Chiefs at Bills - Week 9 - Record: 5-4

Sorry, I know I'm committed to putting together a decent blog post, but I don't really feel like writing much here. You may know why. Just very discouraged, and it has less to do with the Chiefs failures than what is happening in a world living by the sweetest, richest deceit.

To their credit, the Bills are a good team, and they were at home. They played a fine game, making well-designed plays from their coaching staff. They made our defense work hard out there. And their defense, especially their D-line, did fine work stuffing our offense.

The Chiefs were indeed impeded again by the familiar rotten officiating we get once every three or four games. Today it favored the opponent frequently enough. There were a number of instances, but I can mention the one when they did not observe and call the batted pass that was called intentional grounding, putting us into a nasty 3rd-&-long we didn't need to be in. And they tell us that's a play that is unreviewable. So we get screwed.

Mahomes, our O-line, and yes, our play-calling coaches (Reid, Nagy, whoever) had an off-day. From our first offensive play those coaches did nothing to keep the Bills guessing and on their heels. Nothing. And yeah, Patrick missed a wide-open Travis when we had the ball at the one. Got a FG. That's nice. We really needed a touchdown there, 1st-&-goal from the one. Yeah.

Our pass rush did not do its job to pressure their fine QB, Josh Allen, so yeah, those who are screaming for us to get D-line help may be right. Chris Jones was holding his own, but we have no one off the edge doing anything meaningful. They have a terrific running back who we contained a bit, but he got enough good runs to give Allen enough to get untracked.

When we were in the game Rashee Rice was on fire, so that was nice to see. Only thing, he was really the only one who really did anything. Travis and Hollywood got some nice long grabs, but it didn't mean anything.

We now get a bye week to rest.

Nuff said for now.

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Bills at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game - Something of a Take

Okay, briefly because it is late and I'm tired. Dang these tight Chiefs playoff games are exhausting to watch! Just a few things in my brain right now. Maybe more to share later.

One, something I'm not seeing among all the pundit takes, but it seems to me, especially with now an incredible NFL record 17 straight one-possession score wins, that this Chiefs team doesn't just try to and plan to work like maniacs for the full 60 minutes like most teams, this Chiefs actually does it. Their relentless play for the last 5-10 minutes of game time takes advantage of a weary opponent and because they are that ruthless with their play during that time it does seem to be successful in intimidating them to a very costly degree. In that then, this Chiefs team deserves to be called dominant even though the score differential may not reflect that. Hey, this is the NFL and for the Chiefs to do this is unheard of.

Two, something I think will be talked about is the odd play-calling of the Bills coaching, not just at the end of the game, but throughout. The Bills played really well for the entirety, and let's be honest, they were winning at the line of scrimmage -- on both sides of the ball. The main issue was their neglect of James Cook who was gashing us all night long. What happened? Why wasn't he the focal point of their offense late in the game?

Three, something that isn't talked about enough but should be, something I've shared a number of times before in this blog, but just the genius work of Brett Veach to shape this roster. Yes, Mahomes is great, yes, Reid is great, yes, Spags should be in the Hall of Fame just as the best defensive coordinator ever. But Veach has just done amazing work keeping the guys we need to keep and getting the guys we need either in the draft (that 2022 version - still amazing), in free agency, or just plucking guys like Kareem, D-Hop, and JuJu who have been terrific contributors.

There's more, but for now there is this.

One more thing. Yes, it appears there will be the standard whining and moaning about the reffing. That unsuccessful 4th-&-inches run by Allen late in the game, when, yeah, it did look like he got it, was crushing for the Bills. But yeah: Oh no. We can all hear it, how the Chiefs get all the calls, yadda-yadda. This whole thing requires more of an address, much of it already shared ad nauseam.

Anyway, lots to talk about until the Super Bowl!

Back-to-back-to-back, baby!

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

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Bills at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game - Initial Take

Oh wow. How much the Bills fans must hate Patrick Mahomes. How much the pro football world must hate Patrick Mahomes. So many people seething right now. I wonder how much people are going to blame the refs, I imagine that comes with a real dynastic run.

Whew. This game was what we thought it would be. A dogfight to the end.

The Three-Peat grail is still within reach. 

It will still be a chore. Next up is a rematch with the Eagles, and now they have a phenomenal running back in Saquon Barkley.

Just pounding this out real quick, a bit short of breath. Much more to come!

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"Chiefs Derangement Syndrome" - Preview of Bills at Chiefs AFC Championship Game

I felt I should put in a brief post for tomorrow's AFC Title Game against the Bills. It'll be brief, which is kind of funny because all those days in the past when we were even in the playoffs I tended to blog like a madman. When we won that divisional game in January 2016 against the Texans I wrote gobs since we hadn't won in 22 years previous.

Now we can't lose.

It isn't necessarily that we won't lose tomorrow, the Bills are a viciously good team. But we have won eight straight postseason games which is among the longest postseason win streaks ever. They just pointed out this morning that the spread for tomorrow's game went from Chiefs up 1.5 to Chiefs up 2.5. A few people out there think the Chiefs are just better.

I like our chances, but again, with teams pretty evenly matched and the Bills looking for blood, anything can happen. We'll see.

But with the Chiefs winning quite a lot, many out there like to blap about how much the NFL and the officiating is favoring the Chiefs. "Chiefs Derangement Syndrome" - what a crack-up. 

Along with all the delusional hysteria associated with that are also the many contrary takes and accompanying videos of the Chiefs getting absolutely jobbed on so many calls it isn't even funny. I just saw one featuring four different plainly ridiculous calls or non-calls that went against us in the Baltimore playoff game last year that, when you look at it, really, we should have won that game going away.

