Chiefs at Bengals - Week 13 - Record: 9-3, Part II

This was a post I just had to put down. It is yet another after-loss second-parter related to just how stupid yesterday's affair was. One reason it was stupid was because it was almost a mirror copy of the Colts game -- just a bunch of stupid things happening to our team that meant we were destined to lose. And by a bunch, I mean a lot of things.

I could get into them, there were so many crushing ones -- that Bengals defender just happening to get his arm deep into Kelce's grip to force that critically bad fumble, Butker missing a FG he should be making, four defenders not being able to corral their WR late and keep him from getting, barely, the 1st down that clinched it for them, Orlando Brown suddenly just not blocking when they rushed only three leading to Mahomes' sack on 3rd-&-short.

There were also the asswipe things the Bengals did, like that guy flopping in the end zone faking an injury to keep the Chiefs from catching the Bengals defense unprepared. You'd like to think we'd be good enough to overcome those kinds of things the other team does, but, well, sometimes the wicked seem to win far too often. That's just life.

What I wanted to do was just take a post and itemize the ways that yesterday, yet again, the officiating was instrumental in helping a Chiefs opponent win. 

First, I truly think it is idiotic to blap about how no one should blame any officiating for anything because the calls even out. The truth is no, they don't. While yesterday there were those calls that went against the Bengals, they were legit calls. So saying the calls were even says nothing. Far more questionable calls went against the Chiefs that cost them dearly, and anyone watching the game knows it. I've even seen several remarks made in whatever media venues to that effect.

Second, I don't necessarily know how much some of these calls cost us, but one of the keys to poor officiating afflicting one team is that it definitely affects the overall play of the team. Often a team's players really don't know how much they are doing they feel is legit that will cost them, so they may be dialing it back some to try not to commit some cheap foul. Also here I'm only citing particular ones I made note of.

Third, because the Chiefs were on the road and it is obvious the NFL does not want them to succeed too much, the Scorecasting factor is always in play, and generally mostly debilitating to the Chiefs. Remember that is the truth that officials can sway game events towards a particular favored outcome, even if they are not consciously doing so. 

So here you go:

Right out of the gate there was that pass interference call on Trent McDuffie that negated an interception and big return by Juan Thornhill. Sorry, but it was not pass interference, yet their WR really sold it, another asswipe thing the Bengals did to manipulate the game. I do believe the Bengals went on to score a TD after that, so really, effectively, that was a 14-point swing.

Right after that was a roughing-the-passer call on an incomplete pass from their QB. Sorry, but again, what the D-lineman did was not a penalty. It was just a regular QB drop the second after he released the ball, nothing excessive or out of the ordinary.

When the Chiefs had the ball they got a beautiful 3rd-&-15 conversion only to have it called back for an ineligible man downfield -- we did not later get the 1st down and had to punt. Apparently the rule is something like two yards or something impossible like that and you're flagged for it. And this miniscule infraction gave us an advantage on this particular play in what way now?

In the 3rd quarter, I believe it was against Justin Watson, the Bengals defender delivered an obvious helmet-to-helmet hit against him, but it was not called. Again, I can't see how our hits are so penalty-worthy but theirs are not.

Shortly after that, Marquez Valdes-Scantling made an terrific catch in traffic while the Bengals guy was all over him committing pass interference. MVS made the play, but still no flag was thrown.

At the end of the 3rd quarter the Bengals were called for holding for what I believe was the first time in the game. I'm not the best with seeing offensive holding, but it sure looked like Chris Jones was steamed quite a bit as the game wore on, directing his ire at the refs a few times. I have to think Jones had a case because the Bengals O-line has been notorious for poor pass protection. Their QB had been pressured like crazy this season and sacked at least twice in every game this season, but in this one he was free as a bird to do great damage against us. Did our Chris Jones-led D-line suddenly become that impotent or their O-line suddenly become world-beaters?

These were just the ones I noted, very obviously officiating gone bad yet again afflicting the Chiefs. Lots of bigshots can screech about how complaining about the refs means nothing, but their complaining about the legit concerns doesn't change that one-sided reffing does change game outcomes.

Now as a last word, the Bengals do have a talented, well-coached team. The Chiefs have a young secondary that in a dime defense could have four rookie D-backs on the field at the same time. And again, there were just so many goofy-dumb things that happened to the Chiefs to go along with the one-sided officiating, and...

After all that we only lost by three points.

Fortunately the Chiefs players are all "We'll learn from this, work harder, and do better next time." Good for them, that's the attitude they should have. That is the thing that will get them to overcome all these ding-dong obstacles because they'll surely still be there in games to come.

We, however, us fans who know better and are free to push back against those who tell us not to notice the idiotic things the NFL, its officiating, and the Scorecasting-oriented things do to us -- we can notice it and expose it and write about it all we want.

Good to know our team does fine, honest work out there win or lose, makes one proud to be a part of the Chiefs Kingdom.

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Chiefs at Bengals - Week 13 - Record: 9-3

So tired of this. Not a big deal, though, really, because losing this game wasn't any big loss. I'd noted that last week when I offered a humble suggestion that we rest our best players anyway. Today we lost 27-24 when it wouldn't have made a single difference if we'd lost 78-0 with our second stringers playing.

Fortunately we didn't lose anyone to serious injury on that nasty-bad turf, even though watching Mahomes limp off field after his last failed attempt to do a good Chiefs thing was very concerning. Cincinnati definitely rivals Indianapolis as a hellhole I hope our fine team never has to go to play football ever again.

