Dolphins at Chiefs - Wild-Card Playoff Win

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But then...

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

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

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

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

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

The Chiefs are definitely a Got-It team.

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

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

Go Chiefs!

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

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

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

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

Except...

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

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

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

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

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

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

We'll see.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dolphins at Chiefs in Frankfurt Germany - Week 9 - Record: 7-2

I will confess I saw or heard none of this game, and only peeked a few times at what what going on at the web gamecast. A 6:30-to-around-9:30 game is kind of around the time I'd like to be worshipping the Lord, so I was there doing that with a few people at a pretty nice worship assembly. I might add briefly that if you are not believing on Jesus Christ I'd encourage you to do so.

One thing I did see after church was all done was what the Chiefs had going with about two or three minutes left in the game. We were ahead 21-14 when we really should have been ahead something-like 35-14. Anyway, here we were with a 3rd-&-1 and a chance to seal this one by getting one little tiny easy one-yard gain.

Of course, you know what I thought. I always think this when the Chiefs are in this situation.

We are so going to fail here. We always do.

And you know what? We did. Looking at the replay later Mahomes went back to pass and... and... had to throw the ball away.

For the 5,809th time when we have a 3rd-&-stupifyingly-short-yard-to-get --

We sucked.

You have to know, any time I watch any other NFL team in any other game and they have a 3rd-&-short, I'd say they get it, ummm, something like 99.93719% of the time.

When the Chiefs have 3rd-&-short, that rate -- I'm pretty sure -- is around 0.0027001502% I'm pretty sure, you can look it up, but I'm pretty sure that's it. Or pretty close to that, pretty close to reliably suck.

I don't know what it is about that except Andy Reid just has some kind of brain fart when it comes to having the right play to get that yardage. It just has that very palpable feel to it. It is almost like whatever it is the Chiefs plan to do on any 3rd-&-short, the other team just somehow by some psychic ability knows what to do to stop it. And they inevitably do. Do you feel that way too?

What saved us, really, was after Miami got the ball back and started easily matriculating the ball down the field on us our now-quite-reliable D managed to hold them to a 4th-&-10 at around our 30 yard-line when their QB could not handle the snap. Good thing too because we were blitzing and they had guys breaking open downfield.

::Whew::

There are any number of things I could write about here that I later happened to catch about the game, but the one thing that needs mentioning is the splendid defensive play we made just before the 1st half ended. We're up 14-0 and our good friend Tyreek Hill took a swing pass that our CB Trent McDuffie gets all over. He's very good at stripping the ball, and he did here. Mike Edwards picked it up yet was immediately grabbed by Hill, whereupon he flipped the ball to Bryan Cook who streaked down the sideline for a super-spiffy Chiefs score.

Very very fun.

Not so fun is our offense, and our now-getting-more-and-more suspect receiving crew. Rashee Rice was still okay, scoring a nice touchdown this morning, but everyone else -- at least from what I heard -- still: ::Yikes::

We have a bye next but then we face the Eagles. I'm not so much as worried about them as I am the Ravens. They absolutely crushed their opponent for a second straight game. This Chiefs team should be doing that -- I mean it looked like we were today but then...

Uggh. That 2nd half today. Zero points -- zero. From anyone, offense, defense, anyone. Fortunately our D held the fort, but what is going on with a team that has Patrick Mahomes? Come on guys.

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

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Dolphins at Chiefs in Frankfurt Germany - Week 9 - Record: 7-2 - First Quick Take

Whew we escaped with a win, after going up 21-0 just as the 1st half ended. Then our offense went dead and we didn't score another point the entire rest of the game.

What --- is --- with --- that.

Very busy today but I should be able to carve out some time today to put a few more thoughts down here. Until then...

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

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

We returned to Miami for the first time since our Super Bowl win in February. Everyone had been mentioning that, a very cool thing. Today we clinched our fifth straight division title too, but it was way more dramatic than it had to be. It was sort of a tale of three games.

The first game of the game was Mahomes looking really iffy out there. He threw three picks on the day! Two of them were in the first quarter. He was also sacked for a loss of 30 yards when he tried to do his patented swimming-away from the rush but this time the Dolphins lineman got him. 30-yard loss! They'd mentioned the 30-yard loss Bob Griese took in Super Bowl VI, and I thought that one was huge! For this portion of the game we were down 10-0.

