Lions at Chiefs - Week 6 - Record: 3-3

Writing this a bit before the game here. It's about 5:00 PST where I am, just folding this little preview into the game post.

The main and really only preview note:

How much will the Scorecasting officiating and the propelled narrative that goes with it keep the Chiefs from winning. 

That's it. I've belabored the point to death, but, yeah, as usual, it doesn't really seem to take. People all over blap about that Chiefs thing or that Lions thing but the only thing that matters is whether or not the officials are going to hose the Chiefs making it really hard for them to win.

Yes, I know, the Lions are a fine football team. Yes, I know the Chiefs may do dumb things again to make it a bit harder for them to win. But it is simple.

If the Chiefs play like they always can play, like they've plainly shown they can play on a regular basis, they will win, period.

If the officials get in the way or the Scorecasting proven narrative keeps the Chiefs on their heels, it will be very difficult or even a loss.

Let's watch, shall we?... 

___

Okay, 1st half take:

The Lions O-line is absolutely demolishing us. Our front seven us get plowed under. Their running backs are having their way with us, but so far we've gotten bailed out by an illegal motion call against the Lions negated a touchdown and a failed 4th down conversion.

We've done a little better against their passing game, but we just aren't getting to their QB enough, we're just not. We did a couple times forcing incompletions and stalling their momentum, but Goff has had  too much time too often to make clutch completions.

After our first touchdown, guess what. Harrison missed the PAT. Derrrp. I've been giving him the benefit of the doubt when people have said, "I think now we should be concerned." "Nah," I've thought, "He'll come around." Is it time to join them and truly wonder about him?

And could doubts about him seep into decision-making? We had the ball at the Lions 20 and went for it on 4th down, and failed. Could have had the field goal.

And then there was that failed play. Worthy really needed to flatten his route and he'd have kept the defender from batting away Patrick's pass. Know what? This is where we need Rashee there. Fortunately he's slated to be back next week. As far as Worthy goes he got our first TD, so he's coming along.

So yeah, even though their offensive line is having their way with us, it is 13-10 us. 

Oh, and yeah, what about the officiating? It has been a very clean game so far, both teams making decent, solid-play, open-field plays, offenses and defenses, that there isn't anything really close that requires an official's interpretation of things, those things that can be so detrimental to the Chiefs efforts.

And they just showed a stat as the 2nd half starts: Lions, some high number of tons of offensive yards in the first half, as well as a high for not being rushed on pass attempts.

Eeegh.

___

Okay, quick 3rd quarter report. We got a really nice TD from Hollywood to make it 20-10, that's where it stands now.

We absolutely need to get Brashard Smith in the mix more. Why we don't is, um, well, kind-of known because Andy Reid just refuses to do more to get good rookies in there even when they clearly show they can play. Maybe many times he's right, and wants to keep from taking a chance on rookies making rookie mistakes. But so far every play Smith has had he's been terrific, but they've been so few.

On that TD drive Travis made a tricky catch that may have been questionable, but the Chiefs ran a super-quick play to prevent a challenge. The television official said he thought it was a catch anyway, so that was a close one -- close with that official's interpretative call that would've needed to be made.

And just a note about our left tackle replacing Josh Simmons who is out tonight. Jaylen Moore is doing really well against their excellent DE Aiden Hutchinson. Patrick is actually having a little bit of time to do things back there.

Okay, here's the 4th...

___

How about that. A nice, clean, hard-fought game -- for both teams -- with no officiating or narrative issues. They were on fire in the first half, but the Lions just looked more gassed in the second half. We had a comfortable lead for most of the game, so I believe the Lions just couldn't lean on that really good running game, and Spags made his adjustments.

Our O-line played really well, and our running game was productive in the second half. Isiah, Kareem, even Brashard got the job done.

They also said the Lions had serious injury issues with their secondary, so that was likely a factor that helped our fine offensive effort tonight. Hopefully we can keep up the good work there when an opponent's defense is at full strength.

Next week the Raiders rivalry continues!

___

The photo is from the Jacob Rice at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

___

Lions at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 0-1 - Addendum

Just had a couple of thoughts, that this game reminded me of three different games in Chiefs history. Thought I'd share them with you now. In chronological order:

1. 1972, Eagles over the Chiefs, 21-20. It was a home game, in fact the third game ever at Arrowhead and after three home games (of six games altogether) we still had not won a game at our brand new state-of-the-art stadium. We opened the season with a home loss to, yes, the eventual undefeated champion Dolphins.

