Texans at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 14-1

Quick take as, again, family is over and all that.

First, the gruesome injury to the Texans receiver. I just wonder if there is some way they can make sure receivers know how not to run into their teammates diving for plays, or something. Seriously. Just like how they train tacklers to not do certain things in tackling -- for the health and safety of both runner and tacklers -- can't they do something about how to have receivers run routes or know where they need to go to prevent this kind of thing from happening. I know these kinds of things are freak things, and that is the reality of professional football. But is there something -- I'm always great with anything that helps protect the players.

Second, put away all that plap about the refs favoring the Chiefs. The Texans' first touchdown featured an obvious hold on their guy, yet in the Chiefs series just before they called a total phantom hold on Trey Smith. Their tight end caught the ball wide open at the goal line, and right after that a shower of boos rained down from the Arrowhead crowd. Huh. 

Turns out they knew: the replay showed the tight end fully shoving the defender out of the way to spring himself open to make the catch. Guh.

Third, Xavier Worthy was on fire. Having Marquis Brown in there and DeAndre Hopkins making more of his amazing short connection catches has really opened up this offense. And just a nod to Andy Reid making it all happen -- his play calling for this game was a million times better than that of the last two games. The times he got Samaje Perine in the mix for huge gains was sweet. It was also good to see him go with Kareem Hunt after Isiah Pacheco just wasn't getting as untracked as he should have. 

Patrick seemed to be fine on the bad ankle, he even had some fine runs including one long scramble bonanza for a touchdown.

On to Pittsburgh for Christmas Day!

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

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Texans at Chiefs - Quasi-Preview and Special Note

Tomorrow the Texans visit Arrowhead for the first of the last three games of the regular season, all brutal challenges for our 13-1 team. My special note is that family will be in for the holiday week, and because it will be pretty packed, that may preclude writing much about these next two games, the second on Wednesday, Christmas Day. 

It is indeed looking like Patrick Mahomes will play on his sprained ankle -- I mean for all his wonderful play one amazingly fine thing about the guy is his ferocious competitiveness. He has so much of it -- we cannot be more thrilled to keep enjoying watching this guy do what he does in the way he does it.

But yeah, brutal schedule stretch coming up here. After the Texans it is the Steelers and Broncos.

I should be able to make some really quick notes after each game, but here while I have a bit more time I wanted to make mention of an extraordinarily disappointing thing that has been going on with all of the American football world.

It isn't the money, really, because the money is merely a reflection of the authentic value of a given individual. That's actually a very fine thing.

It is certainly, however, the love of money, the root of all evil.

I've been paying attention to some of the television ads showing up in our games. Remember when the ads for football were almost exclusively beer, automobiles, shaving cream, and spark plugs?

Well, there are still a few beer and auto ads, but it seems like most of the other ads are for pharmaceutical products or insurance.

Uggh.

I am a stalwart Chiefs fan, and it is a joy to experience this golden age of Veach-Reid-Mahomes-led Chiefs football. We all feel that way. Even at that time later when they are not as dominant, I will still be a devout fan. Have been that way for the last, oh, fifty or so years.

But I can't help but shake my head and feel it when these evils are supporting our football entertainment.

There should be a law against pharmaceutical ads. In fact some have even suggested it. They are spiffy and splashy targeted to people who have no business deciding about these specific kinds of things, so why are they being shown to them? It isn't that they shouldn't be deciding things for their health, but that's exactly the point. Big Pharma works to make it so people are sick so they may continue to have customers. So much could be argued about how much these ads should not be shown, much more put into the substance of our athletes' paychecks. It is much more of a grievous evil than people think.

Then there is the insurance racket. These companies make billions from the task of keeping people frightened of anything and everything, and they feature hip, happy, fun vignettes to get people believing these racketeers have their best interests in mind. I've sometimes thought: huh, what can they put in these commercials to sell their crap, what can they say? The most honest one is the guy who wrecks everything, I think he calls himself "Mayhem." But still, "Here are all the crappy things out there you need to pay us to protect yourself from!" It is just wickedly exploitive.

Of course there are still the auto commercials, except that even those are hawking electric vehicles and doing so because they are subsidized by government to do more to hawk them. Few seem to grasp not only how inefficient electric automobiles are, but also how destructive. It seems most car commercials now feature the latest in fully electric technology that ironically require things that are indeed horribly labor exploitive and tremendously hazardous to the environment.

Then there are still the beer commercials, for a product that is still an illicit drug and one that should also be strictly prohibited. Yes, I've shared before: I am a Prohibition-favoring, temperance movement-cheering teetotaler, but that doesn't change the reality of how dangerous drinking alcohol is. It should say something when they have to put at the bottom of every ad, "Do this or that responsibly," "Don't drink and drive," "Be careful with your wretchedly ugly habit here, okay, just please don't be an asshole after drinking though we know how much we contribute to that," of course so they can try to absolve themselves of any and all liability.

Speaking of those kinds of disclaimers and warnings, there is also the massive prevalence of gambling site ads. I've already gone to the mat about the horrors of those, and yes, every single one of those operations should be shut down -- not just removed from their associations with sports leagues but made against the law. If you want to do all that from your basement far away from any of the sports entities, like it used to be, then I guess you can do that. But now?...

The added note about this is what it is doing to college football. 

It is killing it.

Right now you've got two evils that on the face of it could be decent, but they've been so abused that they are right now tearing the sport apart. You know what they are:

NIL and The Portal.

Not going to go into the details of these twin bastards, there is so much of it, except to say that to have college sports the way it should be, the rule should be this:

Go to school and stay there. Once you sign up, stay there, but on a team, and support your school and your team for four years. Go to class during the day and practice in the afternoon. For football play no more than 10 games a year and then a bowl game if you're good enough.

Find joy in that and be thankful you're getting an education paid for already.

And if you are one of the 0.0000000000000001% of the college players who are good enough to play in the NFL, then enjoy your stay there for, what, on average, two or three years, make some money, and then go to work at the job you learned to do in college just like everyone else.

And for all the teams in the NCAA or whatever governing entity there is there, stay in your regional conferences. Stay there and continue to foster the splendid rivalries you've established there. Enjoy it. Have fun. Revel in the blessing you have by it. Treasure the education you are getting.

This is not hard.

But, well,

The love of money.

This evil has kept wiser heads from prevailing, and it is extraordinarily sorrowful. Trying too hard to make everyone happy, you know, with all the monnnney... they are destroying their sport. Huh, I seem to remember a story about the Golden Goose.

All of this has seeped into the NFL, as well, just be virtue of how they are making their money and their attitude towards it. It's making its way into all of high-level organized sports, highlighted by all the gruesome "woke" stuff that still permeates everything. It does seem like they are dialing all that back a bit, but until they've all completely disavowed any and all "LGBTQ" kinds of things and anything like it, it will still be infected with the money rot and alienate even more fans than they already have.

Alas.

Our Chiefs.

It will get to a point when, should this keep up, my attention to even the Chiefs will wane, especially if and when they are not doing so well. Right now it doesn't seem as if the NFL is suffering much, I mean at least there is a critical mass of fans who really get off on hating the Chiefs for their wild success. That's actually a really cool thing about this Chiefs golden age. You know it.

But yeah, where is all this going...

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The image was clipped from a recent Sporting News item. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Browns - Week 14 - Record: 13-1

Yet again I can't not blog right now here at the beginning of the 2nd period. And yet again I ask the question.

What the ::mnnnph:: is wrong with our offense?

Yes, it could be a good Browns defense, give credit and all the rest of it.

But dang.

We are just getting nothing. We've had five series so far, and we've got a touchdown but that was the series that started deep in Browns territory after a muffed punt recovery. Otherwise we've punted four times, with an effective three-&-out every time -- I think we did get one 1st down on the first play in one of those. 

All I'm watching is what I was so aghast watching in the Chargers game last week. We're running the ball well enough, but when it comes time to pass -- here all set up for us with something of a good running attack -- Mahomes is just throwing the ball wherever.

Really.

Really -- what is up with that? Our receivers? Our tackles? Mahomes just not being so good before he must perform that patented magic show late in the game? Guh? Right now it is raining so that may be some of it.

Funny, the Browns do have Myles Garrett, if you don't remember, he was the guy who was the first pick of that 2017 draft that delivered us Patrick Mahomes at No. 10. He is still very good.