Regarding the Texans game last week, I originally thought that yes, Justin Reid was offsides on a Texans kick attempt. Nope. Video replays showed he got off the line right at the exact moment the ball was snapped. Thing is Reid is a really smart player and, yes, he used to play for the Texans. There were others, like the holding call against Trey Smith that wasn't anywhere close to one. He's just so good at pounding his defender that the refs feel like the must rein him in.

Pretty decent social media pundit Trey Wingo pointed out that the reffing can be not-so-good in every game, it is just the Chiefs get so much attention and they are so successful that people notice it more in their games, and rage against it more any time the Chiefs benefit. I saw a take that showed how bad it was in the Buffalo-Baltimore playoff game on Sunday.

To wit:

A Buffalo tackle was called for a hold that totally wasn't, much like the Trey Smith should-have-been-no-call. A Buffalo defensive back totally PI'd the Baltimore receiver, but they called it against the Ravens guy because in that split second time frame it may have looked like a Baltimore penalty to the official. Again, yet another reason they - have - got - to - have - officials - in - the - booth - with - monitors - to - make - original - calls - to - correct - on-field - officials - who - just - can't - see - it - like - all - of - us - watching - on - television - can.

This just isn't that hard, really. Please.

One more from that game. A Buffalo guy rode Ravens QB Lamar Jackson out-of-bounds way past the white area, and dropping him with a hip tackle to boot. No call. 

Interesting that people complained in the Texans game about our QB Patrick flopping once when the defender got a bit too close to the edge of that white boundary out-of-bounds. Well maybe -- thing is, who cares? It's not a penalty. Maybe people think Mahomes is doing too much to get calls, but that's just stupid.

I will say one thing. Let's just face it.

The Chiefs are a really good team. They just are. We in the Kingdom know that so well and are simply reveling in this stratospherically golden age of Chiefs football. And often when you are that good, you just get the calls. It isn't that most of them are not fair. Roll the tape, 97% of them are legit. The point is, when you're as damn good as this team is, things happen to make wins.

It isn't hard to see it out there.

As far as tomorrow's game goes, I like our chances simply because we have the receivers to get the job done. Last week we hardly, if at all, threw to Hollywood or JuJu or D-Hop. But those guys are so good that they must be accounted for, which left things open for Travis Kelce who had a monster game as you remember, as well as Xavier Worthy who if you forgot had five catches himself.

We've got as good a shot as any tomorrow, again, as long as something goofy or stupid doesn't happen. Otherwise we should be good to go.

Bring it on!

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The photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs website. 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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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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Once Again Because People Still Don't Seem to Be Getting It: The NFLers Do Not Want the Chiefs To Win Again, or Ever Really

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

1. We had a very bad interception.

2. We had a very bad fumble.

3. We had a very bad final score.

That's it.

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

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

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

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

He's right.

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

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

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

For good reason.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The NFLers do not want the Chiefs to win.

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

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

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

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

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

Guhhh?

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

It is just that we all know.

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

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

We know.

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

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

Ohtani signed with the Dodgers.

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

It is made to be that way.

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

Same thing with the Chiefs.

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

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

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

But that receiver situation.

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

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

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

What is with our offense for the umpteenth time?

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

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

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

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

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

On the ESPN gamecast:

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

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

That was it for me.

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

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

Until then...

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

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Bills at Chiefs - Week 6 - Record: 4-2

Just doing this as I watch. Real quick, in the 1st half:

On our first drive we got a TD called back because they called Creed Humphrey as illegal down-field. He really wasn't, but there you go. That opening drive ended with an interception that MVS couldn't hold on to. Errgh. Pay attention later here because, really, this one play very early was the instrumental one.

On our first-half TD to Ju-Ju, Mahomes maneuvered brilliantly in the pocket. Wow. It was another magical moment from our QB.

Our blitz package was actually making plays, when the Bills had the ball near our goal we batted down two passes and stopped them on 4th down. It was awesome to see, genuinely rattling their QB Josh Allen, but we were never quite getting to him! We really needed to finish with our pass rush if we hoped to win this game.

Our punter, though, dang. Tommy Townsend has quietly developed into, really, the best punter in the NFL. He boomed one pinning the Bills deep, we held and held and held until on 3rd-&-super-long we let them get away. Couple of pass completions and ::BAM:: a long touchdown pass that gave them the lead. Errrrrgh. It was against Joshua Williams, a very raw rookie who has size and speed but is just liable to getting burnt like he did then.

The contrast. We had the ball just before that Bills success at midfield and got diddly. During that attempt to get points before the half it seemed Mahomes lost his ability to move around. The Bills rushed four and he didn't move out of danger. Von Miller was in the mix of that rush, so I get it, but Mahomes has got to be ready to use his legs as well as he does.

So, to summarize, end of 1st half it was like this. Us: garbage - we're at midfield and get nada. Them: money - in the course of a minute, having the ball at their own one with 3rd-&-long, they still march down and get a TD. Literally 99 yards for a TD. Errgh.

In the mix was yet another ding-dong taunting call on us, Ju-Ju making some silly two-second gesture at the Bills bench. Please. Yes I agree -- Chiefs players: please don't do that. But they still should not be called for that. It is stupid for the NFL to do that, to make calls like that, stupid.

Finally I can't neglect to mention that we got the ball back with just a few seconds left in the half, and we did matriculate the ball down to get Butker a shot at a 62-yard FG.

He nailed it.

Second half. They just showed a stat. Bills have only given up 7 points in the 2nd half all season. Chiefs have scored 77 points in the 2nd half all season.

We got the kickoff to start! Woo-hoo! Buttt... We couldn't move the ball enough yet got a FG shot that...

Butker missed. Errrrrrrrrgh. That I think was a killer too, he just missed it by an inch, considering we lost 24-20.

