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

This post could just as easily be titled "The Exasperating Kelce," or even the "The Exasperating NFLers," or yes, yet again, "The Exasperating Reid Part MCXXIII."

Let's look at each one, briefly, and we'll start with our head coach.

1. "The Exasperating Reid Part MCXXIII." From the little I've seen and heard most people are screaming about his decision to go for it on 4th-&-1 from about our own 30-something. I don't fault the decision at all. I don't even fault Kareem Hunt because he'd come through wonderfully on those kinds of short yardage situations at other times in the game. What I do fault Reid on is going to this well once too many times, and when we didn't make it this one time, it was costly. Yes, have Kareem blast through for a key 1st down often enough, but there are times you need to do much better at either (a) disguising the look, or (b) just running some kind of novel play action run-pass option which they've done several times before to fine success.

That is just one of those typical Andy Reid specials that make you pull out your hair. 

2. "The Exasperating Kelce." The critical play of the game was by far the Kelce drop right at the goal line after a splendid 14-play drive that put us in position to take over the game. Our defense was playing very well and our offense was humming well enough to sustain clock chewing drives late -- that was the game-winner right there. 

Thing is Kelce has shown a penance for dropping those kinds of passes, and this one was crushing. The ball flipped right up into the defender's easy grasp whereupon he ran for miles. A bit later the Eagles got down to the goal line where they just "tush-pushed" it in for the score.

14-point swing.

I can't help but think about that one play from another ugly Chiefs-Eagles game, also at Arrowhead, this one in 1972. Their QB who never amounted to much threw a long pass right into the hands of our defender, I don't even remember who it was, sorry. In his attempt to corral it he dropped it right onto his foot whereupon the ball popped right up into the hands of an Eagles receiver who ran it in for the touchdown. We lost 21-20. The Eagles that year won only one other game the whole season.

Oh, and yeah, two games so far, two critically bad Kelce things. The first one was Kelce slamming into Xavier Worthy on the third play of the first game, damaging his shoulder and keeping him out of this game and maybe others. I wonder how many people are going to blame the newly-engaged-to-Taylor-Swift factor for this? I dunno, I don't give that much relevance -- it does seem Travis is committed to working hard and playing well and winning more football games. There is a lot more football to come.

3. "The Exasperating NFLers." If you want to read a bad word into that epithet about the people who run the NFL, especially all the powerful elements who really want things to be a certain way so they can make as much money as they can, then yeah, you can. And please, again, I think making as much money as you can is great...

But not when you deceitfully work to destroy the competitive integrity of the game.

And the NFLers are doing that.

I've spoken at length about the Scorecasting factor, simply that officiating can be influenced to make calls or not make calls that influence the outcomes of games. If that is true -- not even to mention the more direct influences -- then competitive duplicity is a reality in these things. I've said a hundred times before in response to the standard bleat "Well why don't you just stop watching?" -- while I enjoy cheering on my Chiefs no matter what, yes, indeed, I do pay no attention to any of it outside of Chiefs games for that reason.

As it was I can't believe how many gambling commercials there were and alcohol commercials there were and even insurance commercials there were -- yes, insurance may be fine but still implies that if people aren't behaving recklessly, they are terribly fearful others will. That's nice. NFL games are smothered with these kinds of advertisements and yeah, it can be distressing that so much of this money is going into the pockets of all these valiant football warriors I like to root for.

Getting back to the Scorecasting factor, one terrific example of the challenges we have as Chiefs fans is what happened with the Eagles "tush push." There was at least one obvious example of their linemen slamming into the Chiefs linemen well before the ball was snapped. I don't know if it was just because everything happens so fast in a great big pile of 350-pound behemoths that the refs just didn't catch it, but that's just giving them the benefit of the doubt. This without even mentioning Drue Tranquill's recovery of a Jalen Hurts fumble in one of those, but, well, it's just a great big pile of huge bodies so who knows? Advantage not-the-Chiefs.

This has so much to do with the veritable Scorecasting reality in that the NFLers absolutely do not want to see the Chiefs anywhere near a Super Bowl again, and it does manifest itself quite clearly on the field. I'm not going to go into all the evidences and reasons and how much the officiating does indeed go regularly against the Chiefs. I've pounded on this keyboard enough about that. At least some people did say something about those tush-push injustices. Always good to call them out.

But this team showed yesterday that it is far too good to be worried about except to the extent we are impeded as we are. This is one of the reasons the Chiefs are so likeable -- they work hard and they work smart and they win in spite of what they are so painfully up against.

Our defense balled out yesterday, we have some fine young players especially on that side of the ball who appear to be committed to always improving. From just that one opening game to today that improvement showed. Our special teams always excels, no worries there -- yes Harrison Butker did miss a super-long field goal attempt yesterday, but are you really worried about him?

We have Patrick Mahomes. He keeps showing why he is the GOAT. It isn't lost on anyone watching just how amazing he continues to be out there. We have a fine offensive line, and when we get Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy back we should be good there. 

The concerns about our running game, however, are legit -- we absolutely need a go-to running back. Isiah Pacheco is a hard-working, tough runner, but his vision is just not-that-great. He cannot be the answer. It is funny, this graphic about Mahomes plucked from a social media post. Dang. 

So yeah, I do think it might be worth it to give up a high draft pick to get a back from another team who is really pretty good but underutilized. I do think if we don't move on that we could be in trouble.

I do sometimes think about what it would be like to have the following Chiefs team, sort of a retro dream team scenario...

What if Mahomes could have our 1960s linebackers over there on our defense?

What if we could stick our 1980s secondary back there?

What if we could have our 1990s pash rushers up front (::cough cough:: Derrick Thomas ::cough cough::)?

What if we could have our 2000s offensive line in front of him (::cough cough:: and Priest Holmes ::cough cough::)?

I just delightfully ponder a season of 57-0 wins every single game.

Ahhh...

But then, that's the paradox of this whole thing. I'd love to see 100 straight Super Bowl titles with every game of every undefeated season featuring similar scores. But yeah, no one would watch. And the NFLers would get no money.

Annnd, you see something wrong with that?...

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Eagles at Chiefs - Week 2 - Preview

Remember the 2017 season? It was very weird. We started great, winning our first five games including that opener when we torched the Patriots at their place.

Then we went on a really bad losing streak, dropping 6 of 7 -- yeah, really, six games of seven we lost. We simply could not get a good win particularly in that stretch where all the New York teams (Giants, Bills, Jets) just had our number. It was gruesome.

Then we closed out the season winning out next four to salvage the thing, including a final-game debut of Patrick Mahomes beating the Broncos on New Years Eve.

But then to close it out there was that once-again mind-boggling heart-shredding playoff loss, this time to the Marcus Mariota passing-to-himself Titans.

In the middle of that worst part of the season I'd blogged despairingly about "The Exasperating Reid," citing a number of things he was doing that simply wasn't doing us any good, and yes, I do confess, I waffled wildly about whether or not he should replace Alex Smith with Patrick Mahomes. In hindsight, certainly thinking about the way our season ended anyway, it may have been best to keep Mahomes on the bench just learning the whole time -- it may have been valuable for his growth to get us to the plateau the Chiefs have occupied ever since.

I bring it up because The Exasperating Reid still does show up every once in a while. He was there very much in the first half of last season's Super Bowl when I do firmly believe our wickedly vanilla play-calling was the thing that did us in the most. Not our offensive line woes, not the slanted officiating, not that the Eagles played very well anyway -- all of those were factors. 

But the key factor? 

Andy Reid.

The exasperating part is just that we can never really complain too much about any of this because there are so many extraordinarily good things he has done and still does do for this team. We are who we are and we are where we are -- now already one of the greatest dynasties in NFL history -- because of those good things.

That 2017 season? I remember when we were 6-6 and on life support. Then we went off, and made the playoffs yet again. Andy Reid had a lot to do with that. We've won three Super Bowls since then, all critically close, and Andy Reid leading the way with fine play-calling and inspirational composure was significant to say the least.

In the opening game loss to the Chargers on Friday I could say there was a bit of The Exasperating Reid going on there. He could have run the ball more for one thing. But I also wonder about our pass blocking and WR route running. There were just too many times Patrick had to scramble around back there. And there were too many of his misfires on his passes.