And as we watch this game right now, the Chiefs are deciding to do what we've all been screaming them to do: RUN - THE - FOOTBALL. Worthy just had a nice sweep run. Hunt and Pacheco are taking care of business. And sure enough, Patrick: back to pass... nothing, nothing, nothing, refusing now to just throw the ball nowhere - and he sprints through the line to get a 1st down.

We just got our first 3rd down conversion here with six minutes left in the half for a team that has been excellent at converting 3rd down. Whaddya gotta do with this team.

Annnd... Touchdown. Finally. Running the ball does wonders.

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Now I've zipped down to the end of the game. We finally closed this one out. 

There at the beginning of the 4th quarter holding a 21-7 lead it was clear Mahomes had to pass the ball out of the fine play of our running game. If he didn't, they just key on our running game. That was really what started to happen. Our running game started getting stuffed, and Mahomes was still failing to get the ball to our receivers. Yep, it started to look like the beginning of this game. Lots of three-&-outs or just getting slogged down simply because Patrick could not make those connections.

In fact, at the beginning of that 4th quarter he was 15-32 for 128. Horrible. I mean that is just pathetic for a team like this. Again... what - is - up - with - that.

Patrick's last play of the game in the middle of the 4th was a futile jump pass, and it resulted in an injury to his foot. He did get absolutely plastered on that play, it was ugly. But I was thinking, huh, that amazing jump pass completion he made to Xavier late in the Chargers game last week, probably the most important play of that game, it was truly a Mahomes magic play.

But did that in some way give him the incentive to try that kind of stuff more often? Is this wise? After all he's now out and we must all wonder about the extent of his injury.

And just plain why is he feeling like he must be Superman back there? What is the deal with him just stepping back, calmly scanning the field, and firing it right into the hands of our very capable receivers? Why aren't we doing that? 

Carson Wentz came in, and with just under four minutes left of game time and needing just a single first down to really salt this one away, made two straight completions, to Hopkins then Worthy, to get that key 1st down with just under four minutes left. I'm not saying for two seconds we should think about putting Carson in if Mahomes is good to go, but dang. really, can I say it?...

We've got this regular season. It is ours. We may even get the No. 1 seed, that'd be very nice. But here's the thing...

I know...  Scandalous. Sacrilege. Heresy...

How about giving Mahomes a rest next week. Let his foot heal if indeed it is only something like that -- just hoping it isn't anything worse. Let a very capable and very healthy and rested Carson Wentz practice to the hilt this week and play the entire game next week. 

As it is we got tremendous help from a mostly stagnant Browns offense along with a whopping six takeaways and five sacks from our defense.

But yeah, here we are 14 games into the season and we've just got to stay healthy and be ready for the playoffs. Chamarri Connor looked like he got clocked pretty good. Other key players are nursing injuries. Even a previously injured Harrison Butker missed a gimme field goal today.

And this was the first of three games over the course of eleven days, the next two against two of the best teams in the conference, the Texans and Steelers. This is brutal. Again, the key question...

How about just resting Patrick Saturday? No matter what? Give him a nice recovery rest, to refresh, to renew, to restore, to recapture his game?

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Annnd then there's this. Just saw this a bit after posting here. I can't neglect to share it because it comes from a guy pretty well-versed in all this.

I have shared it before, but here it is well-considered from someone else. How many others? Who else is really looking at this and wondering... feeling exasperated... Really...

Who else considers the problem is not our tackles, or receivers, or the other team just suddenly having a world-class defense, or anything but... ahem...

Is there even a remotely possible chance I will have the overwhelmingly compelling desire to write another "The Exasperating Reid" post? How can that be when, really: Scoreboard, baby. He wins, baby. He's gotten the Chiefs three Super Bowls in the last five years, baby.

What to do with that?...

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The photo of JuJu scoring our 1st TD of the game is from Mikayla Schlosser at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chargers at Chiefs - Week 14 - Record: 12-1

Okay, since it is a late it is time to start this blog post. And even though it is merely the closing minutes of the 3rd quarter, this game is yet again way too aggravating.

This Chiefs team is a good team. It is. Its offense is incredibly potent.

But it looks like a limp noodle. 

The comparison: The Chargers are looking sharp, running the ball well with imaginatively arranged running plays. Herbert is looking sharp, stepping back, taking his time, and throwing strikes.

Meanwhile...

It all started when Mahomes threw a wide-open right-in-his-hands short pass to some guy I've never seen before who was playing tight end. He drops it. You've had to have been playing football for at least some time being a receiver of some sort where your only job during the week is to practice catching passes. Here is your only moment, you're in the NFL, and you drop the ball.

The whole thing with our offense isn't just on this poor guy in one play. It is all of them. It is what I mentioned in my takes from the last game: unimaginative play-calling by Andy Reid and our coaching staff taking advantage of the skill we've got on the field. Our tackles are still not playing great, but Mahomes has plenty of time to step back and fire the ball down the field. 

Our first four drives got us bupkis. This team should have been up 28-0. After that time we were only up 6-0. Our last possession of the 1st half was a nifty Mahomes-to-Hopkins laser pass, catch, and dive into the end zone. I can't deny that the Chargers do have one of the top defenses in the NFL, so credit must be given there. At the half it was 13-0. 

Then the Chargers went off. I realized in the middle of this they don't even have their really good RB JK Dobbins or their really good WR Ladd McConkey. And they still torched us for two touchdowns. 

And then on offense to start the 4th quarter? We matriculated well only because of Isiah Pacheco. Then Trey Smith got a cheesy helmet-butting personal foul call to set us back and we had to settle for a field goal. Truly truly truly exasperating, this team. When Isiah's not pounding the rock, Mahomes is throwing the ball everywhere but into receivers' hands. 

This should not be happening.

I'm finding myself screaming at our fine QB like I screamed at Alex Smith any instance just before he got sacked. Remember those times? "Throw - the - ball. Throwtheballdownthefield!" This whole game so far: Herbert throwing the ball right to his receivers, Mahomes looking totally flummoxed. Sorry. Again...

This is not just our offensive tackle play.

So here we are with 4 minutes left and the Chargers have the 17-16 lead. It's nice to see if the Mahomes magic show will be a spectacular one yet again, but yet again, why does it come down to this?

Why, Andy Reid?

Why when this offense should have us up at least 35-17?

Yep, start with two dinky incompletions. That's great, just great. But on 3rd down Mahomes did a magic trick, scrambling and connecting with Xavier Worthy. 3 minutes and we now have the ball in FG range. 

I have to give credit to our coaching staff and Mahomes for this. The television guys just broke down that last running play, here a bit before the 2-minute warning, pointing out that they took care of business to get Isiah untracked to chew clock, get 1st downs.

Mahomes then pulled another rabbit from his hat, avoiding a sure tackle and hitting Kelce for another of those clutch 1st downs.

Now I don't get this. We have the ball at about the 15, and certainly can run the clock down to 0:01, but we're just kneeling until we try the game-winning FG. Why don't we try to score a touchdown? Why not just at least run the ball to try?

For one, this is just so disrespectful. Sorry, but I'd be ticked off if I were the Chargers. Yes, I do know it is much safer to just kneel a couple of times, but the thing is our field goal attempt may not go. While Matthew Wright has actually been very good so far, there is never any guarantee we make it.

Well, turns out our relief kicker banged his attempt off the left upright -- the ball getting through anyway. I'm watching this as the ball sails wide left going, yep, I knew it -- what in the world are these guys thinking out there.

But just like that game in I believe 2016 against the Broncos, that OT win when Cairo Santos did exactly the same thing and the announcer at the time, Mike Tirico, the same one for this game, bellowed "Off the upright, and in!" -- we could breath again.

We did end up winning. Still...

There is one thing to say about this hair-raising affair.

Errrrrrghckghckrrrghck.

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The photo is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 11-1 - Monday Take

One more take, here on a Monday. Please check out my Sunday Take, it has much more on the current state of our Kansas City Chiefs.

But yeah, I just really wanted to add a couple of quick things, all of it related to the penalties situation with the Chiefs and NFL football as a whole.

First of all I caught this in one of my social media feeds:

So there you go. A reasonable explanation from the NFL front office that the officials did not miss that last call. Again, it isn't just that it rescued the Chiefs, but it is an instance when your thoroughly messing up shouldn't bail you out. 

And then this brief note here real quick after watching some of this NFL football not-the-Chiefs and seeing some of the social media posts put up about the day's action.

