Chargers at Chiefs - Week 15 - Record: 6-8

Yet another horrific experience of exasperation, the - whole - stinking - game. Why endure it? Again, sorry to all those who think I'm being obtuse, forgive me. If you are something of a reader of my blog, I humbly appreciate your consideration of my thoughts.

Again, yet - another - massive - exasperation.

But I know why.

So I don't watch it. It isn't necessarily because I don't want to. This morning was church time and family time spent largely with a family member celebrating a major event. So, yeah.

I did peek in at a gamecast and actually listened to Mitch when I could. Here is what I saw or heard.

"And that Chiefs incompletion should have been a pass interference, but oh well, just another missed call." This by the way was from the radio color man, Danan Hughes, who, like 97% of everyone, including too many of our beloved fellow Chiefs fans, just shrug. 

I believe this one was just before the half and a chance for us to get points: Yet another announcement that Xavior Worthy was clearly PI'ed, yet we got no call.

Just before the end of the first half, with us ahead 13-3, the Chargers completed a deep pass to put them in prime scoring position, one that replays showed the receiver didn't fully hold on to the ball as he hit the ground. Danan expressly said so. Replay review ruling? Completed pass. The Chargers scored a touchdown with seconds left before halftime. Yet one more of the few critical calls unjustly going against us that are enough to cost us. All - season - long.

Down by three early in the 4th quarter, Patrick threw a pick. In the red zone. Great.

Late in the game when we could have gotten the ball back to kick a game-tying field goal, at least, we just didn't get a turnover we should have gotten. How many times have we failed to get an easy interception or fumble recovery this season? I believe Danan said, "The turnover ball is just not going our way."

When we stopped the Chargers at midfield and they punted, we had another holding call against our coverage team. I'm sorry, but this traditionally fine special teams unit cannot have that many of these penalties as they've had this year. Now, if we kept having guys running back kicks for touchdowns or something really beneficial because of the penalties, that is different. But we keep going nowhere on our returns and we get penalized. There is something very wrong here. And yes, fine, let's compare. Let's look at other teams coverage and our coverage and see. If we're really committing real penalties then we need to work on that. But I don't think that is it.

And finally, the worst of all. 

Couple minutes left. We get the ball at midfield, a good shot at getting that game-tying field goal, at least, and our third-string tackle gets a holding penalty against us and Patrick gets injured. At the time of this writing I have no idea how bad it is.

Our backup QB Gardner Minshew comes in and actually does great to start, completing a few clutch passes to get us into good Butker field goal range, annnnnnd... interception.

I didn't even see this game. I watched none of it. Again I know what is going on here and it is just too hard. I peeked in a few times on the radio and gamecast and this is pretty much all I caught. How much more exasperation did I miss? Really?

You do know the Chargers on the season on the whole have scored fewer points than the Chiefs. And they have given up more points than the Chiefs. And they are five games ahead of the Chiefs in the standings (one of those counted as winning the head-to-head this year).

The Chiefs have pretty much clobbered all the teams they've beaten (the one exception the close Colts game), and been defeated by a miniscule number of points in the games they've lost. Last week's loss to the Texans was their only loss by more than one score, and it was by only 10 points in a game our defense really played pretty well anyway.

If the Chiefs do not win their next three games, they will have their first losing season under Andy Reid in his entire tenure as Chiefs coach.

I did peek at the Arrowhead Pride site and the first thing I saw was this. There posted on the right, for your benefit. Note it is a page where the fans can put in their ideas. I know that what I'm going to see in 97% of the posts will just add to the aggravation:

The Chiefs need to do this or The Chiefs need to do that. 

Not.

There are things for sure they could do to improve. The offense coaching has been inadequate, for sure. We need a running back and pass rusher. That's fine, I get it. Thing is, every team does this. The Chiefs can always improve, and there are legitimate things they could do. I can think of a few more. We all do that every year.

But this is different, by light years. The reality again, for the 78th time --

The NFLers have created a narrative that dominates what kind of calls happen on the field, and they are totally debilitating to this otherwise excellent pro football team the Kansas City Chiefs.

I guess I just can't see how this truth is not obvious. 

Again, for the 5,294th time, I will always root for my team believing they could overcome these things. Maybe this is a fool's errand, just keeping on believing in the modicum of integrity that gives our team a chance. I feel very much for the legion of true red and gold fans who are devoted to the Chiefs Kingdom. I really do. And I do feel for the players and coaches who know they must work their butts off, risking injury out there on every play, yet resigned to biting their tongues because this is their living and they want to maintain a reasonable impression as respectable and honorable athletes when the Narrative is so painfully oppressive.

The last thing of course is that injury to Patrick. Prayers go up. Prayers go up to all the players who are injured, truly. The Chargers came in banged up and had some injury issues today themselves. 

But we all wonder about Patrick the most because of who he is, we all know that. Again, we just wait and see. 

Prayers.

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Here you go. Just one thing from a fan's FB site. I've seen no videos, highlights, or replays from the game. Don't want to. Of course. But I came across this, and the heartening thing is there were dozens of comments to this post that did very much concur with the truth about what is happening with the Chiefs. 

At least there is that.

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Chiefs at Chargers playing in Brazil - Week 1 - Record: 0-1

Starting to pound this out as the 2nd half starts, and I can make some notes so far for our 2025 season opener, which is in Brazil. I'd heard a while ago that Chargers season ticket holders were really steamed in that the Chargers marketing information told them they would be able to see the Chiefs among all the other teams they'd play. Surely the assumption was the game would be in Los Angeles, but, well, here we are in Brazil for all the NFL international friendliness they want.

To the game:

Here at the beginning of the 2nd half we got the Chargers on a three-&-out down just 13-6. 

The start of the game was not good, not good at all. On the 3rd play of the game while running his route Xavier Worthy slammed into Travis Kelce, I don't know how it all happened but Kelce blasted Worthy's shoulder. Worthy was announced to be out of the game, and we can only wait to find out what the deal is with this injury.