In my last post I'd mentioned the 1981 49ers with their rookie defensive backfield -- in the Super Bowl they beat the Bengals. They continued to beat the Bengals in the worst ways for the next several years, including in Super Bowl XXIII when Joe Montana beat them in the last minute.

Wow, did the Niners have the Bengals' number.

Well, ::Igghck::

The Bengals simply have the Chiefs' number right now. They've now beaten the Chiefs three times this year. Last season they did it twice (both games in January) and now this. 

Over and over again the Bengals just made some play to contribute to the inevitable beating. They've done it just about every time they've played us. With the exception of a 45-10 shellacking in 2018, take that game out and the Bengals have beaten us seven straight times. 

Today, again, there was just play after play after play when the Bengals just got some goofy-good play or were helped out by the refs. Just watching this game it looked like there was some kind of Bengals curse afflicting us yet again. Playing other teams the Chiefs just have everything in command, you can tell, everyone knows they'll take care of business in some way.

Not when we play the Bengals.

We had a chance to win this thing late. We were driving down the field just fine when on 3rd-&-short Mahomes faced a three-man rush and yet-again-as-he-did-in-the-AFC-Championship-Game-last-season he stumbled and bumbled and so unMahomes-like didn't make a play.

4th down, Butker in for a 55-yard FG attempt to tie it, should get it because his strength is his leg-strength. We got this...

Exceppppt this is the Bengals.

Sure enough it goes wide right.

Ballgame over.

I could say a ton more but don't feel like it. I could write more about our bendy defense and us just not putting enough pressure on Burrow -- okay I'll add that Brett has got to get going getting some D-linemen who'll take care of business. Carlos Dunlap has been okay but he's a fill-in. George Karlaftis has to grow into his game. Chris Jones needs to get re-signed. Otherwise we need to draft good, lasting, exceedingly ferocious pass rushers -- yeah I'm right now all of "Okay Brett every draft pick needs to be a D-lineman, let's go..."

Otherwise, yeah, I'm done with this ugliness. Thuh end.

Again not a horribly costly loss. We have a chance to get well now against teams like the Broncos and Texans coming up.

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Rams at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 9-2

At the end of last season I'd said we only have three defensive players who are keepers. Chris Jones, Nick Bolton, and Willie Gay. This year it is pretty much the same but I would add Trent McDuffie and L'Jarius Sneed to the keeper list. Maybe that's okay, that we have five guys who are "tagged" as so good they're among the best big-D guys.

Or is it bad that there are so few?

I mean, they showed a stat on the television that told us the Chiefs are 31st in the NFL in opponent quarterback rating as well as number of opponent touchdown passes.

That stinks.

McDuffie is a terrific find, very true. And there may be some promise with our very young defensive backfield -- I mean really, at any given time defensively we may have McDuffie as well as rookies Jaylen Watson, Joshua Williams, and Bryan Cook on the field at the same time. Danged... four rookies in an NFL crunch-time situation backfield. I think back to 1981 when the 49ers had three rookies in the backfield -- Ronnie Lott, Carlton Williamson, and Eric Wright -- and they did great, the team even went on to win the Super Bowl that year.

But still. Today we were facing the Rams third-string QB and an overall depleted offense.

This defense. Errrghnnckghcknnnnn...

Jones was a disrupter yet again. Bolton was getting his hits in. McDuffie was a smothering force on the back end. Sneed had a clutch pick late in the game.

But what about the bendiness of the overall? Yeah it's nice to have a Patrick Mahomes to match score with score, but then, against a pretty good Rams defense today, Mahomes was not at his best in the red zone today -- even once getting picked in the end zone.

We did get through today's game with a good win, not overwhelming, but expected -- jacking our record to a very nice 9-2.

Here's the thing. New thread here. Follow me on this...

We play at Cincinnati's place next week. As I noted in my last blog post, their stadium is one of the ugly six as far as that destructive turf goes. What do you think about this idea?

Here you go: We rest our best players.

Seriously. Some selected nine or ten of our top players just don't see the field, at all. Sure it is very likely we'll lose to a very good Bengals team, but that's exactly it. 

What happens when we throw our very best players and most laborious effort on that field, we lose the game with, really, not as much to gain with the record we've already compiled, and we lose a number of key players to injury?

A week ago the World Champion Golden State Warriors NBA basketball team had a road back-to-back. An NBA schedule is rather grueling -- a game every other day, flying all over the country -- when you have a road back-to-back it is very hard on the body. So what did coach Steve Kerr do?

He rested his best players on that back end of that series.

Against a fine New Orleans Pelican team he rested Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andrew Wiggins. That's the core of the team, all their very best players. Every one of them, sitting it out.

Exclusively playing the second-string, the Warriors lost by 40 points.

It was a gimme loss. New Orleans fans did not get to see the Warriors' best, much less enjoy the amazing handles of the best player in the game, Steph Curry. The game itself was predictably lousy.

But the Warriors are smart. They're World Champions for a reason.

They know come playoff time in April and May those guys absolutely have to have their legs underneath them.

Is the NBA unhappy about that? Most likely. But ya know? I only care about the Warriors (I've shared before they are my favorite basketball team.)

So yeah, I say rest those Chiefs guys. Pick any nine or ten. Patrick Mahomes leads the list. Let Chad Henne get some good in-game work. Get Ronald Jones a decent number of reps. Give JuJu a little more recovery time. Absolutely positively transcendently seriously. Make it an extra bye week for some of our guys -- hey there is a lot of talk about adding that extra bye week as a regular season feature anyway. 