I am even more certain of the value of the things I shared in my Panthers game post, and that is here for you to link to it. For review:

1. Get more officiating from "New York." Meaning get officials with monitors to make calls from the 360-degree vision we all have watching on TV, helping out the refs on the field whose vision is just so limited. 

2. Insist on hands off eligible receivers (and defenders for that matter) from the time the play starts. Maybe it's okay within that five-yards, but I'm even thinking even starting the rule from scrimmage: No jostling, slapping, pushing, bumping, or any touching at all. None. Yes, that means no more "You can manhandle them up to five yards out." See if the receiver can run good routes and the QB can connect. See if the D-backs can make good plays on the ball. And any defensive breakaway violations puts the ball at the opponent's one, 1st-&-goal.

3. Any player, offense or defense, who is flagged for this twice is ejected from the game. Well, okay, maybe give them three times, but have some limit. 

Again, much help from the booth with officials looking at monitors makes this viable.

The main point: Let the players make plays. Stop, please stop with the incessantly thrown flags or having us behold silly plays that deserve flags but don't get them because the on-field refs just can't see them well enough. Send that message loud and clear so the players know they've got to make plays and not commit penalties.

Let's enjoy a mostly penalty-free game again.

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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 11-1 - Sunday Take

We aren't playing today because we played in a rare Friday-after-Thanksgiving game.

Since then a couple things came to mind I can share as I do some lazy Sunday game-watching.

First, the Chiefs got very lucky on the very last Raiders play that should have been a nothing-burger just before they bang through the game-winning field goal. As I watched that play unfold, the one in which they bungled the snap and lost the ball to the Chiefs yet were flagged for illegal procedure, I did think what I'm sure pundits mentioned afterwards -- a thought I have not seen shared because I don't want to look. 

I just don't want to see any more about how lucky the Chiefs are or how much their wins are rigged in their favor. I'm sick of that.

Anyway, I did think what I think a lot of others thought.

How come the play wasn't blown dead before the Chiefs benefitted from a fumble recovery to seal their win? If it was illegal procedure, then isn't it the case the Raiders would've been penalized the five yards and then just kicked the GW from there? I wondered.

I will add that I was very very very pleased the play was ruled the way it was. And one simple reason I do think it was justified, is that why should the Raiders mess up so horribly, get a penalty and then benefit from their mess-up by being given a chance to win the game? I actually thought, huh, maybe the rule is if you do indeed eff things up like the Raiders did -- penalty, mess-up, fumble -- you simply don't get the benefit of your messing up providing you the opportunity to win.

If it had happened to the Chiefs, I'd be horrifically disappointed, and I'd probably whine a bit about the rule inconsistency, but still, I'd be resigned to our fate for that exact reason.

We effed up. Why should we get a chance to win by benefitting from it? We got ours.

In the meantime, that whole episode doesn't do us good, because again, we get everyone blapping loudly about how we don't deserve to be 11-1.

That leads to the second thing I thought about. And that is simply

This team is actually really good.

I may be wrong. This team may, in reality, at its core, be much worse than we think. It may indeed be much more reflective of a team that should be more like 6-5 if it didn't have all the breaks it's had. Or maybe we just need to accept we're playing other NFL teams that can be pretty danged good themselves, no shame in that.

On the other hand, if you really look at all those games there is no reason to assume those breaks got us to 11-1. For a particular example of an instance, that Ravens' Isaiah Likely toe-on-the-endline almost-TD reception at the end of regulation would've only tied that 1st game of the season given the went for a one-point PAT. Generally speaking, how many other times did we win simply because Mahomes & Co. were that good and because of that they could turn a close one into a win. 

And that's the main thing. I just think the team's exceptional quality of talent is making the Chiefs. To wit:

Mahomes. Nuff said.

Our receiving crew has Travis Kelce and a coming-of-age Noah Gray, but it has added DeAndre Hopkins who has been nothing short of phenomenal. JuJu has been playing well, Xavier even better, and just wait until we get Hollywood in there. And everyone seems to forget very reliable Justin Watson, who, if you by chance should remember, was the only Chiefs touchdown-getter in the game Friday.

Our running game got a big boost with Isiah returning but it was doing well enough with Kareem saving things a few weeks ago. Samaje Perine has also been extraordinarily serviceable.

Our O-line consists of what is widely considered the best interior line group in the NFL: Joe, Creed, and Trey. If they do their jobs, Isiah and Kareem should be fine.

That leaves our tackles. 

I'm not going to say Wanya is this or Jawaan is that, except that we all know they aren't playing the best football. But here's the thing. Here's my question...

The Chiefs are THAT bad barely winning games JUST because of our TACKLES? REALLY?

Yes we all know they aren't playing well. But please. With all those other bona fide pro-bowlers -- every single one of those people I mentioned such -- the Chiefs are a bad team just getting lucky?

Oh my.

So what's the solution? What's really going on?

The whole looking to DJ Humphries slotted in at left tackle may seem like a brilliant season-saving move, but I'm not so sanguine. We've seen this movie before, remember our Super Bowl against the Buccaneers? We had a patch-work O-line that really hurt us, but remember, Patrick played lights out. We lost that game much because our receivers were dropping all kinds of passes, and, this is the key, we didn't have a real game plan to cover for those deficiencies.

And you know what that means.

Andy Reid.

I'm sorry, but so far we definitely should have won more of those games by more than one score. This team is too good to have this many close games. But if you look at these games, you'll see that we're messing up just too many times -- we're just not making the plays we should to put many more hammers down.

Is a good amount of that the fault of our poor tackle play? Sure. But then, with everyone else we have in there, that's the only thing that is to blame? We're bad because we have bad tackles when we have an offense full of pro-bowlers?

Please.

Sorry, but again, and I hate to say it, but that is on Andy Reid. It isn't just that we mess up too much, but our mess-ups are the result of some head-shaking unimaginative play-calling or plays run that had no business being run at those times. How many times do you see that? Be honest. It's a lot. It's happened before, we cringe watching the Chiefs run a play it seems the other team knows is going to be run.

Where is the fun, wild, daring Andy Reid that we've been blessed to enjoy over the past several years? Where is the misdirection, the fake-outs, even the goofy plays he's plucked from the 1947 Rose Bowl team? Have you noticed? They're totally missing from this year's team. 

I believe people hate this year's version of the Chiefs not so much because they believe them so wickedly lucky or feed their theories of bribed officials, but because they are just so boring. Yes, D-Hop has been making some stunning catches and Travis and his after-catch laterals are amazing, but other than that, what are we doing that's special -- that's getting us to show we mean business out there not only making our fans proud but impressing detractors?

I'm not saying at all we have to try to win with gimmicks. Not at all. In fact that's the point. We have some of the best players in the NFL who can do the winning for us. It's just they must be given better opportunities for their play to shine, our poor tackle play notwithstanding. 

Here's a great example: what happened to getting Mecole or Xavier doing jet sweeps? Even if it is a "jet sweep option" at least you're freezing the defense. Sorry but we've been seeing none of that lately. Why?

I've heard some say Andy's waiting for the right moment to spring all that on us. He may, and if he wins another Super Bowl doing that -- well, great. But I also think, why wait? Why not just give us your best now -- and strategically make the other team's players overthink, wonder, play on their heels?

Andy, how about being dominant right now with this amazing offense you have, and yes, make adjustments for tackles who may not be playing that great? 

We play the Chargers on prime-time next Sunday night. They're a solid team, with an excellent quarterback and strong defense, and are now coached by a dude who'll take no prisoners.

If our coaching staff isn't about working to kick ass instead of futzing around and thinking our tackle problems can just take the heat, look out. This could be an embarrassment.

One more thing. I haven't said a thing about our defense, but I think we have more issues there than just losing Jaylen Watson -- something that has seemed to devastate our D-backfield. Our run defense seems to be much softer than it was last year, and our pass rush is average at best.

What is weird is (back to the offense for a sec) I'm watching the Rams-Saints game and they just showed a graphic: after catching a TD pass for the Saints, Marques Valdez-Scantling had his fourth in four games.

Whudddd?

Are - you - kidding - me?

He never played like that for the Chiefs. While he did have some fine games, especially the AFC Title game against the Bengals two years ago, it seems he is way better than we ever thought he was. In fact, I'm watching DeMarcus Robinson play lights out for the Rams... annnd... 

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Even with the Chiefs I'd always been high on D-Rob, but, well, he just never got untracked. Why? MVS also, why couldn't he show us what he had?