But yeah. We're already down Rashee Rice for six games and promising rookie Jalen Royals is nursing a bad knee. Thing is we've gotten actually pretty good production from Hollywood, Tyquan, and JuJu. At the end of the 2nd half Tyquan made an amazing over-the-shoulder catch on a deep pass, one that we have just not been seeing from our team for some time. It was sweet to watch. 

It set up an amazing last second field goal from Harrison Butker when we had barely ten seconds to get the field goal team on the field to get the kick in. We did, quick, quick -- and Butker banged it through from 59. These are those things that show what kind of championship caliber team we are.

Here on our first 2nd half drive we are moving the ball. It is mostly Mahomes making quick throws to Hollywood and JuJu -- good! This works! On one play Patrick had nice running room out of a scramble and he himself laid into the defender standing him up as he went out of bounds. He's not backing down. This is Patrick Mahomes.

Sure enough, our man does it. As I put down these words Patrick does a little RPO maneuvering in the backfield, holds it, makes a few pass fakes, and takes it to the right pylon. Sweet.

Thing is, for some of the rest of this game? 

We are getting no real pressure on their QB Herbert. Just none at all. We just have to put more pressure from more pass rushers but that just makes our defensive backfield more vulnerable. Yeah. We just need another Derrick Thomas back there, for sure.

I know people complain when we get Carl Cheffers officiating our games, and while for the most part it has been even-steven on the calls, some have gone against the Chiefs when they shouldn't have. We got the Chargers down to a 4th down early but they called Karlaftis for a roughing the passer. Of course, it really wasn't. He didn't do much to hit him and it was a split-second after he released the ball. It was not as if he should've known not to hit him. Just another crappy call that goes against the Chiefs. Point is the Chargers went on to score a touchdown.

Spags is now dialing up the extra pressure. Tranquill just made the play getting Herbert.

Regarding our offense everyone seems to feel the Chiefs will air it out more this year. Let's get Patrick to use that arm of his to greater effect! Yay! Well, he's thrown a few of those but he's been missing. The only one he made was that super-nice throw that Tyquan caught at the end of the 1st half -- again excellent work on both ends. Indeed let's see more of that! Thing is it hasn't happened.

But then let's just admit it, the Chargers defense is actually very good. They are right on top of everything. They are quick, smart, and smothering. Our O-line is playing okay, but our running game is just not getting what we could. Yes those O-linemen are getting too many procedural and holding penalties, but first game jitters, okay -- that'll all get worked out. But then, just like we need another Derrick Thomas on defense, we could really use another Priest Holmes on offense. Taking nothing away from Isiah and Kareem, they're actually doing as well as they could. It is not bad at all, mind you. But, yeah...

Now Herbert throws a way-too-easy TD pass to a way-too-wide-open receiver in the end zone. Ugh. Our defensive backfield kind-of looks a bit regularly flummoxed out there tonight. Jaylen Watson did make a fine play to defend a pass in the end zone a couple plays ago, but still. With no real pass rush pressure, it is hard to stop as good a QB as theirs. And our D-backs are all very young, they need some time to get this thing down.

And oh my. Just now Mahomes scrambling right in the middle at the line of scrimmage on a 3rd-&-5, 57 guys around him, going down, parallel to the ground and flipping the ball forward to JuJu for the 1st down. That's just Patrick Mahomes.

And now the nice long TD pass to Travis. Nice. But we missed the two-point conversion we needed because Harrison missed the PAT on the earlier touchdown. Now 20-18 them, moving on into the 4th quarter.

Chargers back with the ball and they are just tearing up our defensive backfield. They aren't even bothering with the run, just making our D-backs look silly.

Annnd we get another Cheffers deluxe. They don't call the obvious holding by their RB against our outside pass rusher while Herbert throws a TD pass, but they do call the facemask against our guy when he barely grazed the guy's facemask on the attempted stop. Yeah, I can see how it is all interpretation -- I do think the facemask should be called no matter how incidental.

But don't go telling us all that the Chiefs get the calls because they don't. Earlier in the game there was the very interpretive call against Karlaftis that really wasn't, while a few plays later their guy tackled Patrick then gave him an extra deliberate shove to the ground that, yes, they wouldn't call. That behavior was far more of an intentional action against our guy. Just interpretations? Maybe. 

But they certainly can go one way more than another, and they sure have in this game.

Little time is left, we're now down 9, so we must score twice to win. Those missed conversions do loom very large now.

As we scramble to get back in this one, our O-line is just not holding up. Patrick just doesn't have the time to get get off a good pass to guys getting their routes clean.

And now on 4th-&-7 Mahomes scrambles right and heaves it to a wide-open Hollywood to the five. Wow.

We get the Butker FG, to make it 27-21 them with just under 3:00 to go. 

We have a chance.

But yeah, it is Herbert against our D-backfield -- they just got a 1st-down pass completion right away. Eee. They'll run some to get us to burn our timeout... but we've got to stop them. Okay, good, a sack. We burn our last timeout, but it is now 3rd-&-long.

Oh crap. Herbert is allowed to scramble, run right, and get the 1st down with wide-open running green ahead of him.

Good containment, D-line.

Will this inadequacy on our D-line be a factor as we move forward? I mean it just didn't really do much on the whole, against what I'd heard was a bit of a weakened Chargers O-line. 

Yikes.

But yeah, the Chargers finally beat us in a close game. I mean we'd had their number for so many games, so many close heart-breakers for them.

Yes, true, we now have to take on the Eagles next week. Maybe we'll see what we can correct and be ready for next week, and we'll be a bit better with our young D-backs getting some experience under their belts.

As it was it was nice to see a sea of red in the Brazil stadium seats. It was definitely a Chiefs-favoring crowd.

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

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

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

But it looks like a limp noodle. 

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

Meanwhile...

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

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

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

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

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

This should not be happening.

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

This is not just our offensive tackle play.

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

Why, Andy Reid?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We did end up winning. Still...

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

Errrrrrghckghckrrrghck.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And by kneecap, we mean kneecap.

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

Yikes.

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

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

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

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

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

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Chiefs at 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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Chargers at Chiefs - Week 7 - Record: 6-1

Another day, another win over an AFC West team. I shouldn't speak too soon -- speaking about having this division wrapped up so early yet again, because the Chargers were playing us really tough in the first half. It was 17-all with a few seconds left until halftime when, yes, yet again...