I mean please, I can only think of that nasty facemask against our fine quarterback today. It looked really ugly, you know about it, a little after the 4th quarter started and the Chiefs were close to the Rams goal line. In fact Patrick Mahomes himself wouldn't like not playing, but ya know? Who's the boss? And what are we about as a team, overall, with the overall goal in mind?

And please, I wouldn't even really be as serious about this if it wasn't about us having to play on the ugly turf there in Cincinnati.

The only real drawback is the way the Bengals, and again the NFL itself, will think of this as some kind of slight against the Bengals. "What, you're not willing to play your very best against us? What's wrong with you?"

Nope. It's just we don't want our players injured on your ding-dong fake grass, and ya know what else? We don't think you should be playing on that yourselves -- for your players' sake -- so who're the greater fools?

So yeah Bengals and NFL, how about removing that turf, like, yesterday? A lot of players have been talking about it, not just me here in a cheezy little blog. They've been seeking formal action against it, for all the players' sake.

It'd be nice if the Chiefs made a bold move and rested their best next week.

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The pic of MVS is by Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Jaguars at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 7-2

One thing needs to be said here, but only for about the 57,239th time:

GET - SOME - OFFICIALS - IN - THE - BOOTH - LOOKING - AT - VIDEO - MONITORS - TO - MAKE - THE - CALLS - THE - FIELD - REFS - REFUSE - TO - MAKE.

Period. Thuh end. Get it done. Like ---- yesterday.

Today Ju-Ju got clocked by a Jaguars defender, hammered when he was in a totally defenseless position after trying to catch a short Mahomes pass across the middle of the field. He lay there incapacitated for a moment with his hands twitching. A yellow flag lay on the field nearby and we all felt a little better that at least there was the penalty on that hit.

Not. The officials picked it up.

No foul.

Guh???

Ju-Ju was helped off the field and while he did walk back to the locker room he was assisted by two trainers to help him get there.

The officials that should have been in the booth but weren't because the NFL is still too stupid to do such a thing did nothing, because, well, ::glurrp:: they weren't there to do anything. In fact, I do realize that they do have people in New York looking at monitors who are supposed to help with these decisions, so they effectively could be those officials in the booth at the stadium. That might work, buuut, it really doesn't because they did nothing about the Ju-Ju incident. Or they just don't like the Chiefs, which is always very likely.

In the evening game a similar incident happened when a Niners linebacker just tried a simple stop against the Chargers QB, nothing really meriting a targeting consideration, and the QB got something of a head snap when the linebacker's helmet collided with his. The penalty was called on that play, and the linebacker was even ejected from the game.

Guh???

Do you know what the officially documented reason from the head official in the Chiefs game was, as to why they didn't flag the Jaguars defender for his hit on Ju-Ju? Do you know? 

It was because he led with his shoulder, not his helmet.

Please.

Please please please please please please infinity.

This is why Roger Goodell and the NFL are a bunch of really ugly nasty words I just don't feel like putting down here, I'm just too tired. It is late on a Sunday night, forgive me.

I would think that a league that does really care about the very real instances of CTE among its former players not to mention losing their prime product because of concussions would make sure that any player who has anything like what happened to Ju-Ju is prevented. And today's game proved they just don't care enough, I'm sorry.

Or again, they just don't like the Chiefs.

Speaking of the game itself, as usual lots could be said about it. The Jaguars actually played exceptionally well, but our defense held the fort with lots of kudos to any number of our defenders. Kelce came through for clutch catches when we needed them most, as usual. Kadarius Toney has already established a firm place for himself in the offense, scoring the first of our four touchdowns today. And our running game got back on track a bit with Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon getting things done there.

We're up to 7-2 already and running away with the AFC West. All the other teams in the division lost today, with the Chargers up next who tonight played mightily against the Niners but simply couldn't get it done with such a decimated roster.

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The photo of Kadarius Toney skipping to his touchdown today was from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Titans at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 6-2

I was so rattled by this game I don't know if I really know what to write here.

I don't think I was as rattled, however, as Patrick Mahomes was through most of this game.

Give the Titans' defense credit. They played a smart and ferocious brand of football, and had it in their minds to intimidate our offense as much as they could. They got a ton of penalties called against them, and a few penalties they had that weren't called. They just proficiently made every move and every play they needed to win this game.

After all, the Titans are just one of those teams the Chiefs have always really struggled against. I don't know how in the world the oddsmakers had the Chiefs as 12-point favorites. A 12-point spread? Against this defense? I really didn't know anything about the Titans before this game, but they were absolutely stuffing us throughout.

The Titans D was not only standing up our O-line on our running plays -- our backs had, what two total yards rushing? -- but they were doing a phenomenal job against Mahomes in the pocket. Their D-line was terrific and their pass coverage was smothering.

And I'm sorry, but Mahomes just looked way more rattled out there than he ever had. After scoring just nine points to start, we had seven straight possessions with no points. Zippo. He got pressured, he got sacked, he threw passes into the dirt -- it was miserable.

But when we got the ball with, I think it was five or six minutes left and behind 17-9, Mahomes went off. And it wasn't that he suddenly stopped being rattled, he just used that energy to make the key completions and then scramble. On one play he scrambled for a 1st down on a 3rd-&-17. He then capped the drive with a wild scramble TD run, and then topped that off with another scramble jet-sweep left to get the two-point conversion right at the pylon. Tie party 17-17 with a minute left.

The Titans were stopped but when we got the ball back we couldn't get down the field far enough to kick a game-winner in regulation, so in OT we were able to matriculate the ball down the field with the help of some amazing catches by our two tight ends, Kelce and Gray, and at least bang through the go-ahead field goal.