So at this point it was 10-10, and sure enough again against Joshua Williams, they got a TD pass to Stephon Diggs. Let's see, who's going to win that matchup... hmmm... All-Pro All-Everything WR Stephon Diggs vs raw untested barely-ever-played-an-NFL-down CB Joshua Williams.

Our next possession, Ju-Ju. Nice slant pass to him and long run afterwards. We picked up this guy in the off-season and every Chiefs fan had to be stoked, the guy was a stud in Pittsburgh. Absolutely we've got to get him the ball more. We finished that offensive set with Mahomes connecting with Hardman for the TD to tie it, 17-17.

4th quarter time. The Bills had the ball at midfield and we got a great backfield tackle from Darius Harris and a fine stop on a 4th down attempt. When we got the ball we were doing great with our matriculating but the refs got involved with a crap call yet again. They called a very questionable offensive PI on Travis. Major errrrrgh because that stalled us out and we only got a FG.

After a nice drive the Bills got a go-ahead TD, and then after we got the ball with a minute left we got to thrill to experience the standard issue confidence that Patrick was going to get our go-ahead TD with seconds remaining to win it!

Not.

Instead he threw a pick and that was it.

Thing is, to be honest, against a very good Bills team we had two rookies at the corners, and neither of them was Trent McDuffie. Where was he? He was nowhere. I'd heard all this chatter about how spectacular he was as our real savior D-back defender, and I don't think I saw him out there at all today.

Now here's the thing. We lost by four points. Remember at the very beginning of the game when MVS had a touchdown catch, and it was called back because they thought Creed Humphrey was too far downfield? And the penalty took the TD off the board? And we only got a FG? Really, that was the key play of the game. What if that play occurred with less than a minute left in the game?

Yet another poor ref's call that no one challenged because it was so early and it was kinda hard to tell because it was so close and all the rest of it. It's early, let it go.

Most of the ref calls in this game were fine, on both sides. The problem is the call on Humphrey is just one that should not have been made. It is one of those calls that you don't make unless it is so obvious, much like the off-sides call on Dee Ford in that 2018 title game.

Refs do change game outcomes, and the Chiefs have had to deal with that all season-long so far.

Fortunately this is just one regular season loss against a fine team, one that provides a lot of good learning opportunities for these guys. Hopefully we can get McDuffie going in that D-backfield and guys like Watson and Williams can grow enough to effectively use their talent to shore up our relatively porous pass defense.

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I cannot neglect to add a final note to this blog post. I did post this one already, but after peeking a bit on Twitter some things were shared that make it even more evident how much the refs' calls, or in this case one particular non-call severely hindered our ability to win this game.

I'd mentioned the PI call on Kelce there a bit earlier, but in watching the tweeted replay of that TD catch by Gabe David against Joshua Williams, it was so plain that Davis pushed off on Williams. It was far more egregious and had far more of an impact on the game. But yepp...

Should've easily been a PI call against Davis.

But then, you know, we're the Chiefs. It just seems the only way the Chiefs can lose is if just the right number of stupid things happen against us.

So typical.

So in some ways, my apologies to Joshua Williams. The dude looks like he can be a really good D-back and he definitely deserves a shot. We'll surely need him with his size to take on the Mike Williamses and Davante Adamses of the division. Here's to watching him grow and improve.

Maybe the refs will actually make a few more correct calls that should be made in a Chiefs game.

Not sure though, knowing how the NFL feels about the Chiefs.

So very typical.

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AFC Divisional Playoff Game - Post Game Take

I simply had to add another take to yesterday's game about two critical things. I won't be getting into how amazing the teams played, particularly the two quarterbacks. You can get all of that from the sports shows and web sites and all that. But two things, one has been touched on a bit, the other I think you'll only get here but I know is on the hearts of every Chiefs fan.

1. The 13 Seconds.

With a minute left and down by four, Buffalo impossibly zipped down the field and scored the go-ahead touchdown leaving Kansas City only 13 seconds to take the kickoff and valiantly try to get into field goal range. Yes, every Chiefs fan's heart was surely right there camped at the bottom of his or her feet. 13 seconds. Not even the great Patrick Mahomes can pull this off. 

Well, a quick throw to Tyreek and another to Travis and ::BAM:: just like that we're in Butker's range, and sure enough he bangs it through to tie the game.

But what about two strategies the Bills could have employed to make it much harder for Mahomes magic to work? I mean, Bills coach Sean McDermott did a marvelous job coaching against the Chiefs, he really did. 

Except that here you are ready to kick off. Instead of just blasting it into the end zone, which is what the kicker did, why not kick it around somewhere, as far as you can preferably, so the Chiefs have to do something with it? Once they touch it, the clock starts running.

The trick to that is the Chiefs could easily be instructed to take any kick and call a fair catch, or if it is kicked straight and skips along on the ground somewhere, a player may fall on it and give themselves up right away. There is no guarantee they'd do any of that and the kick has to be just right, but yes, I do think it would've been worth it. Honestly I really don't think it would have the impact the Bills detractors think it would, if indeed the Chiefs played it right on their end.

Then there is the other strategy not employed by McDermott which I thought would have been more effective. Mahomes has the ball at the 25 yard-line. You just get all your D-backs at the line of scrimmage and when the ball is snapped right away tackle the receivers. Mahomes has nowhere to go, he's stuck, time is running out, and... whatever. Point is the Bills will be called for defensive holding. Five yards and a 1st down for the Chiefs, but neither of those things matters because game time will have transpired. Do that three or four times in a row, time expires, game cannot end on a defensive penalty, Mahomes is now stuck with the ball at midfield for only one more play and a pending Hail Mary attempt -- a lot better situation for the Bills than a high-percentage Butker game-tying field goal.

