.

1. At a very critical time at the end of the game we had to experience a horrifically bad ref call and a horrifically bad ref non-call, one right after the other -- the first of which definitely cost us the game.

2. Patrick Mahomes had an uncharacteristically bad meltdown about it.

3. Patrick Mahomes came back, however, to display extraordinary graciousness in his post-game presser appearance while still showing tremendous disappointment in what the NFL is doing by not, in his words, just plain letting them play.

He's right.

Thing is you could see the abject exasperation in his eyes and hear it in his voice about just how phenomenally shitty the officiating was in these instances.

Again the reason I saw all this without looking for any of it was it was all over my Twitter feed, and I actually have a grand total of zero followings related to anything Chiefs. I do know Twitter may put up posts from people they think I may like, but I don't see how that many posts could have come up just from what the program may think I like about the Chiefs.

Indeed from what I gather, this topic was trending pretty viciously.

For good reason.

One of the tweets I saw related to the fact that offensive off-sides like the one they called on us is never called. And it seems he is correct. I have shared this before, it is legion the number of times I see an offensive player, particularly an end trying to line up exactly correct, being clearly off-sides. 

Whenever I see it I think, "Okay, let's see if they throw a flag on him. Ummm, okay, they didn't, which means it is yet another justification for the NFL to extend a most bodacious apology to Dee Ford and the Chiefs."

Yes, sorry, I think that every single time I see it. Every - single - time. Again, I don't mind that they don't call it, it is just too close to throw the flag. I agree. As Patrick said, essentially, "Just let the game go. No player is trying to gain any advantage by being half-a-foot off-sides. Let us play and do our jobs as we should..."

He's right, and it is good to see a number of people, even hifalutin NFL pundits and people like that saying the same thing.

The next step is clear. Let's face it -- and yes this was a bit intimated in even the little that I saw from the punditsphere --

Let's just plain acknowledge that as the Scorecasting truths have plainly uncovered --

The NFLers do not want the Chiefs to win.

There just isn't enough money or whatever other good-things for the powers-that-be to have the Chiefs continue to ride through the postseason as they have. 

It is the same thing in other sports, and for the 87-millionth time, distinct advantages are given to the big-market media-darling teams. It'll be nice for more smart principled people with some measure of media reach to further acknowledge the obvious truth that not only is this all deceitfully criminal through the deliberate distortion of competitive integrity in major professional sports, but also for the most part everyone is perfectly okay with it because those teams regularly winning is good for everyone even if they don't win all the time.

I emphasize that again because of what we all know happened with the Shohei Ohtani free agent signing. He is very likely the greatest baseball player ever, and before Saturday everyone was wondering where he would decide to go to play for the next ten years for some 900 gazillion dollars.

Thing is on Saturday around mid-day I was out driving and heard the guy on the radio say all Angels and Dodgers fans should be disappointed (I live in the Los Angeles area), because Ohtani had decided to sign with the Toronto Blue Jays. The radio guy sounded sure about this, so I took it as ironclad news. Thing is, this was a music station dude sharing this news story, so, yeah...

Anyway, the whole point of all this was right after hearing this I thought exactly what anyone with a single brain cell in their head thought.

Guhhh?

Why on earth would he sign with Toronto? This isn't to diss Toronto or any other major league franchise. 

It is just that we all know.

We all know, no matter how much we try to convince ourselves it is indeed all on the up-and-up, that it's all even-steven, that it is all really a level playing field, that because the Yankees and Dodgers don't win all the time it all must be ever-so wholesome so there...

No matter how much we try to replay in our minds at 78-speed these ridiculous fantasies about the integrity of major professional sports in North America --

We know.

What happened was apparently some rumor went out that he'd signed with Toronto and it got legs. The music station radio caught it -- of course he sounded like some young-ish guy who sees a lot of stuff on social media that just ain't so, and shared what he saw or heard with the rest of us.

Turns out my perfectly reasonable incredulity forced me to check with my very good into-baseball friend, and sure enough...

Ohtani signed with the Dodgers.

We all know why. It just isn't hard at all. In fact the Blue Jays or any other team could've offered Ohtani 57 million billion trillion trazillionillion splazhillionillionillionillion dollars to play for them and he'd still go play for the Dodgers.

It is made to be that way.

