Chiefs at Ravens - AFC Championship Win - The Take

Nkay, here's the game, based on my notes. My considerations are peppered throughout.

After a first three-&-out the Ravens offensive line did start to mean business. The Ravens were not bad on the ground, but then as the game progressed they really abandoned their bread-&-butter, their running game. Some of that may have been the Chiefs staying ahead of the Ravens on the scoreboard for the entire game, but that is no excuse for Harbaugh to give up on it too soon.

Of course, the Chiefs defensive line became more stout as the game wore on, and as far as our pass defense went, we kept the Ravens to a single field goal after their first early touchdown. Three factors: One, Spags' game plan (extra pressure on a passing Lamar Jackson), two, a solid pass rush (collected a few significant sacks), and three, the masterful play of our secondary.

McDuffie, Reid, Sneed, Conner, Williams, Watson, Bush -- all on rails today.

The Ravens' first turnover was a strip sack fumble by Charles Omenihu. Concern for him emerged when he went out later with a knee injury -- he's been terrific on our D-line. The Ravens had two other turnovers, both critical to keep the Ravens from winning. 

Mahomes and Kelce in particular were their typical excellent selves in the first half, scoring a touchdown and making critical connections, one of which was Mahomes throwing a last-second duck before going down -- Kelce snatching just-off-the-turf to make the key 1st down play.

Thing is, with a nice lead Mahomes worked hard to keep Jackson off the field by managing the game trying to do what other teams want to do to the Chiefs -- keep Mahomes off the field. My fear was I started to see something here that was really annoying in last year's Super Bowl, and it happened with great frequency: Creed Humphrey's snaps. They were again really crappy. Over and over Mahomes had to pick the ball off his feet, and in the Super Bowl this year that has got to get cleaned up.

At one point Jackson had a pass batted up high in the air and as much as we're all hoping for an interception, instead Jackson split the defenders and caught it himself then ran for good yardage. That's nice. A perfectly fine play to remind us all of that Marcus Mariota touchdown in that 2017 playoff game loss to the Titans. A bit later, though, we did stop the Ravens offense.

Back with the ball in Mahomes hands, the Ravens' defense started playing with more fervor, but too often it was too much fervor. They started to rack up dumb penalties, the one of note here was their No. 98 lineman just cold-cocking Mahomes in the head, then when he went down dropping his 300-pound body on top of him. He was justifiably penalized, but if the Ravens played with some decency they'd have had a much better chance of winning.

Just before the half we matriculated the ball down the field enough for a field goal making the score 17-7. I'm sure most watching were stunned by the score. I made note of what television announcer Tony Romo said, something that will definitely be a Chiefs meme as we head to the Super Bowl.

"Mahomes is showing them, don't make me an underdog..."

After the second half started it was clear that the Chiefs defense made adjustments to further throttle Jackson. One post I saw about this game was that the 2007 Patriots and 2023 Ravens were historically great teams. (The Ravens this year clobbered good teams all year long... clobbered them, scores of 56-21, every other game.) In both teams' last postseason games they each scored 17 points, and were beaten by... wait for it...

Steve Spagnuolo.

It looked like the Ravens would get right back into the game when Jackson hit Zay Flowers on a medium crossing route and he dived into the end zone. Looked like a touchdown, until we all watched the ball squirt into the endzone. Trent McDuffie jumped on it, and we all wondered -- ahh, was that a fumble? Did he actually fumble it before he got across the goal line?

Sure enough, replays show -- he did. What a critical play by L'Jarius Sneed with the punch-out a half-yard from the Ravens TD. 

As the 4th Quarter progressed Mahomes was working valiantly to manage the game. Keep the clock moving even though the Ravens were playing ferocious defense. Again often enough the Ravens were playing too ferociously earning penalties that really hurt them. There was another roughing the passer call against a Ravens guys who hammered Mahomes with a helmet-to-helmet.

Our special teams were terrific, and one of their best plays was a Tommy Townsend punt downed at the Ravens one.

The Ravens started moving the ball, though, and yes, there were a couple pass plays that were really close PIs on the Chiefs. Joshua Williams tugged pretty good on Odell Beckham Jr's arm on a deep miss, and on a Deon Bush interception in the end zone that should have never left Jackson's hand we got a decent push on their guy at the back of the end zone right when the pick was made.

There was enough static about the officiating going unfairly against the Ravens, and there sure are a lot of people thinking the NFLers are favoring the Chiefs because of the Taylor Swift attention the Chiefs are getting. But the officiating? It was actually pretty even, indeed even going against an overly aggressive Ravens team but that was all easily justified. 

The Ravens managed to get a field goal to get within one score, but in the end that was all she wrote. On 3rd down just before the two-minute warning Mahomes threw a perfectly dropped medium-deep ball that -- ta-da! -- Marquez Valdes-Scantling caught to seal the win.

MVS has been excoriated for his not-so-great play this season, but remember last year's AFC Championship Game against the Bengals? He balled out when we needed it the most. Tonight he caught just two passes, but this one as he was falling down secured the win for us.

Overall, it was certainly Mahomes and our defense, but we got exceptional work from our O-line, our solid back Isiah Pacheco, of course Travis Kelce, our special teams, and our fine coaching led by the master. 