Would that have worked? I don't know. I do believe, however, that this mere possibility should get the NFL to make a rule change, simply because exploiting the rules in such a way is a nasty way to try to win a game. We all want to see a Patrick Mahomes do what he did or even a Josh Allen do it if he had the chance -- see if any given players can work their magic with their actual game play.

So here's the rule change. Should a team commit defensive holding -- presumably for the purpose of expending time -- then no time is run off from the start of the play. So if last night the Bills did the defensive holding thing, it wouldn't matter because there'd still be 13 seconds left on the clock for each time the five-yard penalty is assessed. I mean, in other circumstances when the offense does something to try to conserve time they take time off the clock -- even when a player is injured they have some kind of ten-second run-off with under a minute left, something like that. Why not do it if the defense is manipulating the game to expend time?

By the way, one of the other rules-oriented things they've been talking about is the overtime rule of first-touchdown-wins no matter what. For one thing I've always hated that rule -- for what its worth I've hated the college overtime rule even more. I'm more of a traditionalist, here's what I think. Put five minutes on the clock, and have a full five-minute overtime. No more sudden death. Whoever's ahead at the end, they win. If the playoff game is still tied, then have another one. And another one. I know there are liabilities to this, such as a team trying to milk every second of that five minutes and kicking a last second field goal, I get it. But I think it would be best if they do something like this to make it more likely both teams get a chance.

Oh, and there's the other reason not to complain about last night's Chiefs win with Josh Allen not getting the football in OT -- we had that happen to us three years ago, remember? So there.

2. The 1971 Divisional Playoff Game.

This is that other thing I wanted to post about, something I thought about as I watched a replay of the last few minutes of this amazing game -- one that the CBS Sports site has already ranked as the third greatest postseason game in NFL history, only trailing the 2014 Super Bowl and the 1981 NFC Championship Game.

As I sat there looking at Harrison Butker there on my television screen get lined up for that game-tying field goal, I had a thought I'd had before in some way just about every time I'd reviewed in whatever way I could the 2018 Colts win, the 2019 Texans Titans Niners wins, the 2020 Browns Bills wins -- any of them, that this is just all the utter and contemptible pukitude of the past horrific Chiefs postseason experiences just heaved up from the depths of our gut spewed all over Arrowhead Stadium, right there. In a good way. Yes, indeed, in a very very satisfying way, for sure.

Yeah, it isn't a pretty picture, but you know what I mean.

You can start with that 1971 Divisional Playoff Game against the Dolphins, which by the way was exactly 50 years ago from this Divisional Playoff Game. Not by date, but by Divisional Playoff Game. Back then the NFL playoffs started much earlier, yep, we all remember, it was on Christmas Day. 1971 season then, 2021 season now.

Everyone thinks it is just the one of the greatest (it made that CBS Sports list of great postseason games). Not to any Chiefs fan. It was one of the worst. Just seeing in my brain that image of Ed Podolak returning that kick down the sideline all the way into Dolphins territory all for naught just shreds my insides. Not that is wasn't a great game, but it was the first of many wretched heartbreakers for the Chiefs. Not going to go into depth about them all, but hey, just to mention, all one-and-outs...

1986 Jets. 1990 Dolphins (that one was really painful). 1992 Chargers. 1994 Dolphins. 1995 Colts (OUCH). 1997 Broncos (extraordinarily excruciating). 2003 Colts (OUCH MORE). 2006 Colts. 2010 Ravens. 2013 Colts (how much more agony can we take?) 2016 Steelers (mmnfnknghkm). 2017 Titans (MMNFNKGHKMMMNGHCK).

Thing is, really, two things actually and then I'm done. I've shared them both before but they're worth repeating.

As perverse as it is, those horrors have actually made all this Chiefs amazingness that much greater. It is almost as if God is saying, "Hey, cool your jets, huh? I know this is painful, but life is painful. Just so you know, it is going to be glorious. But you've just got to hold on, okay? I've got this." What a lesson, and a beautiful one at that.

Remember it is an odd truth, but really, if the Chiefs win every single Super Bowl for 57 straight years, what will happen by the time we're "enjoying" the 18th one? It is really odd, but tough losses are good things. Even if we lose next week or the 49ers get into the Super Bowl again against us and exact their revenge, well then what? 

We still got our Super Bowl win two years ago and we were tremendously blessed to have a very very very good time hocking up all over everywhere all that past ugliness.

That second thing for this note is just the Patrick Mahomes factor as suuuch a twist on what our quarterback situation was for eons. Remember The Quarterback Project. Yes, it definitely needs an updating, but only to show the stark contrast between the cold, barren wasteland of no Chiefs drafted and developed quarterbacks that lasted forever...

And now this.

Nirvana. Utopia. Paradise. Elysium. Valhalla. Whatever you want to call it.

It is amazing.

And it is not just Mahomes, but it is Brett Veach's brilliance at finding him and then surrounding him with the Kelces and Hills and every other role player who's done so much -- how about that offensive line rebuild in what-in-NFL-time was a nanosecond. It is Andy Reid doing amazing things for Mahomes and the team both in chemistry and playmaking and all the rest. People shredded him a new aye-hole for that Blake Bell option play that cost us a possible touchdown, but danged-it-all, back off. Those plays do work and they keep the defense scratching their heads and on their heels.

Sometimes the beauty and glory and joy of where you are doesn't mean anything until you remember where you've been.

And for the Chiefs and the Kingdom, this whole thing is an incredibly delightful reality.

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The image is from Mark J. Rebilas at USA Today, at the ESPN sports site. Thank you.