But this particular game, just the score. It was exactly the same score as last night's game, and one of the Eagles touchdowns that mid-October day was ridiculously silly. The Eagles QB, the immortal Pete Liske, threw up a deep duck that was a certain interception, going right into the hands of our D-back. He not only muffed it, but he let it drop right onto his foot, upon which it was booted right into the hands of their receiver who took it to the house.

We had no business losing that game -- we were actually a pretty good team that year finishing at 8-6. For their part the Eagles won only two games that season, one of them this one -- double ouch.

2. 2017, Chiefs over the Patriots, 42-27. The Patriots had just come off a Super Bowl season and they were having their banner reveal night, and believe it or not, it was not just a Thursday night NFL opener but it was also on September 7th, the same date as last night's game.

The Chiefs led by Alex Smith with a young Patrick Mahomes taking it all in from the bench, destroyed the Patriots and it was thought the Chiefs would take over as the AFC's dominant team. Well, the Chiefs stumbled midway through that season and lost a heartbreaker to the Titans in the playoffs, while, sure enough, the Patriots went on to yet another Super Bowl.

Maybe the Chiefs' loss to the Lions was good for the NFL, keep people watching. People like seeing Davids beat Goliaths, though it is not unusual that every fan wants their team to win every game 84-0. The problem is if the Chiefs did that no one would enjoy the great Chiefsitude we want everyone to enjoy. On the other hand I know we all like a good game, I get it, but I'm sorry I hate losing close games especially like the one we lost last night.

But then my point here is that, I do think the Chiefs could blow out every opponent. They still looked really good last night even without Chris Jones and Travis Kelce. They just did tremendously stupid things that cost them.

So take heart that perhaps just like the Patriots of 2017, one game does not a season make. In fact remember, we did the same thing to the Patriots in 2014, blowing them out at our place where the fan-noise decibel level reached a record for loudness, remember that? And sure enough, after all the postmortem talk about Tom Brady and the Patriots, they went on to win the Super Bowl that year and they won two more after that. Brady himself even won three more.

I think we're pretty good with Mahomes at the helm.

3. 2022, Colts over Chiefs, 20-17. This was just another game we had no business losing, one that featured just so many stupid things happening to the Chiefs to make it hurt.

The reason I mention this one is because the Colts just somehow got a late touchdown drive to put them ahead and it was very much like last night's late Detroit touchdown that put them barely ahead. Thing is, again, in each of these games, there was no reason to believe we couldn't then matriculate the ball down the field enough to get at least a field goal. But yeah, ughh, stupid things happening.

Again, one game does not a season make. Even the best teams have dumb things happen in some games, even the undefeated 1972 Dolphins endured barely squeaking out some wins that year. Ultimately the only way this Chiefs team isn't as successful as they've been over the past five years is if they themselves mess things up as they did last night. With Andy and Brett reviewing everything this week and Patrick making sure everyone stays hungry and positive, we'll be just fine.

Even with a silly loss to the woeful Colts early in the season, let's see if I can remember... who won the Super Bowl last year?

__

Lions at Chiefs - Week 1 - Record: 0-1

Okay okay okay, I guess we should all confess right now.

Preseason games are meaningful.

Really, I don't know if there have been many NFL football players in the history of NFLitude who have had a more rotten game than Kadarius Toney did tonight. He was barely at practice for all of training camp because of a nagging injury, and he did not play a single snap in a preseason game -- everyone was wondering if he'd be ready for opening day and the Chiefs always said "We really think so."

And boy was he ready.

He was all ready, set, and well-prepared to play absolutely atrociously.

If I remember correctly he had three targets, and he dropped them all. The first was thrown right on his numbers and he let the ball bounce right off them and into the hands of the Detroit D-back for a pick-six. We were up 14-7 and playing pretty well. Now it's a ballgame when it really never needed to be.

The second was a drop that may have been affected by Richie James crossing in front of him. We were deep in Lions territory and had to settle for a FG. That may have been on the coaching staff, and ya know? It was kind of that way all night. Kind of a clown circus show out there among our receivers, did you get that feeling? I think the seven-deep WR room may be a bit problematic if you ask me.

