Jaguars at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game - The Take

Five years ago this month, it was Sunday January 7 by the way, I was spending the day at my daughter's volleyball tournament in one of those large indoor volleyball complexes. It was fun being there with all the activity but I do remember the visceral emotional pain of thinking about what had just happened the day before.

The Chiefs were playing the Titans in a first-playoff game and they were up 21-3 at the half. Our team proceeded to score zero points in the second half while allowing the Titans to put up the necessary 19 to win the game. It was definitely a gut-punch felt throughout the next day. Ironically on the television screens in the snack bar of that sports venue there was the Jaguars-Bills game, and it was killing me seeing very small bits of that game thinking one of those teams was moving on and we were not.

Since then the Chiefs have won five straight first-playoff games, which is truly splendid for all of us in the Chiefs Kingdom after enduring all those first-playoff game (wild-card or divisional) losses since that first truly ugly one (which ones aren't, really?) of the merger era when we lost to the Dolphins on that Christmas Day in 1971. Just for presently fun reminiscences: 2019 Colts 2020 Texans 2021 Browns 2022 Steelers 2023 Jaguars. We are now 9-3 overall in postseason play in the Mahomes era. 

This one against the Jaguars sent Patrick Mahomes' legendary status up to yet another level, as if it could go any higher. Early in the game a Jaguars lineman landed on his leg wrecking his ankle. Limping around he valiantly tried to stay out and play, but after the series of downs was up he went back to the sideline and the Chiefs brass forced him to go get it looked at. 

Chad Henne came in and did wonderfully, matriculating the ball 98 yards down the field for our second touchdown.

Thing is, after getting the ankle wrapped, Mahomes came back out and actually played well, hopping around for much of it, his efforts culminating in a jump-pass touchdown throw off his non-injured foot to put the team up 27-17.

Thing is thing is, so many of those previous first-playoff losses had just enough tremendously stupid things happen against the Chiefs to get them to just barely lose games -- every-single-time such that the exasperation levels just became intolerable. I don't have to regale you with them, you know about them -- just in that Titans loss there was the Darrelle Revis batted pass that went right back into the hands of their quarterback who proceeded to run for a touchdown. Uh-huh! Uh-huh! You know!

My point is Mahomes' phenomenal talent coupled with the amazingly courageous play he showed yesterday has definitely had a major impact on reducing the horror of those stupid things. When I tracked the play of the game yesterday, I made special note of any of those stupid things, just to see, just to see if anything could be that stupid and would torpedo our chances to win. 

Fortunately there weren't many of them, but the first was huge, probably the one thing that would have been the most devastating of all of them through the years: the Mahomes injury itself.

Then there was the 2nd half Pacheco run when he came up barely short of the 1st down. Reid challenged it, and lost -- now we just lost time-out. We then went for it on 4th down and didn't get it -- now we've lost the ball on downs. Very stupid all around.

Then late in the game when it was still too close for comfort there was the dropped interception by Juan Thornhill in the end zone. Now to his credit it was athletic as all get-out, and just a bit earlier he'd made a super-studly defense of another pass across the middle. But those dropped interceptions so often come back to bite you. Fortunately on the very next play the Jags fumbled the ball to us, so there is a wonderful thing for us that could easily be considered extraordinarily stupid for the Jags.

To be fair we were also helped out but a number of drops by the Jags receivers, and there were a couple of times when their young QB Trevor Lawrence just misfired. One of those times was a very good thing for us, when Justin Reid's terrific knifing blitz forced Lawrence into an ill-advised throw that Jaylen Watson picked with one hand. This was right after the Chiefs three-&-out following that fumble recovery. That it was this late in the game made Watson's pick extra sweet.

This win was definitely a team effort, every player had clutch plays here and there making some measurable impact, but we can't conclude without giving yet another kudos to Travis Kelce, who balled out today with 14 catches and two touchdowns. Wow. Again, just those guys -- Mahomes-Kelce, Mahomes-Kelce, Mahomes-Kelce -- for a bit it was Henne-Kelce, but Travis was carrying the offense today.

I also have to put in a good word for Harrison Butker, who came through beautifully with every single kick when the margins needed points-wise were narrowed considerably with the Mahomes playing uncertainty. Another kudos goes to him for making what could really have been a game-saving tackle when their fine kick returner was headed for a touchdown and last-chance-Butker caught him at midfield with his helmet tripping him up. Big-time play there.