That defensive effort in all these critical games? It can't be denied that Brett Veach reeeally concentrating on drafting defensive players has paid tremendous dividends.

And one last thing for now. Just thinking about all those playoff disappointments because there was just that feeling that the Chiefs just didn't have enough got-it to close the deal.

Well, whaddya think of us now?!

On to yet more Super Bowl glory!

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

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Chiefs at Ravens - AFC Championship Win

Remember that horrific Sunday morning in January 2018? Remember how it felt knowing the Chiefs lost for that umpteenth time in the playoffs to a clearly inferior team? Remember how much you were hoping it would be different, but that it just seemed to be a distant ridiculously fantastical daydream that would ever happen?

Well, wake up.

The Chiefs have shown today they are definitely the most dominant team in the NFL. They made mince meat of an exceptionally good Ravens team with a ferocious pass rush, an aggressive secondary, Pacheco's patent grinding, and just enough excellent play from Patrick, Travis, and his receivers to win this one.

There is more but we've got stuff to do right now!

Fun Chiefs playoff winning! The best!

More to come!

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AFC Championship Game - Chiefs at Ravens - Preview

It is literally five minutes until game time, so this preview post won't be long.

As it is the line went from -3 for the Ravens earlier in the week to -5, so it seems the people with skin in this one don't have much confidence in the Chiefs.

A major key is the injuries. We've lost left guard Joe Thuney, and this is majorly critical. We will also be without Willie Gay and Derrick Nnadi, extremely critical to stop a fine Ravens running game highlighted by Lamar Jackson's insane scrambling ability. The Ravens, meanwhile, are relatively healthy, with only nagging injuries to a D-back and their excellent tight end Mark Andrews who's playing after being out for several games.

So yeah, this game is definitely a "In Mahomes -- and our decent defense -- we trust" game.

Being the team who is considered not-as-good as the other team, maybe we'll get a break in this one and steal a win as we'd been victims of being the better team and still losing so many times. 71, 90, 94, 95, 97, 03, 13, 16, 17, and 21 were all years we were better than the other team in the playoff match-up we lost that season.

Game-time!

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Chiefs at Bills - Divisional Playoff Game Win - The Take, Part II

"Patrick Mahomes is inevitable."

This was the entire substance of a widely reposted tweet put out shortly after the Chiefs win on Sunday. It does pretty much say everything, since everyone was all talk about how Mahomes had never played a road playoff game in his already illustrious career, and then he went and took care of business in Buffalo.

One of the best of those myriad factoids related to his phenomenal success is that the Chiefs have now won two playoff games in five straight seasons, an NFL record. Shall we? 19: Texans & Titans (and more!); 20: Browns & Bills; 21: Steelers & Bills; 22: Jaguars & Bengals (and more!); 23: Dolphins & Bills (so far!) Yet again, just a joy to enjoy after eons of crushing playoff one-&-outs.

I have to add a couple more things here quickly, and I may add some more in another post.

One, after Mecole Hardman fumbled the ball into the end zone resulting in a touchback for the Bills, this ding-dong idea that the NFL must change this rule started to get some legs yet again. Please, this is a fully ding-dong idea. I hope the NFL doesn't listen to these idiots bleating "The punishment is too severe for just fumbling the ball into the end zone." I'm very afraid the NFL will bend and the game will be bastardized even further.

It is simple.

Don't fumble the ball into the end zone. If you want to score a touchdown make sure you hang on to the ball all the way to the goal line. It just isn't any harder than that. If you drop it along the way, and that ball should somehow bounce out of the end zone without recovery by either team, then too bad. You messed up. You lose.

Just

Don't fumble the ball into the end zone.

The other thing I wanted to add here was a note related to the fans who were posting threats to the Bills kicker moving him to delete his social media account. I'd made mention of how decent fans should be responding to the game and its players, and while that all still holds, I do want to add real quick that this doesn't mean we can't feel it when things go poorly for our teams.

I've done it quite often, and quite expressively in this blog effort. I've sometimes allowed myself to become a bit too enraged about what happens out there in the football world with the Chiefs. I even do somewhat regret being so critical of this team, particularly its leadership. In the middle of the 2017 season I had the worst takes on both what Alex Smith was doing on the field and what Andy Reid was doing on the sidelines. There're others I could mention.

Those were just my feelings and my posting about those feelings. I've done it in any number of other ways too. Even quite recently! I still rail against the things the NFL is doing and who they're associating with. They had just announced this Chiefs-Bills game was the most watched playoff game ever. Doesn't that mean the NFLers like Patrick Mahomes et al? I still feel, however, that the NFLers know it'd have been even better if Mahomes were on the Jets or Patriots.

Sure, this is a bit of a me-too post about how much fans can get too absorbed in all of this. What if Reid and company were not as successful as they've been? Would I still be raging at them? I can't say I wouldn't, and that to me is shameful in some ways. A key point in all of this is that it wouldn't be worth it to involve ourselves in this often quite silly thing pro-football-team-fandom if it doesn't involve deep feelings one way or the other.

Does this justify posting threats against disfavored players? Of course not, as I mentioned yesterday.