I say this because I watched the last part of the Bills-Ravens game Sunday night, and the Bills QB Josh Allen was firing lasers to his receivers even in good coverage. He was also able to do that because of his great pass protection. Umm, the Chiefs have I think the best center, best right guard, and best rookie left tackle in the league -- that's what they say anyway. Our new left guard was serviceable and our right tackle is as well, when he isn't getting penalties. Sooo, what's up with that? 

Why isn't Patrick having all day back there and firing lasers to his receivers much more regularly? Why do we have to watch him scramble and squirm and squeak and slither out of trouble all the time? It's wonderful to watch him do his magic when he does have to do that, it's great, but why does he have to do that it seems like all the time?

Granted the Chargers played terrifically on defense, I got that. More kudos to them. And the Ravens did force Josh Allen to scramble a bit sometimes in their game, too.

But still. Is that The Exasperated Reid, or The Exasperated Mahomes? Is Patrick still a bit too gun shy? Yeah he did try to go deep a few more times than before, but I've been thinking. Why? Who cares about getting back to throwing the deep ball? Who's saying that crap? We should just be running the ball well and making sharp clean passes to our receivers wherever they are. Granted we didn't do horribly with that on Friday -- Hollywood, JuJu, Tyquan, and Travis actually did okay.

I also watched the end of the Monday night game, when the Vikings put on a clinic driving the ball down the field to score a game clinching touchdown. I thought, now that's a well-oiled, well-coached machine. I mean every play their brand new starting quarterback ran was laid out for him to have the best success -- and everyone executed. 

The Chiefs on Friday night? It just looked like too many times we were not oiled, and not coached very well. Andy Reid even admitted it! The team starting off poorly really cost them Friday night. I remember when he did confess back in February that, yes, his team was not adequately prepared for the Eagles.

What's funny is, getting back to that 2017 season when we opened with a delightful pounding of the Patriots, do you remember the second game of that season? It was a victory at home against the eventual Super Bowl champions, who coincidentally defeated the Patriots. That team we beat was

The Eagles.

So yeah we have the Eagles at home this weekend in the Super Bowl rematch nationally broadcast afternoon game. Will we be prepared this time? Will The Exasperated Reid pleasantly surprise us with a game plan that gets the best of a very good team?

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I'm blogging about this game early in the week because on Sunday I'll be watching most of the game, but we'll be heading to a family event as the game is winding down and that event will go into the evening, so I won't be blogging right afterwards. Very likely it'll be the next day, so just a heads-up. But I just felt like putting down some thoughts now I'd had a couple days after our opener this year, for your Chiefs Game Today enjoyment in the mean time.

Thank you for your readership.

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Last Super Bowl LIX Take (I Think)

Okay one more take on the whole thing from last night. I always say I won't put out "Sad Chiefs Loss Postgame Take III" or "IV" or even "V" for the therapy, but I don't think I can add anything except for these items here.  

First of all, a link to a post I made about our history with the Eagles. Of course our clutch win against them in the Super Bowl two years ago was epic, but our other history is kinda not-great. In 1972 we lost a key regular season game to them and they were horrible that year. By one point. In 2005 we were ahead against them 17-0 and again 24-7, and lost. One more win that year and we make the playoffs -- we finished at 10-6 and that was not good enough to make it. Then in 2017 we did beat them, the second game of the season after beating New England in the opener. We were then 2-0 defeating -- get this -- the two teams who would go on to play in the Super Bowl that year, the Eagles prevailing. Go figure.

That 2017 Chiefs season ended with a horrific playoff loss, by one point ::aagh:: to the Titans. I really think that loss was the most emotionally crushing for me, of all of them. Yes there was the very painful '97 Denver loss, and there was the excruciating Colts loss of 2013 (well, just about every one of the Colts losses was unnecessarily jarring).

But that Titans loss? I just remember being abjectly crestfallen the day after, and it didn't go away for a while. I say this because while this Super Bowl loss was indeed disappointing, I'm just not feeling it like I did then. I think for all of us Chiefs fans much of that is just how blessed we've been over the past several years, and how much promise a Patrick Mahomes-led team still has.

With that in mind, here are the brief notes about this one I did not mention in my take from last night, except for one which is I think an important reiteration.

One, Andy Reid's coaching. I'd seen a ton of people rail all over OC Matt Nagy, but please, this is on Reid. After the game he did the standard blaming himself, and, well, he's right. He was indeed a genius against Buffalo, but was terrible against Philly. He had to have known they played a very aggressive zone defense, which meant he could have taken advantage of play action and quick throws to his wide-outs. Instead it was as vanilla a passing game as you could have, and the Eagles feasted.

It is fine to give credit to the Eagles, but our coaching could have been better. To his credit the offensive players just did not help. Mahomes missed throwing to the best options, receivers dropped balls, plays didn't develop, all of this aside from the fact that not having a left tackle just killed us.

The entire first half it was like watching the Tampa Bay Super Bowl loss all over again, really. I don't think any Chiefs fan could say anything less, I swear it was an exact replica. That first half Chiefs offense was just gruesome to watch, and hate to say it but it was chiefly because Andy Reid just had a very bad day coaching.

The reiterated thing was that penalty that very much wasn't a penalty against Trent McDuffie on their tight end. I know, I know, people will squawk that you can't make much of that one play and that the Eagles would've won anyway. Granted there was so much more to the Eagles fine play and the Chiefs poor play, but that penalty was really huge, really really huge, and yet again it should not have been called. It would have taken the Eagles off the field and kept them from scoring a strong foothold touchdown. Being down 7-0 did enough to stunt our already not-dominant running game to make that much of a difference.

My added point here is, how many people will make this case? For all the incessant screeching about calls favoring the Chiefs, how many will say anything loud and bold about this? I think I can hear the silence, all around the pitiful blithering that oh well it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Huh. From the volume of screeching it seemed like all the presumed Chiefs favored calls before would have mattered. I don't see everything on social media or in the punditsphere, but so far I've seen zip about that -- or really, anything about any of the other calls that went against the Chiefs.

The Bolton personal foul call that was pretty cheesy and most times is passed on? The Omenihu offsides which again was barely there and which linemen get the benefit of the doubt 97% of the time? I believe each of these did not lead to touchdowns but field goals, if I'm not mistaken, but those still represented added Eagles points and even more critically allowed Philly to run more clock each time.

Umm, yeah. Where are all the moralistic Chiefs haters now?

Then there was the halftime show, and in my preview take two posts ago I'd made mention of how ugly Kendrick Lamar's music was. Well, apparently he did sing that song dissing Drake and I guess the lyrics were altered a bit to weed out the vulgarities. I just don't know because I watched none of it.

Thing is, everywhere I've looked online people have lambasted the performance -- worst halftime show ever they said. Almost every take I saw said this. Of course I thought, good. Again, maybe next year they'll consider just having something that is fun and upbeat that is not rap or hip-hop in any way. Nothing even again those two music genres per se, it is just -- hey, NFL, do something that other pro football fans like.

And then finally, after seeing a few of the takes on this year's Super Bowl, there are the standard number of dumb ones. One of them said something about the Patriots never being beaten this badly in any Super Bowl they played in, so the Chiefs' dynasty can't be a good as the Patriots one. Well, anyone could argue the merits of any given "dynasty," but here's my take.

I too agree, the Chiefs dynasty is not as great as the Patriots one.

It could be if Patrick can snatch a couple more Super Bowls in his career, that'd be great. But just from my perspective, here are my rankings of past pro football dynasties.

1. Patriots, early 2000s to late 2010s. Legit No. 1, I agree.

2. 49ers, early 1980s to mid 1990s.

3. Steelers, all of 1970s.

4. Packers, all of 1960s.

5. Chiefs, early 2020s to ?...

6. Lions & Browns, all of 1950s.

You could then think about Elway's Broncos, Manning's Colts, Shula's Dolphins, Gibbs' Redskins, maybe other smaller one's here and there, that's cool.

But the Chiefs so far anyway are at No. 5 in my rankings, and I do think most would agree. It doesn't mean I'm dissing the Chiefs in any way, but I also share this because I still do believe that...

Tom Brady is still no better than No. 6 on the all-time QB list.

And yes, Mahomes is still No. 1.

So yeah, last night's Super Bowl loss was disappointing, but we've still got the best QB ever in pro football history at a still young age, and he's already got the Chiefs on track to continue its dynastic run. Maybe we'll move up in the rankings, that's cool. We lost a Super Bowl?

Dang.

We were still in a Super Bowl.

That's amazingly great, really.