Was it these guys, or was it...

Uggghh...

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The posted photo is from Tyler McFarland at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 11-1

Okay I really can't wait to ferociously blap about this game. Yes, I know there've been a dozen times it seems in recent years when the Chiefs go down early to the Raiders and come back to win comfortably.

But as I feel the need to type this out here about half-way through the 2nd quarter, since I've got a lazy Friday to enjoy Chiefs football while the wife is out shopping with other family, I can't help but be again extraordinarily perplexed.

So far what we've all witnessed was a Chiefs offense that is playing about as impotently as it can. With the exception of Travis Kelce, everyone has been caw-caw. Mahomes is missing open receivers. Our receivers are not getting open and when the ball is put in range of catching they either give up on it or just drop it. Our running game is non-existent, even with the vaunted Isiah Pacheco back in there.

The Raiders' offense, on the other hand, is far less able than the Chiefs' offense, but they're making plays. They're running around like the proverbial Chinese fire-drill dudes but they're still matriculating. They're just making the fine plays they need to make, particularly by their receiver Jacoby Myers. Just now their 2nd-string QB was running for his life and flung the ball wildly whereupon their strong new TE swept under the ball to make the grab. And their running game they've been saying is the worst in the NFL? They've been chewing up yards like they're the best. Whudd?...

On defense we're just not making the plays. Now I see Nick Bolton not make an interception he should have made -- but hey, their really good kicker didn't make the long FG. ::Whew::

But why a bunch of ::Whew::s. How is this looking kinda like that nightmare last year on Christmas, that tremendously silly loss to Raiders at Arrowhead when the team just farted around the whole game against a woefully inferior team and lost. Remember after the middle of the 2nd quarter in that game, their QB, the same one playing in this game, completed zero passes.

It is kinda looking the same this time.

Let's see. It is now almost the end of the 1st half and we do have the ball at midfield... annnd...

Bam. There you go, a good, nice, Mahomes-slip-away-from-the-rush long completion to Noah Gray. The question now is, will we finish. Will this actually pretty decent team get the touchdown here. Will Andy Reid dial up some plays that get the job done?... Um...

Well, okay, but it seemed much more of the patented Kelce no-look catch-&-lateral to Perine to get that 1st down. Super neat. And then FINALLY, the floating pass to Watson at the side of the end zone who makes a terrific hold-on-to-the-ball catch. And the replay: just that Mahomes got clobbered from his left forcing him to make that pass across his body as he went down.

Wow. That's truly part of the amazingness of this dude, that he can kinda suck for a few plays but if he has one chance to make a truly spectacular, very necessary, quite astonishing big-time play, he does.

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Okay, that was it with my 1st-half venting. Now the game is over. We won.

But uggh.

There was one thing that was very pronounced about this game.

It was far too painful to have to endure. Not just at the very the end but the whole thing.

We had two chances to put this away late in the game. With six minutes left we had the ball, up 19-17, three-&-out. With two minutes left we had it again at midfield after a very fortunate missed Raiders long FG attempt, again three-&-out. But really, it should have never come down to that. Really, there are so many things wrong with the Chiefs, and actually right with the way the Raiders played today.

That last-second mess-up-snap fumble recovery to save our asses when they were in easy FG range not withstanding. 

The Raiders, a clearly far inferior team, just played better. They played with the intention of making the plays they needed to make. They are, after all, an NFL team. Their new tight end is the next Travis Kelce, and he played lights out for them.

The Chiefs showed the whole country that they cannot win a game with the offensive tackle play they have and without the defensive backfield play they need. 

The Raiders also won the game in the trenches just like they did last year. The TV guys kept saying over and over and over again the Raiders were the worst rushing team in the league. Except they outran us 2-to-1. Derrp. Add to this our pass rush is just not the best. Chris Jones and George Karlaftis had some decent stops, but it is just not getting enough pressure on the QB. Double derrp.

Mahomes was frustrated not making the plays he can make with the pocket not as securely protected as it should be. He was sacked five times AGAIN today -- remember last week he was sacked five times, by the Panthers. When he is ready D.J. Humphries can't help but help over there at left tackle. I really think the Chiefs thought that really good-looking draft pick Kingsley Suamataia was going to step right in and be the second coming of Anthony Munoz. That he wasn't by miles has really hurt us.

Even when he had protection Mahomes was just missing, missing, and missing again. Our receivers did not help -- while they did make some fine plays, too many other times they just never got open, made some drops, or simply made poor attempts to get up and get that ball.

Meanwhile their QB was set up for success from his coaching staff. Step back, throw the ball to the spot, and let the receivers do their jobs in the routes he knows they're running. Our defensive backfield certainly helped them out. They gave up big play after big play to Raiders receivers who weren't going to mess up.

We just didn't seem to care enough on offense to make the plays or on defense to stop them.

This Chiefs team should have won going away, really, 30-7. At least. But again, maybe, really just maybe those deficiencies at tackle and the inabilities to replace Jaylen Watson are just far too glaring.

As it is we're assured of a playoff spot. 

But dang.

This kind of effort won't get it done against, coming up...

The Chargers.

The Texans.

The Steelers.

And yes, nowadays, the Broncos.

And and and...

Whatever playoff teams we'll face.

Last year after that horrific Christmas Day Raiders debacle, we ran the table, most notably against very very very good Bills Ravens and Niners teams to win it all. 

Will we keep that phenomenally unprecedented run going for the three-peat?

Errrgmpf.

Not playing like this.

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The photo is from Kyle Rivas at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Panthers - Week 12 - Record: 10-1

Over the course of the week following the Buffalo loss everyone was blaming someone. Even Brett Veach got the treatment for just not making the right picks in the draft. Please. How many times have other teams' GMs not picked the Creed Humphreys and Trey Smiths of the team before the Chiefs got them.

But I am now officially concerned. What is going on with this team? I do think, however, about the many times the Chiefs have had grave disappointments mid-season but we've come back and been amazing. And I didn't think the Carolina game would be a pushover game by any means.

Still I do think our injuries have hurt us more than we think. I truly believe the biggest loss was that of Rashee Rice. It didn't help that we lost Marquise Brown after the very first play of the preseason.

On the other hand, picking up DeAndre Hopkins was a coup, and getting Noah Gray (another fine Veach draft selection) in the mix have helped a ton, especially in this game. Of course Kareem Hunt has been a godsend, but as we all know he simply cannot carry the whole load. He's got to be exhausted with how much we've been giving him the rock.

I am also concerned about Andy Reid -- it just seems he's gotten back to being too conservative with his play-calling especially late in a game. Come on, you've got Mahomes, and D-Hop, and Kareem and Samaje for great screen action, and Gray who'd been great today, and Travis, and...

Putting the hammer down like we should? Today we were up 20-6, and again later in the game 27-16 -- annnd we let them back in it.

Why is Patrick getting sacked at any point in this game, like he did twice when we could have put the game away with just a few minutes left? And once during the drive before that putting us out of FG range? You really want to blame our tackles? Again, please. Sorry, but that is on Andy. He can do it, he always has -- he can make plays that work.

And defensively? By the time the 4th quarter got going -- Carolina had six possessions and got five scores each time? They stormed down the field late and got the TD and 2-point conversion they needed to tie it. One could easily make the argument that the loss of Jaylen Watson to injury was the most impactful. I wouldn't argue against that, actually. It seems to be really hard to find good solid cover guys, and when you get a major gouge in your secondary it can be very bad.

Thing is, with less than a minute left and the ball, Patrick did rescue us from all this by making a spectacular scrambling run for 30-something yards to get us safely in FG range to snatch up this win.

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I wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts about all the penalties. It does seem like every other play includes some yellow flag thrown. Too many penalties just makes the games drag. We can easily say it is the players' fault for just not following the rules and doing bad things on the field causing all the flags.

Particularly troubling are the flags thrown for passing and catching plays, namely those pass interferences and holding calls on pass defenders. One of the problems is the interpretations of what those are, and really, half the time you wonder. Either it was so blatant but not called, or it was barely anything and it was called. (And yes, the Chiefs don't get favored with those kinds of calls, especially in today's game...)

One pundit, I think it was Trey Wingo, pointed out in a social media post that the officials on the field are seeing the game in a linear fashion, while we are all watching in 360 degree digital. Absolutely. Somewhere else it was pointed out that the Chiefs had been asking for more attention from officials "in the sky" for some time. They are just starting to get around to doing that, and yes, just getting the call correct.