And if you're a fan of those Blue Jays or any other team besides the Yankees or Dodgers you can be a good 'ol fan and be proud of your team and sport the insignia in the trendiest outfit and that's a lot of fun, but know you are at a distinct disadvantage every single time you hand over your 400 clams to see a ball game because your fan base and all that comes with it can never ever match the Dodger fan base and all that all of major league baseball wants to get from it.

Same thing with the Chiefs.

It is a bit harder in the NFL to manipulate things the way the majors and the Dodgers do, but again if you look at the Scorecasting truths you'll see it can happen with the officiating. And sure enough, it did happen last night, in bright, brilliant colors.

Maybe this won't be a bad thing, in that Patrick will still be able to rally the troops with that extra motivation for a fine end-of-the-regular-season run. It's very possible.

Probable? Uhh. Now I don't think it is necessarily unlikely because we do have some very good things about our team.

But that receiver situation.

Again, I don't know a thing about the game other than what I've shared here, nothing. We did score two touchdowns -- I have no idea what happened. Indeed maybe there was some good play especially by any of those receivers that is reason for genuine hope.

Because again, we can screech about the ugly duplicity of the NFLers in what happens with that officiating until we can't breathe, but let's face the reality of what is happening with this team. Please. 

How did we get down 20-17 late so we'd have to struggle just to try to tie the game? Why did our offense muster only 17 points for the first 59  minutes of the game, against what I've heard is a pretty average Bills defense? How come with a Patrick Mahomes at quarterback we are only putting up a measly 17 points just about every single game?

What is with our offense for the umpteenth time?

And yeah, did you see? Denver is a scant single game back right now and they are feeling it. And they do have excellent receivers led by that Courtland Sutton who is a total stud. ::Sighhh...::

Gone are the days we can win the AFC West by October. Four games left to see if we can overcome the NFLers antagonism, we'll see -- it's really tough to do...

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Bills at Chiefs - Week 14 - Record: 8-5

I was again completely indisposed during today's game, engaged in an important family event. I did check the score a few times over the course of the game time period, however, and besides just seeing what that score was I noted only two other things. Really, as far as the plays go, these were the only ones I saw. This does comprise my entire knowledge of today's affair, gruesomely as you will see.

After each look-in I was so disgusted I really did not do much checking my cell to see how things were going. I just had a bad feeling about all this, and the two things I saw were, well, disgusting. 

On the ESPN gamecast:

"Mahomes throws blah-blah-blah INTERCEPTED blah-blah-blah." (If you know what the ESPN gamecast notes look like, you know how it feels seeing this kind of thing.)

Then the second thing much later: "Mahomes completes pass to Rice blah-blah-blah FUMBLE blah-blah-blah."

That was it for me.

I did see the final score, though, annnnnnnnnnnnd...

Well, it's late and I'm not going to get into it now. I really don't think I'm going to look at anything related to this game because it will only depress me, but I promise, I do have some thoughts. I do have a take, and I will be sharing that tomorrow.

Until then...

Just remember, just one more win and at least we'll have another winning record for the season! That's pretty cool, we can hope for that!

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Chiefs at Packers - Week 13 - Record: 8-4 - Third Take

I simply had to pound out yet another rant after watching last night's primetime affair, this one between the Bengals and the Jaguars, two fine teams in the AFC. As I've shared before I generally do not tune in to other games, but this one I did, for about half of it here and there.

The only point I really wanted to make in this one is this, well, actually six of them.

Ja'Marr Chase. Zay Jones. Tee Higgins. Calvin Ridley. Tyler Boyd. Parker Washington.

In no particular order these are the wide receivers who played most prominently last night, helping their teams' backup quarterbacks to a combined 65 points in the game. I could of course add Jacksonville's fine Christian Kirk, but he was injured early in the game.

Still.

Still.

I don't know if you watched any of the game, but every single one of these guys played light years better than the Chiefs wide receivers. I'd love to exclude Rashee Rice from that unflattering assessment, but the Chiefs are still not really getting the ball to him anywhere near as much downfield as they should be. It may just be that he is a rookie and needs that much more work in, but that doesn't make the Chiefs' present wide receiver ugliness any prettier.

Back to those WRs last night.

Wow.

They got open, they got separation, they ran fine routes, they made catches, they knew where they needed to be, they looked like they knew what they were doing, they helped their QBs out by being precisely in the right places, they tracked every pass well, they got their bodies and hands in the right places...

Do I need to go on?