The third was when it was very late and we were down by one with the ball at around midfield. Ideal Patrick Mahomes conditions! Mahomes throws a strike right at the numbers of the jersey on the gnat camped out there between the numbers on Toney's jersey.

Drop.

We imploded from there and Detroit ends up winning 21-20.

This was a very tough one to take, even though, really, we showed we were still a pretty good team. We just had a number of dumb things happen, the exact number of dumb things that lose a team a game like this. 

It was only the first game of the season, however, so it may actually be not-so-bad because these guys will have a good ten days to look at what happened and fix it. And yeah, I know I'm being redundant, but please guys, get that receiver situation fixed. I mean, it was just ugly out there.

Oh, and did missing Chris Jones and Travis Kelce have any negative impact? Actually, I don't think so. Having them back in there would be really really really good, but our defense played pretty well, and tonight Noah Gray was a capable fill-in there at tight end. Blake Bell even caught a touchdown pass.

A couple more things. Those interminably hating on Clyde Edwards-Helaire? Sorry but the dude balled out tonight. He's not Jim Brown or Gale Sayers, so back off already. Let him do well with what he's got.

And our very short-yardage game. Still really ugly. That play on 3rd-&-very-very-very short on our second-to-last possession was extraordinarily ugly. We make that and we could, really, if we scored there, pretty easily have salted this one away.

We've got a good Jacksonville team at their place for our next game, so let's hope the wake-up call that was this game will get us ready for that one.

__

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

Four years ago we played the Lions in London. During warmups at the stadium where they played, I believe it was Wembley, the sun broke through the open areas just under the roof illuminating the field with the team in quite interesting ways. I'm sure you remember, the Chiefs started that year miserably, but then got it in gear right about the time they hammered Detroit in that game. The team went on to run the table the rest of the season, and then added their first playoff win in eons.

I like to find more meaning in these kinds of things than they really have, I'm sure. But, it keeps the mind fresh and flowing. It can't be denied, however, that these years right now are some of the best any NFL team can enjoy. A future Hall-of-Fame coach directing a team of players led by the top quarterback in the league. All of them gathered together by a smart intrepid strategist who's taking care of business.

Not going to spend much time getting into all the usual suspects, bendy defense, steady offense, you know -- except this was kind of crazy with all the turnovers. The 3rd quarter in particular -- they fumble, we fumble, back-and-forth, too aggravating. The catch-and-pitch from Kelce to McCoy though, how fun was that.

I will tell you that two things stood out related to how the NFL officiates these games. I have to start with last week, when Mecole Hardman was clearly lined up off-sides just before he caught his 72-yard TD pass. Huh. I like that they don't call that, whether it is our team or theirs, because it is just too inconsequential, but again, just why again did they call it on Dee Ford against the Patriots, you know the call, the one that was the one most significant instance that denied us yet again?

Today there was a similar situation, you know, the refs actually managing the game like they should. Think back to Derrick Johnson slamming into Titans QB Marcus Mariota in that playoff game two years ago. Mariota clearly fumbles but the refs miss it. They blow the whistle. This even as Justin Houston scoops up the ball with acres and acres of open field ahead of him.

This game? At the goal line the Lions gave the ball to their pounding back who fumbled it in the pile. Credit the refs for not blowing the whistle! After a second that seemed to last forever, players just lying around, Bashaud Breeland reached in there to pluck out the football just waiting to be recovered by someone, and he heads for the endzone. I've seen this happen now a few other times in other games this year -- Let the play continue. Don't blow your whistle too early.

Huh, how about that. 100-yard touchdown fumble recovery.

Will this kind of smart, thoughtful, justifiable officiating be there when we're in a playoff game?

As it is we toughed out a close one, which is great. We need Patrick to get smacked around a bit, know what it takes to pull it out when it is very close. Today he had no touchdown passes, and hey -- how about we cool the expectations that he'll have 8,000 yards passing and 70 touchdown passes this year? I know it is fun to dream, no worries, but don't forget this is the NFL. All we needed him to do was matriculate the ball down the field when we were down 30-27 with two minutes left -- and his clutch 16-yard run on 4th-&-8 was a terrific part of that last-ditch drive to win it.