As I write this the Bengals and Bills are duking it out, and right now I have no idea how that is going. I'm sitting here at the computer. But from the little I saw earlier these two teams are loaded, here's to hoping Patrick is good to go next week -- but from what I've read about high-ankle sprains we can't count on anything.

Here's to praying for him whether he's on the field or not.

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The image of Travis Kelce was from Andrew Mather and the one of Tommy Townsend and Harrison Butker was from Gavin Liddell at the Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Jaguars at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game

Amazing, for the fifth year in a row we won our first-playoff game of the postseason. It seemed like forever we simply could not win a first-playoff game (wild card or divisional) for the life of us.

It was a team effort led by so many great plays (and in Patrick Mahomes' case gutsy playing out there after getting his ankle wrecked early in the game). But more on all of that tomorrow. I'm only pounding out this brief notice post because tonight I did not assemble a more comprehensive post -- it was my wife and my anniversary date out.

So until tomorrow!

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Chiefs Post-Regular-Season Pre-Playoff-Season Report

It is pouring rain here in California where we live, and with no work today (I have an on-call job) I thought I'd spend some time doing a bit of fun Chiefs blogging. I'd actually had these thoughts banging around in my head about Chiefs-oriented things, so I have a chance with some downtime to put them to paper, so to speak. Just going to riff a bit on each item individually, sort of a smorgasbord of 2023 rapt-anticipation-for-fine-post-season-Chiefs-success-yet-again things upon which to ruminate.

"The Devastating Hunt" Postscript. Five years ago shortly after our harrowing playoff loss to the Titans I wrote this blog series, and recently I'd been reviewing it -- as a sort-of "How It Started" perspective on "How It's Going" cerebral exercise. Funny, as I just think about this now, that game was the last first-playoff game loss we've had, after a plethora of such disasters in Chiefs playoff history.

You can go back and read it, that very first post gets a lot into those horror shows. Since then the Chiefs are, believe it or not, 8-3 in postseason play. Damn.

I look back at "The Devastating Hunt" and I don't believe anything I wrote was inaccurate or antagonistic. What I put down came from the heart and I did include many truthful facets of the thing Hunt, not just the negative but the positive as well, trying to be fair, respectful, and balanced about all of it.

It is just, wow, look at this team now. Right after that, the Mahomes era started -- the promise of which was mentioned in the series. Also the Veach talents at assembling this world class organization were coming to fruition -- another fine item addressed in the series. Andy Reid has continued to do phenomenal things with the Kingdom, has grown into a better coach along the way and still enjoys being out there doing what he does best. 

And certainly Clark has a lot to do with it.

Right now as everyone knows the Chiefs are the No. 1 seed in the AFC, get the bye, and are looking to continue being that Andy-Reid-best-after-a-bye in two weeks. We all consider missing the Super Bowl a grave disappointment, but it can't be denied that this is the golden age of Chiefs football and there does not seem to be any reason it can't continue for some time.

The "Snow Globe" play. On Saturday against the Raiders, towards the end of the first half, the Chiefs ran a play designed to throw the defense off by first gathering in a circle arm-in-arm and spinning around. It looked a bit like "Ring-Around-the-Rosie" and was often mentioned as such. They broke, lined up, and ran a dipsy-doo play that resulted in a Kadarius Toney touchdown, only to be called back by, yes, you guessed it, a phantom holding call.

Afterwards haters from every woodwork crack in the NFL punditry and fandom world called it "disrespectful." No matter how they felt about it, whether sneeringly hateful or grudgingly deferential, the word came up a lot.

I bring this up here because, ahem, it was not disrespectful at all. People are just hating the Chiefs because they are good, and they are having fun out there they wish their team would have. This especially in light of the fact that there was a reason for this madness -- again expressly to keep the opposing defenders guessing. Excuse me, but every team does this with every formation they establish before every play they run.

Who cares if before a play a team's offensive players run around flapping their arms like birds, do somersaults and cartwheels, and shout "Hacka-slacka-macka-whacka!" before lining up? They still have to get the formation correct and have 40 seconds to run the play. 

Furthermore, I do agree, not every thing a team does in this vein is not disrespectful. If a team ran to the formation flipping off the opponent and shouting vulgar epithets at them, that's disrespectful. A taunting or unsportsmanlike penalty is in order.