Do I need to mention how opposite all of the Chiefs' receiver activity over most of the season this year has been from what we saw last night?

And here's the thing that is just so crushing about all of this.

We have Patrick Freakin' Mahomes.

I guess at this point I just wonder if any of our receivers were even watching what happened in last night's game -- something pretty much anyone who tuned in simply could not miss -- and looking and seeing and deeply richly contemplating what they could themselves be doing, you know, being as athletic and wide-receiver-skilled and phenomenally-well-paid as they are... and learning from it and preparing to practice it deep into the late evening every single day this week. 

Really, they could just about pretty much look at any team's game film and pick up some things to get their game on.

I guess I just wonder why they aren't doing that -- watching, gleaning, confessing, and re-dedicating -- and while doing that just shaking their heads to themselves bleating the words that make all of this so stultifyingly inexcusable. You know what the words are:

"We have Patrick Freakin' Mahomes. I mean, yeah, what the freak ARE WE DOING OUT THERE???"

Let's see. Let's see if their quite productively instructive viewing of the wide receiver clinic the Bengals and the Jaguars guys put on last night means something, and they get something of a game on over the rest of this one football season.

Because if again I have to watch the guy who is very likely the greatest quarterback of all time, space, and dimension have to spend another single minute scurrying around behind the line of scrimmage wondering if his selected receiver is actually going to do his freakin' job, I'm going to pitch an embolism, I swear.

Yeah, I'm sure for next year Veach is going to make sure we get a Tee Higgins or one of those nice free agent wide receivers. We all know he blew it by not going after DeAndre Hopkins, but I confess I was one of those who thought our wide receiver issues would work themselves out. I'm just as guilty.

But again, maybe there is hope remaining for this season.

Maybe they'll get it.

We can only see...

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Chiefs at Packers - Week 13 - Record: 8-4 - Second Take

I thought I'd go to ESPN's nifty "Playoff Machine" just to plug in all the likely results of the remaining season, just to get a bit of an idea where the Chiefs may end up. Of course anything can happen, yes, after all yesterday the Cardinals beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh.

For the Chiefs I did put losses down for the Buffalo and Cincinnati games, because while those teams are definitely having down years, they are still very dangerous. I did put down wins against the Raiders, Chargers, and Patriots, which would put our final regular season standings at 11-6, barely good enough for the 4th seed.

Losing to the Packers last night really put the hurt on our chances to get the No. 1 seed. We'd need help, and I'm just not confident very good Ravens, Jaguars, or Dolphins teams are going to get it for us.

My confidence is just so low right now mostly because of the absolute atrocious play of our wide receivers, Rashee Rice excepted.

One of the real problems is these guys simply cannot run routes to give Patrick the confidence he needs to get the ball to them. Marquez Valdes-Scantling is supposed to be our deep threat, but on one play down the field he was open but turned in too sharply and simply did not make the necessary turn-around to the ball to get it. A receiver getting paid  -- what, three, four million dollars a year? -- has got to be able to do that.

And that deep throw late in the game that everyone thought was pass interference? Yeah, it may have been, but MVS has still got to come back to that ball and get it, PI or not. It was simply insane last night that the key play of the game for the Packers, really, was their receiver -- smothered by three Chiefs defenders and literally falling to the ground -- snatching the duck of a throw from 30 yards away (after which they scored an easy touchdown), while our critically important receiver can't just easily turn as he should to get a perfectly thrown ball by our QB.

This is a real issue.

And for those who claim the Packers got robbed on an unnecessary roughness call when a tackler really smacked Mahomes just as he was going out-of-bounds? Sorry, wrong. It was the right call. You don't do that to any quarterback, much less one that is so valuable to the league. Yes, I agree, if Mahomes is a "runner," I get it, smack away. But he was clearly going out of bounds and all you have to do is ensure he goes continues out of bounds. No big deal. The Packers defender did commit a penalty, it doesn't have to be beyond that white area for the hit to be genuinely unnecessary.

I did want to remark on the idiotic racialist thread that sadly got some traction at all this week, about the young Chiefs fan who painted his face black on one side and red on the other. I'm not going to get into it all and share a number of things I wanted to, but interesting no one mentioned on the broadcast last night, good for them, and the story seems to have died the quick, painful death it deserves. Just hoping this is something meaningfully related to the very hopeful reality that the ugly racialist stuff may actually be dissipating, that would be nice.