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Bills at Chiefs - AFC Divisional Playoff Game

Well there you go. The Chiefs will now play in, and host at Arrowhead, a fourth straight AFC Championship Game next week. That has never been done in NFL history, understandably. That kind of thing is beaucoup near-impossible.

It is funny. In one of my standard weepy postseason rants, you know, a post after we'd just lost another stupid first playoff game, on a day just BP, you know, BP: Before Patrick, I'd pointed out that Arrowhead had never hosted an AFC Championship Game, even though -- I looked it up and I'm pretty sure -- every other team had hosted at least one, at least teams that have been around for a while.

But now? No AFC team but the Chiefs has hosted an AFC Championship game since, oh, since, oh... what is something that happened four years ago that seemed like forever ago? Anyway, it was in New England (why not?) and they were playing, yes, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Otherwise, next week the conference title game will be yet again -- in Kansas City.

Too sweet.

Now to the game itself. 

Oh my. 

First of all, what a terrific game by both teams. The Chiefs pass rush simply could not take down Bills QB Josh Allen. He was everything we thought he was. And the intensity and the drama of the last couple of minutes of game time. I think they said, what, 25 points were scored in the last two minutes, something like that?

But when you have Patrick Mahomes, I mean. There were times when I thought we were done. Late in the game we'd let the Bills go ahead, and Mahomes fires a strike to Tyreek who houses it. With 13 seconds left of regulation and down three, Mahomes matriculates the ball so well that we give Butker a chance to tie it, which he does. 

We then win the toss in overtime and that was when I thought, we've got this. 

Postseason Patrick is going to get this done.

Before he got the ball back with the 13 seconds left, I was stunned that our defense let the Bills carve us up to go ahead. I was certainly thinking, whupp, there's the stupid thing that does us in. Cornerback Mike Hughes slipped on a 4th-&-13 play allowing Allen to throw the go-ahead touchdown strike to Gabriel Davis who'd already caught three of the Bills touchdowns.

But then, Patrick.

Enough said.

Well, more to be said, just for the record. We'd won the toss to begin OT, marched down the field, and this baby was capped by a beautiful corner-of-the-end-zone back-shoulder strike to Travis Kelce who hauled it in, stuck the two-feet-in landing, and that was it.

Now on to revenge against a Cincinnati team we should have taken down a few weeks ago. Maybe this time we'll cover Ja'Marr Chase just a liiiiittle more closely.

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The Mahomes image is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. The Kelce image is from Sam Lutz at that site. Thank you.

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Bills at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 2-3

Before the recent major league baseball draft I'd thought a single thought considering the way things are in baseball these days. The thing to do, really, is

Only draft pitchers.

Seriously. Only draft pitchers, period. You can always find decent everyday position guys other teams get rid of or are just there on the market who'll do those two critical things you need in everyday players: (1) make contact at the plate and/or (2) play solid defense -- and if you get both you're good. Or if you can get one of those things and teach the other thing they don't do as well to do better at that thing, you're also good.

But it doesn't matter if you can't get the other team's batters out.

So yeah, just draft pitchers. Draft no one else, unless of course you're drafting a certified Ted Williams or Stan Musial. Otherwise, why waste a single pick on some regular position player schlub who's taking a spot of a pitcher you can work with and see if he can be one of those rare guys you can put in your rotation or make your closer. 

But you may say there aren't enough spots on minor league pitching staffs to hold all those guys. So? Who cares what happens in the minor leagues. Just throw all your pitchers into all the regular position player spots. But still fill up your minors with them so you can see who's for real. You are much more likely to squeeze from that haul those few that will be studs on the big club.

Well, guess what.

This year there were some ten or so teams who did just that. Of their 20 picks, those ten or so used somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 picks on pitchers. All 20? Ee-yepp. The Los Angeles Angels did it. All 20. Look it up. The Angels used every single one of their 20 picks on pitchers.

I was right.

Sorry, but I am humbly right also about what the Chiefs need to do in the draft for the next few years. Well, me -- along with the Buffalo Bills. Just like the Angels were right too (we'll see, pay attention to that baseball team in the next few years...)

During tonight's broadcast they mentioned something that is strikingly similar to the Draft-Only-Pitchers strategy, for pro football. The Bills have, what was it, something like ten guys who rotate in and out of play on the defensive line. The guy with the most playing time (by number of snaps), at 55%, was the lowest in the entire NFL for the guy-on-the-defensive-line-with-the-most.

Sure enough, I thought, wow. That's genius.

It is genius because defenses get tired. And after 30 minutes on the field during one long dragging draining opposing offense's drive, you're gassed, and it affects the rest of your game. It eviscerates your entire defensive effort. And if you're the Chiefs, this is an eventuality that simply cannot persist.

Let's face it. This isn't news. Sometimes the truth hurts...

Our defense stinks beyond belief. And that's when they're not gassed. I happened to stay around to see the graphic on the television that says everything about how historically bad this defense is. It told us the Chiefs have tied the record for allowing 29 or more points in each of its first five games. It's been at least 30 in the last four. Think about that. In a league that regularly sees 17-14 final scores, this is about as abysmal as it can get.

So, it is simple. Just a reminder about something I mentioned in an earlier post. You may know what it is.

Brett.

Brett Veach.

Please.

Do the Draft-Only-Pitchers thing, for us, the pro-football version -- and in the next few years...

Draft only front-seven guys.

No, do not mess with defensive back guys. Just like those regular position players in baseball, you can pick up guys here and there, they'll be serviceable. And no offensive players. Sorry, but Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes will do wonders with any serviceable player there. Besides, our O-line is good, young, and in the fold for the next few years. Nothing against the Travis Kelces and Tyreek Hills on our team.

But please. Please please please please please infinity --

If you can't stop the run -- and you can't rush the quarterback -- fughedabouddit.