But I also know that it can be far too consuming, which is a large part of why I really work hard to be sports celibate. I know it isn't perfect, but I know I can go too far in demonstrating those things of the flesh and of the world addressed in that fifth letter to the Galatians: "...jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition..." Yes, this can be me, as it can any other sports fan, as they relate to their team and anything they think will assuage their insecurities.

The answer is Jesus Christ. Our security can indeed be found in Him, the One who's already won. Too many times we want our good-feels to come from somewhere else, but they can only really come from Him, and as we put our trust in His provision of all good things, then, voila, those good things do come.

I found it interesting that there are instances when the Chiefs players pray, I believe they did so in the locker room after the game Sunday, but no one ever widely shows those things. Many players on other teams do the same, of course. I noted that Ravens head coach Jim Harbaugh even shared a Bible verse as he started his postgame presser after the Texans game.

Wow. Nice to see so many of them lead with biblical principles and comport themselves appropriately. Yeah, no player is perfect, I'm not perfect either in as much as I may blog with a robust censure of imperfect people who threaten others on social media. That's the law, yes, it is there, and it is actually a good thing, but blessed be our Lord who gave His life so we could be free from any of that ugliness and live victoriously, all the time, in Him.

Thanks for letting me share that.

Until next time...

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

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Chiefs at Bills - Divisional Playoff Game Win - The Take, Part I

Okay let's start right off with this. I can't not mention how stupid too many pro football fans can be. In fact I will tell you straight away, one of the main reasons I do a relatively decent job of being "sports celibate" -- this means I watch or hear or read about zero sports items as long as my innate sports radar doesn't somehow pick something up -- is because of one of the most loathsome things anywhere in any media: the regular sports fan guy sports commentary show. 92% of the time their sports takes are just flat-out idiotic. And most of any of their on-air time is spent blithering about ridiculously pointless stuff.

::Click::

Eons ago.

The thing about the regular sports fan guy is way too often he does something as supremely idiotic as post social media threats against the athlete they think ruined their lives by -- in the Buffalo Bills kicker's instance -- missing a critical kick late in a playoff game. The Bills kicker Tyler Bass today closed his social media account because of the overwhelming number of threats made against him. I don't know how many made threats, I'm sure most Bills fans are pretty decent people, but however many threats there were is absolutely inexcusable.

Really, anyone who does that should be arrested and prosecuted, I'm sorry. This is absolute lunacy, it is, criminally so. I don't care if Harrison Butker misses a kick my five-year old granddaughter could make losing the Chiefs' 57th straight playoff game all of which featured already-blown 31-0 leads, I am not going to have anything to do with Harrison Butker except cheer him on nonetheless.

I do not know him. There is no reason for me to think or feel anything about anything he does on the football field. I have ZERO relationship with him and have ZERO privilege to say anything to him in any platform anywhere anyhow.

This is besides the fact that I respect every Chiefs player for just giving his all for my favorite team. Every fan should have the same consideration for every player on their favorite team. Again, I know most do, but... yikes.

This is all besides the very simple fact that when Bass missed the game-tying field goal, there was about 1:40 left on the game clock. You know, I really wish he had made that kick, because then with the Chiefs getting the ball back, Patrick Mahomes could have taken the snap, dropped back to pass, and thrown an easy pick-six whereupon the Bills defender could then have fumbled the ball at the one-yard line, whereupon right guard Trey Smith would have scooped up the fumble and after rumbling about 40 yards running over Bills defenders flailing about trying to bring him down, lateraled it to left tackle Donovan Smith who then could rumble another 40 or so yards breaking tackles until he fumbles it to a Bills defender who then could streak back down the length of the field and could get close to the goal line until he fumbles it, whereupon the ball takes the craziest bounces eluding the grasp of every other Bills defender on the field until it skips and wobbles and spurts all the way back to the Bills endzone whereupon Patrick Mahomes backflips over four Bills linemen and lands in such a way that the ball gets stuck in his helmet faceguard for the game-clinching touchdown.

For you see, now Mr. Regular Sports Fan Guy Smart Ass has a whole bunch of Bills players to assault on social media, and I'm sure he's brave enough to call out every one of them who fumbled the ball and missed tackles and didn't make the play that needed to be made and definitely lost the game for his beloved pro football team.

Never mind that in reality the Chiefs defense in that 4th quarter just got the Bills throttled enough to keep them from making plays. How about threatening those two receivers on their social media sites, the ones who dropped those deep throws they really should have caught? How about threatening the Bills quarterback for missing a wide-open receiver in the end zone on that one key play? How about threatening every Bills player for just not scoring a whole bunch of touchdowns that you think they should have scored just so your pathetic life can have a couple of good-feels you can't get from being a decent human being to begin with?

Even if Bass makes that kick, in all serious reality, Mahomes has that 1:40 left in regulation to matriculate the ball downfield against a tired and depleted Bills defense, a very real possibility, and even if he does only get the Chiefs into field goal range, the Chiefs would be leaving it up to the leg of Harrison Butker, who, if you didn't notice, has been rails this year. And even if Butker misses, the worst both teams have is overtime.

So wow. Not only is the threatening thing just plain criminal for any reason, that they are doing it to this Bills kicker is plainly beyond wickedly stupid.