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Super Bowl LIX - Chiefs and Eagles

Okay, just feel like writing this now, and the 4th quarter hasn't even started. The Eagles just got a deep touchdown pass completion to make the score 34-0. 

It was simple today.

The Eagles are a very good team to begin with, they just really really wanted this especially after the Super Bowl two years ago, and they were just exceptionally prepared for this one. Their defense was probably as good as the Bears was in '85 -- even though weird: the Chiefs defense was actually really pretty good today also. Their stud RB Saquon Barkley got not-much today.

It was our offensive flailing-about the entire game against this defense. The television people just said the Chiefs hadn't even gotten past midfield. Yet right after they said that sure enough Mahomes gets it to Worthy to get the ball to their 40. Huh, how about that. Past mid-field yay!

Anyway, other factors besides the fine Eagles defensive performance.

The main one was our offensive line. This whole game honestly felt like that Super Bowl against the Buccaneers four years ago. We simply could not hide that issue on our left side, especially against a team like this. Not having Joe Thuney at left guard because we simply did not have a decent left tackle was crushing. The Eagles defensive line just overwhelmed us. Patrick was sacked who-knows how-many times.

I have to add that I do also believe all the "Officiating favors the Chiefs" thing crippled us. Again, the Scorecasting factor tells us definitively that those kinds of things do influence how a game is called.

The first penalty of the game favoring the Chiefs was indeed totally legit. You can't substantively push off a defender as a WR, and AJ Brown did that to Trent McDuffie's head. Even the television ref said it was legit even if he didn't agree. But right out of the gate doubts are planted.

Just a bit later they called a head-to-head hit from McDuffie to their tight end which so wasn't. It would have been 4th down and we would have gotten their offense off the field. It was totally reminiscent of the phantom roughing-the-passer call on Chris Jones against Tom Brady in the 2018 AFC Championship Game. The Eagles went on to score a touchdown. This phantom call was a million times more damaging to the Chiefs than the previous legitimate call was to the Eagles.

This just set the tone for the rest of the game. The Chiefs simply looked like they could not play as aggressively as they would have liked.

In fact just to add to the whole officiating thing. It is early in the 4th quarter now as I write this and Patrick gets strip-sacked, Eagles recovering. But right as this was happening he got hammered in the facemask, a clear penalty. Not called. So yeah, I agree with all the people who are saying the officiating does favor a certain team. But again as I shared in my last post quite truthfully I feel, it isn't favoring the Chiefs. It never has.

But I will not take away from what the Eagles did legitimately. They did win convincingly, more kudos to them, honestly. They just played really well today.

For next year it is clear we also need something more of a running game. Wonderful work from Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco this year, but we need much more there back there. Even though Saquon Barkley was regularly stuffed tonight, just having him there opened up the rest of the Eagles offense and their fine QB Jalen Hurts took advantage of it. When he needed to chew yardages with his running and needed to make a decent pass often enough, he did.

We got a touchdown late in the 3rd, a nice long pass completion to Worthy at the goal line, so it wasn't a shutout, that's okay. We actually got a couple more TDs, the last one to Xavier on a super long bomb into the end zone, ahh, reminiscent of the 2018 Mahomes. It was nice to see considering.

Well, the three-peat is done. It was really nice to talk about it all season though, that was fun. Not many talked about the Packers two three-peats they had before the Super Bowl era, so really, it wouldn't have been as unprecedented as they say.

The great thing is Patrick Mahomes won't take this lightly, and ya know? Neither will Brett Veach. He'll know what to do with the draft, and with shoring up the things we must. He's got this.

And there is no reason to be disappointed. Here we were in the Super Bowl again. Again. Let's make everybody even madder when we get there again next year.

So just for next year -- who cares, it can never be too early!...

Go Chiefs!

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Super Bowl Preview Final Take - Chiefs and Eagles II

I just have to pound out a final post to share thoughts about another couple of things that are major in the pro football mind out there. They are

"I still can't stop whining about how much I think the Chiefs are being favored by the officiating."

"Kendrick Lamar and SZA are doing the halftime show WOW that's great!"

That first one first, one I addressed a bit in my last post. This time I want to make more clear something that not a lot of these people are realizing and recognizing and grasping as a truth about professional sports and professional football all around these days.

The Scorecasting factor is still very alive and well.

In other words, yes, the NFLers along with the officiating and any other influential forces do work to make the results they want happen on the field or the court or wherever.

You may think I am agreeing with all the "The Chiefs are being favored" bleaters, and in a sense I am. But here is the brutal truth:

They are favoring the opponents of the Chiefs, not the Chiefs.

Yes, you heard me. People assume it is the Chiefs who are being favored because they end up winning a lot of games. But the fact is the Chiefs are such a good team that not only should they be winning those games by way more than they do, but they have done so well shaping their roster and so well disciplining themselves to play so well on the field that they are, yes -- it follows...

Overcoming the NFLer influences against them.

It makes for closer games, that's for sure! But the Chiefs have always been at a disadvantage in every game they play. They're just so good they overcome it, and they have become as good as they are honestly and above-board with wise decision-making and smart calls. This is opposed to a team like baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers, who have been successful through deceitfully manipulating the advantages of their greater fan base -- yet no one ever calls them out for their exploitation and in that sense, actually "getting the calls" in their favor.

I wanted to respond to a social media post that typically whined about the Chiefs favoritism, but because it was of course one of a million of these things I didn't because I'd just be a trollee. But here is what I typed out before deleting it, just to be briefly redundant about this important idea:

To all the whiners: Agreed. The NFL does try to rig games - for all the teams who play the Chiefs. Brain-dead people can't see how phenomenally good the Chiefs are to be able to overcome that, and blind to how many calls actually go the Chiefs opponents' way. Jealousy is painful.

What's more the whole whining about Chiefs favoritism is great for the NFL to get viewers, but it doesn't help the Chiefs. That mentality is so infused into the mainstream that the officials, by virtue of the Scorecasting truths, may very well make sure they make the proper amount of very close calls go the Eagles way. 

As it is the Chiefs have had to deal with so many ugly calls against them this year, but, well, they don't say anything about them because they know they are so good and so tight and so disciplined and so well-coached and so professional that they can still get the job done on the field.

Don't think the calls favor Chiefs opponents more than the Chiefs? I can only think of Dalton Schultz in the regular season's Texans game completely shoving off the Chiefs defender so he can be open at the goal line for a touchdown. It was so obvious and so blatant -- but no one said anything because, well, the Chiefs. There are dozens of other calls over the course of the season that could be mentioned that go the opponents way but, well, as usual, the Chiefs. 

The main thing is the Chiefs have had to just get so freakin' good precisely because they must overcome the Scorecasting reality that afflicts them. They know they must be that much better because they know they are more against it than other teams are. The NFLers loathe having the Chiefs anywhere near the Super Bowl, but hey, they've blasted that sentiment so much into the mainstream that the Chiefs are now the villains of the pro football world, and, well, that is probably perfectly fine with the NFLers if it means more people tuning in to hate them.

But don't be mistaken about calls favoring the Chiefs when the calls are mostly favoring the Chiefs' opponents. It may be extraordinarily grudging, but give respect where it is due when they win games anyway.

I have to make mention of that second thing, the halftime show, something the NFL arranges to try to get even more people to tune in -- just so they can see some famous hip-hop or rap star.

Ahem, why does it always have to be some hip-hop or rap star? When are they going to have a fun, upbeat, dance-filled number with traditional pop or rock music that is exciting and entertaining that features fine musical talent that is not that gruesomely ugly hip-hop or rap?

As it is Kendrick Lamar and SZA are the showcased performers. I know nothing about these artists because most of that kind of music is total garbage, particularly because of the lyrics. 

Lamar's No. 1 hit from last year is "Not Like Us," and they say it some kind of diss against Drake who I guess is not fully racialist enough or something. The other day I happened to hear Lamar on the radio say something along the lines of "I just gotta be me, no matter what people think," something these people have blapped a million times before to excuse the worthlessness of their music.

"Not Like Us," by the way, is filled with F-bombs and N-bombs and B-bombs and just about every other kind of bombs that fill these insipid things. Yet no one says a thing about any of it, and these songs are extremely popular. SZA's most popular seems to be "Kill Bill" about her murdering her ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend. This is popular too, in a world where when people actually do that, it shows up in the news and everyone blithers "How did this happen?" for the billionth time.