Travis Kelce showed us all why he should be first get any girl he wants.

Patrick Mahomes threw a pass to him in the endzone and the cover guy simply could not keep up. PI, 1st-&-goal from the one. I believe it was on the very next play Mahomes did one of his shovel-like passes to Kelce at around the line of scrimmage and he was stopped.

Except this is Travis Kelce. And the top girl of all girls was watching, you know, Taylor was in the box right there next to Brittney and her 57 million-strong entourage thrilling to it all.

Thing is, Kelce took the pass at his knees, and because there was no more than 0.0008 seconds before everyone collapsed on him, he raised the ball quickly above his head and tried to single-handedly matriculate his body right on into the endzone about a foot away.

Only right as he got some push from his fellow linemen, the Chargers linemen all tried to snatch the ball from his grasp. It was a surreal look for just a moment, the ball held high while Chargers hands were flailing away at it to try to knock it loose. They were, needless to say, unsuccessful. Kelce fell into the endzone with the requisite mighty grip on that ball and with seconds left in the half the Chiefs went up 24-17.

In the second half the Chiefs D stiffened against a Chargers offense that has been notorious for wilting late in games. That is pretty much how it played out today. The Chargers did not score another point.

We lost Nick Bolton to what is considered a pretty nasty wrist injury, let's hope it isn't too bad.

A fun note about this one. After the Chiefs reacquired Mecole Hardman from the Jets where he went to play before the season started and was inexplicably little used, he was put in to return all our kicks today. On one occasion late in the game, Hardman took a punt that was returnable (it seems so few of any kick is truly returnable these days), and right as the television announcers were mentioning it was Dante Hall day when the Chiefs were putting Hall's name on the Ring of Honor, Hardman returned it fifty yards to set up our close-out touchdown. 

I got to meet Dante Hall nine years ago when he was coaching the high school football team that was playing my son's team that night. I was the football stadium announcer so I was privileged to be out on the field pregame getting acquainted with the player names I'd have to pronounce. What a joy it was to speak with him just for a minute, and have my son's picture taken with him.

Really neat to see him honored at Arrowhead today.

Next week we get the Broncos again, who I just noted beat the Packers today. Maybe they will be getting more of their game on, I mean they did actually do a good job against us last Thursday.

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

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 11 - Record: 8-2

If I haven't shared this before, as a Chiefs fan -- well, I'm sure every fan feels this way about their team so it's not that unusual -- I'll share it again here. as a Chiefs fan I am perfectly happy with the Chiefs winning every game 56-0 on their way to 200 straight Super Bowl championships. Doesn't matter to me how few people are paying attention to anything NFL because everyone knows the Chiefs are so good. That's just fine. 

Thing is, the NFL and much of the anything-pro-American-football interests everywhere have to know that this team is so good that it may actually start to get bit frustrating to see them beat just about every team they play. Now we all must be careful about this because in the very first AFL game ever, back in 1960 when the Texans were playing, yes, the Chargers, Lamar Hunt watched his team blast out to a 20-point lead and blurted at the half, something like, "Maybe we shouldn't be so hard on this opponent." I'm sure he feared his Texans in his new league of full of teams he'd love to beat would be so good no one would pay attention to the league itself because his team would dominate without ever giving the other team and their fans a chance to enjoy any winning!

He needn't have worried. The Chargers came back and won 21-20. So that's what happened with that thinking.

It does look overwhelming for the other teams in the NFL with the Chiefs playing so well, particularly our star duo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. They connected on three touchdown passes tonight including the game-winner with half-a-minute left in the game. We're 8-2 right now and the team we beat tonight is in 2nd place at 5-5. Thing is I do think what we're going to be like if we're so far ahead so early before the regular season ends that we have nothing to play for, and we get flabby and go into the playoffs ill-prepared.

I know Mahomes and Kelce won't let that happen. Especially when there're still evidences that we simply are not running away with any game we play.

Tonight we still had to work very hard to beat a team without traditional Chiefs-killer WR Mike Williams and several key guys on their defensive line. Last week we won a one-score game against a pesky Jaguars team, and the week before that the Titans defense really stood us up. Tonight we also lost to injury Kadarius Toney, Clyde-Edwards Helaire, and Juan Thornhill. I have no idea at this point how serious they are, but at WR we were already down JuJu Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman.

Skyy Moore did great work out there to fill in, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson, and Jody Fortson helped out too. I'll add that our running game was in gear tonight against a pretty weak run defense, with Isiah Pacheco pounding out a 100-yard running game.

But then, there was always Travis Kelce. We needed that good play from those other receivers to keep the defense honest, because really I don't know why teams don't triple-team the guy. Maybe they are doing that in some defensive schemes -- in fact Chargers safety Derwin James has always been one of the best defenders against Kelce -- but he still got free to make key plays and get touchdowns, just a testament to his greatness.

Crazy to think Mahomes has still never lost a divisional road game. Yep, every time the Chargers, Broncos, and Raiders have had the Chiefs in their place, every single game for the past four-plus years starting with Mahomes' first ever start in that final game of the 2017 season in Denver -- they've been beaten by the Chiefs.

Then there is the guy on the defensive side of the ball who is being regularly double-teamed, and that is Chris Jones. Dude could easily be Defensive Player of the Year. Even with the double-teams against him he still made plays and allowed our other guys to get to the quarterback. It is obvious our D-Backs are still very raw -- wow, how we're holding down the fort with those youngsters is amazing -- and our tackling can be spotty. Chris Jones makes things happen to keep us in games, especially as the game gets deep into the 3rd quarter and on into the 4th quarter, he always seems to raise his game to another level.

Anyway, what I was going to say when I first started talking about how much people perceive how good this non-media-darling non-super-large-market Chiefs team is, I still keep wondering about the refs calls. It was much worse in the first half but it really seemed the refs let anything close go when the Chargers did a penalty-worth thing, but they sure called the close ones against the Chiefs -- anything to slow down this team.