Then we went to work. Second game within a game. Our run D was actually really good today, so we were able to hold them off while Tyreek got his sweep special to get us a TD. Travis caught a short one, then when the 3rd quarter started Tyreek pulled in a 44-yard TD pass from Patrick. Add a spiffy punt return TD by Mecole Hardman and a safety by Chris Jones & company and bam we're up 30-10. The Dolphins QB, Tua Tagovailoa, was just having a miserable time of it during this game within the game.

Thennn there was the third game within the game, when the Dolphins started playing good football and the Chiefs defense started playing bad football. For one thing we were getting all kinds of PIs, one of them in particular was just not one, the one on Anthony Hitchens -- but then the Dolphins should not have been that close to getting a touchdown to begin with. I just couldn't see how we got so soft on our pass D, it was horrific.

One play in particular in the last couple minutes of the game that got the Dolphins deep into Chiefs territory was their receiver catching a pass with literally six Chiefs within five yards of the guy. Yes, I know it is really hard to play in the NFL, these guys are very good athletes, and I'm not out there, they are, I know -- but, well, I thought our guys were good athletes too! What was with that?

So it was just a very weird game. It was almost as if the Chiefs just went through the motions too often. Mahomes was crazy amazing just enough times, otherwise he was just really off his game. His third interception was a really terrific play by their defender, but why were we throwing that pass at that time, late in the game? Besides that, it was a little underthrown. I know, I'm complaining about a pass that was a littttle bit underthrown from the guy who is likely already the GOAT and is doing things for the Chiefs right now that should only be in our dreams. 

Let's be honest, today Hill was amazing, Kelce was amazing, CEH has amazing, Hardman actually made some terrific plays, one of which was just before he fumbled the ball away -- to be honest that was just the kind of the day it was. Our defensive line did very fine work, but then in that 4th quarter they may have just been tired. Yep, I'm not out there, they are, and they took care of business against a pretty decent Dolphins team.

Still got to get it done to get that No. 1 seed -- three games left and next week we're in New Orleans. No rest for the weary.

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Photos are from Kevin Sabitus at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Dolphins at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 9-6, Part II

Harrison Butker kicking one his five field goals
against the Dolphins December 24 2017

I started this blog venture with a Chiefs Game Today review of a Dolphins-Chiefs game. Back in 2005, right smack in the middle of the season, I realized I could blog about each game. Cool.

That game was played in very unusual circumstances, as there was a hurricane coming it was moved to Friday night -- I don't remember all the stuff about that, but I do know the Chiefs won and got two Lawrence Tynes 50-yard field goals. I remember back then I didn't write as much about the games, just a few notes and remarks.

Now I've gotten to needing to write much more, you know, for the therapy and all. You know you need it. I'm a big San Francisco Giants fan and for 50 years they'd aggravate the heck out of their fans, to the point where my good friend would frequently say, "The Giants are trying to kill me."

Well, you could sometimes say that about the Chiefs.

"The Chiefs are trying to kill me."

Of course any fan whose team fails inexplicably could bleat that, and every fan's team fails them far more frequently than not. But I'd say Chiefs fans have a really good case for getting the worst of those vicissitudes of misfortune interminably crushing our hopes and dreams.

For you see since the merger, since the 1969 season -- yes, a season that ended with a Chiefs Super Bowl championship we all know that -- since that year the Chiefs have made the playoffs 14 times (now 15), and reached the AFC Championship Game once. Among those 14 have been great teams, good teams, decent teams (and a couple just-alright teams, agreed), and in nearly 50 years of playing NFL football we've been summarily shoved right off the playoff game field before coming close to an AFC title game every single time but one, and we lost that one. Of the 14 so far, we won even a single game a mere three times ('91, '93, '15). We won two in a single season's playoff appearance once ('93).

That ratio is the worst in the NFL.

I bring all this up because right now my expectations for Chiefs success beyond the regular season have been permanently squashed. Please don't get me wrong (how many times have I had to say that after engaging in the therapy that is this blogging experience), ahem, please don't get me wrong: I am really really really really really thrilled with our success this season. I made a promise that I would work really hard to just enjoy the things we do out there no matter what (even though I confess it was really really hard to do that during our mid-season swoon).