Well, something of how it happens is an organization like the NFL gives these people a platform to bilge their sewage before hundreds of millions of people. 

Yes, you are correct, I would not watch any of this, Super Bowl included, if my team wasn't in it. I don't watch any of the halftime show anyway, but I still want to watch my team -- one that is pretty good and I believe is pretty decent in character. 

Could the Chiefs be just as responsible for being a vital part of this ugliness? Yes, they could, but as I've shared before, I confess I am conflicted. Patrick Mahomes could be the worst serial killer on the planet, I still want him to throw 100 touchdown passes a year.

Thing is, he's not, he is one of the most respectable individuals in professional sports both on and off the field, and he leads a phenomenally talented team -- our team from an area of the country that at least has a reputation for being hard-working, reliable, and upstanding. I take pride in that, much because much of my family is from there and still resides there.

I heard on the radio that well over a billion dollars will be bet on things related to this game. That is also a grave evil. But in that radio report they noted that Missouri is one of the few states that does not allow that kind of official gambling.

Good for them! At least there is that. good for my blessed state of Missouri for holding true to righteous things. Will that last? I don't know, probably not. But at least for now there is some principled position there in the state where the Chiefs play.

So yeah, let's watch on Sunday. Let's see what happens. What will the officiating be like, and can the Chiefs fine play overcome what the NFLers have against them? And what will they do with Kendrick Lamar's most popular song at the halftime show? Will he even sing it? Maybe it will be so wretched that just maybe the NFL will turn around and take some Super Bowl halftime show in the near future and actually have something different, and way better.

I mean, I recently watched a video of that first Chiefs Super Bowl win, the one against the Vikings in 1970. Know what the halftime show was? A marching band. Seriously, how about this crazy idea: Bring that kind of thing back. Those guys are actually amazing. Have one with the best marching band people doing crazy fun things to good traditional pop, rock, Motown, or yeah, even classical music. 

Ahh, that they'd actually do that.

Otherwise we get this dreck this year -- at least hopefully sandwiched by a Chiefs dominating football performance. 

Can't wait to see it happen!

Go Chiefs!

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The first image is simply a screenshot of a recent Colin Cowherd social media post. The screenshot of the Kendrick Lamar story was clipped from the Awful Announcing website. The image of the marching band was clipped from Halftime, a website for marching bands.

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Super Bowl Preview Take - Chiefs and Eagles Rematch 2025

There is a ton of Chiefs stuff to post, but I have a moment in a busy schedule to pound out some things that keep rolling around in my head. The main ones relate to the main things that have been spewed over the past week. You know what they are.

"The Chiefs get all the calls."

"Is Patrick better than Tom?"

Okay, first one there. Many are correctly pointing out that there is absolutely nothing that demonstrates that anything the officials have done truly favor the Chiefs. Real quick, that 4th-&-inches Josh Allen sneak that was really really close? Well, it was not conclusive, so the officials made the correct call. If it was obvious to all watching on television that the Bills should have gotten the call, requiring -- as I've said a gazillion times before -- those officials in the booth with monitors who can make calls on the field, then I'd get it.

The "forward progress" idiocy that hosed the Chiefs in the 2017 Wild-Card game? You know the one, when the Titans QB fumbled the ball and we recovered, could have even gone down to score the touchdown, yet Derrick Johnson leveled him so severely that it was hard to see on the field? Well, that was an obvious call that definitely should have favored the Chiefs. If instant replay were used properly on that play, really, the Chiefs should have easily won that game -- that call was that egregious.

There was not a single one of those in the Bills game, not one. And no one ever squeaks about calls that go the Bills way, or the way of any other Chiefs opponent, even when they are obvious. Did you happen to catch how many times Bills linemen jumped before the snap? Whupp, those calls favored the Bills. Did you catch the very clear facemask of Hollywood Brown as he was being tackled, not called? Ohh, I see, that call too favored the Bills, ahh I see.

Now, here's the thing about my own personal take. I still believe in the Scorecasting factor, that officials can be unconsciously prone to make calls that favor certain teams the NFLers would like to see succeed. And I know how much I've railed against that when it keeps the Chiefs from being successful.

Do NFLers still want teams with the big markets and better following to win more? Of course they do. Which is why the whole "THEY'RE FAVORING THE CHIEFS!" thing is really stupid. The Chiefs are and have always been a podunk little Midwest farm town to them with not nearly the $$$ generating power of a Cowboys or a New York team. It would take a lot for the Chiefs to make it so the NFLers would be kind of okay with them succeeding right now.

And that means Patrick Mahomes (that's the next item, hold on) and everything there is about him that even goes beyond what he does on the field. That means Travis Kelce and yes, let's admit it, Taylor Swift. That means having a team that does have a phenomenal more local fan base and a lot going for that -- the stadium, the crowd, the tailgating, the whole Kingdom vibe.

This is all besides the fact that the Chiefs are just showing everyone so very well that they are an exceptionally smart, talented, disciplined, well-coached, and even actually pretty exciting team to watch.

Ironically there was Chiefaholic. I mention this because last night on Prime Video I saw the film about our good friend the wolf-suit-clad superfan bank robber and gambling addict. 

Insane.

I mention this because, staying with that very personal note from this now-20-year Chiefs blogger, I can relate to the guy. No no I'm not going to rob banks, nor am I going to gamble. But I can relate because I too came from a broken home and know how much I've used this Chiefs thing to try to get some kind of affirmation. As you know from this site if you've been something of a regular reader (thank you), I can be disgustingly despondent about Chiefs bad-things. I have often used this platform just to vent, just to do the therapy. I don't think this is beyond most Chiefs fans and especially superfans.

When we win, as we have done so stunningly much over the past several years, it is euphoric. And sure enough, in the film the euphoria of a Chiefs superfandom can be addictive. It was so intoxicating to the Chiefsaholic that he robbed banks to feed that addiction. And yeah, it involved gambling a ton, and it wrecked his life.

When he won big betting on Mahomes as MVP and winning the Super Bowl in the 2022 season (that one against the Eagles), he sweated it out, but when it paid off he couldn't wait to get all the good-feels his Twitter followers would pour over him. This dude let the documentary filmmakers into his Super Bowl watching experience and post-game enjoyment. It was euphoric...

The same kind of euphoria when you put your faith and your identity into something that will replace what you lost or never had when younger.

I know that about me and my own disposition. Chiefs wins make me.

Thing is...

Then what?

After the Super Bowl win against the Eagles, Chiefsaholic still took off to rob more banks and do God-knows-what. He was arrested some time later a thousand miles away from where he was supposed to be. Wow.

Watching this happen to this individual and knowing it happens to so many individuals is why I've railed against the whole gambling connection the NFL has with these now huge online betting companies. I grieve when I look at the camera shot at Arrowhead that shows what is being posted all around the stadium as advertising, and I see "Bet MGM" almost every time they show that shot. This is tremendously grievous, it really is.

Already I saw a news article about an NBA basketball player being investigated for adjusting his play because of certain gambling considerations. And really, what happens when these players try to do these kinds of things is bad enough, it is a much worse evil when people like Chiefsaholic do these things at the expense of them and their families. (Yeah, I don't really want to share the guy's real name here, just none of my business. You can watch the film yourself. Best just to pray for him and against these things that destroy lives and livelihoods.)

Ultimately, yeah: eternal perspective. It is not easy, I have to keep all of this in perspective, and even think, wow, all this Chiefs success may even be detrimental in the sense that... what happens when our beloved team comes back to earth? For me 100 straight Super Bowl titles will never be enough, but then, when will it just get boring? What happens after they lose the one that would've been their 17th straight? How horrifically despondent will we be then?

Eeegh. This being a fan of any team in many ways is just too much trauma.

So on to that second thing, real quick, and again, I like that many people are stepping up and expressing their exhaustion with the whole "Patrick or Tom?" debate. The NFLers like it, certainly, because it helps stir interest in a Super Bowl the Chiefs will be featured for the fifth time in six years. I mean, what else can you say about the Chiefs that hasn't already been shared at this same time every year?

But here's the thing. The debate assumes Tom Brady is already the greatest quarterback of all time. I mean, we're all supposed to accept that as a given. Ahem, excuse me.

Not.