I feel like adding a note about the artificial turf field raising serious concerns. Several players have expressed their objections -- I don't remember the name of that brand of turf but they've openly insisted it causes more injuries. I looked up the six stadiums where they have that particular turf and sure enough, one of them is the hellhole that is the Indianapolis Colts stadium. But guess what.

That turf is at the Cincinnati Bengals stadium too, and the Chiefs play there in two weeks.

Sorry, but this stuff scares me. Of course a ton of it is I don't want my Chiefs to be lost to injury because of that turf, but really, no one should be injured because of it. Get rid of it, now.

Maybe it is good we build a huge cushion in the AFC particularly of the hazards like these that could detrimentally affect our team's success, much more the players' health.

We have a reeling Rams team next week, then the wonderment about how it will go against the Bengals, the only team we lost to last year after October, and we lost to them twice.

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The image of Travis Kelce is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chargers at Chiefs - Week 2 - Record: 2-0

Well that was scary. At the very end of the game the Chargers are down 27-24 with a minute left and they've got to onsides kick it. They do, right into the waiting arms of sure-hands receiver Justin Watson who promptly allows it to slip right through his grip. 

But ::whew:: Noah Gray is there to recover to seal this one. Oh my.

Into the game progression:

We were moving the ball with our first drive but a sweep run by Hardman on 3rd-&-short was snuffed. This was just one of a few really questionable vanilla play calls by Reid. The Chargers defense was looking good tonight, however, you've got to give them credit.

Our pass rush really needs to step up. Herbert got very little real pressure early tonight. Our poor D-line or their much improved O-line?

I don't know why the Chargers didn't throw to Mike Williams on every play. The Chiefs tried Rashad Fenton and he was miserable, just because he's just not got the physicality to guard the guy. We then went with Jaylen Watson who's got a bit more size but is still very inexperienced. Then we went with probably our best cover guy, L'Jarius Sneed, and he was victimized by an amazing Williams TD catch.

In the middle of the first half I was hoping Reid would put in McKinnon and Pacheco to make things happen in the running game. They did and it made a difference. A bit later CEH went back in and did nothing. I still have hope for CEH but I'm beginning to doubt he can really handle the quickness and strength of an NFL defense. One time later he did make a super nice play on a catch bouncing off guys, however.

The Chiefs first-half touchdown was one of the best MAHOMES THE GREAT MAGICIAN performances ever. We're in the red zone, he's back to pass, then starts to scramble right. He jukes and jives and jukes some more, totally escaping the grasp of a very close tackler when he threads the needle to McKinnon for the score. Can we say Whah-ow! too many times? His second TD was an absolute strike to Justin Watson -- more and more and more Whah-ows...

Mecole Hardman made some pretty good plays, and I can't not give him some cred here because yet again the Arrowhead Pride guys still can't stop hating on him. He got injured and struggled a bit after that, still working hard to be in there and play well.

Towards the end of the first half the Chiefs had the ball with a couple minutes left, plenty of time for Mahomes to matriculate the ball down the field for at least a game-tying field goal. Joey Bosa rams into Mahomes legs causing him to get up gimpy putting a fright into all of us. Flag on the play. Definitely roughing the passer. 

The ref calls the penalty on us. "The tackle dragged Bosa into Mahomes." Holding. That was their call.

Then we all got to see the replay.

Indeed, it was an absolutely horrific call. Andrew Wiley barely grabbed Bosa's jersey and in no way did Wiley's action pull Bosa into Mahomes. It was all Bosa. When the Arrowhead fans saw that replay they loudly expressed their displeasure. Not only did that keep us from a chance to get points, but way worse is he almost crippled our QB.

Our offense was just not up to the physicality of a team like the Chargers. The Chiefs did pick up as the game wore on, but the word is the Chargers went out and updated their defense in a big way, and our offense was just getting manhandled by their guys. Our extraordinary 3rd down proficiency last week against the Cardinals was nowhere to be seen tonight.

As far as our defensive guys go, good thing we've got Nick Bolton in there. He's a stud and he's only going to get better. That's a nice Chiefs thing for sure. There was an amazing pass rush sequence for our boys that utterly smothered Herbert, leading to a punt from the back of their end zone and terrific field position at their 35. Must add that we found out a bit later that two of the Chargers starting O-linemen suffered injuries.

As the 4th quarter started rookie Bryan Cook got a really stupid unsportsmanlike -- erggck -- rookie stupidness. He's going to be a good player, but he's got to learn. How about this switcharoo, though. Right after the Chargers marched down the field to within a couple yards of a TD, another of our rookies, the aforementioned Jaylen Watson, picks Herbert right at the goal line and houses it. Oh yeah.

As the game wore on Herbert seemed to wear down. He was getting hammered in the backfield and that may have been because of their weakened O-line. Herbert almost threw a pick when trying to squeeze the ball into Williams, and after the Chiefs got the ball back CEH got the handoff, got facemasked (they called it), and rambled deep into Chargers territory to get us the field goal putting us up 27-17 with about three minutes left.

Justin Herbert is a gamer even though he's still growing, learning. As mentioned he'd gotten roughed up and it looked like he was seriously injured, but on 4th down with the game on the line he threw a bullet to get his team to the five and then a couple plays later, I believe it was 4th down then too, he threw a touchdown pass to make the score 27-24.

A difficult game to watch for the Chiefs early, but they made adjustments, played a little better later, made it an exciting win with the help of a stupendous break when Herbert threw that pick-six.

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The image is from Chris Donahue at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 15 - Record: 10-4 - Addendum

Very early in the game on Thursday night Chargers tight end Donald Parham almost caught a touchdown pass, then going down slammed his head on the turf so ferociously he suffered a serious concussion and had to be carted off the field. Medical personnel rushed to his aid, he was stabilized as best they could, then he was taken to the hospital where he was further treated and declared to be in stable condition. As of this writing three days later, it appears he is going to be fine. That's very good news.

The medical treatment for anything like this was wholly justified and we are all blessed to have it available by professionals who take their work very seriously. Kudos to every single one of those people who have that commitment. In fact, great kudos to anyone who does a job -- any job -- honestly and truthfully using their talent, skill, and knowledge to authentically labor making someone else's life better.

The Covid lockdown stuff is not that.