I would post more but that I got this down is enough for now -- I felt I just had to share this, and I hope others feel the same way.

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

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Chiefs at Bills - Divisional Playoff Game Win

Just a note to make the note that we held on to win this one, once again bringing tremendous heartache to the Bills and their fans. We're going on to our sixth straight AFC Championship Game. Amazing run, truly amazing.

Again we're out of town enjoying a weekend away. Not planning to blog right now, likely later. As it is we move on to Baltimore to play a phenomenally good Ravens team with their own fine defense and exceptional quarterback in Lamar Jackson.

More to come!

Meanwhile, GO CHIEFS!

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

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2024 Playoffs - Divisional Game Preview - Chiefs at Bills

Everyone seems to be making something of the fact that this will be the very first playoff game Patrick Mahomes will be playing on the road. I think I'd seen something somewhere, however, that said Mahomes generally does very well on the road. Of course he does very well everywhere, so I imagine the point is he does a tad better away from Arrowhead. That's cool.

Of course they also say it will be very cool there in Buffalo, as usual in the middle of winter. This is not a concern, really, considering the Chiefs played well last week in even lower temperatures.

The concerns?

One, the artificial turf. It hasn't changed: artificial turf is horrible for player safety and health. It might be good for the weather and not having to mow the lawn all the time. But still. I do worry, as everyone else should much more, about any key player just ripping up their ankles or knees on the stuff, or suffering a concussion after their head whacks against that field surface.

Two, the officials. Remember the last game we played against the Bills, when the officials made a call they just don't regularly make to negate one of the greatest touchdown plays in NFL history? Mahomes-led Chiefs teams have actually done really well keeping to horrid officiating calls from afflicting them too much in the playoffs, so we'll see how this one transpires.

Three, the injury situation. From what I saw earlier this week we have concerns on the O-line and at wide receiver. I'm sorry but I simply have not given up on Kadarius Toney, however his injury issues have definitely hit the Chiefs. Skyy Moore may be available but his performance this year has been terribly underwhelming. Will our other receivers step up? Rashee Rice is money, but we do need Marquez, Justin, and Richie to make it so we can enjoy seeing Patrick having the confidence to throw to them -- really, that would be ideal.

Otherwise, we should handle the Bills. Our defense is rock solid and Mahomes can exploit their defense. Only if those crazy stupid things happen that wreck the Chiefs, or Josh Allen has an amazing game --indeed possible as we all know, he can be exceptional on the football field -- will the Bills win this one.

I also have to note that we are out-of-town for a weekend away, so while we will likely be enjoying the game tomorrow late afternoon, I may not get to the blog post for the game until later in the week. We'll see.

Until then, go Chiefs!

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The image was clipped from Google Images originally posted at Marca.com. Thank you.

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Dolphins at Chiefs - Wild-Card Playoff Win

Oh my it is just getting sweeter. After a seeming eternity of the most miserable first-game-playoff losses, this is now our sixth straight first-game-playoff win in a row. Just for a reminder, 18 Colts 19 Texans 20 Browns 21 Steelers 22 Jaguars and now 23 Dolphins. In just thinking about this game I thought about the wonderfulness of that 18 Colts win, from six years ago now, hard to believe. Just thinking about watching it with my son and his wife, enjoying time with their new two-month-old girl, our first grandchild.

Just enjoying that game Mahomes had under control the whole time. I do remember being up 24-7 when the 4th quarter started yet still being nervous about some weird Colts comeback. No reason at all to be nervous this time. The thing I remember the most was Mahomes throwing a sidearm "curve ball" pass to Travis Kelce, zipping it right around the Colts defender.

Tonight the play of the game happened with a minute left in the 1st half and the score still too close for comfort, 13-7.  On 3rd-&-10 the Dolphons blitzed and with two rushers in his face Mahomes rifled the ball straight to Rashee Rice on the medium-deep crossing route, and he did his now-patented streak down the sideline for a huge gain. Butker later came in to make it 16-7.

Thing is, just a bit later in the 3rd quarter Rice slammed his knee against that frozen turf on the sideline after another fine catch, and we were all wondering if he was injured badly.

Turns out, he wasn't. He got back in there for the 4th quarter and made another spectacular catch-&-run, shortly after which Isiah Pacheco scored the dagger rushing touchdown on a wildcat dipsy-doo play the announcer called a "Hallmark Play." Awesome Andy Reid can be so honored, and for us Chiefs fans to get to so enjoy these Chiefs' "Hallmark Plays."

Again, this one felt like that 18 Colts playoff win. Just a good feeling throughout. The Chiefs were taking care of business the whole game. Our advantages were simple.

Mahomes and our defense. Both were terrific. Not to take anything away from our O-line or special teams especially Butker and the guys helping him make those field goals, four all together.

But then...

Mahomes made play after play, and even if we got bogged down in or close to the red zone, he matriculated the ball enough to get us those needed field goals -- kind of like what happened in the Bengals game a couple weeks ago. On one notable play -- you'll see the replay a zillion times I'm sure -- a large chunk of his helmet split off after a terrific run ended with a mean helmet-connection with the tackler. It wasn't helmet-to-helmet for a penalty, it was just that it was so cold the helmet cracked apart!