Was Tom Brady the most successful quarterback of all time? Yes, absolutely. But that doesn't mean he was the greatest, or even the best. I know this is sacrilegious, but there are a few people who do agree with me. Cool, at least there is that, thanks for those people. And I do know, again, that all the television or social media pundits who want to get some kind of wide attention are using the default "Tom Brady is the best ever" meme because it is easy and it gets that interest so there can be the debate.

The Mount Rushmore of quarterbacks? To me Tom Brady isn't even on it. I have good reasons, and I have already shared some of them in this blog effort. He is in the top ten, I agree. But for all the violent detractors out there who revile me for my heretical beliefs. Here is my NFL Quarterback Mount Rushmore:

Mahomes. Montana. Baugh. Unitas.

Sorry, but you absolutely cannot argue against this. You can try, but you'd be wrong. Look at those guys and tell me why Brady should replace any of them without using the wickedly tired argument "He has the rings." Please. Try. You can't.

I have Mount Rushmore II's and III's and so forth, but just to make things simple here's my top ten:

1. Mahomes   

2. Montana   

3. Baugh   

4. Unitas   

5. Tarkenton    

6. Brady   

7. Marino   

8. Graham  

9. Rodgers  

10. Manning P

Are there a lot of very good QBs who could be in there, like Favre, Staubach, Elway, even our beloved Len Dawson. There're a dozen others. I gotcha. I like a lot of them, and I do agree any of these guys could arguably be in the top ten. I don't dispute any of those very reasonable takes. But the one take I do dispute, very firmly -- and even without taking away his greatness as it is -- is that Tom Brady is the greatest ever. He wasn't. He just wasn't. 

Whether or not Patrick gets another Super Bowl win or this success or that success doesn't take away the true objective fact that Mahomes can do, had done, and will likely still do things Tom Brady never did and could never do. Again, was Brady talented, skilled, smart, competitive, dedicated to his craft? Of course!

But he just was not the greatest. When we see someone come along who does the things Mahomes has done for an extended period of time, which Patrick has already proven he has, then we'll revive the standard GOAT conversation. For now it's already over. He has already established himself as the greatest, and anyone with any decent pair of eyes and at least a few brain cells can see it.

As far as this year's version of Super Bowl action goes, maybe more later! 

If not, bring on the Eagles!

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

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Eagles at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 7-3 - Part II

Just a few more thoughts about last night's joke of a game -- err -- joke of a second half of a game.

First of all we can yell at the receivers all we want, but in some very real ways it gets back to the coaching and front office.

Front office first, for not swinging that trade when we could have actually truly had someone like DeAndre Hopkins. Please, do you really think Hopkins wouldn't have jumped at the chance to play with Patrick Mahomes if we really meant business? Right now he is stuck on a woefully underperforming Titans team.

I do understand, however, Veach's reluctance to make a deal when he could have earlier. Looking at our receivers it really does look like they should be performing way better than they are. This leads to the coaching staff, because failures this glaring for a group of receivers who should be playing better has got to fall a lot on those whose job it is to give them the best opportunities for success.

For now?

1. Get them on the business end of those tossing machines 24-7. Really, in every situation with every kind of throw at every kind of angle... I just can't see how professional pass-catchers making a million dollars a year just to put a projected weird brown ball into your hands aren't doing that. It is your job. So coaches, how come they aren't out there practicing that thing a million times a day?

2. Get those routes right. That's on the coaches. When they aren't out on the practice field catching Jugs throws, they need to be in the film room with you guys.

3. I happened to see a tease for a sports talk show bit that had Kurt Warner telling us Mahomes is scared to throw the ball to these guys. Please. Coaches, if true, you need to drill deeeeply into Patrick's head not to worry about that. Just have him throw the ball. He can't control everything. He's just got to trust his receivers and keep throwing the ball where he needs to. If he overthinks this too much there won't be any passes heading downfield. He also can't be favoring guys too much just to favor them. He seemed to do that with Justin Watson, and while Watson made some fine plays, he also made some dumb ones, with drops and just not making his routes right.

4. Along with that idea, the receivers need to know not to worry about what happens besides catching the ball. It really does seem our receivers "hear footsteps," get freaked, and just blow up at the last -- mostly just flubbing up when that football could easily be caught no matter how they think they'll get hit later. This happened to Skyy Moore at the end of the Detroit game we lost when his catch could've got us into FG range, and it happened last night to Watson on a terrific throw to him at the first down marker on 4th-&-25 that would've kept a critical drive alive.

5. And lastly, coaches, mix things up. Do different things. Set all of them up for success. One thing that would seem to be worth trying is getting Kadarius Toney untracked. Get him downfield more and try throwing it to him there. On kick returns he jukes guys out of their shorts like no one I've ever seen. Why can't he do that to his cover guys on pass routes?

I happened to catch an NFL Throwback episode on YouTube, "Ugliest Wins Ever," featuring teams that sucked throughout the game but still ended up winning. Well, you know?

Last night's game could've been on that show.

The Eagles were, really, when you look at it, kind of sucky. They were sacked half-a-dozen times and were thoroughly stuffed by our defense -- their best receiver was a total non-factor. They got a nifty crazy long pass towards the end of the game setting them up perfectly for their tremendously annoying tush-push touchdown to put them ahead. Mostly they just got blessed by a Chiefs offense that has been absolutely atrocious in the second half for weeks now.

Finally, some history, for what it is worth.

I took a peek at the Chiefs in 1970, the year after their first Super Bowl win. Remember that, when they beat the heavily favored Vikings? Do you know who they played in the very first regular season game after that, there at the beginning of the 1970 season?

The Vikings. And they got squashed, 27-10. Funny, no one remembers that game, and no one will remember last night's game either. Only last year's Super Bowl counts for remembering, really, so keep that in mind when distressed by all the goofy trolling that Eagles fans are doing right now.

Know who the Chiefs played in their second game that season? The Baltimore Colts, in only the second Monday Night Football game ever. They pummeled them 44-24. The Colts, by the way, went on to win the Super Bowl that year. 

Know who the Chiefs played in only their second interconference game ever (sixth game of the season)? (That Vikings opener was the first.) The Cowboys. The Chiefs got spanked in that one, 27-16.

Know what I noticed about each one of those games? Even the Baltimore one?

We sucked at scoring in the second half.

We scored 3 second-half points in the Minnesota game. We scored 13 second-half points in the Baltimore game (after scoring 31 in the first half). We kicked a piddly two FGs in the second half of the Dallas game.

Am I obsessed with looking for poor second-half performances just because of our total second-half ineptitude all year long this year? I dunno, just disconcerting what our team has been doing -- or of course not doing coming out of the locker at halftime.

Just gets back to the coaching, and the thought did cross my mind, it did: that Andy Reid has just somehow gotten back to his old ways of not making the adjustments he needs to make to counter their adjustments, and/or just sitting too comfortably on any lead he has and playing not-to-lose. Errgh.

Hopefully not. Hopefully it really is that receiver core situation.

But that is still a major ::Errck:: for all of us in the Chiefs Kingdom.

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Eagles at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 7-3

Well that was ugly.

Actually, no, the Chiefs first half was terrific. We did pretty well in every phase to go up 17-7.

Then the second half started. We lost 21-17. 

Did you catch that? Did you catch the final score there?

You do remember that two weeks ago we were up 21-0 on the Dolphins at the half, and went on to score zero points in the second half. Annnd do you remember the game before that? When we lost to the Broncos? When we scored zero points in the second half of that game?

Can you guess how many points we scored in the second half tonight?

The math is not hard.

The Chiefs second half tonight featured dropped passes, fumbles, no running game, inept routes, stupid penalties, and just a reverse image of the Chiefs in the first half, or really any time when they play football.

Let's face it, that drop by Valdes-Scantling close to the end of the game was just about the last straw for anyone's patience with this receiving crew. Valdes-Scantling in particular looked lost out there, scampering around wherever, flailing about tracking balls, and of course just not making the play that a Super Bowl-caliber player has got to make.

But he wasn't the only one. Justin Watson made some plays, including a touchdown catch, but he also had drops. Travis Kelce had a fumble in the red zone that, let's face it, really cost us. Skyy Moore has the athleticism to be that Julian Edelman-type clutch receiver for us, but he is about a trillion light years from being that. Kadarius Toney was worked in much more tonight, but he's still not catching passes down the field. Rashee Rice was okay, but he can't do everything.

Bottom line, it was a pathetically inept performance by our offense in that second half, and yeah, it is so crazy that the Chiefs got zero second half points for a third straight game. There was a stat the television broadcast showed, just phenomenal for this team, really brutal, that the Chiefs have an average of 5.9 second half points this season, lowest in the NFL.