But it isn't enough. I really think there should be changes in the rules with regards to the passing game on the field. Consider the following.

After five yards off the line, defenders cannot touch at all any eligible receiver. No touching at all, meaning no jostling, no hands lifted up on the body in any way. If it is incidental such as the receiver happens to touch the defender while on his route that can be allowed, but really, for the most part: 

HANDS OFF. 

Totally. No reaching out or touching the opposing player, on either side. Don't even bump the player before the ball arrives unless you are clearly in a position to play the ball.

If you don't keep off, it is a penalty.

It may be said this will increase penalties. Hold on, just a minute. There is more.

The penalty should be much more severe, in a number of ways.

One, get the "interpretation" from the official in the booth, or in New York, or wherever. Again, let the people who see the game on the monitor from the 360 perspective make the call. Communication technology is so advanced officials on the field can get word when there is really a penalty.

Two, if a receiver has gone past the defender and he is PI'ed or held, put the ball at the one yard-line. This is kind-of the same as the breakaway rule in the NBA for a player clear to make a dunk and he is impeded deliberately to keep him from scoring. This should prevent all the contact that mess with the big explosive pass plays we all like to see.

Three, the one that I think will do the most to empower the players to not commit the penalties we are so tired of seeing: if a player gets flagged for two such fouls, they are ejected from the game. I know this sounds excessive, but if you want the players to be incentivized to not make those penalties on those pass plays, then mean business about it. Again, take a page from the NBA. Players there must take a seat if they commit too many fouls. Let's do this in the NFL. In fact, it would be much easier for them to just back off and play the passed ball.

Just play the game.

It may be said "But so many scores will be 57-54!"

Awesome. What is wrong with that? As it is too many games are 10-6, defenses are too unnecessarily aggressive, they get away with too much, and penalty flags fly left and right. If your defenders are good, they'll play the ball, not impede the receivers. If your players are smart and good enough, they'll play with the best they can bring and not commit stupid penalties costing their teams games when they get ejected for them.

And really, this applies to offensive linemen holding. This actually helps the defenses! The number of times I see offensive linemen hold and it isn't called. On the other hand, stop calling phantom holds, like the Chiefs got last week in the Bills game. Critical holding call against us helped them in a major way when the D-lineman was really just flopping.

Hey, more attention to doing it right and proving your football athleticism, I'm all for. In a very real sense, that is what we really want to see out there.

We definitely want to see way fewer penalty flags.

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The photograph is by Sam Lutz at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Bills - Week 11 - Record: 9-1

As much as we own the Bills in the postseason, they own us in the regular season. We lost to them yet again, this loss ending our perfect season record and 15-game winning streak.

Not going to get much into this one, except to note that we still really should have won this game. My own concern was with the defense, especially in the 2nd half when we've traditionally activated the halftime adjustment plan and put the hammer down.

Today we did the patented Spags blitzing way too much, because their fine QB Josh Allen was killing us when we did it. Halfway through that half I was screaming at Spags to stop blitzing. But he kept doing it. And we kept getting beat. Hey, I'd've been great with them rushing three for that matter with a shadow just to force him into some of those errant throws he'll always make at some critical time.

And that run he made for the dagger TD late in the game. What was with Nick Bolton totally whiffing on that? Sure it'd've been nice for us to stop them on that 4th-&-2 play, but wow, Allen had no business doing that. 

I know many will say Patrick had an off day, and he did, really, but mention must be made of the amazing Mahomes TD throw to Noah Gray for his 2nd TD. If you watch the replay he threw a bullet whizzing past three Bills defenders to the back corner of the end zone while running full-speed to his right with a pass rusher a millisecond from pulverizing him. Look at how he threw the ball. Just more of the kind of QB we've got there.

No worries. Let's just see what happens when it really counts in January.

Good thing about this one is simply we got that loss out of the way, we did lose to a very good team, and it is again an opportunity to regroup and address the things that went poorly for us today. At 9-1? We are still so much in the driver's seat.

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Broncos at Chiefs - Week 10 - Record: 9-0

When the Chiefs failed to score a touchdown down around the Broncos' 5 with a little over five minutes left I knew we were in trouble. It'd've been nice with a mere FG and a 16-14 lead for our defense to clamp down on the Broncos' defense just like they had throughout the 2nd half, employing the patented Spags surprise blitz packages at just right moments. The Broncos could not cope with any of that, yet here at the end of the game they were matriculating just fine to get into game-winning FG range.

So getting it all the way down to one second left to make sure there weren't the two seconds making it easier for Mahomes to go 60 yards for Butker to come back at them for the Chiefs game-winner, the Broncos lined up for the gimme FG until the Chiefs did something that only championship teams do.

They actually played as ferociously as needed to block the kick.

Which they did.

Peeking around briefly at the social media posts related to this event I saw many of the standard blaps, including "The refs are Chiefs fans" over and over. Yeah, whatever.

But this one stood out.

"The Chiefs hate is about to be at record levels."

So much fun.

Thing is, the Chiefs should never have gotten down to having to do that. There is no reason in the world they shouldn't have scored a couple more touchdowns today. Granted the Broncos defense is really pretty good -- not neglecting to give them all the credit they deserve. But all I heard this week was how DeAndre Hopkins was going to make it impossible for an opponent to keep the Chiefs from scoring touchdowns in the red zone.

Um, yeah.

It is really good, however, that since Hopkins got here Kelce has been reanimated. Today he had eight catches and a nifty touchdown. Thing is, we can't get JuJu and Hollywood back soon enough. The Chiefs just can't seem to get it going with Xavier Worthy who had a number of targets but only caught one pass. It wasn't even that D-Hop wasn't good, he was, he had four fine grabs on the day. The other WRs? Iggh.

We also can't keep running the ball going to the well too much with Kareem Hunt. As well as he's done so far he needs a break sometimes. They're stuffing him and when he's getting a breather there is no one else to go to. We ran the ball only 16 times today and only Carson Steele got other carries, two total. Eee-yee. So yeah, Isiah Pacheco can't return soon enough, and hey, where is CEH? 

So yeah, this one might have been one to be okay with getting a loss and taking the pressure off the whole "being undefeated" thing. Not that I don't want the Chiefs to win the next 57 million straight.

But it was nice to see them still sell-out to block that Broncos game-winning kick. Just says we are the championship team we are.

All haters welcome.

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The image is simply a video screenshot of the television broadcast of the blocked field goal.

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Buccaneers at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 8-0

Another primetime game. Ho-hum. Well, actually, it can't be any better. I can't help but think of the too many lean years when the Chiefs never saw a nationally televised evening game. This one is also on ABC, and that is nice as it is precisely where the traditional Monday Night Football game experience should be -- meaning it is not just on cable.

Since I can blog and watch this thing unfold at the same time I'm just going to track our drives with the score posted after each one. Make it simple tonight in a game we should win, but then... yeah...

1st drive - We moved the ball well, getting it nicely to Travis Kelce. We finally throw the ball deep and a wide-open Worthy near the goal line can't adjust and not go out of bounds on a sure TD. On 3rd down Mahomes lets himself get sacked to keep us from any points. We punt. 0-0.

2nd drive - We moved the ball well again this time with DeAndre Hopkins making the plays. Then we try a double-reverse to Worthy but an unblocked defender messes it up.  Big loss. We must settle for field goal. 3-0.

3rd drive - Matriculated well again. This time Justin Watson is the key receiver. A swing pass to Worthy goes nowhere -- just seems Worthy is playing like a rookie tonight. But then, DeAndre Hopkins. Dang. As Mahomes is getting hammered he drops a deep pass into Hopkins' breadbasket around three defenders. Then the TD pass to Hopkins in the back of the end zone. Dang what we're seeing from this guy is truly something the Chiefs have not had at wide receiver. He is looking like the future Hall-of-Famer that he is. 10-7.

4th drive - With two minutes left in the 1st half we started okay, but, well, turnovers. At midfield with a minute left Kelce had the ball knocked loose. Bucs recovered. 10-7.

5th drive - We got the ball once again but now with :30 left. Got nothin'. Halftime 10-7 us.

6th drive - Now in 2nd half, 1st possession. Fat zero. Three-&-out. Mahomes was totally flummoxed. Bucs just making plays tonight, on both offense and defense. 10-14.