The defense was stellar as we'd expected, allowing only one standard-issue Tyreek Hill touchdown catch-&-run for the score. Otherwise we shut him down, highlighted by two particular hits by Trent McDuffie, one in the 1st half that jarred the ball loose for the incomplete pass, the other in the 2nd half for a big loss when the Dolphins were making one last ditch effort to get back into the game.

I could make a number of other remarks about this one, I took a few notes regarding, yes, those few things I thought were stupid that might cost us the game. Thing is we played so well with such confidence that the few minor stupid things didn't hurt us at all. In fact, just to add real quick, our receivers along with the amazing Rashee Rice actually did pretty well! MVS made a key catch. Richie James had a nice 1st down grab late in the game. Justin Watson made a couple of fine catches. Kelce was his usual excellent (even though he had three bad drops early) and our other tight end Noah Gray added a terrific catch.

Otherwise, this is, yes! -- our first win against the Dolphins in a playoff game. Helps take away some of the pain of those other losses -- not completely, no, we must always carry around the agony of what happened on that Christmas Day in 1971, right?

Anyway, this Chiefs team with Mahomes and this defense and these budding stars like Pacheco and Rice and of course Reid and Spagnuolo and, as I've always argued, Veach making the moves to get this high-quality team on the field...

The Chiefs are definitely a Got-It team.

They just have what it takes to take care of business on the playoff football field.

Next week we'll either be playing Buffalo at their place -- and hey if it is blizzardy there, well we just had a game in minus-9 degree weather to prepare for that -- or we'll be playing Houston at home if on Monday Pittsburgh pulls off the upset against the Bills.

Go Chiefs!

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The first photo is from Sam Lutz, the second and third from Evan Sanders, all at the official Chiefs website. Thank you. 

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One of the Coldest NFL Games Ever at Arrowhead This Saturday - That's Nice

Okay okay, I couldn't not post this image I caught from my ZeroHedge perusing. In my last preview post I'd mentioned that one post from 2017 I remembered related to my previews of the playoff Steelers-Chiefs game eventually won when Pittsburgh's kicker did all the scoring with his six field goals.

Well, here we go again. I even saw a report that said, yes, this game Saturday night at Arrowhead will be among the coldest ever. How does this happen. I mean if we win that's fine...

Except...

I just can't see how a game like this cannot mean players getting injured in very not-good ways. We could win, and then go into the next playoff game meaningfully debilitated simply because the NFL is insisting on having a minus-15 degree wind-chill game, at night no less.

It may not matter, day or night, and it may not matter moving the game to a later date since that posted map there is the projection for Monday the 15th. 

That map for that playoff game in January 2017? I'd made note of the deep purple depicting super freezing temps. This map shows we're even beyond that. Kansas City will now be in the white. I guess when you go past purple you've got to get right to the color of the inside walls of your freezer. And beyond that? A kind of pinkish lilac bright purplish hue shown there in Montana, I imagine that's the color of your skin when you've been overwhelmed with frostbite. That's nice.

Yeah, you could say both teams have to deal with it, and maybe Miami will have the worst of it since they're a little less accustomed to it. But really. Let's face it.

The Chiefs have the stupidest things happen in these kinds of things.

We all know that. We've generally been spared them over the past several playoff runs, so there is that.

We'll see.

Or, all those who've been forced to shell out 70 clams to get Peacock will see...

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2024 Playoffs - Wild-Card Game Preview - Dolphins at Chiefs

Just some quick thoughts as we get ready for more Chiefs playoff action. Whatever happens it is indeed a wonderful things that we're there again. Remember some teams only see playoff action sporadically, if ever at all for long periods of time. 

I don't believe the Chiefs have ever gone very long without seeing playoff action, really. Even in their dark times they got there, like in the 80s when they still made it in 1986, or the 00s when they still got there in 2003 and 2006. Otherwise they made it all the time in the 60s, 90s, and of course in this golden Veach-Reid-Mahomes era.

Thing is, again, the three times we faced the Dolphins we lost in nasty ways. In 1971 there was the overtime trauma. In 1994 mess-ups by our best players, Montana, Allen, and Thomas messed us up in a game we should have easily won. We also should have won the 1990 game when we were ahead 16-3 at the start of the 4th quarter but couldn't hold the lead.

This one we should win, much because from what I have seen, like the Buffalo game last week, the Dolphins can't seem to close the deal. They have the talent, but something seems to happen in many of their games to derail their success. They do have very good players and a running game that could do them well this Saturday when the temperatures will be at around 0.

That last thing is, yet again, somewhat distressing. The Chiefs have never done well at Arrowhead in the cold. Remember that game against the Colts with the missed field goals? (Umm, what am I saying, it just seems we can never rub that from our memories as much as we'd like to.) Remember the game we lost to the Steelers when their guy made six field goals, the only points they had the whole game? (Here is my blog post preview of that game, replete with the map rich with the freezingest color of purple right where Kansas City lies.)