5.9. You're kidding. That's not even a single touchdown with two full quarters of football play to get it in the employ of a Patrick Mahomes-led offensive unit.

In fact, I went back over each game this season, just to look at the second halves. In only one game did we score more than seven points and score in both quarters -- that was the Jacksonville game. We did score 14 against the Vikings, but only in the 3rd quarter. Otherwise in every other second half this season our scoring has been wickedly abysmal.

Yeah, really, let's hope there is something that can be done with this receiver situation.

The Eagles got their Super Bowl revenge, but they sure got a lot of help from the Chiefs.

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World Champion Chiefs! - Take Two

Thought I'd add a few thoughts about our wonderful Super Bowl victory from exactly a week ago. Right now things are moving into off-season stuff, so I thought it'd be good to put down a few more hopefully not completely last words about the conclusion to our championship season. What fun it has been to see and hear at all the great Chiefs stuff and enjoy the victory parade this past week.

A few more things I've thought about.

1. Even before the game I thought, huh, don't we have something of an advantage in having Super Bowl Steve Spagnuolo out there running the defense, the very same guy who throttled the invincible Patriots in the Super Bowl a number of years ago? I don't think Spags has been given enough credit for holding off the Eagles in this one even with their QB Jalen Hurts playing like a Superman out there.

2. Did anyone notice Creed Humphrey's shotgun snaps to Mahomes? I mean, Creed's blocking was spectacular matching the exceptional play of his fellow linemen, yes, but half his snaps were abysmal. Did you notice the ones Mahomes had to pick off his feet, or snatch from his far left, or even a few at the beginning that just got to him a tick late which in many cases can make a world of difference? This was yet another testament to Mahomes' greatness for being able to accommodate and still play amazing football.

3. Winning this game in the trenches did get some mentions, but it should be emphasized. Not only did our O-line stand up their D-line, but our D-line stood up their offense especially to the tune of Bolton-Gay-Chenel doing expert work to keep the Eagles' running backs to 45 total yards rushing. Ouch.

4. Our running game got the job done. Pacheco and McKinnon were gashing especially in that 2nd half. Sorry but it does make me think about how different last year's AFC Championship game against the Bengals would've been if we'd done the McKinnon thing in that game, something I mentioned back then. Here is worked beautifully, but I won't say I told you so here. We're champions this year!

5. JuJu was everything we wanted him to be. Do you realize how many catches he made in those 2nd half drives? A lot. So many that it is another reason why it is so ridiculous to moan and groan about that late holding call. JuJu was torching those Eagle D-backs that eventually it was very likely they were going to hold. So yeah, please, not another word about that holding thing towards the end of the game.

6. Three Super Bowl titles now overall match or exceed 25 other NFL teams. Only six teams have more (NE, Pit, Dal, NYG, GB, SF)  Pretty cool. It may go without saying that everyone sees how high the ceiling is for this team with Mahomes reaching his prime, Veach and Reid still doing what they do, and an organization emerging as arguably the NFL's best. Needless to say the Chiefs are favorites to win it all again next year -- still, I'll say it again, not sure how the top NFLers feel about that.

7. I saw a Chevy El Camino going along the street the other day, and any time I see that kind of vehicle I think of the decommissioned El Camino permanently parked outside the paintball field splattered with paintball art when we were their for my nephew's birthday party in January of 2014 -- the day the Chiefs were way ahead of the Colts and then... I used to think of El Camino's with sadness because I'd then think about that nightmarish day, but now? It's weird -- I like them. I think it is because I think about then, but then contrast that with now and the good-feelings are that much better because of that stark contrast. Does that make sense?

It is the Golden Age of Chiefs Football now, everyone knows it. Watching the Super Bowl on the DVR again, especially everything that happened in that 2nd half, is magical. It is weird in that it feels much more fun watching the replay because I know for sure that we won the game! Does anyone else feel that way?

What a time to dwell richly in the Chiefs Kingdom!

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The image is from Matt Starkey at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

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Chiefs and Eagles - Super Bowl Take - WORLD CHAMPION CHIEFS!

I do believe this will go down as one of the greatest Super Bowls ever, since each team was within striking distance of each other throughout. I believe the largest deficit was the 10-point dip the Chiefs had at halftime -- ha - yet another 10-points in a Super Bowl Mahomes and the Chiefs had to transverse to win it. Another reason this one was a great one -- indeed they'd said teams down by ten or more points at the half in the Super Bowl were 1-26, the only other one that Patriots comeback against the Falcons a few years ago.

I do know that most would consider this the greatest Super Bowl ever if Jalen Hurts and the Eagles offense had a chance to try to tie or win it with about 1:40 left on the clock after a sure Butker field goal would've put the Chiefs up 38-35. But on what I believe was 3rd down the Eagles defender was called for holding on JuJu and the Chiefs got a new set of downs to allow them to burn up that time, keeping the Eagles from having a chance to do that. As it was Butker kicked that game-winner with only :11 left.

Lots of people lamented the call, but it was the right one. The guy held JuJu, JuJu said 100% he was held, the Eagles defender admitted he held, the television referee said it was holding, and the referee himself, the infamous Carl Cheffers, put out a notice citing the rule so it was indeed pretty black & white.

With that in mind, I myself do kind-of agree with those who didn't like the call. I do. It could've gone either way, and with those, ya gotta live with whatever the ref says. I've always shared that sentiment even in my rantings about how much the most egregious ref calls could be much better mitigated. It does get really dicey, however, when people say things like "That call shouldn't have been made so we can all see a better ending of a game." Please know, I get it. I'm actually with you. But the call still needs to be correct no matter how much it makes for a slightly less entertaining affair.

Thing is the Eagles themselves aren't complaining, and most thoughtful fans aren't either. There was so much the Chiefs did to deserve the win, and so much the Eagles could've done to win but didn't. Yes it would've been nice to have won the greatest Super Bowl ever instead of one that'll probably go down as, oh, maybe the 6th or 7th, I don't know -- simply because the holding call made the ending just that much more anti-climactic. Not a lot, but enough to bump it down in many people's minds.

It is funny, after that penalty, we faced a situation where we needed not to score a touchdown. A number of years ago, November of 2016, when playing the Broncos, their guy caught a touchdown pass late in the game when I thought it would've been better if he didn't score the touchdown. He could've just stopped and kneeled a few yards from the goal line so the Broncos could run clock for the expressed purpose of keeping the ball from the Chiefs offense so they'd have little time left to try to come back.

The Chiefs did have that time after all, and I believe they tied it and won it in overtime. I wrote about this idea at Arrowhead Pride and actually got quite a few people responding. I titled the piece, "When Will NFL Teams - the Chiefs? - Start to See the Value of Not Scoring a Touchdown?"

Wow. Did that idea pay off for us last night. In the series that followed the penalty one play featured Jerick McKinnon running free towards the pylon on the left side, and it sure looked like the Eagles defenders were trying real hard not to stop him. Sure enough...

McKinnon slid down in bounds a yard short of the goal line.

The Eagles were forced to burn their last time out, and on the next two snaps Mahomes just stepped back and kneeled setting up Butker for the game-winner with only seconds left.

The Chiefs saw the value of not scoring a touchdown.

And it helped them secure the Super Bowl win.

As far as the overall officiating goes even with that reffing crew that has been not-very-good for the Chiefs in the past, they did pretty well, except against the Chiefs there was one pretty egregious pass interference call, also against JuJu, happening early in the 2nd quarter. It did have a negative impact contributing to a stalled Chiefs drive.

The main officiating question was the interpretation of what constitutes a catch. I believe there were poor calls on both sides, but that is much because the NFL has this convoluted rule about how many steps you must take and all the rest of it. Here were the cases in the game:

First the Eagles Davonta Smith made a terrific grab on a deep ball along the sideline as the 1st half was coming to a close. To me, it was a catch. And I'm definitely rooting for it not to be one. But it was. He made this terrific David Tyree-type snatch against his helmet, he had control, he got both feet in bounds -- a legitimate catch. Give it to them.

Nope. They ruled against it. Wrong wrong wrong. Now it didn't hurt the Eagles much because they still got the FG to go up 24-14 at the half.