I'm glad not many people read my blog, I wish there were way more, but you know? That could be a blessing right now. I do know Brett Veach does read my blog (yhee-hee), so maybe no other team will discover the genius of this plan.

And you know? Humbly speaking, even if it isn't the most spectacular pro-football insight ever, let's face it...

We need something.

Because we'll go nowhere with this defense.

So again, you got it. Maybe if you know Brett, and you are reading this right now, you can help whisper it in his ear.

Again, for emphasis.

Draft.

Only.

Front-Seven.

Guys.

I think that's all we need to say right now because, really, well, you know.

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Bills at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game - The Take

Earlier in the year I put up a blog post for the Bills-Chiefs game that was mostly my notes. As I perused my posts through the year, I thought that was one of the better posts, actually. With this one here I thought I'd just do that again, there were so many different dramatic elements in this game.

We started with some miscues: Thornhill unable to haul in an interception, Hill dropping a long pass, Kelce dropping another one, and the worst of all Hardman muffing a punt the Bills gathered at our two-yard line. The Bills shot out by scoring the first nine points, and it would've been ten if their kicker did not bonk the PAT off the top of the upright. How about that. It was almost yet another instance when we got down by double digits in a playoff game.

Hardman made up for his blow-it almost immediately. He gathered in our first touchdown catch, and on our following possession scorched around left end on a reverse that went for 50.

Thing is, on the Bills possession between those plays Chris Jones punched a Bills player and the refs missed it. Good thing they missed it because in our regular season game against the Saints they kicked out an important Saints D-lineman for doing exactly the same thing. Will Jones face a suspension for this one even though we escaped without a penalty? That could be very costly if he is suspended.

What in the world are we doing that crap for? I can't say I wasn't disappointed with the raw outbursts of our players. Yes, the Bills were being ding-dongs too -- at one point Josh Allen threw the dead play football at the face of one of our D-linemen. Later in the game after a great sack by Tanoh Kpassagnon, Alex Okafer hovered menacingly over Allen and a Bills lineman pummeled him. All kinds of personal foul calls resulted and I was really nervous our players would get the worst of it. Fortunately the sack held up and really pinned the Bills back.

Still. That behavior has no place in our game. Even if the Bills do it, what in the world are we doing that "bush league" crap for? We're the Super Bowl Champions, come on. Even so no one should be doing that stuff. I really hope our main leaders come through with a few words for these guys. It has been this way for eons: Let your game do the talking. The Chiefs have really actually been very good about that, what happened to them today?

Back to the game:

The Chiefs got another touchdown on a nice Darrel Williams punch-in. It was sad we just couldn't figure out how to get Clyde Edwards-Helaire going -- he was so dominant when we played the Bills in that earlier regular season game. Even though CEH did have a nice run for our third touchdown on the day, we went with Williams mostly, and he is really showing he can be a terrific workhorse for us.

Even though Charvarius Ward dropped an easy interception, our defense held the Bills on their next possession. Our defensive backs just played terrific ball today, really making it hard for Josh Allen to get untracked. NFL receiving leader Stefon Diggs was practically invisible today. I saw that they'd said the Chiefs defense was a little bit better than the Bills defense -- indeed somewhat underrated overall, really.

In the middle of the 2nd quarter though was when the the most stunning highlight reel action took place. On two successive plays Mahomes showed everyone why he truly is the present version of GOAT, by far. He evaded sure sacks on both plays and managed to get the ball to Kelce first for a nice grab off the turf, then to Hill for a huge gain.

These guys are from another planet.

Halftime score: 21-12 Chiefs.

We got the kickoff to start the 2nd half and went to work, doing exactly what I thought we should be doing, hitting our receivers with quick, sure strikes. We stalled in their end and kicked a field goal making it 24-12. They countered with a FG themselves as our defensive front was doing a fine job of pressuring Allen.

On our next possession their guy shoved Mahomes way out of bounds deserving of a penalty, but the refs kept the flags in their pockets. We took care of business on the field, however, as Hill then took a quick-strike pass for 71 yards. A shovel pass to Kelce at the goal line made it 31-15.

Our D-backs continued their fine play, and at the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Bills were driving and Rashad Fenton took a tipped ball and ran it back to midfield. As he was running it felt really good -- it seemed we had this one under control. The Chiefs methodically started pounding the ball with Williams until the knockout punch, a soft toss to a wide open Kelce who came across the line to snatch it at the goal line.

Thing is, we lost Eric Fisher, and it does not look good. Achilles. For the Super Bowl we will now likely be without our two really good tackles, Fisher and Schwartz, . Our coaches had better be at the top of their game prepping for their absence -- I think if I remember the Tampa Bay defensive line is pretty good.

After upping the score to an apparently insurmountable 38-15, the Bills naturally tried an onsides kick which, with the new rules for kickoffs, makes success almost impossible.

Except for now.

Armani Watts bobbled the kick and the Bills recovered. Ouch. With 4:00 left they score a touchdown, but inexplicably try for two. If they kick the PAT they are at that point just down by two scores. They fail on the conversion attempt and are now still down by three scores.

Now down 38-21, they try it again but on this onsides kick return effort we are successful, with WR Marcus Kemp doing the duties. In fact this one was just as difficult because it took a really nasty bounce that Kemp adroitly handled.

A few more runs for Darrel Williams and it was over.

Our defense really shined, making their QB fight really hard to get anything he wanted. And my word, the Mahomes-Kelce-Hill triumvirate is just out-of-this-world. I'm seeing that already the Chiefs are three-point favorites over the Bucs. It'll be interesting to see where that line goes if it moves any.

What a ride. What-a-ride.

And it doesn't stop! How amazing will it be with Mahomes taking on Brady for GOAT bragging rights!