Otherwise, football-wise, we play Buffalo next week and again, if we lose and lose to Cincinnati a few weeks later, we should still be good if was can win out otherwise. We'd be at a 4th seed though, and facing a really good Houston team who believe it or not would, if all of this transpires, have a better record than us and would definitely be looking for revenge for 2019.

It'll be very bad for us if we just don't get this receiver thing fixed.

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

Just blogging while I watch the game. Right now the opening drive of the Packers is very bad for the Chiefs. I thought we had an all-that defense, yet they are carving us up. Now we just lost Drue Tranquill to injury, and we are already without Nick Bolton for multiple games. The Packers are just running the ball right down our throats.

As I sit here with the laptop, I'd like to add that I watched just a few other parts of a few other games today. I usually don't do that, but we do actually watch Rams games for some length since my wife is a traditional Rams fan. What I wanted to point out is the number of times the right tackle jumped a tick before the ball was snapped. It happened a few times, not a lot, but a few, and each time it happened it was not called.

Remember when they called it on Jawan Taylor even when he didn't jump before the snap? He was so good getting off the snap that the refs had to rein him in a bit. It is just evidence that the powers-that-be are great with the Chiefs taking a powder this year and letting another team go the promised land.

I think about this again only because this phenomenon happened in college football today. The powers-that-be loved the fact that Alabama beat Georgia because that meant they could have an excuse to kick Georgia out of the playoff. Never mind that Georgia pummeled every team they played during the "regular" season including all their very good SEC opponents. Alabama, on the other hand, had a number of close calls including the need for a miracle play last week to beat a very average Auburn team.

Other teams making the playoff, Michigan and Texas, got powder puff teams to beat in their respective conference games. Everyone knows that if allowed the championship game would be Georgia and Alabama. 

But no.

And Florida State fans? It's nice you went undefeated, but you also won too many close games mostly against teams not in the SEC. Sorry, the team that got jobbed was Georgia. You know as well as everyone else including the powers-that-be that Georgia would have had their way with Michigan, Texas, and Washington. And would they have met Alabama again in the title game they'd have beaten them too as long as the refs didn't miss as many calls as they did in this week's debacle.

But no, what really happened was the powers-that-be made a brief phone call to the advertisers who knew they could get away with whispering, "Um, yeah, another time Georgia is there? Um, no. Time for someone else, we've got money to make here."

So, back to the Chiefs, Travis Kelce just got PI'd, but no call. On the next play he barely pushes the Packers defender before making a fine catch, and they call the PI on him. As it is Mahomes is actually doing his terrific job of matriculating, and Isiah Pacheco is doing his terrific running like a madman. MVS made a fine catch to start to regain something of a decent receiver reputation.

Whupp, Mahomes gets sacked twice to end that threat, and Butker gets the field goal.

Now the Packers are moving the ball at will against this ONE-OF-THE-BEST-DEFENSES-THE-CHIEFS-HAVE-EVER-HAD. Justin Reid is now on a knee. Earlier Charles Omenihu went down but seemed to be back. Tranquill is likely out for the game with a concussion.

Besides being down two of our key linebackers, our pass rush is not stout enough, and the Packers offense is performing like the finest-oiled machine. They have done no wrong at all so far. Unless we start doing something meaningful or forcing some turnovers, this game is going to be lost very soon.

Whupp, there was a missed oppotunity. Big mistake by their QB that could've been intercepted but the throw was so bad no one could catch it. Still on the next play their QB threw a super easy TD pass. Again, the key is the failure of our D-line to get to the QB. Already 14-3 Packers.

Anyway, here's another thing the NFL really should address, and it shouldn't be hard. We watched just a bit of the Lions-Saints game, and wouldn't you know it, we were tuned in when that sideline official, one of those guys who handle the sideline markers or chains, got blasted by a running back being run out-of-bounds. Right after that they showed the replay and happened to catch that official lying down on that sideline, grimacing in agony with his leg bent all sideways.

Sure enough, he did badly break his leg, and they paused the game for some time to address his medical needs. During that time they mercifully did not show any more replays. Crazy, just as I was writing that Patrick Mahomes was run out of bounds and he ran into one of those same officials. It was not nearly as violent a hit as the one in the Lions-Saints game.

NFL action at this point? Really, just extend the part of the field sideline people cannot occupy. Beyond that large white area go about three feet farther and put down a yellow line. Keep everyone back behind that, even the sideline official guys. It really is just too dangerous for all that football action on the sideline -- these guys are just too large running too fast and falling on top of people too hard. 