I'd also like to add a decent thing for our chances, and that is something I happened to see Mitch Holthus tweet a couple weeks ago. It was that in that second half of the regular season, when the Chiefs struggled, their opponents were consistently getting tons of rest, putting the Chiefs at a distinct disadvantage. He pointed out that nearly every team they played during that stretch were coming off byes or Thursday night games played ten days before.

Well now the key Chiefs players have been able to get something of a rest by sitting for the final game of the season last week. Let's see if that rest will be something an advantage for us. Of course the key thing player-wise is our receivers and our health. We need those wideouts to step up their game in some major way, and we need our offensive linemen to be ready to go.

The main main key is avoiding the stupid things. That is what will determine this outcome, and one key thing there may indeed be the thing that compromises our chances and that is what the NFLers get the officials to do in making those exasperatingly debilitating calls. I know they do know that Patrick Mahomes is a television viewer draw, which is one reason Peacock liked picking this game to stream. 

But I also believe they'd like to see other players shine so they may legitimately showcase them and draw other viewer interest.

I can't help but add this screenshot of a part of a story about the Toronto Rapters coach recent post-game eruption over the favored calls the Los Angeles Lakers were getting in a very close contest. No surprise. In case you didn't see it there, he said these kind-of amazing words -- amazing because no one ever says these things because they just didn't get the memo.

He said there, "Did [the Lakers] have to win tonight? If so just let us know and we won't show up to the game. Just give them the win." (Emphasis mine.)

That memo the Raptors coach did not get? It is simply this. All the NFLers and NBAers and MLBers and anyone else running these massive professional sports operations have certain teams they prefer winning, and almost always those teams are the big-market media-darling teams. The Los Angeles Lakers is definitely one of those teams. That team will never, ever go long without winning a lot. Quite simply this advantage is not afforded most teams in the NBA.

The deeper element of that memo is the dirty secret people like the Raptors coach will likely get fined for intimating in his remarks. That is that everyone in the NBA is great with the Lakers winning, even if they are given those in-game favors to ensure they will win enough. Everyone is good with that, including the Raptors, simply because everyone gets much more money when the big-market media-darling teams win and yours doesn't. To his credit, the Raptors coach wants his team winning, and if his team wins one game against the Lakers that should be no big deal, because an 81-1 record for the Lakers is still fine. In fact maybe a few Lakers losses are good, to keep the ruse going, so people will still come to the games and they won't do what they should just do, what the Raptors coach says really should happen: just give the Lakers the win.

But from what I've seen the Lakers have dropped briefly into last place, and that just won't do. There are just too many Lakers fans paying too much money to keep the NBAers from making sure things happen that give the Lakers those advantages so they'll never be close to the bottom of the standings for very long.

Sorry but the same thing affects the NFL, and right now the Chiefs are hanging by a thread in the NFLers' considerations only because we have Patrick Mahomes -- let's just be real. The instant Mahomes stops being the sports hero that he is, the Chiefs could wallow at the bottom of the standings for eons for all they care. 

Let's see what happens this weekend. And please know, I don't want to see the Dolphins get any unfavorable calls either! It should be totally fair across the board. But sadly we all know it isn't. The Scorecasting factor has proved it, and if you just look it isn't hard to see in action everywhere in professional sports.

It'll be unique game Saturday night, what with the weather and it being the first exclusively streamed game. We'll see if the Chiefs can finally take a playoff game from the Dolphins.

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The NFLers Are At It Again - Chiefs Playoff Game This Saturday

When they showed the television schedule for the playoffs next week I eagerly looked at their spiffy little graphic only to see when the Chiefs played. Saturday night at 5:00 (our time out here on the west coast).

And then I noticed something that made me chilled to the bone.

The broadcast. 

I noticed they had an "ABC" logo or an "NBC" logo next to each of the six games featured next weekend, you know, good wide-reaching national broadcast as they have always done.

Excccccept our game, the Chiefs-Dolphins game -- it did not have any of that. Instead it just had this one word.

Peacock.

I knew instantly what that meant.

We could only watch it if we had their particular streaming service.

I couldn't believe it. What is worse is scouring the web for anyone expressing any objection to this and finding virtually nothing. Some of that I understand -- the NFL will still show the games on regular broadcast to the Kansas City and Miami markets.

The rest of us?

We have to buy the NBC streaming service.

Now yes we can find someone who has it and invite ourselves over. We can go to the sports bar and watch it there -- there are actually a couple Chiefs-fan places in the Los Angeles area so that's cool.

But it is indeed just the principle of the thing.

I don't want to buy anything from NBC. I don't even want to endure the hassle of seeing about getting it for free for a time just to watch the game but then have to go through the rigmarole of cancelling the whole thing later. I don't want anything to do with these people, mostly because the things they are about with their programming and news broadcasts is absolute wretchedness.

Now yes, I realize, it is no different with CBS, ABC, or Fox. I get that. And in watching any Chiefs thing there I am giving them my attention and in that sense supporting what they advertise.

I'd read that NBC already had a very lucrative deal with the NFL to broadcast one single playoff game on the streaming service, which this year just happened to be the Chiefs game. There was also a bit of a nod to the Chiefs in that NBC deliberately wanted that game because, yes, the Chiefs are such a draw. I can see that. Patrick Mahomes is the most marketable pro football athlete today -- he's personable, he's impassioned, he's courageous, and he is a phenomenally gifted athlete.