On to a couple of home games for once, and we're on prime time next week.
___

Lions at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 3-5

The very talented Chiefs showed up today. The extremely well-coached Chiefs showed up today. The extraordinarily skilled Chiefs quarterback play showed up today. The phenomenally dominant Chiefs pass rush showed up today. The splendidly rejuvenated Chiefs offensive line play showed up today.

I liked it a lot. It makes the things I said in the Broncos game post more meaningful. It makes the things I said in the Bears game post less meaningful. After the Broncos game I felt the Chiefs would come back from that terrible defeat. Well, it's taken a few games, but they've genuinely played well the past two weeks. After the Bears game I'd given up on Andy Reid and Alex Smith, but they've both looked really good lately, and during this broadcast I'd seen scrolled across the bottom of the screen no fewer than 57 times that Clark Hunt wants Reid and John Dorsey to be around at least through 2016.

Except that, ahem, danged cynical me.

We played a pathetic Lions team today that had just replaced three people in key coaching positions, including offensive coordinator. There was no reason this fine Chiefs team wasn't going to blow out a team like this. It was very fun to watch, don't get me wrong. Everything went right for us today.

In fact, I look at this game and think, here we are. In London -- we've never played there before. Facing one another were the two teams with the fewest seasons having at least one playoff win since the merger -- the Lions with only one (1990), the Chiefs with only two (1991 & 1993). Tha's it. Yes, don't cry me a river -- the Lions were the team of the 1950's winning all kinds of titles, and the Chiefs had just won a Super Bowl when the AFC-NFC format started in 1970.

We started this game at 6:30 my time here on the west coast, first game of the day. Tonight is the NFL's showcase game, last game of the day, starting at 5:30 pm, the Broncos and Packers, two teams who have a gangantuous number of seasons with playoff wins. The contrast, each game featuring an AFC West team and NFC North team. May mean something. I just keep throwing these things around because I'm just hoping something magical happens to end the curse.

I've always said the key to that is that we have skilled team players who are well-led, well-managed, and well-coached, and that there's that core element of inspirational got-it that drives it all.

Some of the good for today is that we were still playing an NFL team today, a team that was never hammered like this all season. Some of it was seeing Andy Reid do some novel things that our players did very well. Some of it was seeing that inspired play from every Chiefs player on the field, not that it was never there -- I've got to confess they've always had more of it than I've thought they've had, and that's what's most important.

What we'll really have to see is if all this carries over into the season after the bye. We play Denver and San Diego next, and maybe we'll actually start winning against our division. That too is most important, more important than games we win against the NFC, which we'd been very good against the past several years. But this year we're 1-3 against our NFC opponents on the season (the one win today against the Lions).

Maybe we'll finally have that winning season against the AFC West, do you think? I mean, the regular season really starts November 15. If we run the table against the Broncos Chargers Raiders, really, amazingly, we win the West. That's five games. We have only three more games against non-division teams (the Browns, Bills, Ravens), so if, for a change, we can take down the teams we need to beat here, and this is a division that can be had, really, if we can do it...

Dang.

Could we actually win this thing?

A little off-season time, bye week, and then... really -- opening day at Denver.
__

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

Okay, this isn't the "Fire Todd Haley" blog, but it certainly could be. No, it is simply "The Chiefs Game Today," and it is indeed about the Chiefs, and not the coach.

But the "Fire Todd Haley" theme will indeed be running through the course of this blog, this year, this season, and however many more miserable units of time we'll have to endure having Haley as coach until the day he isn't our coach any more.

Yes, today we faced what may indeed be a very good Lions team. They did look very good today, however awful the Chiefs looked. And I take nothing away from the Lions -- they themselves have been so bad for so long that I do wish them well. Thing is, if they play like this regularly, they should win a playoff game this year, leaving only the Bengals as the one NFL team that would have a longer drought without a playoff win than the Chiefs. (Unless, of course, the Bengals win a playoff game too, then... Well, we know the Chiefs won't be winning any playoff games this year.)

Here's the deal for the rest of the year. It is easy, it is simple, it is quite uncomplicated.

We need three things to be a Super Bowl contending team.

Just three. That's all. I don't ask for much. We do have a lot of things in place that are good. Again, I do like our team's owner, I do like our team's general manager, I like a lot about this team. I like a lot of the players. I could list a bunch of things I like about the Chiefs.

But these three things are in such awful, wretched, pathetic, putrid, and any-other-such-adjective that they really are the focus of what needs to happen for the Chiefs for however long it takes for them to happen.