Our defense kept playing well throughout the entire latter part of this game, and sure enough we were able to stop the Titans on four straight plays to end it.

Yeah, it looked like there'd be enough of the standard number of ding-dong things that always seem to happen when we play this team that'd keep us from winning. Our offense just could not get untracked, but when it came down to it Patrick just took things into his own hands, and running like a madman seemed to be what it took to get the job done.

It was just enough for us to barely eek out this one.

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The image of Noah Gray's amazing catch to set up the game-winning FG was by Gavin Liddell at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Chiefs at 49ers - Week 7 - Record: 5-2

I have to admit, very sheepishly, that I thought the Chiefs were toast in this one. I confess I doubted our offensive firepower to get the job done today. Indeed, I'm ashamed of that when we do have the best quarterback in NFL history on our team, right now, today.

Last week Mahomes had a bit of a subpar game, and this week we were facing a team that I thought was too daunting, with its Nick Bosa-led defense and newly acquired Christian McCaffrey-led offense. I was convinced our line would get overpowered on both sides of the ball, and when the Niners opened with a very imposing effort and a 10-0 lead, I thought the rout was on.

But we not only have Patrick Mahomes, but we also have...

Mecole Hardman.

Yes, I agree, Hardman is tremendously aggravating when he doesn't course through or cut off or even improvise his routes when he must, I get it. But when Andy Reid uses him as he did today, it is easy to forget Tyreek Hill. Hardman had three touchdowns on the day, all on jet sweep type action. They were saying on the television broadcast that he's the only WR in the Super Bowl era to have two rushing TDs and a receiving TD in the same game. Very nice.

Our defensive line started out limp, but stiffened later and started to shut down McCaffrey. Having Willie Gay back in there made a difference. We also got the Niners line on both sides shook up and committing a lot of penalties that kept them from really finding their rhythm as the game wore on.

When the score was still relatively close there at the beginning of the 4th quarter, 28-16, the Niners were deep in Chiefs territory when L'Jarius Sneed had a pick-six right in his hands, and dropped it. I'm always thinking about the points lost when a defender just drops any easy pick. Sure enough the Niners scored shortly after that -- and there it is: a 14-point swing. Aagh.

Right after that, however, Mahomes connected with MVS on a long pass play, then slung another nice pass to JuJu to get closer to paydirt, then Mecole got his 3rd TD.

Never mind -- we're up 35-23 after all.

Add to that a nice TD catch-&-run from JuJu, a safety, and it's suddenly 44-23 us with only about six or seven minutes left of game time.

Mahomes had 400+ yards passing in this one, his highest total of the year so far. There was also a stat they showed on the television that I have to reproduce here. The Chiefs are successful at a 48% clip when facing 3rd-&-7+, in other words 3rd-&-long. That is actually really really good, especially when noting the league average is 25%. 

Indeed, apologies please for not giving these guys enough credit. Mahomes may indeed have a subpar game here and there, but not often. He is just so good. Another incredible television-broadcast stat: in his first 70 starts he has 56 wins. Wow.

Bye next week, then the Titans on another Sunday night prime time affair.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He nailed it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not.

Instead he threw a pick and that was it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should've easily been a PI call against Davis.

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

So typical.

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

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

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

So very typical.

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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 4-1 Part II

I couldn't resist. I just had to add a few things after last night's thriller today after also peeking around a bit at what people have said about the affair.

First, the Chris Jones roughing-the-passer call that shouldn't have been. Afterwards Jones was extraordinarily gracious and deferential, but profoundly truthful. What was the main takeaway from his postgame remarks?

That there simply must be officials up in the booth making those calls.

It is simple. The refs on the field simply can't get it, things happen so quickly. Officials that are in the booth with initial authority to make calls wire down to the field, tell them it really wasn't RTP, and no one is worse for wear. Are there other things the NFL can do to protect the QB? Perhaps, but you can't take the game away from the players.

Second, there was a play Mahomes made that was one of his most spectacular. It was when the Chiefs were driving for their first score to start catching up after going down 17-0. He'd already been sacked, but this time he dropped back but then stepped up right into the teeth of the pass rush, bobbed and weaved a bit, and flicked a -- what, 10 or 15 yard pass? -- right into the mitts of MVS.

First down.

A few plays later they had the touchdown. I actually believe the image I led with in the first post last night right after the game was of that exact throw. I'm just surprised more wasn't made of that amazing play. But then again, yeah, ho-hum, just one of the hundreds of the many Mahomes Mahmazments we've seen and continue to enjoy seeing.

Lastly I did see some people remark that Arrowhead was even louder than when it broke the decibel level record back in 2014. Nice. The reputation Chiefs fans have for their unmatched passion is really pretty cool. And last night's game: again, we can screech all we want about the injustice of the Chris Jones call, but the loudness is assumed to have even shaken the refs to make sure they call the game right. Did that give the Chiefs a bit of an edge in ref calls? Maybe.

Did it rattle the Raiders? I can't think that it didn't.

But then I just think about the other Chris Jones goofball call in the Indy game. Oh my. He tackles someone perfectly legally and gets flagged. He blurts "Yo momma" while just standing there and gets flagged. Yet to his credit he treated each instance with tremendous poise and respect. Yet he'll still join his teammates and Kingdom fans fighting like crazy for the win.

Wow these Chiefs. The Kingdom.

I like it.

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The image of Chris Jones is a screenshot of a posted video from a postgame interview.

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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 4-1

Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes.