But still. 

I still do not want to give two cents to any of what the networks and the NFLers who run them put out for me to consider. I caught the SI issue from last October at the doctor's office and took a snapshot of the main story. It was mostly about how high profile college players may now get $$$ from their name, image, and likeness, but it also touched on all the seediness involved in all kinds of now-virtually-irreversably prevalent money-making activity throughout the sportsing world. It isn't that people earn an income, even of astronomical values, that's cool. The issue is really what is mixed up in all of that.

The networks that broadcast the games to pay the on-field performers are still showing alcohol commercials -- I know they always have and always will, but it doesn't make it right. Now every automobile or truck commercial you see is for all-electric vehicles -- no ads for a single "gas-guzzler" among them. This too is wicked because it is more promotion of the climate changle alarmist policies that destroy communities in ways these networks will never address -- I'd venture to say those companies are subsidized to advertise in this way. Too many of the commercials are now featuring same-sex couples and it is obvious they are there presented in the same way as man-woman husband-wife relationships. This too is profoundly immoral.

So yes, you are right, I confess. If you are someone who is responding to this with a great big enthusiastic "Take a hike then, don't watch the games," I get it. You have a point.

But here in this blog post I can just share my take and maybe others will concur, and we can perhaps someway, some day enjoy a fine sport with fine athletes representing the best of our favored geographic identity and everything good that comes with healthy professional sports competition, without all those tremendously ugly things added in. Maybe.

As it is the gambling thing is still going and growing and getting worse, and it too was addressed in that SI issue, by the way. It was addressed in a story about how deep some people related to some team got in it all and how much that involvement cost them the integrity of their games.

I happened to catch this Breitbart story, there with the screenshot, and sure enough, it all about one of those things I'd mentioned before.

Gambling destroys lives.

So why then is the NFL and just about every other sports whatever making "official" relationships with these people?

I mean, I know why. It is because they know it is so easy for so many people to whip out their mobile devices and make a bet on this and a bet on that... and when they are done they can so easily do it again and again and again BECAUSE IT IS SO MUCH FUN! The whole purpose is to keep their interest in the whole enterprise so the NFLers can make that much more money.

Again, it isn't that people make money, it is that they are making it off so many morally questionable things. These are the things that make it not-okay.

And this is precisely why the whole Chiefs-game-only-on-Peacock is so objectionable.

The Chiefs are being used as a promotional device to get people to buy the service. That's what is so disgusting about it. Really, me personally, I don't even have to watch the game. I can get the radio broadcast. I can see the highlights. I can read about what happened. I don't even have to pay any attention to any of it at all. All that's just as great -- the Chiefs aren't my god.

But to many people their sports affection is. And that is what the NFLers and all their associated commercial mandarins are exploiting and making worse. It is the wanton encouragement of people to drink and gamble and carouse and pay out of their nose for things in the name of an absurd "climate change" hysteria -- even imbibe deeply the full panoply of humanist, materialist, leftist dogma that NBC regularly spews -- all of it is evil as all get-out.

So yeah, I hope my good pro football team the Kansas City Chiefs do well on Saturday, I do. I enjoy their success, or even their non-success as it may be -- they're my team. This first playoff game they have is against a Dolphins franchise that historically is 3-0 against us in the postseason, including that classic but devastating-to-Chiefs-fans Christmas day overtime game in 1971.

But if I don't see a thing of actual live game-time action it isn't a bad thing -- might be good in that I can at least do my own little bit of objecting by abstaining. It is sad, and sad that I don't see many people expressing at least something of what I'm sharing here, even if it is just some kind of principled statement against the streaming service commercial exploitation.

Would sure like to know if there are. I know there are, but again it'd be nice to know of them.

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 18 - Record: 11-6

This was a practice game for us as we'd already locked in the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. We should be thrilled beyond thrills that our Chiefs have won their eighth straight division title, sure enough only the Patriots have a longer such streak in NFL history. We get to play our first playoff game at Arrowhead next week yet again, so that's great. And if things go right we could actually host yet another AFC Championship game, a sixth straight, unheard-of. We'll see.

As it is for this one some quick thoughts.

It's imperative Mahomes stays healthy through the playoffs if we want to get to the promised land again. Backup Blaine Gabbert certainly has the talent but just looked off too much. I do believe some of that is his having to deal with these receivers. Our guys still had too many drops, not enough cleanliness on routes, not enough toughness battling defenders. 

It is also very concerning what will be happening with our offensive line for next week. We had a number of players on that line go down with injuries. We also had Deon Bush and Chamarri Conner suffer some kind of injuries today. Errgh... these "exhibition" games.

It was a nice little meaningless win today, but it was close and it is tough to get it when all of our best are on the bench. That's for the best for sure. Our defense of mostly reserves was still pretty stout even playing against many of the Chargers reserves. It was nice to see that spiffy Mike Edwards length-of-the-field touchdown run off the fumble recovery. But again, those were the only touchdown points we scored the entire game. I kind of liked what La'Mical Perine did at running back. There was some good play from people like Mecole Hardman and, yes, Justyn Ross at wide receiver, but we still really need to hope our starting slate of receivers next week really step it up.