And please don't get me wrong, I very very very very very much want our Chiefs to go on to Super Bowl glory, I veryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryvery much want that. I want to watch this Chiefs team do phenomenal things in playoff games, even if it means sweating through the closest nail-biters as long as we come out on top in the end. Ohh, that one of our playoff victories would be featured every other month on the NFL Network as one of the greatest games ever played. How many times do you see anything historically and superlatively CHIEFS on the NFL Network? Yeah. Huh.

I mean, really, aren't you sick and tired of seeing highlights -- as they gratuitously showed during this week's game against the Dolphins even though very timely we all know -- of that 1971 Christmas day playoff game? One of the greatest games ever, they say? As if any Chiefs fan thinks of it with any amount of fondness? Yeah, I was sick of it eons ago. We all know it wasn't the greatest because only Chiefs fans lament that Jan decided to have his worst game ever on that day, even to the point of looking so splendidly focused on that fake field goal attempt that long snapper Bobby Bell messed up the play seriously contributing to the disappointment that it was.

That's the Chiefs for you. Repeated over and over and over again through history.

So yeah, this is why to some extent my approach right now is, the season is over. It's been fun. It's been real. Now please, see the "really really really" and "very very very" above. Thing is I still can't get up for the postseason, I just can't. I will go over all those playoffy-type things in the next post when we find out who we're playing (it'll be Baltimore, Buffalo, or Tennessee), but for now, I'm just going to get to some of the fun things about this game.

First of all there's the achievement everyone's been talking about. Very sweet indeed. Smith with 4,000 yards passing. Kelce with 1,000 yards receiving. Hill with 1,000 yards receiving. And Hunt with 1,000 yards rushing. Only the 1981 Chargers did it, and they really should've gone to the Super Bowl that year except that they had to get past a Bengals team playing in subarctic Cincinnati, in what I think was the coldest game ever -- if not it was one of the top ones.

Anyway, I didn't catch this but I wonder if the Chargers team did it in 15 games, as we just did? Because yeah, here are the Chiefs, having done it with still a game left on the schedule. How great is that. That we do have these weapons does provide some legitimate hope for delightful postseason success, so there is reason for enthusiastic Chiefs Kingdomosity this week.

The Chiefs defense was opportunistic in this game, and how fun is it to watch Marcus Peters out there all over the field. Really, this guy is a defensive force, he really is. Even though everyone wanted to excoriate him for his meltdown in the Jets game -- for very good reason yes -- there was a play in that game that just demonstrated what a player he is.

The Jets were close to the goal line in last defensive catastrophe, and in spite of all the holding calls and the penalty flag debacle, we actually made some very good plays. This one stood out to me. The Jets runner was given the ball but he was stuffed by Jarvis Jenkins, Reggie Ragland, and Marcus Peters. All three of them just made a helluva play to make the stop well short of the goal line, and again it just showed Peters' value that defense.

The thing that everyone's been making note of also, something that I can't say hasn't been a critical element to getting Peters' head back in the game, is the presence of Eric Berry on the sideline. I guess I've always wondered why he hasn't been there throughout the season, but maybe lately he's just being more of a an industrious "coach" and "cheerleader," if you will, in inspiring these Chiefs. If he has indeed stepped it up these past three weeks, it sure has made a difference. The defense is looking much more robust, and more importantly getting the job done. Sure they had a major breakdown not tackling on the one play letting the Dolphins receiver break free for a long touchdown, but that should just get them to realize that they can't take anything for granted from here on out.

As far as our overall game plan we were able to do one of those things we can do well that helped get us the win, and that was late in the game grind grind grind. As I wrote in my last post it was a thing of beauty to watch Kareem Hunt run well throughout the 4th quarter and then when we needed it Alex Smith adjust for the defense and swing that pass out to Albert Wilson who redeemed himself for a miserable drop earlier by making the catch-and-run first down. Keep the drive alive a chew up more clock. Awesome.