The reason I'm adding this is because the NFL is experiencing a "pandemic," if you will, of pseudo-science, that all these Covid protocols must be in place for... for... what exactly? Oh you'll hear "Stop the spead," or "Save lives," or other such pithy plappings. In many ways it is just the opposite. Many of the Covid protocols whatever they are have actually led to more deaths, and more destitution. I saw in an interview a top medical officer categorically declare that the censorship of effective treatments has led to far more deaths and as such is the worst part of the whole lockdown circus.

Instead what we get is these sports leagues, like the NFL, following all the make-up-on-the-fly Covid rules they are supposed to follow without doing the careful thinking that they are all worthless. It is all just theatrical virtue-signaling with everyone passing the buck to excuse their complicity -- "Oh but so-and-so health officer told us we must do this!" Come again? Seek the pathway up the line of authority and no one steps up to take responsibility. You'll notice it is always shuffled up to someone else.

Regarding the NFL they've already pushed back three scheduled games -- I imagine so players could try to test negative for Covid by the time they play the rescheduled game. The Rams-Seahawks game for instance, scheduled for this afternoon, was pushed to Tuesday night. Why? They'll say it is because too many players are tested this way or that way or this Covid-related things is this way or that way -- huh, I wonder what the rule is for that? The Chiefs were down, what, four players I believe Thursday night and without them we almost lost the game. Why isn't our game pushed back to, oh, say a Thursday night in 2027 so we can reeeally be sure no player with Covid-something-who-knows-what is going to go out and wantonly kill someone?!

The point is some medical things like Parham's injury are serious for seriously factual medical attention. The Covid thing is not one of those things no matter how much fear mongering they spew. It just isn't. The NFL is even starting to realize this in that they have announced they now will be doing much less testing. Huh? I thought this disease was an apocalyptic plague?! Because it isn't, by far, many are coming around.

Over in the NBA, notorious pro-legitimate-health Kyrie Irving -- kudos to him for standing his ground on how ineffective, unnecessary, and dangerous these particular "vaccines" are -- was reinstated, but still had to endure the punishment of testing and testing and testing out of his rear end -- and apparently still he got Covid -- along with several teammates who themselves were "vaccinated." 

Here's the thing about all this. An NBA official, or a Brooklyn Nets official, whichever I don't remember, remarked about Kyrie's stance, "Each person has their own individual convictions, beliefs..." yada-yada-yada, something like that -- you know the song-and-dance.

The problem with this statement is it is made to try to absolve the Covid lockdown supporter of any responsibility for his actions. It is expressed to make it seem like Kyrie Irving has his own odd superstitious fantasy beliefs about things "but we want to respect him."

No. Please. You're patronizing him, you're actually being disrespectful. The correct answer is this: "We were wrong. While there are some instances where a given Covid thing is something to address, most all the things we've been doing for two years to address it have been preposterous. We're sorry.

"Now, let's play ball."

That's it. That's what needs to happen. This needs to come from every single person who ever believed masks or "vaccines" (in quotes because it is really not a vaccine), or wildly inaccurate testing or contemptibly worthless distancing or hapless contact tracing inquisitions or any of that stuff would do squat about the Covid thing.

Indeed one remark made in the mix of all the NFL sidelining players and pushing games back and otherwise doing any of the inane things it does was that here they're sidelining players for the tiniest confrontation with an illness that will simply not harm them, when every football game features some of the most gruesome injuries to the players on the field. 

We can certainly have the discussion about why I and so many others enjoy such a violent sport far more than we should, I get it.

But still, it is yet another of the legion of examples of hypocrisies about this Covid response tyranny. Government officials enjoying going maskless while everyone else is suffocating in their face diapers. "Vaccinated" people screeching about others being vaxxed while real vaccines should be protecting the vaxxed anyway. One of the best ones of all: masked people walking into a restaurant then 10 feet in taking off their masks to dine. Good thing the Covid bug can't stand going near dinner tables! Maybe we should all be strapping dinner tables to our faces!

Fortunately many people are really starting to get the absurdity of all this -- indeed the lethality it brings. They are starting to reject these things in larger numbers, and we can only hope the government officials who feed off the virtue-signaling vote-glomming they can do by telling us how much they're doing gol-darn-it to save our lives will start backing off as they should be.

Maybe the NFL is starting to do so as well.

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The image of Donald Parham was snipped from the CBS Sports website. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 15 - Record: 10-4 - The Take

Pro football is a game of single plays. 

Travis Kelce makes all kinds of very nice catches across the middle of the field, and often he tries out a juke move but almost always he gets tackled right away.

Except that there are those single times they work. Kelce had two of them work last night, one a long 50+ yard catch-&-run down to the one yard-line to set up a late touchdown, then another that went the distance to win the game in overtime.

Then there are our two punching-bag players, D-back Daniel Sorensen and LB Ben Niemann. Both were in there long and often because there was no L'Jarius Sneed or Willie Gay, two key players who've helped revitalize our defense over the past several games. Sure enough they were being pushed all over the place as the Chargers offense had its way with us.

But there are those impact plays. Sorensen batted down a 4th-down pass that saved a Chargers score -- why does it seem there is just that one play he makes in every game that makes a huge difference? Ben Niemann had a phenomenal stop on a Chargers back at the goal line setting up a Turk Wharton strip and fumble recovery by, yes, Ben Niemann. Another Chargers score critically averted.

Thing is our defensive line was also without Chris Jones, and it showed. Our run defense was horrific. Chris Jones himself is not the best run defender, but his presence in the middle mucks things up and puts our other fine defenders in great position to make plays. 

One of those guys is Nick Bolton, by the way, and if people like those over at Arrowhead Pride would stop their obsessive and completely unjustified dissing of Mecole Hardman for two seconds (yes, they did it again after last night's game), they might take some of that web space to instead give Bolton his due. The knock on him is he doesn't cover well, but besides making all kinds of major hits and stops, he did have a terrific pass defense on one short ball. He's all over the field in some way or another and is arguably the best rookie linebacker in the league.