Travis Kelce Travis Kelce Travis Kelce Travis Kelce.

Brett Veach Brett Veach Brett Veach Brett Veach.

We won a heart-wrenching squeaker and the reason I mentioned those guys is Mahomes threw four TD passes, Kelce caught four TD passes, and Veach is just a beast at putting together a team that has enough depth to make "next-man-up" keep us competitive in a given game. 

We suffered a number of injuries today and it will take a while to gather the extent of those injuries. We started the game at a disadvantage from the injuries we already had. No Willie Gay to stop their fine run game, no Trey Smith to better protect Mahomes, no Trent McDuffie to cover a Davante Adams, no Harrison Butker to actually make field goals (even though fill-in Matthew Wright nailed a 59-yarder which really was the difference in the score)... not having any of those guys helped make this affair much closer than it should have been.

Thing is, the Raiders were suffering their own slate of injuries. First their fine tight end Darren Waller was out, and at the very end of the game their terrific running back Josh Jacobs went down when he was doing great slashing his way down the field to try to get the Raiders in position for the game-winning FG.

This game started when we had the Raiders at 4th-&-1 and they threw a 58-yard TD bomb to Davante Adams. Yhee.

A bit later we had 4th down deep in Raiders territory, and our replacement kicker missed a gimme FG. Errgh.

We must have done something to help out our young D-backs trying to cover him because we did a decent job of neutralizing Adams for most of the rest of the game, until very late when they got a TD pass to him to almost tie the game bringing the score to 30-29 Chiefs. They burnt our young D-backs yet again.

As it was we did poorly in the first quarter, going down 17-0. We then poured it on and went up 30-23, but then let them right back in it with that second long TD pass to Adams. They failed on the two-point conversion, and when we needed what Shawn Barber called "Attitude Runs" with four minutes left we just didn't get enough. We we started off well, but stalled. No points, not even a FG at least to get us up by four.

Thing is, our defense held.

It held.

Keeping Davante Adams from beating us was big. There was a play on 3rd down when Adams barely did not get his feet in bounds for what would have been a 16-yard gain to get the Raiders closer for a gimme 67-yard game-winning FG from their excellent kicker.

We could talk more about the horrific officiating calls, especially the one when Chris Jones got a splendid strip sack fumble recovery and sure enough they called roughing the passer. I think this actually lit a fire under our butts and helped us more than hurt us. It was great seeing Andy Reid just light up the refs after that one. I like it when he does that, I think we all do. Defend what is right, awesome to see!

A close one with lots of story lines but as it is a Monday night and I have work tomorrow, a potential second post will have to wait.

Next week, though...

Da Bills.

4-1 verses 4-1. Rematch of that amazing divisional game last year.

Prime time on CBS, late Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo announcing, game of the year so far...

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The first image is from Chris Donahue, the second from Gavin Littell, both at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Buccaneers - Week 4 - Record: 3-1

To start, a couple of fun things Cris Collinsworth said on the TV broadcast tonight:

"These guys are just too good."

This was in specific reference to Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, shared right after Kelce made a critical catch off the turf while falling backwards to get a first down deep into Buccaneers territory. Both indeed had their typical great games, play from both that was pretty much expected after each just did not have their A-games out there last week against the Colts. They were actually still pretty good in that game, don't get me wrong, but tonight they were amazing.

Then there was this one:

"This is the Kansas City Chiefs and you have to be perfect."

Our defense managed to give up 31 points tonight, but the Bucs still have an outstanding QB-WR combo in Tom Brady and Mike Evans. After our protracted bendiness against those guys, our D-line actually started to get a bit more in Brady's face forcing enough errant throws to keep Tampa Bay from getting any real traction to keep up with us.

But yeah, what a statement about our Chiefs. 

This too after the Kansas City Star this week published a horrific character assassination piece on Patrick Mahomes. I did not read it, I do not care to, but the idea I got from those I happened to read say something about it was that it had disparaging things to say about those who may be associated with him, as if the alleged improprieties of others have any impact on who Mahomes is -- sounds very much like all the negative talk about his brother Jackson. It also had a take that Mahomes is really into himself -- and the point is? First of all we're all into ourselves to some extent, and secondly, one of the most team-players in Chiefs history is Patrick Mahomes. Errgh.

But then, it may have just been perfectly fine serving as one of those added motivations to get Mahomes to step up his game even more, which he did tonight in a big way. That play he made at the goal line spinning out of tackle after tackle and flipping the ball at the last second to CEH was just magical. ("Magical," have we used that term before? In reference to Mahomes' play? What? No fewer than 57,000 times already? Oh.)

Anyway, another thing I heard was about how this week Bucs pass rusher Shaq Barrett snickered something about the Chiefs O-line being no better than the injury-replacement one patched together to try to win the Super Bowl two years ago. Well, that Super Bowl defeat moved Brett Veach to put together one of the best O-lines in the league, and after a mediocre performance against the Colts last week, they mowed down the Bucs tonight.

One of the best things about their play was how much it elevated our running game. Clyde and Isiah Pacheco ran like crazy tonight, never getting off any huge runs but gaining large chunks every time they touched the ball. It was a joy to watch, again, especially seeing the O-line have their way with a very good Buccaneers defense. 

That we gave the beatdown we did to a really good team bodes well for us. And we'll soon be getting Willie Gay and Trent McDuffie back out there, and when we do... oh my.

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The image of Mahomes' TD pass to CEH is from Maddie Washburn at the Chiefs website. The meme is from Benjamin Solak, plucked from his Twitter post. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Bucs Preview

Just some thoughts I had to pound out in a Chiefs post.