There are a few things I've been chomping at the bit to share here, for the therapy yes, including addressing the whole Alex Smith question. I know we are all wondering if Pat Mahomes will play in a meaningless game Sunday against the Broncos as Andy Reid will surely rest Smith. We'll see.

In the meantime, there'll be commendations, concerns, and other notable items for playoff action in next week's post!
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Dolphins at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 9-6

We polished off the Dolphins today to win the division. And sure enough, for the first time ever in Chiefs history...

BACK-TO-BACK AFC WEST DIVISION CHAMPIONS!

Yay! Yes, I do indeed like this a lot, as any Chiefs fan would. We'll revel in the moment for a couple weeks and it'll be fun.

There are a number of critical things to address from today's game as we move forward, and I really want to get into those things, definitely. But I will not be able to get to those things now, we are simply too inundated with Christmas Eve preparation, we are entertaining family in our home this evening.

I do want to get to it so this entry will simply be a "Part I" and later this week when I've got lots of time to settle in and ruminate and scribbelate into a blog I'll put in a "Part II." It's all good.

For now I have to give a shout-out to one of the funnest plays of the day, it was the middle of the 4th quarter, we're up 26-13. We've been trying to grind this one down, but we're facing a 3rd-&-8. Alex Smith recognizes that he's got Albert Wilson way out on the right flat with single coverage deep. Sure enough he audibles, gets the snap, steps back and fires a strike to Wilson who himself steps back to get the pass and then runs for the first down. As Smith throws he's popped by a charging lineman, but he still makes the play.

Wow.

Butker comes in a few plays later and boots through the final points from 49 yards out, the ball actually banging in off the crossbar.

29-13, party over.

For all we screech about Smith, some of it still wholly justified, it is these kinds of plays that we can marvel at, plays that do indeed help get the Chiefs division titles, undeniably.

Nkay that's all I've got for now -- no time left today. I'll be back here in a few days!

For now...

Kansas City Chiefs 2017 AFC West Division Champions!
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Chiefs at Dolphins - Week 3 - Record: 1-2

The very first blog post on this site was in 2005, October, a few games into the season when I just up and decided to do a Chiefs blog. As you know I only write about the game of the week, the only thing my eyes behold, mostly because that's just about all the Chiefs heart-rendering eventualities I can take. In fact I started this a mere two games after a game against the Eagles we'd led big early but ended up losing big, in a season we'd need just one more win to make the playoffs in a 10-6 campaign. Heart rendering indeed.

The reason I bring it up is that that first post was about the Chiefs game in Miami. It was notable because it was played on a Friday night because of some hurricane thing going on. What was neat was that we won the game with the help of two Lawrence Tynes 50-something yard field goals.

The game today was especially sweet, for a number of reasons. In no particular order:

We showed we could play with critically critically critically key people not in the lineup. Of course Johnson Devito Allen weren't there -- they're gone for the year. Charles Berry Thomas weren't there, they're injury status is still up-in-the-air. Our right tackle Donald Stephenson has still got one more game on his suspension, and today we had another guy in there working on the line.

Speaking of the line, Eric Fisher is starting to show his No. 1 overall pick quality. Our running game ground out 174 yards. Of course Knile Davis and our other fine O-linemen such as Rodney Hudson had a lot to do with it.

This also speaks well of our coaching. Exceptional job by Andy Reid today. The game started out very vanilla -- at one point I screamed at the set watching yet another run off tackle that the Dolphins defense very predictably squashed. Good thing I screamed very loudly because they heard me. Reid started mixing it up, being imaginative, going to different guys, using his tight ends like crazy for power blocking and elaborate short yardage passing schemes. Joe McKnight scored two touchdowns today! Joe McKnight!

Our defense was again very bendy, but still got enough of the job done to stuff them when we needed to. The absence of Johnson and Berry is very obvious, but our guys still worked their asses off to not let the big gains they gave up get to them.

We made some bonehead mistakes, like that safety, what an aggravation that was. But damn, we do have those skill players who can make key plays when we needed. Our QB got sacked too many times, but again, Alex Smith is a guy who won't let those things get to him. Not his best game -- too many weirdly errant passes -- but he is resilient, athletic, versatile... very good to have in there when you want to win games in spite of the ugly stuff.