In fact as I think about it, with so much super advanced information and graphic technology, isn't there some way it can all be done electronically now? I mean really, we all see where the first down is located on the field, you know, with that yellow line and all.

Back to game action, sure enough the Chiefs get all the way to the one-yard line 1st-&-goal, awright! -- annnd, wait-a-minute. Holding against Creed Humphrey. We have to settle on a field goal. That's nice. 14-6 not-us.

Okay, so we have them at 3rd-&-3 deep in there own territory with just under two minutes left. We can get the ball back and maybe get down for more points to tighten this one up.

Nope. Our D-back slips on this stupid Lambeau field and they get the pass completed for a first down. Then they get a nice run, another nice completed pass, And now they're in field goal range.

The announcers are now talking all about our failures at linebacker because we just don't have our two key guys in there. Those guys were also the key defensive on-field play-callers, too.

Wow, cool deal. We stopped them, a penalty and some decent D put them back a bit and they had to punt. Buuut, they punted the ball down to our three for the kneel. It is halftime, maybe our regrouping will be good, the Packers defense looked like it could be had.

Nkay, we get the ball first, let's see if Patrick can get us back in this thing here, but yep, it is up to our receivers and whether or not we can score any points at all in the second half...

Annnd sure enough we get called for holding on our second play of the half. Then we get an illegal shift penalty that was really ticky-tack. Annnnnnnnd now Isiah Pacheco is down -- he's now walking off the field on his own, so we'll see. They now tell us our starting left tackle is out for the game .

Yet Mahomes. He scrambles right up the gut and finds Kelce for the big game. Pacheco back in, and he pounds out an 11-yard gain. Very nice.

We do get the TD on some nice Rashee Rice action followed by an Isiah Pacheco punch-in. But then we try for two and we are afflicted by another Andy Reid tendency -- go to the well just once too often. He handed the ball to Pacheco on about the exact same play, and they stuff it. 14-12.

Oh wow. Now we may have lost Bryan Cook. Are you kidding me. This Lambeau Field, it is evil. Seriously. Early they were saying this stinkin' field requires you to be very careful with your footing, to have the right cleats on your shoes. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd now Cook is being carted off and they're saying they won't show the replay because it was ugly - lower leg thing. Please. 

No more of this.

One of those Four Horsemen of the Football Apocalypse is really killing us today. Remember them? Penalties (we've had some of those today), Turnovers (we've been okay there tonight hopefully not famous-last-words), Bad calls (that one by Andy on the two-point conversion was not great), and that fourth one -- Injuries.

Oh wow. Gimme a break. On fourth down their QB is about to be hammered by two linemen, he lofts up the duckiest of ducks, and it drops into his receiver's hand around four of our defenders for a 30-yard gain. Then he throws a TD to the guy in the back of the end zone. right past our defender's up-stretched hand.

Errrgh. This is just too much. I think I need a break. I'm coming back to this later to see if we can actually make a game of this. We do have Patrick Mahomes, so there is always hope. There is that.

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Okay, I'm back. This was indeed one ugly beyotch. 

Give the Packers credit, they did have a terrific game plan and executed it. We also got afflicted by one of those other Horsemen when Patrick Mahomes threw a pick late to snuff out a drive we needed. Thing is, some of the fault of that was on the intended receiver Skyy Moore who just didn't track Mahomes' pass well enough. Mahomes really shouldn't have thrown it, yes, but that is sadly because Moore is simply not the receiver who could make that play, so you just can't make that throw.

And that's one of the keys to all of this.

Their receivers made plays. They looked great, give them their due.

Our receivers meanwhile? 

Uggh.

Should we go through the list yet again? 

Briefly: MVS was invisible. Watson was invisible. Moore was pretty much invisible. Toney was not getting any downfield throws. Richie James actually made a great catch-and-run so how about working him in more? I should add that Rashee Rice was solid, again, but again, he can't do it all.

All these guys were needed to make plays especially at the end when we had the ball at midfield down by a score with about a minute left. That Hail Mary? Justin Watson actually had his hands on it, really, looking at the replay there is no reason for him not to grab that ball. 

But then...

It never should have come to that. There was a whole game they could have performed.

Again, broken record...

Our woeful receiving crew.

Nuff said.

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