The three things we need are:

- A head coach.

- A quarterback.

- Some luck.

I've already written a ton about a lot of this, but here's the latest:

A head coach. Is there still anyone with a nanoliter of brain cell matter who thinks Haley needs to stay leading this team for one more nanosecond? If so, raise your hand. I thought so.

Come on people, there is no way in the world an NFL team can do what this one has done over the past two regular season games, over the past four altogether including the final game last year and the playoff game, and still hang around. It just doesn't happen.

No no no no NO it doesn't have to do with turnovers, and it doesn't have to do with lack of talent. Turnovers happen but that's just the game. Some teams have better talent than others, but not by this much of a margin.

No, sorry.

This is coaching.

Haley's inadequacy was evident today after the opening coin toss. When you have a team like this one, who uses the run best with the score as close as possible, you want the ball with the score 0-0 at the beginning of the game. Well, the Chiefs won the toss, then deferred to receive the ball at the start of the second half. Yes, I know in the grand scheme of the game it didn't mean anything! The point is that this is the NFL where the talent is not so disparate and there is always the possibility any team can beat any other team on any Sunday!

What happened was Detroit stormed down the field, scored a touchdown, and instantly we were on our heels. And it was worse when we got the kickoff at the beginning of the second half, down then 20-3. So what was the point?

Listen. Let me make this perfectly clear. I am one of those guys who always always wants to hang on to a coach we already have for far too long! I was one of the last guys to support Herm Edwards! I was even with him to the very end, on his side, championing him to stay! I liked John Mackovic! For cryin' out loud I even liked Frank Gansz! (Okay, okay, I admit, not for that long.) I only disliked Marty Schottenheimer after he got fired and that was because I was just so mad at him for being such a choke in the playoffs!

This is one instance, however, when it is categorical. Todd Haley simply cannot stay. He should be fired, and right now. No "Let's give him a bit more time." No "He's just had some rough luck." No "It was the lockout's fault." Or any other excuse.

Take care of business now and get us a coach, even if interim, so we can have a good solid coach.

A quarterback. Today was another nail in the coffin of Matt Cassel, and another point for the case to get the best QB in the draft next year for the long-term future.

The nail was Cassel's complete inability to move the ball through the air. Sure Bowe dropped a couple of passes, but only a few times did he get decent separation. The other receivers were worthless, yet again, and it wasn't entirely their fault. And some of the six turnovers today were interceptions in which Cassel just threw very poor passes.

The point earned for my incessently strident case for a QB was in seeing what first-overall-pick-in-the-draft Matthew Stafford could do for the Lions. What is the main reason the Lions are going to compete this year? Everyone knows the answer:

They have a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback.

You could see it all over Stafford today. He fired the ball right where it needed to be, he knew what was going on, he brimmed with confidence. He still looked a little raw, but I'd sure rather be the team to have a Matthew Stafford getting all ready to make us a true contender right now. Instead we've got a seventh round pick who in college was a career backup throwing a grand total of 24 passes, and absolutely no one even remotely in the mix getting groomed to take this team farther than one playoff game.

Some luck. We are so due for this. We are so due for luck it isn't even funny.

Instead we keep getting the worst worst worst luck you can possibly get.

How's this for our luck? In fact, this will say it all, really.

Here's a simple question for you: How many teams have any players who suffer season-ending anterior cruciate ligament damage ever? I mean of all 144 North American team professional sports teams (football, baseball, basketball, hockey), of all the thousands of players in that mix who play hard and stress their knees day in a day out, how many teams mind-you have a history of having even a single player endure a critically damaging ACL injury?

30 of those teams? Maybe 40 as the most conservative guess? And how many players? Most of them just one. For their entire histories. If any single team has two or three in their entire existence, that's a lot.

Well guess what, completely, thoroughly, and abjectly luckless Chiefs fans.

We've already had two, and may even have a third in three weeks.

That, friends, is not only phenomenally incredible, but that it has happened to three of our very best players makes the odds for this kind of thing to happen simply astrostratogalacticable.

Tony Moeaki against Green Bay: ACL tear and out for the season. Eric Berry against Buffalo: ACL tear and out for the season. Jamaal Charles today against the Lions: it is inconclusive as of this writing, but if you watched it you have to admit it really looked like an ACL tear before he was carted off the field and out of the rest of the game.