First of all tonight I'm seeing all over the web how the Dolphins QB got severely crunched tonight. I didn't see it and I don't really want to see the replay. Apparently he had some concussive incident on Sunday as well, and the expressed concerns are that he was rushed back out there just four days later to more of a liability to be seriously injured. As I've heard so far they say he'll be okay.

Obviously the NFL absolutely has to do more to protect their quarterbacks. Whatever it is, they've got to do it. It blows my mind that they won't do more to protect players like Tua -- and our own Patrick for that matter, and all of them -- when they otherwise have a snit when a Chris Jones says to the other quarterback "Your momma" after a much nicer sack and the Chiefs lose the game because of it.

Please.

Now I believe the Chris Jones thing was just because the NFL loathes the Chiefs -- it is just one of those things we all have to live with. It was also one of those phenomenally stupid things that often enough seem to pile up against the Chiefs, especially when we play the Colts for some reason.

On my Twitter feed I have absolutely no Chiefs things showing up -- I deliberately make it that way -- but I do follow Seth Keysor who writes terrific things about the Chiefs on his Substack. One of his latest is an inventory of the 31 things that went wrong with the Chiefs offense on Sunday. 

Oh wow, did it ever. It just wasn't hard to see. I noted that Eric Bieniemy said the Colts kicked our butts so we should all just deal with it. Again, that's a fine attitude to take into next week, makes you work that much harder to prepare for the next game, that's great.

But no, Mr. Bieniemy, the Colts should've been smacked 38-20. Had little to do with the Colts. They won mostly because of, yes, the incredible legion of stupid Chiefs things.

Over and over and over again it seemed something weird or silly was happening with the Chiefs. Whether it was a ridiculous late ref's call or a goofy missed assignment or Mahomes just plain making the wrong throw or awkward scramble or the shadow-then-instant bright sunlight to mess with our vision a number of times in the 4th quarter -- over and over and over again.

31 times by Mr. Keysor's count. That's unreal.

This week we are at the Buccaneers place for a rematch of Super Bowl LV, again at their place, yet all week a massive hurricane was bearing down on Tampa. They'd actually made contingency plans to have the game in Minneapolis, but the storm ended up going a bit more south and devastating Fort Myers. The damage was pretty intense there, but it wasn't so bad in Tampa so they'll have the game there after all.

But yeah, wow.

Thing is, if you remember, the most famous major downpour regular season NFL game ever -- and no, I'm not exaggerating that it is indeed the most famous -- was in December of 1979 when a monsoon hit the game in Tampa between the Bucs and -- wait for it -- the Chiefs.

Go figure.

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Chiefs at Colts - Week 3 - Record: 2-1 Part II

Forgive me but I simply must put up another blog post, really, in defense of Chris Jones. My son has texted me telling me that, certainly, the media are going to go insane blaming this loss on Jones. And sure enough, in my original post for the game, here it is written just a few minutes ago, I put down that it was a pretty ding-dong thing for Jones to do.

But really.

Please.

The replay showed that Jones was getting up after being part of the would've-been game-sealing sack for the Chiefs. Then he looked at the Colts QB Matt Ryan and said something. Then the flag went into the air. 

Excuse me, but [you-know-what] to that.

The NFL does have a taunting rule and players can be penalized for it, but even the rule itself is a questionable one. Why have it unless the player is going to physically assault another player in some dramatically demonstrative way? If a player twerks and jumps up-and-down right in the face of another player and does it for some extended period of time, then yeah, I'm barely okay with making that call. Barely. And only because I do believe that there should be some measure of decorum among persons together enjoying a nice Sunday outing of sorts.

But please. It doesn't matter what Chris Jones said, the magnitude of the penalty does not in any way match the offense. It doesn't matter what-he-said, period. Could he have said the nastiest things about what he'd do to Ryan's mother? Unacceptable, yes, and Jones could be liable to be fined and have some kind of talking-to by his coach. I'm fine with that.

But please. Don't tell me players don't generally say those kinds of things on the field anyway, all the time. The entire Chiefs team should not be punished in a football game where individuals are raking the heads off other individuals throughout the endeavor.

Do you remember that Chiefs-Raiders game a long time ago, I believe it was 1970? It was the one when Len Dawson ran for a 1st down to seal the game, giving the Chiefs the win and a nice little edge to make the playoffs. Right after he was down, play over, finito, done deal, Chiefs win -- Ben Davidson comes barreling in and spears him. A Chiefs guy then goes over and shoves Davidson defending his QB.

Personal foul on both teams, offsetting penalties, replay the down.

Of course: Are you effing kidding me?

On the next play Dawson and the Chiefs do not get the 1st down, the Raiders were able to get the ball back, march down the field, and kick a game-tying field goal. That kept the Chiefs out of the playoffs that year.

The reason I bring it up is the NFL has obviously changed the rules about this, making those kind of dead-ball fouls less likely to impact games, essentially ensuring they do not negatively affect any plays in which players did nothing against the rules related to the play itself. Good call.

So here's the good call here: Modify this rule. Again, unless the "taunting" is so demonstrable that it is truly unbecoming, then keep the penalty flags in the pocket. Later the NFL can deal with any player one way or another, that's terrific.

You can screech Chris Jones is the biggest lout in the history of the multiverses, you can say that he should have kept his mouth shut, you can say he single-handedly destroyed the Chiefs Kingdom forever and ever, but the fact is that call should not have been made.