Two weeks we invade Tampa where the Bucs are playing in their home stadium! 

Run it back!

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The first photo is from Chris Donahue, the second from Andrew Mather, at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Bills at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game - On the the Super Bowl!

The Kansas City Chiefs are AFC champions for a second year in a row! A real live blog take to come soon! And how about that, it'll be Mahomes vs. Brady. Wow!

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Photo is by Adam Parker at the Chiefs official site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Bills - Week 6 - Record: 5-1

Before getting to the game, the Chiefs got even better this week. Yep, it works for us too, how stunningly joyful is that: The rich get richer.

After the Jets released uber-back Le'Veon Bell, Brett Veach did his splendid wining-&-dining thing and got Bell. In my view the best thing about this is how much Bell can teach Clyde Edwards-Helaire -- I've always thought CEH reminded me of Bell. CEH is a phenomenal talent in and of himself (witness tonight's performance), but he is still raw and could benefit from the refinement a Le'Veon Bell can bring to his game.

Anyway, no, Kevin Durant is not joining the Chiefs, but I absolutely loved the posted meme here. As you may know I'm also a big Golden State Warriors fan, so the connection is just delightful. Both of my fave teams dominating their respective leagues right now. (Sure there are qualifications about that with regards to the NBA, but that's another story...)

To this game. I hate to do this or admit I'm doing this, but I'm going to pretty much just post my notes with remarks. Each of these blog posts is some version of that anyway, and really, here tonight you may even get more than I usually post. But I'm afraid these evening games (great that we're on primetime so often!) can be hard when you've got to sleep and get up for very non-Chiefs related work early in the morning.

We came into this one with everyone saying how much Josh Allen should be able to match up with Patrick Mahomes with his strong arm and raw athleticism and all, but really, it wasn't even a contest. With that in mind, into the notes.

Middle of the 1st quarter it looked as though the refs would do us in again as they did last week. On a QB scramble Allen was clearly a yard short of the marker but they gave him the 1st down anyway. A play later their O-lineman was holding Taco Charlton like crazy, but of course, no call. They got the 1st down completion.

Our offense started sluggishly, it seemed like we resumed playing like we did last week, as if the Bills had 14 players on defense. It was raining pretty good throughout the game, so it was good we were eventually able to get our running game going.

The wild thing about this game was our O-line. It was like major reconstructive surgery. We even lost Mitchell Schwartz to a back injury and had to move Mike Remmers from LG over to RT. We slotted Nick Allegretti in there, and I didn't find this out until halfway into the game that we'd replaced Austin Reiter at center with Daniel Kilgore. The only real mainstay through the whole thing, someone with even a few years experience there, was Eric Fisher.

But the interesting thing was they actually played pretty well. Maybe the shakeup, giving some of these kids a chance to shine, made the difference. I believe I'd heard the Bills run defense was not the best, but they were showing more than a few shining moments for our linemen. Hmm, might be nice especially getting ready to see if Bell can still shimmy and slice through defenses with his carries.

The Bills first TD was a terrific throw and catch, Allen to Diggs, at the side of the end zone. Just want to give credit where credit is due.

More rotten officiating. We had penalties up the wazoo tonight, but while late in the 2nd quarter the PI call on Ward was legit, the one against Breeland was not on 3rd-&-11.

Meanwhile Allen was throwing the ball who-knows-where. I'm sure he's a fine quarterback, and it even looked as though when he needed to be a runner he was pretty dangerous. But so often with his passing he was heaving the ball all over the place.

I tracked the possessions of the second in a somewhat sporadic way, but I just wanted to see what we were going to do only up 13-10:

Chiefs: 3rd-&-2 Williams picks up a nice 1st down. 3rd-&-7 Mahomes almost gets picked off, and we have to punt.

Bills: Starting at their own 12 we get a 3-&-out -- our defense does well outta the gate here.

Chiefs: 3rd-&-1 a very nice pitch-sweep left to CEH gets us the 1st down. Using this guy in open space is wonderful to see. Then deep in their territory on a 4th-&-inches Williams blasts past the push and streams into the end zone. 20-10 us.

Bills: Another 3-&-out. Very nice.

Chiefs: In this drive the Bills commit two egregious personal foul penalties, both times violently shoving our guy way out-of-bounds. That helped us a lot, but after again getting deep into Bills territory with CEH running all over these guys, we get to a 2nd-&-1 and can't convert on two straight plays. Ergh. Butker makes it 23-10.

Bills: We start playing soft to keep the big play from happening, and sure enough in a matter of not-too-many plays the Bills score a touchdown. Great, now it's 23-17 with six minutes left. This is not nice.

Chiefs: CEH is now getting stuffed, even fumbling the football away. That was especially scary, except that replays showed his knee was down before they stripped it. Whew. Majorly. Then came what really was the play of the game.

I believe it was 3rd-&14, and Mahomes did his extraordinarily deft scrambling thing to find Byron Pringle breaking open 30 yards downfield. Strike. That really did it for us. With three minutes left Butker came in to bang through the clincher. Final score 26-17.

Of course there's more, but that's kind of the play-by-play. Next week we're at the Broncos place, with Le'Veon Bell joining the squad. I can't wait!

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The offensive line photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Bills at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 6-5 - Part II

I simply could not leave today's nightmare without a link to this fantastic piece by a top Arrowhead Pride writer, someone who takes only about 16,000 times more time and attention to what's happening with the Chiefs than I do. (Yes, in the midst of all the agony over our Chiefs right now, I did peek around at what others were saying, again.)

This guy does a terrific job of laying out the case for putting Pat Mahomes in now. He elucidates all the things we're all seeing with Alex Smith, and laser focuses on the real problem. It isn't Andy Reid, it isn't the offensive line, it isn't a soft defense -- all of these are possible culprits in our minds to some degree, however justified any one of them is or isn't.