This season is making that train wreck look like playtime in the sandbox.

Too much. Absolutely too much. Enough writing for now. This just too much.

Thank goodness I have a whole week to find even more gruesome adjectives that will describe next week's affair with San Diego. I really don't know if I'll find them. I'm already scared that I won't be able to find them for Pittsburgh, and New England -- several weeks from now!

But hey, maybe Clark and Scott will do the right thing with their head coaching situation before then, and there will be just one little thing this year that'll make me a nanoliter less depressed.
_

Chiefs at Lions - Week 16 - Record: 4-11

I'm putting this post together as the Chiefs are playing their game. I've never done this before because I'd always waited to comment until all the facts of the day's game are laid out. But really, with our team greatly sucking, the season long in the toilet, it doesn't mean much except that we see who's positioning themselves to hang around next year. I'd imagine there're a whole lot of Chiefs players working to do that, really.

Two other reasons I'm writing this now during game play: One is the very bittersweet memory of the one time I think of the Chiefs playing in Detroit. Do you remember it? 1996? On Thanksgiving Day we paste the Lions to go 9-4. Win one more game and we're in the playoffs. We then proceed to lose to Oakland, Indianapolis (particularly painful since the year before we'd lost to them at home in the playoffs), and Buffalo. We finish at 9-7 and out out out. The second reason is simply that after this game here today, it's off with the family to do Christmas stuff for the week.

So while I do a bit of a running commentary (here in the Chiefs first drive they are indeed looking pretty good--Croyle has deftly completed every pass he's thrown), I thought I'd share with you exactly what I put on my Christmas list to Santa this year. Aagh, just as I speak of our fine Chiefs play, we bog down and Colquitt has to punt from the Lions 39. And he can't even get it out of bounds down there, it's a touchback. So it goes.

Anyway, the list, in order of what I want most:

1. Number one, the most important thing of all--please Santa, please just get us this one thing and all the other things will fall into place,

A new general manager.

(As I write these very words, Lions QB John Kitna gets two long passes--and now, their back with the easy little scamper into the end zone. Det 7, KC 0.)

I will never dislike Carl Peterson for all the fine things he did for the Chiefs. But there is no question we so need a solid football guy who is capable of truly building a championship team and is committed to all things Chiefs. I've never doubted Peterson's penchant for the latter, but there seems to be quite a consensus questioning the former.

We really really need someone who can do the football thing. I don't know if Santa will listen though, because the Chiefs had Jack Steadman hanging around in charge for years and years way after he should've been gone. Santa didn't listen to us then, will he listen now?

2. A bionically reconstructed Anthony Munoz.

To be honest, the way our offensive line has been playing, a plain unreconstructed Anthony Munoz now at 50 years old would probably be just fine. As I pointed out in the last post, if we don't get the finest future-Hall-of-Fame left tackle in this draft we'll be watching a whole bunch of other teams in the playoffs for the next ten years.

3. Brodie Croyle attending a long off-season training regiment with a resurrected Bill Walsh.

There is no question we've got to pick one of those solid O-linemen coming out in this year's draft, but there is one exception to this rule. One exception and only one.

That is if we need to pick up the best QB coming into the NFL.

Our new general manager has got to look very closely at Brodie Croyle and answer this question right now:

Is this guy going to be a Super Bowl calibur quarterback?

I believe Croyle does have the potential, but... Does he have the desire and the temperament to be that guy? If the answer is no, then our first pick should be the best QB available this year. This only works, though, if we're drafting very high, up there with at least the fifth pick or better where the best QB will be there for us.

But here's the crux of the matter. No Super Bowl is won with an average QB. Not even an above average QB. You need a top class guy there. Look at all the QB's who were selected to the Pro Bowl this year. AFC: Brady, Manning, and Roethlisberger. What do all of these guys have in common? They are all responsible for the last, what, five of six Super Bowl titles? Look at the NFC: Hasselbeck, Favre, and Romo. The first two have Super Bowl experience, Romo may very well get it this year.

Again, the question: Within the next three years, will Brodie Croyle be among that bunch?

What is the answer to that question? Chiefs management had better know the answer.

Oh, and just to add, in a span of about four nanoseconds, the Lions block a punt into the end zone for a safety, then their kicker whacks in a 46 yarder to make it 12-0. Good, we're on our way to getting right up there in the draft for that QB if...