7th drive - Worked Kareem Hunt much more. Also started raining more heavily. Matriculated well, yet again. Got down to 3rd-&-goal and Mahomes magic happened again with a run to the line-of-scrimmage then a quick flip to Perine for the TD. 17-17.

Except the magic came at a price.

Mahomes tossed that ball awkwardly, landing weird on his left leg, and it looked bad. He was helped across the field to the Chiefs sideline, but it did appear he straightened up when he got there, walking decently. At the time of this writing right this minute we have no idea what happened.

After the commercial break we saw that he came out of the medical tent and jogged along the sideline. Oh my. Apparently it was just an aggravation of the left ankle issue he'd been having. Major ::whew::

8th drive - Mahomes back in there, doing decent matriculating. Hunt getting called upon a lot again, and what a runner. He finds creases wonderfully. Thing is they simply don't take advantage of that workload, employing more play action off Hunt's success. But with about 4:00 left we get the pop slant at the goal line to who else, the guy who's going to for-sure make the clutch catch, D-Hop. 24-17.

9th drive - Now we have the seven-point lead with 2:30 left. It is pouring rain, and it is funny that the greatest downpour during an NFL game happened back on the last game of the 1979 season when, you guessed it, the Chiefs played the Bucs in Tampa. Thing is now we're just giving hand-offs to Hunt and they are predictably stuffing him. The only thing that really does is get the Bucs to burn timeouts. Yep. Erggh: Three-&-out.

10th drive - After the Bucs drove right down the field to score a game-tying TD -- something we could have done -- actually just run some decent plays on that drive just before to at least try to get some 1st downs -- derrp, we were left with :30 to try to get down to try to win it. We did squat. Had to punt to take the game to OT. 24-24.

11th drive - We get the ball to start OT. Matriculating the ball really well yet again. Now we're mixing it up brilliantly. Showing different looks -- giving it to Hunt sometimes, getting it to D-Hop, Travis other times.

Finally.

From the one, give to Kareem and he powers his way into the end zone.

Thuh end.

Still undefeated. 8-0. Now holding a 14-game winning streak, longest ever in Chiefs history. Before the game I happened to catch the odds for an undefeated season at 4%, and with the win tonight that goes up to 8%. That's pretty amazing actually -- just fun that it's even there. No big deal if we lose one though, take the pressure off really. Tonight it was pretty close to being the one.

Except this one should not have been this close. The Bucs were without their two best WRs, but give them credit, their other guys actually played extremely well. We kept messing up too many times. Even though Patrick did not have a pick for the first time in, how many games? It's been a few. 

Still there were too many things we did that got us derailed against what they said was a pretty weak pass defense. Again, kudos to them, their pass rush was stout, their heart was fully in it, their offense messed with our defense quite effectively -- I mean I watched our defense just get taken like it never had before.

But then for the Chiefs, what an addition is D-Hop. I honestly do not think we win this game without him, and we just got him a week-&-a-half ago. Yeah, I can only echo what so many are thinking -- they even mentioned it on the broadcast tonight, "It just isn't fair."

All good for us.

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The photo is by Sam Lutz  at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Raiders - Week 8 - Record: 7-0

The big news this week was that Brett worked out a sweet deal to bring in DeAndre Hopkins. Just a couple years ago he was definitely one of the elite wideouts in the league, let's hope he still has something meaningful to give us on our grand quest. Sure enough he got that deep out route on our third play of the game to get a clutch 1st down on our way to our first touchdown.

This is one of the great things about the Chiefs right now. With Andy Reid we've developed such a phenomenal culture of excellence and winning that these kinds of players want to come here. It seems like every year we work out bringing in somebody or even somebodies to give us that extra lift. This year there have been a few: Kareem and JuJu and Mecole, all again, and now D-Hop. 

The first half was fine, we actually got a TD, then forced the Raiders into a nice 3-&-out, and could zip down and bang through a FG to make it 17-10.

But then the 2nd half started and it was bad. A drop, a bunch of penalties (poor Wanya Morris -- we do have an issue at left tackle, I think), and the Raiders were in business. Fortunately they could only manage a FG, and when a tipped Mahomes pass dropped into their laps and they had the ball right next to the goal line, our D put together a super nice goal line stand.

No Raider points at all.

On offense our superior interior line -- you know, just like Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, it is now Thuney-&-Humphrey-&-Smith (and if you don't know the late 1900s Cubs infielder reference, look it up) -- along with the pounding of Kareem Hunt enabled us to chew clock throughout the second half and keep the Raiders offense off the field. Our 3rd down efficiency is also pretty danged great -- I know we take it for granted that whenever there is a 3rd down and within 10 yards to go there's a pretty good chance we're going to get it.

Travis Kelce had a game, and the word is D-Hop really helps opens things up for him.

As usual, the latest on Mahomes success against AFC West teams -- he's now 32-5 against them. This stat is just phenomenal in a parity-overwhelmed NFL.

Thing is we lost Nazeeh Johnson to a concussion and he may be out for a while, making us very thin at the corners. Brett then addressed that need today (remember I'm posting this on Monday) by rushing out and trading for a pretty good edge rusher from the Patriots.

Guh? Why not an actual cornerback?

Really, it is because if your pass rush is extra ferocious, it makes the coverage guys' jobs easier. Yes, we've already got a pretty danged good front seven, but Brett is thinking fresh legs -- so critically important when you've really got to stop an opposing offense that is working it, getting good chunk yardage, staying on the field and make things difficult late in a close game.

Our D is slowly being considered elite, and it is because of Brett's emphasis on getting the best D guys he can, as well as Spags' amazing game planning and later adjustments.

Next up major revenge action against the Buccaneers!

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The photo is from Sam Lutz at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Raiders - Week 8 - Record: 7-0

For the first time in his career Patrick Mahomes is starting a season 7-0! Let's keep this train rolling!

Thing is, a lot happening today, so I'm not able to pound out a post tonight. I will tomorrow! See you then!

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Chiefs at 49ers - Week 7 - Record: 6-0

Just some notes on this one, another win in one of the most anticipated games of the year, that Super Bowl rematch.

It was very fun to watch Carson Wentz come in for one of those patently wild Chiefs red zone formations. They ran a nice misdirection run play that got a few yards just before our first touchdown.

How about Mecole Hardman. People forget that two seasons ago in the regular season game we had against the Niners, he scored three touchdowns. Today he played well again, getting a super nice long punt return and a dagger touchdown late in the game on one of those jet sweeps.

And then there is our other major reclamation player, Kareem Hunt, who with the help of our pounding O-line got good yardage just about every time he got the handoff.

Our run defense in the 1st half was stout -- in the 2nd half it let their RB get some decent runs, but for the most part it was solid. As far as the defense as a whole, their QB Purdy just looked flustered all day. He got picked a couple times that were critical to stopping any Niner threats.

While I challenge all the naysayers who diss people like Clyde Edwards-Helaire, I join them in asking why Skyy Moore is still on the team. I guess with our wide receiver room a bit in flux, especially now that JuJu seems to be dealing with a hamstring issue, you have to keep him around. But after Moore dropped another pass I wondered why we weren't just throwing to people like Justin Watson. They did get it to him nicely in next series, and started targeting the guy they certainly need to go to more: Travis Kelce.

George Karlaftis was having a day. Noah Gray was having a day. Trent McDuffie was having a day. Samaje Perine helped close it out late with some runs and a 1st down catch. And please, Andy and Matt had a day for the brilliant set-ups for later crazy take-down plays when they needed it.

At the end of the 3rd quarter was the play of the game. With the Niners playing well enough to get back in it, the magic of Patrick Mahomes was exhibited once again. He went back to pass and after scrambling left he faked a couple forward pitches, got about 10 yards, then at the sideline stopped, juked, and ran down the sideline for another 20 yards.

A few plays later with the ball an inch from the goal line facing a 4th down, Mahomes got everyone split out wide and he stepped back... only to run a nifty QB draw right into the end zone. 

Finally I have to add how much fun it was to listen to Tom Brady speak so glowingly about Mahomes throughout the game. I've heard people say Brady wasn't doing very well as a color announcer, but from what I heard, I think he did great, and not just in the way he raved about Mahomes' play.

The Chiefs locomotive won't stop! We've not only got two straight Super Bowls, three in the last five years, but with the Vikings loss today we're now the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL!

Chiefs rule!