No, the problem is really, actually one thing.

Alex Smith.

Just looking at those highlights of Smith doing what we all see him doing -- flat-out not seeing receivers any other NFL quarterback would see and hit in stride for points points points. And he does it (or not does it as the case is) time after time after time. The footage in this piece are just samples. How many more of these kinds of episodes have you seen right there on your television but you just shrug, "Well, I'm not an NFL quarterback, so how would I know? I'm sure it's hard to be an NFL quarterback... ::sigh::..."

I can only think about these receivers doing their damnedest to get open and run their routes and desperately desire to make things happen and Smith just ditches everything one way or another because he simply cannot cope. And how gracious they have been to support their quarterback and teammate. Kudos to them for that.

But we all see it too, and we don't have to be as deferential.

The only person who counts though, is Andy Reid, and the question right now throughout all of Chiefs Kingdom is, will he be so deferential?

I simply cannot deny thinking about that time back in 2012 when Smith was benched in favor of Colin Kaepernick. At the time Smith was playing well for the 49ers when he got concussed and was out for a few games. He never saw the field again that entire season. And I think, what did Jim Harbaugh see that forced him to make what-was-then a quite dramatic move?

Anyway, you just have to read the piece. It is comforting to find a perverse appreciation for the times we've sacrificed our voices going hoarse screaming at the television "THROW - THABALL - DOWN - THAFIELD." It is quite reassuring to know that there are people who see it and know it and have some desire to commiserate with one another. It is good therapy.

It would be really good therapy to know that the Hunt-Veach-Reid brain trust sees it

And does the right thing.
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Bills at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 6-5

This season is very much looking like 1998. That was the year we started out really well, then started to tank. We tanked so badly that I simply stopped watching anything sports cold turkey. I did resume watching Chiefs games in 2003. That was the year we actually had a nice offensive line.

This year.

Kinda like 1998.

Such disappointment.

I have actually been so disgusted with this team, really, mostly its offensive line and offensive quarterback (see last post), that I didn't even watch the first half of the game. I was spending more time in church this morning, but sure enough when church ended, instead of seeing us up 28-0 at the half we were down 10-3. The only reason it'd be worth it was to see us up 28-0. Then I'd know we were doing what we should be doing -- okay, we're back to playing well.

Not.

Our quarterback isn't good enough.

Our offensive line is miles from being good, and with all this we may be finding it is even worse than any of us thought.

Sure everyone will say we're still at 6-5 and holding on to 1st place. We don't deserve to be there, that's for sure. Sure we could look at this like a bump in the road, but you simply don't lose games like these. Last week the hapless injury-riddled Bills gave up 54 points to the Chargers. Today they held us to 10. Last week we lost to a hapless injury-riddled Giants team who lost to an 0-9 team the week before.

What happened to that 5-0 team that was scorching the NFL? We had even done that against the best teams in the league? Here's what happened.

We played Pittsburgh, that's what happened. That's the killer of the whole season, just that one game right there. This team knows precisely how to play our team. Every time we play the Steelers they have a game plan that makes it look like they have 14 guys on the field and we have 9, every time. Has Andy Reid been so dense as to not figure this out by now? (Yeah, I'm thinking of putting in a "The Exasperating Reid, Episode LXVIII" post later this week. I don't know if I'll be up to it the way I'm feeling now, but I can't say there'd be any observant Chiefs fan who wouldn't know exactly what it would be about...)

We then played Oakland on primetime television, and the NFL simply could not allow the Chiefs to dominate so the officials gave the Raiders a thriller win with several ridiculously horrific calls against us.

We then got a break against Denver when their quarterback made so many mistakes a team of my grandmothers could have beaten them. Still the Broncos ran up and down the field against our Eric-Berry-less defense, a definite portend of things to come.

We then played Dallas, just one of the teams to watch tape of what Pittsburgh did to us -- now everyone is doing it. Eight guys in the box to stuff our running game, and blitzing just enough to keep Alex Smith off his game -- this weak offensive line and terrible quarterback simply cannot cope with that kind of pressure defense. By the way I'd heard that since that game Dallas has lost all three games and hasn't even scored ten points in any of them. Another portend. We made Dallas look waaay better than it was.

We then played New York and couldn't score a touchdown. The Giants dropped pass after pass after pass, and they didn't score a single touchdown either, but that didn't matter -- all they had to do was employ the Pittsburgh philosophy against us and they had us.

We then played Buffalo, at home no less, a team they said had one of the worst defenses in the league. We get 10 points against them. Just do what Pittsburgh did, that's all.

So yeah, this depressing turn of events is not a whole lot different from 1998. But there was a good thing about that year. With the purpose of this year's blog effort to look at the best things, here goes. Yeah I could say I like this guy or that guy -- none of that much matters with our QB and O-line keeping anyone from being good. I could say we're still in first place -- ::whimper:: And I could say I will always hope no matter what that this will all change -- but I'm so sick of saying that I want to throw up.

But here's the good thing -- about 1998?...

2003 was on its way.

Remember that? Priest Holmes, Dante Hall, Trent Green, Will Shields Willie Roaf and that phenomenal offensive line.

::Ahhhh...::

And sure enough, 2022 is not that far away. That's the year we'll have Pat Mahomes in there slingin' it downfield for will-shattering drives ending in back-breaking touchdowns, and over the previous few years we'll have picked up some offensive linemen who'll get Kareem Hunt untracked, and we'll have picked up someone ferocious to occupy the middle of the defense, someone who shatters the will of opponent offenses and wins us playoff games.

2022.

::Ahhhhhhh...::
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