Another thing the people at most of these Chiefs sites like Arrowhead Pride will not do because they are so kowtowed to the NFL and other powers-that-be is call out this Covid hysteria lockdown insanity for what it is -- idiocy that led to seeing these strong Chiefs players sidelined.

The reporting is always "Oh what an unfortunate turn of events that ___ Covid thing [likely they have no idea what it is] that is keeping ___ off the field." Sadly, no one tells the truth that there is no reason whatsoever for the NFL or anyone to keep anyone off the field for whatever Covid thing they concoct. Virtually all of the Covid protocol absurdity is ineffective, unnecessary, and even dangerous. Chris Jones, L'Jarius Sneed, and Willie Gay should have been out there playing ball and not being an unwitting part of the NFL/powers-that-be's propaganda machine. This applies just as much to any player on the opposing team.

Really, to some extent, I just have some serious consideration that the Chiefs Super Bowl win was the last legitimate one. A month after our glorious championship, potentates the world around started to virtue-signal out of their rear-ends trying to convince us that they could eradicate all bad things with the wave of the mask wand, or the vaccine wand, or the testing-distancing-whatever wand. And yes, it is has horribly infected our fine sport and the Chiefs Kingdom. How can we count anything that happens on the field as legitimate now when they unnecessarily jerk the game around like they have. But then, really, the NFL has been jerking it around for some time now, with all the racialist plap as well as its now quite openly broadcasted connections with gambling organizations.

I was going to remark more on some of the amazing game we got to enjoy last night, such as how good the Chargers QB Justin Herbert is -- how good it'd be to talk about the new Mahomes-Herbert rivalry we'll get to enjoy for the next several years except, yeah -- what Covid insanity will ensue to wreck it all then?

::Sigh::

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

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 15 - Record: 10-4

What a comeback! Down 28-21 very late, Mahomes to Kelce to tie, then in OT Mahomes to Kelce with Travis bobbing and weaving through the defense for the game-winner!

I have work early tomorrow for a high-pressure time there and it is late, so I'm getting into shut-eye mode right now. The thrilling nature of this game was exhausting! Whew!

My take tomorrow!

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Photo by Andrew Mather at the Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chargers at Chiefs - Week Three - Record: 1-2

This was an abominable game. Yes, it is still early and the Chiefs will come back this season to make something of a run to the playoffs.

But with this defense --- ugh. And that we thought we'd go 20-0 --- double ugh.

I could say a million things about this game, but just not going to waste my breath. We all know we had three ugly turnovers at the very beginning of the game. That alone was enough to cost us the game.

But what really cost us the game was not having a good enough defense to stop teams who will now be playing four-down football on a regular basis. Did you get that? Teams now know never to punt the ball ever again if they can help it, just to make sure Patrick Mahomes cannot get on the field. No matter what, the rule is, don't punt against the Chiefs. Even if you don't convert, Mahomes will have the ball back anyway. But why not take the chance? Why give him the ball anywhere on the field? Why do that when you've got that one more play to use to keep him off the field?

On my count there were three different times the Chargers went for it on 4th down, and converted each time. On that last one they had a 4th-&-9th late in a tie game, and got it. They then went on to score a touchdown to win the game.

Patrick Mahomes has indeed changed the game.

And because of that, Brett Veach's job is now that much harder.

Why?

Well, first, I just don't think the go-for-it-on-4th will work all the time. And for another thing, this was a game where insanely stupid things did us in. Those won't happen all the time either. The Chiefs dominated the Chargers in every statistical category except the score, turnovers, and luck. 

Well, I can't refuse to add that -- give them credit -- their receivers were catching the tough passes, and ours were not. That last drive with seconds left, Hill and Pringle really should have caught passes that would've given us a decent chance to win. Those same kind of throws from their quarterback were caught by their guys.

But here's the thing about that other-team-going-for-it-on-4th-down thing.

If we can't stop them on four downs, we simply will not win.

We'll win games, but we will not win like we expect to win with a talent like Patrick Mahomes in there. There is this idea that we need to surround Mahomes with the offensive talent he needs to succeed.

But that applies just as much to the defense. If we can't stop four-down offenses, who really now have an extra down to do things with, then we are going to make Mahomes' job impossible over on the offensive side.

Yeah, I could say a ton more about this ugliness today. But here is the conclusion of this one.

It is simple.

Brett.

Brett Veach.

Please start drafting defensive player after defensive player after defensive player after defensive player after defensive player after defensive player, ad infinitum. If I see you draft a single offensive player, unless it is the second coming of Jim Brown or Jerry Rice, I will run down to the Chiefs draft war room and bop you quite resoundingly upside the head.

So there.

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Chargers at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 14-2

One of the good things about being so dominant during the regular season that you clinch the bye a week early is that you can rest your best players and get them healthy for the postseason run. One of the bad things is that in a meaningless regular season game you can lose to injury some of the players you may really need later.

Today we lost Willie Gay early and the extent of that injury is still unknown. We also lost this fine defensive back, DeAndre Baker who was shining before he yanked his leg all out of whack. It is not good to lose Gay because we will really need his speed and length out there at linebacker, but it may be just as not-good to lose Baker because he did provide really nice depth in the D-backfield. It appears certain Baker will be out for some time, his injury looked really bad. 

Another bad thing about this game is we just let the Chargers run all over us. It wasn't just because we had mostly second stringers in. Give them credit, their QB Justin Herbert is very good -- I believe the Chargers will be a prime foe in future Chiefs divisional action. By getting spanked like we did today, it ends a long string of games we've kept any loss to at least one score. This is our first loss by more than a one-possession score since we lost to Dallas in 2017, 28-17. At least Mahomes didn't start, so his "one score" streak is still intact.

Meanwhile on the plus side Darwin Thompson looked terrific today, I wonder if his performance will mean carries in the post-season. He ran the ball with authority, he caught the ball well, he matriculated his body in and around their defense nicely. There were other things that were nice about some of our players getting a chance to do some things on the field today -- on one catch Byron Pringle had a marvelous twisty-turny run to set up our third touchdown. Tim Ward had some nice sacks on the defensive side.

On to a hopefully very deep postseason run! If I've got it in me I'll certainly put up a little pre-postseason post here sometime before two weeks from now.