Meanwhile, just some notes of things I'd been thinking about Chiefs and pro football-wise, since this game was mostly an exhibition game one way or the other.

This morning I was watching a bit of the Saints-Falcons affair, and the Saints guy scored a touchdown, but barely. It was hard to tell and on the field the line judges signaled that he was short. Replays clearly showed that he got that ball across the plane just before his elbow and butt hit the ground.

Touchdown -- but again, to the refs' credit it was hard to tell.

So, have the officials in the booth make the call. They can see it on their monitors, all of us at home watching on television see it, my goodness, God, Walt Disney, and everyone sees it. Thing is, oh, yeah, they have no officials in the booth.

So here's what happened. The Saints' head coach threw the red flag, and almost immediately the head official turned to us all, raised his arms, and announced, "The play was a touchdown." I thought, wow, how nice, he doesn't have to spend five hours looking at a monitor to see what the replays show us all in five seconds.

How'd that happen?

It happened because they do have officials watching all this in New York. They radioed in to tell these guys it was indeed a touchdown.

GLORY BE!

I do know there've been other instances like this, where the New York guys have radioed directly into games to tell the officials what to rule. Maybe the NFL is getting going on just, sorry-- to be painfully redundant --

GETTING - THE - CALL - RIGHT.

The problem with that is the NFLers don't always want to get the call right... They just want the outcome they like. Let's just see what happens when they allow the New York dudes to start calling in on those egregiously bad pass interference calls or non-calls. Or even, hope-against-hope to actually start making the calls that don't unfairly impede Chiefs success simply because they all know the NFLers are loathe to see the Chiefs keep going far in the playoffs.

The NFL also needs to get its act together on this lining up thing. Last week the Lions lost a game because they didn't have the proper alignment eligiblity going or something like that. It turned out the Lions inadvertently (or "advertently" as some presumed) got the officials all mixed up about which linemen were eligible and which were where or not-where or -- I'm sounding like Dr. Seuss here.

Thing is, why on earth do linemen have to announce their pass-catching eligibility? As far as I know the rules for professional American football are pretty simple. You must have five players on the line of scrimmage who are ineligible by rule. They are generally the guys you want blocking for you. As positions they are typically LT, LG, C, RG, and RT.

Thing is the rules also state you must have two guys on each end of that line. They are generally the WRs or a TE, depending on your chosen formation. So to elaborate, still not complicated at all, you must have seven total guys up at the line of scrimmage when lining up for an offensive play. And in whatever formation you want, the two on each end is eligible to receive a pass. 

Here's the trick. If you want your left tackle to be eligible, that's fine, as long as he is the one player on the left end of that front-seven line of players.

The point is, all the line judge needs to do is look at the formation and see who the player is on the end of the line. If it happens to be the peanut vendor pulled from the stands for that particular play and he catches a pass, then great! He was the guy on the end of the line and as such he was the guy eligible to catch passes.

Thuh end.

The problem seems to be when all these guys line up in their established formation. An important corollary to the lining-up rule is there are four backs, including the quarterback, who are also eligible to catch passes but they must all be situated behind the line of scrimmage before the ball is snapped.

This is where it gets complicated because, let's be honest, 93% of the time I watch a team line up and, let's face it, it looks like there are eight, nine, ten guys on the line. Sometimes I see only the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage ready to take the snap, with the other ten guys in some mish-mash of a formation close to to the line.

Theoretically those three guys not-supposed-to-be-on-the-line are lined up a step behind the line. And there are times you can see that those guys are a distinct distance back, off the line, yes, we do see that sometimes. But again, far too many times I can't tell which players are the true ends, by rule, and which players are the backfield receivers.

And yes, because it is most times such a mish-mash is precisely why the Kadarius Toney offsides call in that Buffalo game was so monumentally unfair. 93% of the time the formation is a mess and it is never called. And for the 57th time, that is not a bad thing. Stopping the game every time a backfield player is just lined up too close to the line or not close enough to the line or wherever he is supposed to be by virtue of some line judge's weird line-of-sight judgment skills would get really tedious really fast.

So how about this. How about this off-season the NFL just make it much more pronounced. Get it so those backfield players are a full player's length behind that line. Not a step, not a foot, not anything that keeps the line judges from looking at the player who is on the end of that line and knowing for sure that he is the one who is eligible.

This is just not rocket science, it isn't. And it can be digital electronic measurement science, really. Technology is so advanced that the NFL could easily have some kind of device that, say, lights up if a backfield player is too close to the line. That player will be instructed to look for where the light is, and, say, if it is red, he's too close and he knows he must back up. If green he's okay. Something like that.

Please, this is just not hard.

There were a few other things I thought I'd pound out here, but not going to today. 

As it is Chiefs-playoff-wise, right now we're looking at playing Pittsburgh next week if Miami wins, and Miami next week if Buffalo wins. Who do you want? As always I'm thinking about what I always think about with these things. It really doesn't matter, we'll be good, as long as we don't do anything ridiculously stupid.

And, yes, again, our receivers help out Patrick Mahomes and make the plays they need to make.

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The photo of Mike Edwards' touchdown run is from Adam Parker at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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