Second, early in the 2nd half Hurts completely a pass on the right flat to his back who caught it, turned to make a "football move," and was plowed into by L'Jarius Sneed. He fumbled, it was scooped up by Nick Bolton who ran for what would have been his second fumble recovery TD of the game. After further review, not a fumble - incomplete pass.

Not.

Sorry, that was a catch too, overruled by the officials because apparently he didn't make a third step or something silly like that. No touchdown for the Chiefs.

Third, their tight end made an amazing catch at the sideline that was ruled a catch on the field, but the Chiefs threw the challenge flag because it sure did look like he bobbled it before getting both feet in bounds. I believe he did, but sure enough, they ruled it a catch. The television ref said he barely had his foot down when he gained possession.

To be honest, I'd give it to them. This was legitimately a close one, nothing conclusive was seen to overturn the call on the field, really, that's fine.

That's the whole point though. When a player makes a great play and it's close, I'm great with giving them the benefit of the doubt on a catch. Great. But with the Bolton recovery play, that should have been a catch too.

One more note about the game that I think requires mention is the state of the field of play. What a joke. I'd even heard or read before the game that they were experimenting with some putting-green golf course type turf, and sure enough right then and there I'm thinking please no. Please don't do that. That's sounds really dumb. You can't play football on putting-green turf, you can't. This will not go well. Did anyone else think that?

Well, sure enough, players on both teams were slipping and sliding and vocally complaining about it for the duration. Not sure what the Chiefs did but I was told Eagles players changed their cleats at halftime, which in some ways, while seemingly the right thing to do, may have actually messed with their rhythm and game play on the field. 

Now to a few brief notes about the play and the game. Yes we can talk about Patrick Mahomes and his once-again courageous play, awesome awesome, but here're some other things:

Kudos to our O-line who didn't allow a sack for the entire game. The whole team also did really well keeping the running game going, but I think a lot of that was Andy Reid's beautiful game plan that took advantage of the Eagles softness on the edges. We both ran and passed at those edges constantly throughout the game, even scoring our last two touchdowns on routes that took advantage of the Eagles D-backs over-aggressiveness in the middle.

Kudos to our run defenders -- not just the D-line but those key linebackers, Nick Bolton, Willie Gay, and sure enough another rookie who wasn't in all that much before, Leo Chenel. What a great call to stick him in their for meaningful minutes to help shut down the Eagles vaunted running game forcing Hurts to try to hurt us with his passing. Hurts almost did, by the way, with both his running and passing. He played phenomenally well -- we just did enough to contain him to win it in the end.

And just a kudos to our rookie D-backs. Justin Reid and Juan Thornhill played well enough, for sure, but that we had that McDuffie-Watson-Williams-Cook quadrantes needing to do just enough, now besting by numbers that 49ers rookie D-backfield of Lott-Wright-Williamson that helped them win Super Bowl XVI back in 1982.

It was also a very nice disciplined game by our team. No turnovers, no penalties at all in the 2nd half -- in fact the 2nd half game plan by our coaching staff was just terrific. What a blessing it is to have a now extraordinarily experienced Andy Reid who has been known to do a not-the-best job of making the real halftime adjustments that he should make, yet last night, his adjustments were fantastic. Three touchdowns and the game-winning field goals on our possessions - we outscored the Eagles 24-11 in the 2nd half.

The talk now is how much we could be a dynasty, yet right now it is a blast to just enjoy a second title in four years. Mahomes now has two, and I can't help but think that Dawson, Brees, Rodgers, Namath, Unitas, Warner, Young, Favre... for as good as they were on some pretty good teams each had (have) only one. Marino, Tarkenton, Kelly didn't have any. People like both Mannings, Staubach, Elway, Roethlisberger who've had two... Mahomes is now in that stratosphere and as everyone says, he's only 27 with a coach who wants to keep going and a GM who is a genius at plugging in those fine players around him.

I have to add this, that the Chiefs now have a better Super Bowl winning percentage at .600 than the Patriots at .545. Yep! True! How great is that. The Chiefs are now 3-2 in Super Bowls, while the Patriots are 6-5. Boo-yah! I also have to just add this, that finally, we now have the same Super Bowl record as that archrival Raiders, who also have a 3-2 Super Bowl record.

Can this get any better than that? 

Well, of course, when we play again in the Super Bowl next year in Las Vegas!!!

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The first image is from Matt Starkey and the second is from Evan Sanders at the official Chiefs website, thank you.

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Bonus coverage! Just looking around on the web, very much standard practice for some time after days like yesterday, there was this tweet. Too much fun not to post here. There're probably a hundred more like it, but here's this one for now:

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Chiefs and Eagles - Super Bowl Take Preview

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS WORLD CHAMPIONS!

Again! 

I can't post something now because I'm too busy celebrating! But I'll pound out something soon.

To cover in particular: our coaching staff putting a 2nd half game plan together and the players executing it was phenomenal! Our O-line taking care of business on that vaunted Eagles pass rush! Our defense just playing with everything they've got, particularly shutting down their running game with a bit of a softiness to Jalen Hurts -- but that ended up not hurting us! 

Then there was what actually constitutes a catch, as well as what-thuh-**** about that putting-green golf turf they put on that field. And of course how the usually anti-Chiefs officiating was, a few meaningful remarks about that.

Until then!

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The image of Andy Reid winning his second Super Bowl with the Chiefs courtesy of Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs website, thank you.

Chiefs and Eagles - Super Bowl LVII Preview

Getting around to pounding out something of a preview to this game. I haven't paid much attention to the pregame hype related to the team's abilities themselves, except that it is pretty much the Eagles balance versus Mahomes' absurd play. Which will prevail?

I do want to make mention of the Bengals' postgame concerns particularly those of their fans. I say this because I was going to make a post about their claims that the refs favored the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. I didn't because I just didn't feel like it, really. But I do want to remark about it only because in my view their concerns relate to that key thing that could be the difference in this Super Bowl.

First of all, in my honest opinion I do think it was a fairly called game. The officiating was fair and above board. Almost every complaint by Bengals fans was unsupported, particularly the very clear personal foul push out-of-bounds on Mahomes very late that gave the Chiefs better field goal position, and the instance when the officials legitimately tried to get the clock correct -- the result of which produced zero negative impact on the Bengals.

I will say that there was one play that I do think the Bengals had a justified gripe yet never heard a thing about it anywhere! Maybe some brought it up but I just didn't see it in any of the most prominently published complaints. It was when MVS made that slick stretch-the-football move to get it to the 1st down marker. After he stretched the ball out he pulled it back before he was down. At least it looked like he was not down. If he pulls the ball back, and he does not set it firmly on the turf as a downed football, and he is not ruled down, shouldn't then the ball placement be where he pulled it back? If that was the case the Chiefs would've faced a 4th-&-1 instead of being granted the 1st down on a drive that resulted in a touchdown.

Otherwise, all those other moanings and groanings simply had no merit.

Here's the greater point to all this. The Bengals' kingdom also made mention of this: The NFL is rigged!

Here's my response: I agree!

What is crazy is it is rigged just as much against the Chiefs as it is against the Bengals. Did NFLers want to get a Kelce vs Kelce brother match-up? Of course they did. Did they want Andy Reid facing his old team. Sure. Were there other appealing things to a Chiefs-Eagles Super Bowl? Clearly. I get all that, but if there is anything untoward to make that happen it is wrong, as I've written about it at length and in my posts however-much-they're-read. I've always been about calling out all the things that impede true genuine competitive integrity in the sport. 

I've insisted with solid reasoning and evidence that the NFLers favor those big-market media-darling money-generating teams and the Bengals and the Chiefs have never been in that club. Are the Chiefs in that club now with someone like Patrick Mahomes at the helm? I can't say they haven't wiggled their way into it, but I'm convinced the NFLers are still loathe to have the Chiefs be  successful because they simply are not the Cowboys or Patriots or Jets or Giants or...

The main reason I bring the officiating thing up here is because of the concern a lot of people in the Chiefs Kingdom have about the officiating in this upcoming game. The NFL in its great wisdom decided to select a referee crew that notoriously makes the worst calls against the Chiefs.

I'm not going to get into this or that about those calls or the whys and wheretofores about any of it now. I do want to point out right here and now that I do remember a time when Chiefs fans needed to convince themselves This time will be different. This time will be different. There is no way those wretchedly unfavorable and unjustified calls or non-calls will hurt us this time. This time they'll be good officials. This time will be different this time will be different this time will be different...

January 4, 1998.