Hey, I can't not say something about Dustin Colquitt. I actually really like saying good things about him even though he's the punter. I mean, first a 63 yard punt, then a 64 yard punt. That's great defense, right there -- and the guy doesn't even have to make a tackle. Oh, and after that safety? High, booming kick to put Miami way back at their own 20-something.

Finally, we beat the Dolphins, an AFC East team. Remember the horror that was three years ago? When all four AFC East teams beat us by a combined score of 397 to 2? (Or something like that) It is sweet to have Andy Reid and Alex Smith this year, not Todd Haley and Matt Cassel -- and it is nice to have a number of clutch players to complement them that could make this season a decent one for us.
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Dolphins at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 4-4

Ahh, it is actually a good feeling to know that things are back to the way they should be. Isn't it?

The Chiefs defense: vanilla pudding. The opponent's offense: a chain saw.

The Chiefs offense: a spitwad. The opponent's defense: a reinforced concrete wall.

The fun times could only last so long. Last Monday night we beat a poorly coached, injury-depleted Chargers team and then only barely when we just played tougher than they did and we got an extraordinarily timely fumble recovery.

The three wins before that were close games against a very bad Minnesota team, a very very bad Indianapolis team, and an Oakland team who found themselves very abruptly without a quarterback or their star running back.

This game showed us what kind of team we really are.

But don't be sad! Be glad! These kind of games are the truth clarifying events that will hopefully get things to happen for some kind of playoff contention activity to happen around, oh, say 2015 -- if we're lucky.

Since it is the halfway point for us, let's review quickly the five keys to the season I shared before the first game, and see where the Chiefs are for each.

No. 1: Todd Haley has to be a big-time big-game head coach. Many think that his work at getting the Chiefs to 4-3 after the 0-3 start is remarkable. Nah, I just think they've played weak teams and they've gotten breaks. Don't get me wrong, I've loved seeing them win. I always do no matter what.

But I haven't changed my mind. Todd Haley needs to get fired. Today we played an 0-7 team with a back-up quarterback and we simply did not know what the heck to do on both sides of the ball. It wasn't just a matter of us not having the players. We didn't execute plays, we didn't tackle, we didn't cover receivers, we didn't hit our marks. We yet again had too many stupid stupid stupid penalties, and we just plain looked stupid out there. The snap that Dustin Colquitt did not put down for Ryan Succop to kick the field goal was just a graphic reflection of what this team looked like. And I'm sorry, but the "But they were tired after playing on Monday Night" excuse just does not hold water for a second.

It is Todd Haley's doing.

He may be a great rah-rah guy, but this team is still a train wreck. Just wait until we play New England. Pittsburgh. New York. Green Bay. In fact the only team we play without a winning record the rest of the way is Denver.

Chance it'll happen: 75%. The 25% chance it didn't happen is pretty evident now.

No. 2: Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson really need to start playing like the top draft picks they were. This is another huge disappointment. That these guys have not played like they should've up to now is just too telling. It does not take this long for guys who should be better to show they can really do it.

Dorsey is just too slow for the NFL game, and Jackson can't see the field with the vision a D-lineman needs to have at this level. Far, far too often Dorsey just can't get enough of a push to disrupt the opponent's passing game, and far, far too often Jackson lets a runner slip past him when he should be coming off his block to make the hit.

Chance it'll happen: 55%. No surprise that the 45% it wouldn't happen has materialized. This is one of the more crushing situations because these guys were drafted so, so high. Yet again more highly drafted Chiefs D-linemen just turning into busts.

No. 3: We must absorb the loss of Brian Waters on the O-line. This is probably the one area I'd actually give to the Chiefs. Jon Asamoah has actually done decently, and the fact that Jackie Battle has been a wonderful surprise in replacing Jamaal Charles has been testament to that fact. Our O-line has actually been okay at supporting the run, and today's poor sack day I think was more Matt Cassel just not throwing the ball than the failure of the line.

Chance it'll happen: 80%. I don't think we're better, just about as good. We could be much better, and maybe we would with Waters. But I still think we've done pretty well considering.

No. 4: Matt Cassel has got to show Hall-of-Fame characteristics as a signal-caller. Not. Waaay not. Today was a classic example. Sorry, but the "He just had a bad day" excuse doesn't cut it. He just has too many of these days. Not all the time, I agree. Sometimes he's really good, I know.

