Remember the 2017 season? It was very weird. We started great, winning our first five games including that opener when we torched the Patriots at their place.
Then we went on a really bad losing streak, dropping 6 of 7 -- yeah, really, six games of seven we lost. We simply could not get a good win particularly in that stretch where all the New York teams (Giants, Bills, Jets) just had our number. It was gruesome.
Then we closed out the season winning out next four to salvage the thing, including a final-game debut of Patrick Mahomes beating the Broncos on New Years Eve.
But then to close it out there was that once-again mind-boggling heart-shredding playoff loss, this time to the Marcus Mariota passing-to-himself Titans.
In the middle of that worst part of the season I'd blogged despairingly about "The Exasperating Reid," citing a number of things he was doing that simply wasn't doing us any good, and yes, I do confess, I waffled wildly about whether or not he should replace Alex Smith with Patrick Mahomes. In hindsight, certainly thinking about the way our season ended anyway, it may have been best to keep Mahomes on the bench just learning the whole time -- it may have been valuable for his growth to get us to the plateau the Chiefs have occupied ever since.
I bring it up because The Exasperating Reid still does show up every once in a while. He was there very much in the first half of last season's Super Bowl when I do firmly believe our wickedly vanilla play-calling was the thing that did us in the most. Not our offensive line woes, not the slanted officiating, not that the Eagles played very well anyway -- all of those were factors.
But the key factor?
Andy Reid.
The exasperating part is just that we can never really complain too much about any of this because there are so many extraordinarily good things he has done and still does do for this team. We are who we are and we are where we are -- now already one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history -- because of those good things.
That 2017 season? I remember when we were 6-6 and on life support. Then we went off, and made the playoffs yet again. Andy Reid had a lot to do with that. We've won three Super Bowls since then, all critically close, and Andy Reid leading the way with fine play-calling and inspirational composure was significant to say the least.
In the opening game loss to the Chargers on Friday I could say there was a bit of The Exasperating Reid going on there. He could have run the ball more for one thing. But I also wonder about our pass blocking and WR route running. There were just too many times Patrick had to scramble around back there. And there were too many of his misfires on his passes.
I say this because I watched the last part of the Bills-Ravens game Sunday night, and the Bills QB Josh Allen was firing lasers to his receivers even in good coverage. He was also able to do that because of his great pass protection. Umm, the Chiefs have I think the best center, best right guard, and best rookie left tackle in the league -- that's what they say anyway. Our new left guard was serviceable and our right tackle is as well, when he isn't getting penalties. Sooo, what's up with that?
Why isn't Patrick having all day back there and firing lasers to his receivers much more regularly? Why do we have to watch him scramble and squirm and squeak and slither out of trouble all the time? It's wonderful to watch him do his magic when he does have to do that, it's great, but why does he have to do that it seems like all the time?
Granted the Chargers played terrifically on defense, I got that. More kudos to them. And the Ravens did force Josh Allen to scramble a bit sometimes in their game, too.
But still. Is that The Exasperated Reid, or The Exasperated Mahomes? Is Patrick still a bit too gun shy? Yeah he did try to go deep a few more times than before, but I've been thinking. Why? Who cares about getting back to throwing the deep ball? Who's saying that crap? We should just be running the ball well and making sharp clean passes to our receivers wherever they are. Granted we didn't do horribly with that on Friday -- Hollywood, JuJu, Tyquan, and Travis actually did okay.
I also watched the end of the Monday night game, when the Vikings put on a clinic driving the ball down the field to score a game clinching touchdown. I thought, now that's a well-oiled, well-coached machine. I mean every play their brand new starting quarterback ran was laid out for him to have the best success -- and everyone executed.
The Chiefs on Friday night? It just looked like too many times we were not oiled, and not coached very well. Andy Reid even admitted it! The team starting off poorly really cost them Friday night. I remember when he did confess back in February that, yes, his team was not adequately prepared for the Eagles.
What's funny is, getting back to that 2017 season when we opened with a delightful pounding of the Patriots, do you remember the second game of that season? It was a victory at home against the eventual Super Bowl champions, who coincidentally defeated the Patriots. That team we beat was
The Eagles.
So yeah we have the Eagles at home this weekend in the Super Bowl rematch nationally broadcast afternoon game. Will we be prepared this time? Will The Exasperated Reid pleasantly surprise us with a game plan that gets the best of a very good team?
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I'm blogging about this game early in the week because on Sunday I'll be watching most of the game, but we'll be heading to a family event as the game is winding down and that event will go into the evening, so I won't be blogging right afterwards. Very likely it'll be the next day, so just a heads-up. But I just felt like putting down some thoughts now I'd had a couple days after our opener this year, for your Chiefs Game Today enjoyment in the mean time.
Thank you for your readership.
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