As much of a craphole Lucas Oil Stadium is and as much as our special teams schklurped and as much as Patrick Mahomes misfired like crazy today, we can't neglect to point out that the officials' piddle call on a tremendously stupid rule did ruin a really pretty good performance from our defense, an effort that by itself really should have won us the game.

They did their jobs. They got off the field when the Chris Jones thing happened. But then they had to stay out there gassed and just unable to keep the Colts from scoring that TD late. It is stultifyingly aggravating thinking about it, but it wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't for...

No, not whatever it was Chris Jones said, but for

The stupid rule.

The Chiefs are good about getting over this and moving forward. They know who they are, that's cool. Again, we'll have losses like this -- this was just a really hard one because of so many things that were just not hard to see coming today, they just weren't when you knew they were playing at that place.

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Chiefs at Colts - Week 3 - Record: 2-1

I dread any time the Chiefs have to go to Indianapolis. The Colts do indeed have the stadium from hell, they really do. Obviously we lost that playoff game in January of 2014 in part because of the inordinate number of injuries we suffered throughout in this hellhole. 

Today our special teams had to endure all the ridiculous conditions related to this stadium.

For one thing the footing is wretched. A number of times I watched our runners, in whatever situation, special teams or not, trying to get going but unable to really get their footing.

Then there is the lighting. The way the windows are configured it allowed for weird volumes and angles of light to stream in messing with our receivers. There was one play when Kelce had a pass right in his hands in the end zone, except for the blinding light. He dropped it. We had to try for a field goal, and our injury replacement kicker missed it.

Earlier our punt returner dropped a ball when he had to look up into the glaring light coming through the roof window. And then there was the fake field goal that should've been good for the surprise 1st down, but sure enough our punter barely misfired on the pass to the receiver and yep, there was the blinding light in the eyes of that guy.

Finally, something about this field just seems to make it more likely players will suffer injuries. In this game there were two key guys for the Colts who suffered the worst of it, their good linebacker and a good D-back. I don't even know what this stadium does to other Colts players, but I did see they were missing some people they could have had out there.

Then there's just the evil stupidness that killed us. Just the general all-around stupidness that can so easily afflict this team. Late in the game we had the Colts dead-to-rights after a huge sack, setting up 4th down and a mile, and then they got Chris Jones for saying something mean to the Colts QB.  Unsportsmanlike. 1st down and new life for the Colts. They marched on down the field for the game-winning score.

And then, sure enough, there was the animosity between Mahomes and OC Eric Bieniemy. We had time on the game clock at the end of the first half to try to at least get down to get a field goal, and we just kind of half-way matriculated the ball down the field instead of really making something happen. Mahomes blew up at Bieniemy.

I'm sorry, but I'm sick and tired of people not recognizing this situation. I can't say it won't have an impact on the spiritual and emotional constitution of this team as it moves forward. This cannot just be blamed on this horrific Indianapolis playing field situation. I really think it impacted Mahomes' overall play. Today he really looked off, not making the passes he should, not getting his throws on target -- his worst was the last one that got tipped and picked to keep us from getting a game-tying field goal.

It was clear in this game that the Chiefs were far better overall than the Colts. But the stadium and its evil stupidness, a whole bunch of crazy-ass unlucky things happening to us and crazy-ass lucky things that happened for them, and the very uncharacteristic poor play from our special teams did us in.

The best thing is we've got our loss out of the way. Now we can concentrate on learning from this, making sure we keep our heads in the game so we don't do stunningly ding-dong things like Chris Jones did, and probably the most important thing...

We're leaving this Lucas Oil Stadium hellscape behind and hope we never have to play another game there.

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

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

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

Into the game progression:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then we all got to see the replay.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Standard notes about this opener, our eighth straight opening game win, how about that.

First the concerns, and you know that always relates to the big question we have every year: Do we have a chance to get to a point of being an elite defense? As it is we've got all those rookies on the roster, we think safety Juan Thornhill is finally fully healthy, and we're hoping filling those holes on the D-line will get us some more wins in the trenches.

On the whole I feel we were too bendy for my tastes, we were just not pursuing with the laser-focus we need, and our tackling really does need work as far as wrapping up runners. As far as a first game we're okay, and our young guys can learn. It was also obvious that quite a few of our stops were really the Cardinals just not being in sync. Their QB Kyler Murray has tremendous physical talent, but there were too many instances when he just looked flummoxed. That may indeed be a credit to our scheme and the pretty good play overall by our boys.

Offensively, what more can be said. Mahomes was on. Nuff said. The one egregiously bad mark was Smith-Schuster's fumble, but otherwise he was good, and all our receivers got open and made plays. I also don't know why we don't hand the ball to Jerick McKinnon more often -- this dude gets into the open spaces. And whoa, what Isiah Pacheco did in garbage time to chew clock. Very nice.

Harrison Butker injured his left ankle on the first kickoff after our first touchdown, and Justin Reid came in to do the kicking. He did okay, especially on kickoffs, but missed a PAT. Butker then came in to bang through the PATs and even kicked a 50+ yard field goal, all of which he did by taking half-step towards the ball and just slamming his good right leg through the ball as hard as he could -- he's so strong he made everything.

Our defense did well enough, but our offense looks like it is even better than it has ever been. If so, if we can keep that up, I mean -- zowie. We have a true test Thursday night against the highly touted Chargers, in what I believe is the first game ever broadcast on Amazon's Prime Video -- that should be interesting.

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The image is from Ric Tapia at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

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Chiefs Season Preview 2022

I'm just a humble blogger who puts up a post after every game. I don't get many readers, but I do want to do the very best with my takes on Chiefs football play, and have done so now for almost 17 years. Sometimes I've written about other things related to the Chiefs, simply offering my observations and perspectives on things that affect Chiefs success.