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Chiefs at Chargers - Week 2 - Record: 2-0

We had no business winning this game. Wow was our defense the most melted butter -- we lucked out far too often when their fine very-1st-NFL-game-of-his-career QB misfired a few too many times. And their D-line just overpowered our O-line. Did we actually even win this game? And next week, we have Baltimore. We're going to have to play a lot, lot better if we have a chance next Monday night.

The four horsemen of the football apocalypse started to rear their ugly heads again in the Chiefs Kingdom. The last time we had to withstand their cruelty was after this game, the last time we'd lost a game. Seems like eons ago.

To start we'd gotten hit pretty hard with the injuries. We'd already been down a few key players, but today at different times our linebackers got shaken up. Frank Clark also had to leave, Darrel Williams left, Sammy Watkins had a blatant helmet-to-helmet personal foul against him that wasn't called and will be in the concussion protocol.

The penalties started to pile up again. Last week we had one, and we all thought, woo-hoo! We'd finally got the discipline down. Today, it was gruesome.

The poor play calls, especially by our defense. We just never looked like we were ever in a position to do any serious damage on defense. We did pick it up a bit in the second half, with some people like Mike Danna showing some promise and Tyrann Mathieu making TD-saving plays. Our tackling was atrocious. Our defensive line couldn't stand anybody up if they wanted to. With our linebacking core already our obvious weakness, we need those stout guys in the middle. Here's what I'm wondering: We paid Chris Jones $80 gazillion? Already knowing how poor he was with run defense? 

The one horseman that didn't really hurt us was the turnover, so yeah, we did manage to take care of the ball. In this game if we lost it even once we would've been toast.

Mahomes just looked miserable in the first half, but then that's his game -- find a way to make it so you absolutely have to perform. I think the late game issues get him to step it up -- that's a very good thing for sure. Their new QB Herbert looked really good for his first game. 

Travis Kelce really kept us in it. And of course Tyreek Hill had the catch-and-flip-into-the-endzone of the game! With 12 minutes left we were down 17-9 and Mahomes flunk his patented long ball on the run, and Hill made a diving catch much like the one he had last year against Minnesota. They say he got away with taking his helmet off for an unsportsmanlike penalty, which would have made our two-point conversion attempt much more questionable, but Hill later said his helmet was coming off on its own. Whew... got the conversion to make it.

And then there was Harrison Butker, really saving our buttkers. He'd already had a 58-yarder, then in OT he banged through a 53-yarder to win it, except we had an offsides call against us. So now he has to hit another 58-yarder, and he does, except they call time out just before the snap. So then he has to kick it in again from 58 yards, which he does to win the game.

Very exciting, but way more than it needed to be! Maybe this is a nice little wake-up for us and we get a real idea we are not invincible.

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Chargers at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 12-4

Well how about that. What a phenomenally exciting end to the regular season. As I posted a week-and-a-half ago, we Chiefs fans are tremendously blessed. We have had a number of wonderful regular season finales, we have. I can't help but think about that miracle New Year's Eve set of games in 2006 that got us into the playoffs. I think about two years ago when Patrick Mahomes in his first full game, also on New Year's Eve, led the Chiefs to the thrilling close win in Denver to close the season. Even just last year when we throttled the Raiders to ensure we got the bye then.

Thing is, now we need some wonderful splendid spectacular play in the postseason.

But that is for a preview post for later. For now, the joy. I did get to see the very end of the game when I was at a restaurant having lunch with my dad, and I watched on the big screen TV Damien Williams pull off a terrific twisting driving touchdown run to put the Chiefs up by 10 with just a few minutes left in the game. A mere few seconds after that the Dolphins Ryan Fitzpatrick rifled a touchdown pass to his tight end in the back of the end zone to put Miami ahead of New England 27-24 with less than half-a-minute left. The Patriots then just could not pull off another of their charmed wins.

We got the bye.

Watching everyone in Arrowhead and all the players on the sideline go bananas was really fun. Yeah, it seems odd: the fans can't see that extra Chiefs game this year and they're cheering for that, but really, you really do want the bye for extra rest and time to prepare. As it is we get the home game for the division playoff game in two weeks.

We'll need it too because we've got to try out a new free safety. We lost Juan Thornhill for the entirety of the postseason with that notoriously wretched ACL-tear. More on where we are with that in a preview post next week, but it is encouraging to see Juan already eager to work hard to be back soon.

As for this game, a couple of real quick shout-outs to people.

There's Damien Williams, wow oh wow, what a day. He had a number of grinding runs getting key yardages throughout the game, but his highlight reel included two spectacular touchdown carries, both of which saw him hammered at the point of attack, but he stayed on his feet and took them to the house. One of them went for 84 yards. He was also fantastic coming out the backfield catching passes.

I also want to give a shout-out to Steve Spagnuolo, our defensive coordinator, who has just done wonders with getting the most from the defensive players we've got out there. The thing that is most encouraging as we go into the postseason is that he was the defensive coordinator with the New York Giants in 2007 when they upset the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl, largely because of their defensive performance against Tom Brady and company. It is good to have him out there getting us tuned up for what we are all again hoping is a very deep playoff run.

Well yesterday it got pretty deep already with the stunning game results, and yeah, adding another fine chapter in the storied history of the Kansas City Chiefs. I like being able to say that because there is good reason to justify it. Four straight division titles, seven straight winning seasons, a record of something like 48-2 against division rivals over the past six years, something like that -- they even mentioned the team had set an NFL record for most total points in a two-year period.

Oh yeah it is all very very very fun.

More and more and more as we get ready for the postseason next week!

Playoff preview post then!
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Chiefs at Chargers in Mexico City - Week 11 - Record: 7-4

I'm going to make this post here at the start of the 2nd half. It's just one of those late night games that I've got to blog now. No worries. Here're all the things I'm seeing so far. Don't worry, we have a bye this week and with Thanksgiving week time off I'd like to take a few minutes and offer up a mid-season review. Sorry, but it will not be complimentary.