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The photo is from Mikayla Schlosser at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs 2024 Bye Week Edition

The Chiefs have a bye this week, one of the earlier ones, but it is still a good time to rest and recover. I was thinking Marquise Brown would be back here sometime but I think I saw that he may not even be back until as far out as the playoffs. Wow. 

More on a couple Chiefs things in a moment, but I did want to pound out my thoughts about the professional sports world as I occasionally do here in this all-things-Chiefs effort. 

The baseball playoffs are going real good now, as they do every October, and I just wanted to point out yet another instance of evidence that the major league baseball world continues its competitive duplicity unabated -- namely that there are distinctive advantages granted to the Yankees and the Dodgers that no other team has. 

This has been the case for many years now.

Sure enough, this year, not only are the Yankees and Dodgers appearing in their respective league championship games, but the New York Mets will be facing the Dodgers in their affair. How'd that happen, when last year the Mets were such a train wreck? The World Series will be featuring at least one New York or Los Angeles team this year. And if it is the Yankees and the Dodgers, the entire major league baseball world will be cheering this on and of course enabling the wicked deceit that goes with it.

I've already gone to the mat to elucidate this duplicity, most recently in this post. I will add that my good friend sent me an article written by a Bay Area sportswriter about how horrible the owner of the A's is, you know, to let them slip away to another town and all the rest of it. No. Not even. Please. "Bad owners" are a dime a dozen, and most sportswriters and fans like to heap vitriol on the ones that they think are just not as good as others are. It is just plainly stupid considering what the MLBers are really doing.

No, the problem is the competitive duplicity that is quietly embraced by everyone who wants to make money in pro baseball. The only way that happens is if the Yankees and Dodgers are always winning. And the only way that can happen is if they are patently handed the overwhelming advantages they have. Again, "What is good for the Yankees and Dodgers is good for major league baseball," is a principle that governs the majors, and when that is widely and articulately challenged then I'll pay attention.

Again, so much more can be detailed to prove this, and hundreds of thousands of tunnel vision fans and sportswriters who bleat about the fun they want to have that I don't like doesn't change this reality. Indeed that so many of them are brazenly enthusiastic about this possible renewed "classic World Series matchup" helps prove my point. The MLBers (again anyone who makes money from this operation) know there are millions -- and when I say that number I mean literally millions -- of fans who'll be much more engaged in Yankees and Dodgers success and therefore all will reap the benefits. 

What does this have to do with the Chiefs? Why do I write about this yet again? One major reason is this here is just a platform for these truths to be expressed. I'm not a major influencer with this, but at least I can share here. It'd be nice if others would be bold and truthful about it.

Some of it is just amplifying the meaning of what we get to enjoy with Patrick Mahomes and company doing what they are doing in light of the competitive duplicity that seeps into everything professional sports. The gambling thing is already infecting the game, and if it isn't affecting game outcomes at least from what we can openly see, it is afflicting the people who watch them. The NIL thing in college sports is now doing some nasty things as to how college players consider themselves and their schools.

The Chiefs success is something to truly enjoy right now in spite of all that. They can take pride in the work that people like Clark Hunt and Brett Veach are doing as much as they are not as much hindered by the same impediments that the MLB has for teams not the Yankees and Dodgers. More parity and some meaningful limits on free agency are instrumental, of course, and the Chiefs have been fortunate to have probably the best general manager/head coach combo in the history of the game. Brett picks 'em and Andy coaches 'em. Both perform at Hall-of-Fame levels. (I can't neglect to add that Brett manages the cap restraints extraordinarily well, that is a critical part of the Chiefs success.) Oh, and we just can't not mention the HOF coaching of Steve on the defense. They are really carrying the team right now.

This year they have done wonders with reclamation players Mecole Hardman, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and of all people Kareem Hunt. And don't dismiss the impact Mecole Hardman has had. In the Saints game he had good kick returns and a couple nice gains on plays that use his abilities to the best.

I'm still taken by the whole Kareem Hunt thing. Don't forget how dominant he was when he came on the scene in 2017. Remember that opener against the Patriots, and that amazing long TD pass from Alex Smith to him to help them paste the Pats in that Thursday night game? He did everything a running back could do for the next year-and-a-half -- they're now saying Well, he's now 30 years old [or however old he is] and he probably doesn't have anything left in the tank...

Well, it appears he can do just fine in the offense of Andy Reid who just knows how to use him -- like he does with Mecole, and with JuJu, and with any player who joins, or rejoins, the Chiefs Kingdom.

Yes, I'm convinced the NFLers hate it. Why isn't this happening with the Giants, the Jets, the Patriots, and above all the Cowboys? The NFLers simply can't do what the MLBers are doing, and what a testament to the genius of Brett and Andy.

Next week we get the rematch with the 49ers, let's see if we can keep the party rolling.

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

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Saints at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 5-0

Sorry but I've got early Tuesday morning work and I'm starting to pound this out here in the early 3rd quarter. These Monday Night Football affairs -- it is great we're on prime time some, what, 36 times during the season nowadays, but it is ruthless for us bloggers with jobs that start early in the morning. And yeah, I'm here on the west coast so I've even got a few hours on everyone else. I have no excuses. Sorry.

I'll start with the latest on Rashee Rice. I saw a quick note somewhere that said he was now officially out for the season. Then I looked around to get confirmation, but I saw nothing else on that -- no other news or notes anywhere. Are we still waiting with that sliver of hope that he'll somehow be okay?

Over the course of the 1st half we had our way with the Saints, really. The only thing the Saints had was a nifty long-bomb TD pass from Derek Carr to Rashid Shaheed. That was absolutely it for them. Our D-line was doing great work stuffing Alvin Kamara. Bryan Cook snatched a nice pick early to get us started on the drive for our one 1st half TD.

Meanwhile we got terrific play from our O-line busting Kareem Hunt free for regular big yardage runs, including a 5-yard TD run. Mahomes was stepping it up, elevating that Mahomes-like play to that next level, nice, really having a good feel for the pocket tonight, making connections when he could and when he couldn't he scrambled nicely.

The highlight of the game so far: After being stuck with a 2nd-&-34 on a Carson Steele messed up fumble thing then a Trey Smith penalty, we spectacularly got it down to 4th-&-2 at the 24 yard-line! How? That patented Kelce catch-&-flip thing! He caught it, ran a bit, then threw a spiffy hip pass right to Samaje Perine whereupon he gained about 15 more yards. Still, we had to settle for a Butker FG. 

With minute left in half, the Chiefs used some really nice passing connections from Patrick to JuJu to do some major matriculating. Still could only muster another FG. Up 16-7 at the half.

Here as the 2nd half starts they received the kickoff and continued matriculating until they got stopped and, alas, Butker bonked his 50-yard FG attempt off the upright. Eegh. 

We managed to stop the Saints yet again and yet again we matriculated beautifully until......

At the Saints 2 they get one of those stupid ridiculous plays that always used to wreck the Chiefs. Mahomes throws a strike to JuJu at the goal line and he simply can't hold on. It pops right into the hands of Khalen Saunders of all players, who runs it all the way back out to the 35 yard-line. EEEEEEgh. What is so grating is that right before that play the TV shows photos of Travis and Khalen's brother dancing the night away with Taylor Swift at one of her concerts. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegh.

How on earth is it we simply cannot put teams away. We are still up 16-7 as we near the end of the 3rd quarter, but dang. We really should be up 27-7, but we just aren't finishing these very fine offensive drives. We are absolutely dominating this team yet the Saints are a couple of ridiculous plays from taking the lead.

Annnnnnd the Saints just scored a touchdown driving the rest of the field after that Saunders whoopsy-doo pick earlier. Please.

Nkay everything is back to normal, at least for now. JuJu makes up for his earlier ugly whiff by running a perfect crossing route for a 50-yard gain, then we follow it with a Kelce wildcat handoff to Worthy who streaks for the touchdown. Now 23-13.

We're matriculating again, getting down deep into Saints territory, and - and - and - with about 4 minutes left we stall, a penalty, a sack, errrgh...... So with 3 minutes left we get another Butker FG to make it 26-13.

And I thought all the splendiferous Taylor Swift mojo was spent after that silly precog thing the TV did just before the wildly goofy Saunders interception that was almost the start of our undoing. Wasn't to be as we did nail this one down.

There is, however, just that Chiefs weirdness of having former Chiefs JuJu, Mecole, and Kareem back and producing for us. With our newer key guys Rashee and Isiah Pacheco, and Hollywood for that matter, all out with extended injuries, it is nice to see these guys out there with some fine Chiefs Kingdom mojo in them.