But we will not win anything with him in there.

Today he showed that he just doesn't have enough confidence in himself to fire the ball in the creases and seams where it just needs to be thrown. Contending-team quarterbacks regularly throw the ball into those places only they can throw, amazing everyone. Matt Cassel just does not do that much. He's a gamer, he's a leader, he's a competitor -- all that, awesome, he has Pro Bowl qualities in those areas.

Today was an unmitigated disaster of a day for Cassel, but it just revealed that we have got to get ready to put the ball into someone else's hands.

Will that be the next best quarterback after Andrew Luck who we can snatch up in the draft? Will that be Ricky Stanzi whom a good QB-developing coach not-Todd-Haley will turn into a Hall-of-Famer? It definitely must be one of those two options if we hope to be a true contender within the next ten years.

Chance it'll happen: 30%. Definitely the right call here. Very little chance that it would happen, and it didn't.

No. 5: Wide receivers must step it up, a lot. This is definitely one area of success, big-time. Mostly just because of the Chiefs pick-up of Steve Breaston. What a find. The guy has been a stud out there. One of the brighest areas of otherwise woeful Chiefsitude this year.

A shout-out can also be made for Jonathan Baldwin, who looks like a fantastic player, although he really showed his rookie-ness out there today. On one play Cassel, to his credit, threw a strike to Baldwin in the endzone, but he simply turned the wrong way. Once he gets on track, he will be a fantastic target for our new QB next year.

And Bowe. He was simply awesome again today.

Chances it'll happen: 65%. This is definitely a happenin.' Breaston is a vet, but could he be around for a few more years when we gel with Bowe and Baldwin? Funny, I didn't know this, but he's been around the same number of years as Bowe, five. Can both these guys be around for a No. 1 QB pick or developed-Ricky-Stanzi Super Bowl run in a few years?

Oh that'd be sweet.

For now, brutal reality.
_

Dolphins at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 2-13

A while ago I laid out the three parts that need to be in place for a team to truly contend in the NFL. These three are the most important, far above all the others. I must now qualify that and put something far above even these three parts. That one part of any pro football team that must be exceptional is nothing other than the team's

General manager.

My revised importance-of-parts priority list, then:

1. General manager.
2. Offensive line.
3. Defensive line.
4. Quarterback.

I've always thought any team is only as good as its front office. And sure enough what we see now on the football field is a direct result of the complete ineptitude of the Chiefs front office, led for the past twenty years by Carl Peterson.

Peterson resigned last week to the raucous cheers of all of us who knew that he'd just utterly lost it when it came to building a football team. Today's typically depressing result is a microcosm of that failure: once again another brave performance for three quarters followed by a wretched meltdown at the end of the game. This was, and in every game it always is, only the product of the people who put the team out on the field.

To be fair, Peterson was a godsend for us after the nightmare Jack Steadman years. He had a miracle touch guiding the team to great success in the 90's only to have Marty Schottenheimer's playoff curse unravel it all. And to give Peterson credit he was gifted at pulling guys from hats like Trent Green and Priest Holmes. And I must tell you one of the sweetest memories I have of any Chiefs thing ever was when he yanked all-pro cornerback James Hasty out of the grasp of the Raiders' Al Davis.

But, sadly, take a look at Peterson's real record of drafting and developing. Everyone seems to think that because he practically stole Will Shields and Donnie Edwards he should be lionized, but really, his talent-evaluating skills were just not that great. For twenty years we had at best a mediocre record for evaluating of talent when that is the most important job for a GM.

He was especially weak at getting players for those three key parts of a team. Let's look at each one:

Offensive line and defensive line. I put both of these together because Peterson could not draft a lineman if his life depended on it, on either side of the ball. Our disposal bin is filled with first, second, and third round picks that have been worthless. Yes, yes, I know all teams have their draft duds, but sorry, but you can't have anywhere near a contending team with the great number we have had.