In fact already on the drive I'm watching now, Yelder fumbled the ball away, but we got rescued by a Melvin Ingram penalty. Then a bit later McCoy fumbled yet again, but somehow miraculously recovered it. This is not championship-team-caliber football. This looks kind of like the Vikings game when we messed up a lot, but still won. If we pull this one out we can thank the Chargers for messing up so much themselves.

Anyway, I got the idea the Chargers have injuries on the O-line. This means we should be able to stop this Chargers offense, have something of a pass rush. So far we did get a big play from Frank Clark's "strip" and Derrick Nnadi's interception. We also got a nice pick from Tyrann Mathieu, but other than those big plays, alas, we have not been stellar on defense. Our run defense is still very very soft. The Chargers have tons of offensive yardage but have only managed three field goals.

We should hammer the Chargers, we really should. But so far we look just like we did last week. Just not able to take care of business like we should. And THE PENALTIES. Memo to Andy Reid: THIS TEAM IS NOT DISCIPLINED. With this offense -- why on earth are you committing so many penalties?

Interlude: As far as the rest of the season goes we should run the table. With the talent on this offense we should get to 12-4. Even though we should put away the Chargers here -- and right now, after Darrel Williams scored, the Chargers have to punt -- it'd be better if it's close and Reid can practice his 4th quarter work... It'd be nice if it were close for every game for the rest of the season so Andy can practice his 4th quarter management. As we saw last week all too well -- only the 4th quarter matters.

And in the playoffs, Andy - has - got - to - manage - the - late - game. Do you think this team is going to beat a Ravens or a Patriots in the playoffs? Wull, yeah, with this offense -- but then Mahomes had a horrible 1st half: only 63 passing yards, his worst 1st half so far in his short career so far. And we've lost Tyreek Hill to a hamstring -- how long he'll be out we'll have to see.

How about this idea -- hat tip to my work colleague: How about running the West Coast offense that Alex Smith did pretty well?  And give our defense a little more time to rest? With this offense? But ugh, on one play when the Chargers intercepted a pass, we sent everyone deep. Whuh? Come on, bring someone back underneath! For that matter spread Mahomes around! When he runs he makes things happen!

Know what else I'm seeing? Yes Mahomes is amazing. But you know what Philip Rivers does that if Mahomes can do we would be utterly unstoppable? He just gets that ball in those tight windows.

Oh, there you go. Mahomes with the deep nice touch to Kelce, then Kelce with the toe-drag at the side of the endzone to score. Now it is 24-9. So far anyway, the blowout we thought it would be. Bad. Bad bad bad because we so need Reid to work like crazy on his skill at putting the hammer down in last minute when we need it the most.

Briefly I've also wondered how much the altitude is going to affect us, affect the Chargers. Errgh, maybe it has affected Philip Rivers throwing a duck -- and then affecting Tyrann Mathieu who dropped the easy pick. Errrrrrghck. Our run defense has picked it up a bit, so -- the altitude affecting them a bit more?... I knew Mexico City was high, but they said earlier that it is 2,000 feet higher than Denver's stadium!

And that Mathieu dropped pick? Allowed the Chargers to later on that drive score a touchdown. Nkay, good -- it's closer now. 24-17. Reid can now practice his close-game close-out.

Nkay, already Reid fails yet again. With eight minutes left we're moving the ball, get to midfield, and his playcalling becomes just inexplicable. He can't dial up a play on 3rd-& not-long to get that 1st down. It is just impossible for him to do.

The Chiefs just got a nice three-&-out with the help of a super stop by Frank Clark. Now can we grind and chew clock and here we go again: 3rd-&-3 how about Andy taking care of business here. 

And no. Mahomes does what he did to fail in the previous 3rd down fail. He just steps back and dumps it incomplete. How about we get Mahomes to step back a bit more and throw that ball to that fine wideout in that tight window just past the marker? HOW HARD IS THAT?

PLEASE ANDY REID WILL YOU BE THE HEAD COACH YOU CAN BE???

Okay, now Rashad Fenton makes the clutch play and picks Rivers deep. What a sweet play. Rashad had to fight to get it. Very very very nice.

Now there're four minutes left for Andy to put the hammer down. I'm not listening to the game on ther radio as I sometimes do, but how many times so far tonight have Mitch and Kendall said "It's time to put the hammer down!" 7, 8 times?

Now 3rd-&-6, and... Mahomes just runs. Gets the 1st down. Nice. The announcer just said one of the most profound things ever. "The Chiefs need to play with some attitude."

Okay, Chargers have burnt all their timeouts and we have another 3rd-&-NOT-LONG-AT-ALL.

Well, so much for "having attitude." Nghckfnckghngh. Mahomes just strolled left and dropped. It looked like we didn't even know what to do out there. How about just "You go there while we make everything looks like we're going over here. I'll throw it to you." Bam.

Two minutes left, score is still 24-17. So yeah, I just feel like if we do win this we've just lucked out again. Ergh. Too many ::Ergh::s I know.

So Rivers has 1:53 with no time outs. Ball is deep in his own territory. Put the hammer down put the hammer down put the hammer down put the hammer down...

4th-&-4 after Rivers passes the ball into a very tall Chris Jones helmet. And on the next play he still gets the 1st down.

Remember last year? We're up good, at home, Thursday night football, then the Chargers score a touchdown in the last minute, then get the two-point conversion and win 29-28. Hmmnmnmmnmmmnn...

Sure enough right now Rivers completes a 50-yard pass. Are you even kidding me. (Never mind that the receiver totally pushed off the defender, and the refs stopped the clock when the receiver was clearly downed in-bounds)

Our defense is gassed. Their offense is moving the ball and it could be yet another miracle finish for the Chargers. Remember that game in 2013 or so? The Chargers had a miraculous last minute win after each team scored back and forth. Remember that game in, I believe 2008? We were up by 12 -- by 12! with under two minutes left and still lost.

So yeah. Even if we pull this off, there is no reason in the world Andy should have let it get to this point. We're playing at 7,000 feet and our defense has to be exhausted. 24 seconds left and the Chargers have the ball at the 14-yard line.

And wow. Daniel Sorensen intercepts the ball at the goal line. Oh my.

We saved it. We saved it. 

Still.

Ngckghcknghckgtckmngk.

You know what I mean.
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