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The photo is simply a screen shot of the ESPN highlight of Worthy's touchdown out of the wildcat with Kelce taking the snap.

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 4 - Record: 4-0

Here's a good rule that is never followed because everybody thinks the quarterback should not sulk after throwing a pick and should actually be out there trying to tackle the interceptor.

The rule: Don't have your quarterback try to tackle the guy who just intercepted his pass.

First of all if your super-valuable QB (::cough cough:: Patrick Mahomes ::cough cough::) is out there trying to make tackles no matter how much he caused the conditions for said tackling attempt, he could so easily get injured. The pick-six he gave up this one time is not worth the dozen touchdowns he's not getting for you in future games because he got foolishly injured trying to make some weird tackle.

It isn't as if he can't make some attempt to at least look like he is getting in his way or just get off the mat and look like he is running interference of some kind, but he really should be thinking much more seriously about staying out of harm's way.

Second of all your super-valuable QB may be super-good at throwing the ball for many touchdowns, but he's probably a klutz trying to make some beast tackle as if he were some boss strong safety. 

Such was the case today when Mahomes tried to kneecap the interceptor and he ended up kneecapping his best receiver as he was trying to tackle the interceptor.

And by kneecap, we mean kneecap.

As it is they are saying Rashee Rice may have torn his ACL, and if that's the case, he's done for the year.

Yikes.

It is weird because we thought we'd be without his services for some time anyway because of his drag-race driving incident earlier in the year. So yeah, we can't get Hollywood Brown out there any sooner.

As far as the game went, the Chargers looked pretty hapless out there for most of it. Their only touchdown came when their QB Justin Herbert was hammered and just before the hit flung the ball to the back of the end zone that their receiver just managed to stick his hands out to grab.

Otherwise for the most part our D had its way with these guys. Chris Jones was unstoppable. Spags' D plan made for a ferocious attack the Chargers had no answer for. And we should give a shout-out to our punter Matt Araiza who continuously flipped the field forcing the Chargers into long tiring drives any time they had the ball.

And for the offense it did get the job done with a number of contributors. It was especially nice to see Xavier Worthy get that nice long bomb touchdown catch as well as watching Kareem Hunt do very good work for us reminding us of what he gave us seven years ago.

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

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Chiefs at Falcons - Week 3 - Record: 3-0

Nkay here's how the game progressed. The first Atlanta touchdown was screwy mess-up on defense. Ugh.

When we got the ball we matriculated the ball well enough, with Rashee Rice playing phenomenally and our back-up backs doing well enough to run the ball. 

But Patrick Mahomes was not on. First he missed Xavier Worthy in the end zone by not leading him enough, then when we got to the red zone he threw a pick not leading Noah Gray enough to the corner. What is with that? Oh, and the interception was made by Patrick Simmons who used to torment Mahomes when he was with the Broncos.

With our second drive we were matriculating just fine, and we completed the drive with a nice TD throw-&-catch from, who else, Mahomes-&-Rice.

Ahh, but while our run defense was doing really well bottling up Bijan Robinson, we gave up the big pass play. We failed on a nice blitz call and Kirk Cousins hit Kyle Pitts for the big play just before a Falcons TD. We can meticulously matriculate on offense all day long, but if any good team gives up too many of those crazy big plays wherever they are whenever they happen.

Before the half we managed to get a couple of nice Butker field goals, one of which came after a nifty interception brought about by our tenacious D-line. This was a game we could take great advantage of the Falcons weaknesses on their O-line. They had two unfortunate injuries to those guys early.

We got the ball first in the second half and we pounded the ball really well, all the way down to the three, but then we just ran vanilla plays up-the-middle until on 3rd down Mahomes got flushed and threw an incompletion. Erggh. Old Andy Reid coaching rears its ugly head again. We got a field goal.

Our defense still kept shutting down the Falcons offense. The broadcast pointed out their QB Cousins uses play action really well to distract the defenders, but they simply didn't do much of that after they did it a bit to start the game. The color man even mentioned the Falcons could not really make anything happen with a simple pocket game, and on this drive they were stuffed yet again.

So there we were again on offense, late 3rd quarter, and fortunately Andy did a bit more mixing it up. Carson Steele up-the-middle a few times, that was cool, and a nice end-around to Worthy all helping us get to the red zone yet again. But then a not-so-good flip pass to Rice almost got him killed. But then Juju came in to replace him and his experience and skill got him a nice underneath route Mahomes finished and we got the TD.

But then, the old ugly Chiefs kicking doinks came back to rear their ugly heads. Butler missed the PAT -- it clanked off the right upright. Oh brother.

22-14 us, all ready to start putting the hammer down.

But then, whupp, the Falcons then got two good drives going, the first they got a super-long FG, then the simply wore our defense down, making our guys tired, keeping Mahomes off the field. Oh joy. Thing is, they kept going for it on 4th down and at around the five they threw incomplete passes for the turnover on downs. I will admit, that one on 3rd down should have earned a PI call against our guy. It was close, but Bryan Cook did PI their tight end Kyle Pitts in the back of the end zone.

Well, we got ours as a result. The Falcons got the Chiefs to commit a 3-&-out. Our offense looked miserable when we could have started our own matriculation to close this one out. A vanilla run, a Mahomes scramble out of trouble, then a silly bad pass attempt to try to convert a 3rd-&-short. Guh.

Then our defense resumed being tired and bad. There is no way we should have gone 3-&-out. Still ahead 22-17 at the two-minute warning our defense still needed a rest. Interesting that McDuffie had a PI call against him that didn't happen. Buuut then our guy did a horse-collar, that's nice. So the Falcons were set up beautifully at the ten with a minute left.

Errgh. The sweating sweating sweating...

But Nick Bolton.

He had a fine game, getting banged up but playing very tankishly throughout -- and on 4th-&-inches he blasted through to stop Robinson to seal the deal. With everything they'd been through and everything on the line the D did the job.

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I thought I'd add a quick note about Kareem Hunt. With the injury to Isiah Pacheco the Chiefs went out and got him back -- I know, very weird. Right in the middle of Mahomes' inaugural year Hunt had all that stuff going with the domestic violence incident and then the lying about it to the Chiefs brass. 

Gone.

This was extraordinarily disappointing because he was such a good player. This was the budding Chiefs dynasty and then, BAM, we lose a key component.

I just wanted to confess that yes, back then I was livid with the Chiefs. I'd written here and in the Fanposts at Arrowhead Pride how much they could have handled it better. No excusing what Hunt did, but a full release? No opportunity to make good?

Yeah, I was too angry. My red-&-gold colored glasses got in the way as they often do. 

But then, now he's back? Everything's better now? Right now I'm thinking, um, that's great! The Chiefs are saying he's made good in his time with the Browns and that overall he's a good guy. Um, that's great! He's not playing tonight because after just picking him up they put him on the practice squad, but let's see if he's got something left.

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On another note, they're saying so far this season there are a lower number of passing touchdowns. It is my theory that every once in a while the defenses do a really pretty good job on the whole of responding to what offenses are doing. They say there are more cover-two looks and that just makes it harder on offenses.

Okay, that's fine, but let's give credit to the defenses. The point is it may just not be the offenses that have suddenly become deficient in some way. So then, what does the NFL always do? Again, the NFL game goes for a number of years, defenses catch up, offensive production goes down... What happens?

They tweak the game a bit to give those offenses a bit more of an edge to keep the scoring up. For instance they'll make it harder for D-backs to defend with their hands or something. They'll make sure the quarterbacks are better protected in the pocket. Even tonight Chris Jones was flagged for a very questionable roughing the passer call. I don't think it was, but in the judgment of the officials he went just a bit too long into his hit on the QB.

I really don't mind those things especially when they do more to protect the players health on the field. One of the latest this year is keeping tacklers from employing the "hip tackle," dragging runners down risking leg injuries.

Nothing wrong with any of that! I think building the Chiefs defense was one of the most important things Brett Veach could have done over the last few years. But opening the game up is fine too. Offense returns and defensive coordinators need to get back to the drawing board and see how they can respond. I think that's pretty cool to be honest.

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This whole valiant attempt at a three-peat will not be easy. We've had very difficult challenges here but we've still jumped out to 3-0. Our running back situation could be better but Steele and Perine looked good enough, and Veach is working to secure all of that, again let's see what Kareem can give us.

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The photo is from Adam Parker at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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