On the O-line there was (wince) Trezelle Jenkins, Victor Riley, and Joe Valerio. On the D-line there was (gasp) Eric Downing, Ryan Sims, and Junior Siavii--all of them super high picks that really needed to be there doing the highest quality bone crunching for long periods of service. This is not even to point out (which I'm going to do anyway, of course) that we wasted super-high picks on people like Sylvestor Morris when they could've been used to get those linemen who'd perform.

Interestingly, his two draft picks in this year's first round were DT Glenn Dorsey and OG Brandon Albert, still feeling their oats out there. How ironic that would be if these two should actually develop into anchors for our team on both sides of the ball. I'm still high on them, I'm still hoping, Carl, there is some measure of redemption, I really am.

Quarterback. This has been an unmitigated disaster for the Chiefs in the Peterson era. Did you remember that Mike Elkins and Matt Blundin were second round picks? Second round! In fact Elkins was Peterson's second Chiefs pick of them all in his first draft. Thank goodness his very first was Derrick Thomas.

I imagine he felt he could continue to bring out old 49ers QB's, but even when they played great (and each one did for a time, they really did) you could not build a solid lasting team around that. Even Trent Green went way past his time and played well, but even he was going to burn out sometime too soon for us to get a rhythm for genuinely sustained contention.

Now we're pinning our hopes on Tyler Thigpen who looks to me like he gleefully loves playing jungle ball out there making us all jump out of our seats watching his gonzo play, but is hopelessly lost when it comes to incisively leading the critical drive when we need it.

So, a fond farewell to King Carl. We cannot deny that you gave us great fun in the 90's, but now as we look back that may have actually been a curse of sorts because it lulled us all into a false sense that you really could manage a contending franchise.

As it is, you leave on the week in which this Chiefs team made it official: securing the worst season record-wise in its history.
_

Chiefs at Dolphins - Week 10 - Record: 5-4

I can't say that I didn't think this was going to happen. I actually thought the Dolphins, not a particularly good team who'd last week beaten the Bears at their place, would play even better.

The Dolphins were just as mediocre as they'd been most of the year. We just sucked, and the 13-10 score wasn't as close as that. It kind of reminded me of last year's Buffalo game, one of those contests we had no business losing and was especially painful to watch. Some items of note that showed exactly how pathetic we were: We got our first first down with three minutes left in the first half. The only touchdown we got was right after a gift turnover deep in their territory. We couldn't even take advantage of a bonked-off-the-upright FG miss by their kicker, when a bit later our guy couldn't hit a 48-yarder.

What was the problem? Easy.

Our offensive line is in tatters.

All Chiefs fans should know the litany by now. Willie Roaf retires, John Welbourne is suspended, Tony Richardson signs with another team... Now Brian Waters is injured. There is just no way you can pluck All-Pro OL-men from trees. If you lose your go-to back, it hurts and everyone knows it. It isn't any different when you lose your extraordinarily talented linemen.

You could see it in the whole game. Damon Huard had a horrible game, which by the way should move Herm's hand in finally putting Trent Green back in. He not only couldn't connect for beans, but he was sacked a number of times, a couple in that most critical last minute drive to get a game-tying FG. Needless to say Larry Johnson couldn't get anywhere.

That's all O-line stuff.

I don't know what we're going to do. Maybe Herm can be a magician. Maybe Green being back in will mean something-- except that I just think about that first game against the Bengals when he was running all over the field and eventually got clocked.

Our defense sure is holding up its end, and this without Derrick Johnson. The only TD they gave up was set up by their only big pass play. Other than that they did pretty well shutting Miami down. Can the defense carry us when our Achilles heel is so pronounced?

How ironic is that. Our bread and butter, that O-line, one that saw Priest Holmes to such renown...

That line could be our undoing.

Chiefs at Dolphins - Week 7 - Record: 4-2

We won 30-20 with the help of two big 50 yard field goals from Lawrence Tynes. Does this tie a record? I can't imagine that very many place kickers in NFL history have two in a game.

Our defense did merely okay again, allowing several big plays before the half to let the Dolphins score, and letting their not-Ricky Williams back get a 65 yard touchdown run.

This one was a bit unusual as it was played on Friday night because hurricane Wilma was on its way, and wasn't broadcast anywhere but locally. Too much high school football still being played.

Still, the win was sweet because we've lost so many tough games to this team, especially in Miami.