This post will be no different.

You see, I could pound out the standard "We've got this guy and that guy and we can hope for this thing and that thing to happen" kind of post -- nothing wrong with that. I like reading those kinds of things, makes this time of the year the most hopeful.

Instead I'm going to continue making the statement about the state of professional sports that afflict Chiefs chances for success. Very few are saying these things. The Chiefs are sadly already part the institutionalized requirements to spew the racialist hysteria ("Advance social justice"), bilge the sodomist insanity ("Celebrate Pride"), and blap about how much people must take lethally dangerous drugs so they can be the very best virtue-signalers ("Get vaxxed or else!") All of these things not only derail Chiefs success, but a million times worse they destroy the health of the community and the nation.

Now I'm seeing all kinds of things about how the Chiefs have signed on with whichever online gambling operation has appeared the most respectable. It is a thoroughly wicked endeavor, yet the little I've seen or heard is that this is some kind of positive thing. I did not catch the details of this formal arrangement, so I do not know the names of these rackets, but "Draft Kings" and "Fan Duels" seem to be the most prominent. Please do not get me wrong, I am saying in no uncertain terms: these operations are evil beyond evil, and it is tremendously grievous that the Chiefs are joining just about every other professional sports enterprise and embracing this ugliness.

Yes, I am pulling no punches here. All of this should be summarily and comprehensively against the law. And yes, it does affect the Chiefs chances of success. As I've shared in my posts after the ridiculous loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game, I'm convinced Chiefs leadership and management were told implicitly but firmly to take it easy on the Bengals. Don't make it a blowout -- and every indication of what we saw on the field was that they complied. This isn't just an instance of my whiny complaining as a Monday-morning quarterback or Patrick Mahomes just having a rare bad day.

It happened.

And I'm convinced it happened because of the connections the NFL now has with organized gambling. I can't help but reiterate that the week before Super Bowl IV,  back in 1970, Len Dawson (God rest his soul) was being excoriated because of an assumed relationship he had with a single gambling figure. Remember that? Remember how crushing it was, the weight of having to deal with that, of clearing his good name -- all just before he had to perform in the biggest game of his career?

Today that kind of illicit relationship is not only celebrated, but officially formalized.

I've come across an article that speaks to the rottenness of this gambling thing. Interestingly the take intimates that it has the seeds of its own destruction sown into its own business model. The problem is unless there are enough principled people to step up now to vigorously push against it and to encourage addicts to be disciplined enough and make other lifestyle choices, it will continue to thrive in some form.

One of the other major reasons for why this is so horrifically debilitating is another thing I've shared several times before, but hear very little about from other sources. I am indeed very sad about that, but much of that is because there are too many fans who just don't care. "Who cares if I put money down on some players or games? Get outta here with your Puritan sentiments. Shut up, no one wants to be around you, killjoy."

I still like the Chiefs. I still want them to win. I still hope the best for them and cheer them on. I still have a good time watching what they do on the field, win or lose -- and it has indeed been a glorious time for Chiefs fans with the Veach-Reid-Mahomes troika doing amazing work for the Chiefs Kingdom.

But they have their work cut out for them. And you know why.

It is because they are simply not a New York-Los Angeles big-market media-darling team.

As I've said before, it is harder for the NFL to do what major league baseball is doing, but you know professional sports leagues do it. Look at major league baseball right now, look at the standings here as of Saturday September 3. The Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees are running away with their divisions. That teams like the Astros and Braves are decent doesn't take away from the fact that every year the New York and Los Angeles teams will always be at or close to the top of their divisions. They are essentially permanent members of the "Premiere League" of major league baseball.

And they must be if professional baseball survives. The majors realized that in 1994 when they arranged things so the Yankees and Dodgers will never go long without winning. This idea is simple, and perfectly rational if wholly duplicitious: If you're a Twins or a Pirates you yourselves do want to win, but if you don't win, you want the Yankees and Dodgers to win. As long as they win, the league and your chronically poor performing franchise wins because you stay in a league kept solvent because the huge NY/LA fanbases are supporting their teams winning.

Those teams are then given distinct advantages to ensure they are more consistently successful, and no one else minds because that's how the whole enterprise thrives.

Makes sense. Doesn't make it any less deceitful.

What about the Chiefs? Again, I am convinced Brett Veach and his team have to work that much harder to field a team that must battle the forces that really don't want them being as successful as they could be. It is not hard to see how much teams like the Cowboys especially get the lion's share of attention in media coverage and so forth. Sad to say the NFL as a whole suffers any time the Chiefs go far in the postseason. To be fair it is my consideration that the popularity of players like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce have given the Chiefs a certain gravitas the NFL likes. But it wouldn't have nearly the impact if Mahomes and Kelce were on a team like the Jets.

We'll see. This is a season preview. Again I could write about this or that player, blah blah blah -- great stuff mind you and I am indeed really psyched about the players on our team -- but you can get a lot of that at Arrowhead Pride or Arrowhead Addict. I like both sites, and I also like looking at Bleacher Report's Chiefs page for all the latest posts about Chiefs things. As far as I know those are the best, and links to each are in my "Links" feature in this blog. 

Thing is, this season preview is just a heads-up to see what kinds of things might just be in the mix to afflict the Chiefs in some unjust way. Wow, there are so many -- this gambling travesty just one of the more vicious.

Let the drama begin.

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The posted image is from the Kansas City Star. Thank you.

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