Chiefs are playing the Broncos in the divisional game, at home, with one of the best defenses in the league. We've got a good shot at this. 

I then look and see who's reffing.

Jerry Markbreit.

Great.

I don't remember details but I do remember Markbreit's crew screwing the Chiefs on a number of different occasions previously. Of course looking at this situation, all I could stream through my skull was THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT THIS TIME WILL BE DIFFERENT. I'm thinking we've got such a good team we'll overcome the reffing thing. He can't be that bad that often that we'll get hurt in this game too.

This time will be different.

It wasn't. It was a nightmare.

One of the main things that happened was the Broncos linemen put some kind of petroleum jelly substance all over their jerseys. It was caught early in the game and a clear violation of NFL rules against cheating. Did those players get expelled like they should have? No, of course not because that would've seriously compromised the NFLers desire to get John Elway another shot at a Super Bowl. What happened was the linemen were allowed to go take towels to wipe off those substances, which actually took a few minutes of real time for them to do that. The team was not charged a time-out, they were not penalized in any way for it, and even though I'm sure they could not possibly get all the material off those jerseys they were not required to change their uniforms.

The Chiefs lost one of the greatest heartbreakers in the history of the team by less than a touchdown score.

Thanks, Jerry Markbreit.

The one single point in this preview post is this:

This game should be very close. As a Chiefs fan I'd like to think Patrick Mahomes will not let us lose this game. Even in that ugly Super Bowl loss to the Bucs a couple years ago Mahomes was the clear-cut MVP, not Brady or whoever they gave it to. There is even a brief video going around now that shows clips of Mahomes' play in that game interspersed with remarks made by non-plussed Bucs players about how phenomenal Mahomes was playing in spite of having a Division II college O-line and butterfinger receivers the whole game.

But if this one is close in spite of Mahomes' heroics, in what ridiculous way is this officiating crew going to hose us? Legitimately, that means they make a legitimately rotten call (that for the 57,000th time officials with monitors in the booth would be able to correct by the way) -- a call that does substantially impact the outcome to our detriment?

Will that happen? If it does, we can lose this game. If it doesn't, I truly think we win.

That's the key. That's my prediction. Sure I could be wrong as any prediction may be, but that's the take, and certainly one you will not read in any major NFLer intimidated publications.

We'll see come Sunday!

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The image was from Getty Images and clipped from Yahoo Sports, thank you. 

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Chiefs at Eagles - Week Four - Record: 2-2 - The Take

Everybody was wondering if the defense would make the corrections needed to actually stop opposing offenses. I think after yesterday the answer to that is a resounding kind-of. They were still very bendy, way way waaay too bendy. 

All the same issues remained: Pass rush refusing to be anything above tepid. Chris Jones refusing to be a force on the edge when they run. Linebackers refusing to fill gaps. Tacklers refusing to wrap at the point of contact. Our D-backs refusing to be any better than the Eagles phenomenal new receiver DeVonta Smith -- I mean, no wonder the dude last year won the Heisman leading Alabama to another college football title.

Well, you can't blame our D-backs too much for that. Smith is just an extraordinary talent.

But our front seven. Still. Ugh. To their credit they finally did stiffen up in the red zone. At least a few times they held the Eagles to field goals. Those are wins for us.

There was also that nice play by Ben Niemann stripping the ball from their guy right before the goal line causing a fumble we recovered... excccept... It wasn't so obvious he actually fumbled, Niemann didn't hollar like a madman about his obvious play so we could stop things, and Andy Reid did not throw the red flag. Next play, touchdown Philly.

Again, just get the call right. It is encouraging to see New York now starting to buzz in to stop things when they see something that refs missed. At least they are moving toward that magical point. It is good to hope -- you know -- for those times when the insanely stupid bad call is about to wreck us yet again.

Our offense put this one away in the 4th, they just got the job done today. Very nice.

Mahomes was solid, making all his standard incredible plays. On his last touchdown pass to a wide open Tyreek Hill, he backpedalled to avoid the rush and heaved the ball, dropping it right into Hill's breadbasket for the score. Just standard incredible playmaking.

Hill himself matched their Heisman Trophy winner for receiver excellence. Hill was on track today, making catch after catch and piling up lots of needed yardage.

Our running backs were stellar, with both CEH and Darrel Williams -- and we should add, yes, Mecole Hardman with his jet sweep runs --  doing the damage on the ground. And because of that it was encouraging to see our O-line continue to gel, particularly with its run blocking.

And of course there was the news of the week: We've got Josh Gordon on board. I'd heard he's been terrific in camp getting ready and showing what he's got.

Wow. If we can score 70 points a game, we may not even have to care how our defense plays.

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Image is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

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Chiefs at Eagles - Week Four - Record: 2-2

Can't get a full post here now, because it is late and we just returned from a long drive after being out-of-town for the weekend. We did catch the game, however, and while our defense still stinks, our offense with Patrick, Tyreek, Clyde, our now-gellin' O-linemen, and few other people did get the job done for the much needed win.

Should be able to put up something of a take tomorrow.

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

I did not like this game at all. I just didn't. It was waaay too nerve-racking.

We're up 27-13 with 0:14 left in the game. The Eagles are in the red zone and I'm thinking, "Nkay, touchdown pass, on-sides kick recovery, Hail Mary pass completion for the touchdown. I'm sure of it. They'll get 14 points in 14 seconds. Only the Chiefs."

And sure enough, they get the touchdown, our vaunted special teams bungles the kick return and they get an easy on-sides kick recovery, and their QB Carson Wentz throws a perfect floating strike into the middle of the endzone with all four of their tall lanky receivers ready to swallow it up. That's until Eric Murray's lone flailing hand shoots high up from the crowd to bat it away. Whew...

(Eric Murray -- life-saver -- if you remember there was that extraordinarily dorky play at the end of the first half when Terrence Mitchell misplayed an interception right into the hands of their tight end who went racing for the endzone. Murray was left all alone to make a touchdown-saving tackle. WHEW...)

I already don't have any hair on my head, so then I had to have lost hair on other parts of my body. Okay, way too much information about the near heart seizure we all were about to suffer, but yeah, this game was indeed really aggravating.

Yes I must say it was really fun to watch Superman Travis Kelce fly across the goal line on that amazingly spiffy shovel-pass play. It was really fun to watch our defense step it up in the 4th quarter featuring another Superman flight by Daniel Sorensen to thwart a Wentz pass attempt. Then there was Superman Justin Houston deflecting thrown footballs off his head (allowing Chris Jones to make an interception). Then there was Superman Kareem Hunt powering his way across the goal line to put us up by those two scores late in the 4th quarter.

We have a team of Supermen, really.

Because that's what it took for us to win this game against the Eagles good quarterback, tough defensive front, and phenomenal offensive line. Thing is, even against that line our D-line registered six sacks and umpteen QB pressures.

But it took the efforts of our special talents at the specialty positions to ultimately take care of business, because for most of the game our O-line and Alex Smith were miserable. This was not a fun game to watch, it just wasn't.

The number of times Smith reverted to his looking, looking, looking and not throwing the ball to receivers he can make completions to and then just getting sacked was just mind-numbing. Again again again he is doing this. But then, at a crucial point in that last touchdown drive he steps back and fires a fantastic throw to Chris Conley down the sideline for a big gain. GUHHH? Why doesn't he have the confidence to make that throw more often?!!

In the end it was those big plays from our studly Superman players -- and Kareem Hunt, I mean, wow...

The crazy thing is that Alex Smith was 21 for 28. Huh. That's actually pretty good. And a couple times he scrambled or ran for important yardage. Huh. We can all go back to that old saw about how he actually managed the game well in light of the 57 times he was sacked, yeah, I guess. I guess we can say this game was a lot like a 2013 game in which we win by a few points because he just controlled things well. Okay.

Really, I shouldn't complain. Seeing Hunt do his thing -- that's better than before. Seeing receivers like Conley and Tyreek Hill out there making plays -- that's better. Seeing our defensive front anchored by people like Jones and Houston playing pretty well against a good O-line -- that's better. Seeing our D-backs hold their own in an Eric Berry-less defense, that's actually not bad at all. I mean, Eric Murray -- heroically rescuing us Chiefs fans from certain football obsession death on a number of occasions today!

So while this was a bit exasperating, we got the win and there are things we can be pleased about. It may look daunting, but when you have a team of Supermen, it'll all turn out fine in the end!
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