My goodness. Three nanoseconds later Croyle throws a pick that is run back for a touchdown. And he gets a personal foul 15 yard penalty against him. Do we really think this guy is in the Brady-Manning class? It's almost as if he is sealing his doom. That is just too much.

More of the list...

4. The baddest, meanest, growliest middle linebacker we can get. This is where we can use a middle-of-the-draft pick to pick up maybe not the best quality guy but the guy who has the loud angry determination that makes things happen in the middle of the defense. How many times did the opponent's offense hand the ball to some guy who rambled right up the gut and over our guys.

Game update: Damon Huard is now in. Did Croyle get injured, or is he just being benched for being miles and miles not Tom Brady? Okay, fine, to give Croyle his due, he is injured. As it is, Huard is moving the ball down the field.

5. A playbook for Herm Edwards with some imagination.

I'm not about to give up on Herm just yet. He is a fired-up, sound-character guy dedicated to winning. But do you get the idea that the other team knows a bit too much about what we're doing out there? We need to mix it up so much more out there, so much more that the defense is palpably disturbed. I just don't ever really see that-- it's almost as if they're smirking out there under their helmets. Do you see this too?

This may require some new coaching blood. In fact, Santa, you look. Do you think we need some new coaches? All right then, add that to the list. Thanks.

6. Other players that I know a new football-minded Chiefs-devoted GM would know how to get.

I'll leave that to him. I won't say at this point I know except for those above-- those are no-brainers. It does seem to me that we do need the following in the mix somewhere:

- Another wide receiver.

- A good coverage cornerback.

- Even more solid offensive linemen. (Whimper--what are we going to do with that line...)

(Woo-hoo! Tony Gonzalez comes through again! Great play to get us down to the Detroit 3, and Jackie Battle pounds it in for the score. And that was with Detroit having 12 men on the field. Hey, we're not totally lame. We're still really lame, but not totally--I guess there's that.)

- Speaking of which, we will be needing a tight end to replace Tony when he retires, but the way he's playing that may still be another year or two down the road.

- We need a reliable long-term kicker for the first time since Nick Lowery. We have had such horrible luck with kickers, and for years we've tried to fill this with retreads like Morten Andersen-- sure they were okay, even future-Hall-of-Fame retreads, but come on. Problem is, this year we tried real hard to fix this with Justin Medlock, and that was a disaster. Maybe a new GM will find a way to overcome the curse of Odin.

All right! Bernie Pollard just intercepted a Kitna pass and rambled all the way back deep into Detroit territory. Hey, a bright spot in all this-- it seems we actually do have decent young safeties.

(Had to go run an errand so I missed what happened in an around the half, but from what I see here: Good!-- we got a TD just before the half, to Jared Allen again. Bad-- their back shoots right off tackle and rambles 53 yards to set up a Lions FG. Where's that mean growling Ray Lewis guy in the middle? Oh, we're getting him for next year? Awright! Thanks, Santa!)

Finally, to polish off my list to Santa,

7. A healthy and happy Larry Johnson.

I'd like to think that a full off-season of recuperation from the foot injury will be quite beneficial, and all that retooling of the offensive line will make him happy.

So, here late in the 3rd quarter, we get something going then get stopped at the Detroit 35, down 22-14. Will Herm let Carney try a 52-yarder? Let's see, let's see, no, he's going to go for it on 4th and 15-- just like Herm, what am I thinking.

And we get the first down when a Detroit guy gets a defensive holding call. Whup, now we're going backwards again. Penalty, sack, pass for no gain, and it's 4th and 14. Herm goes for it, and Huard connects with Bowe for a touchdown! How about that. It's a game again.

And the two-point conversion, whaddya think, another pass to Jared Allen?... Nah, we just try it to plain old boring Tony Gonzalez, a pass batted down at the line.

Two-minute warning, it's 3rd and 15 at our own 29. We just need the FG.

And Huard throws to Jeff Webb? What's he doing that for? Now it's 4th and 15. And then incomplete to Bowe, thuh end.

There ya go. Not blaming Huard because it is the whole package, he can't do it all. Are you listening, Santa? As it is, we're in better shape come draft day, so that's one little package that's nice to get. Let's hope that when we open it in April it'll be something really good.

As it is for right now, I'm off to enjoy Christmas. The best to you and yours.