What the Chiefs did was not that, by miles.

I'd like to think most pro football fans who truly like the game appreciated seeing Snow Globe. I'd even like to think, believe it or not, that the NFLers liked seeing Snow Globe. As you know if you've read my work, I loathe the advantages the NFLers give to the large-market media-darling teams, but in a twisted way, yes, I admit, I'd sure like the Chiefs to be a media-darling team. Already with a once-in-a-millennium talent quarterback in Patrick Mahomes they do have the attention of all of the pro football world.

I just don't believe the disrespect-blapping disrespectors nearly outnumber the authentic appreciators of fun, novel, exciting playmaking for their NFL entertainment.

I must add this here, just to add it. At the Raiders stadium Saturday were a phenomenally large number of Chiefs fans. Really, it was a sea of red there. At the Raiders stadium. I didn't see the national anthem, but my son told me the roar of "...and the home of the CHIEEEFS" was quite pronounced. It was also very clear in the massive amounts of cheering for any Chiefs good thing.

The Chiefs dominance over the NFC. Over and over again we see how dominant the Chiefs have been over the past few years, especially within its own division. In the Mahomes era they have lost only three games to the Chargers, one to the Raiders, and zero to the Broncos. There're all kinds of stats like this, but one ignored is this one.

Did you know the Chiefs beat every single NFC team in its rotation of playing NFC teams in the last four years? Every one! Look:

In 2019, their Super Bowl year, they beat the Bears, Vikings, and Lions. Yes, they lost to the Packers that year, but stay tuned!

In 2020 they beat the Saints, Falcons, Panthers, and Buccaneers -- even though they did lose to the Bucs in the Super Bowl.

In 2021 they beat the Cowboys, Giants, soon-to-be-Commanders, and Eagles. And yes, they also beat -- ta-da! -- the Packers in that extra game they got when the season was extended to 17 games.

In 2022 this season they beat the 49ers, Rams, Seahawks, and Cardinals, and as an extra added feature beat the Buccaneers also. Two wins in that time period against the Tom Brady-led Bucs (that all of us would trade in for just that one Super Bowl win against them, for sure).

There you go, all 16 NFC teams in four years, bested by the Chiefs.

Now we just need to do it again in the Super Bowl.

The still festering NFLer commitment to not-good-things. I did mention a few things in "The Devastating Hunt" that I'd like to emphasize here, things I've shared a number of times. I do believe the NFL has done some good work in these areas, but I also believe the System browbeating that afflicts anyone susceptible to the best virtue-signaling is still too prominent.

One of them is the vaccination issue that too many are not examining more carefully. This Bills player who suffered a cardiac arrest on the field two Monday nights ago could easily have been adversely affected by the Covid vax he was fiercely pressured to take. Yes we don't know, yes we do want the very best for Demar Hamlin, yes I'm not at all about politicizing this difficult and personal health concern.

The fact is, however, everything is political. Why is my bringing it up any less acceptable than the people who say "Don't talk about vaxxing at a time like this!" Sorry, but if the horrific pressures for people to get a terribly dangerous chemical injection contributed to what happened to this young player, then it should be addressed.

Another incident relates to the whole gambling relationship I've argued against for some time, even back when I wrote "The Devastating Hunt." Recently former quarterback Bernie Kosar, an excellent football player in his day, made a bet and said something about donating something to charity -- I'm not clear on the exact details. Thing is Kosar was dismissed from being any representative of NFL football anything. The issue seemed to have been that Kosar's official role with the NFL was somewhat fuzzy, so the question was should he have been disciplined in such a way?

As it is the NFL has strict rules about players, coaches, and any other such personnel doing any betting of any kind -- that's good. The problem is still in how much those gambling interests may still very much influence what happens on the field. Then there is the double standard -- how much the NFL polices this gambling thing in its ranks while still making a mint from these betting sites. This means all those NFL personnel everywhere still benefit greatly from the betting action on their games.

For the 57th time, get rid of any of that gambling stuff. Not just for the NFL and its integrity but for the benefit of those self-destructive fans who can't stop. It blows my mind that in just about every "DraftKings" type commercial -- and it seems there are more and more of these kinds of operations showing up -- there is some disclaimer that if you have a problem with gambling go seek help. That's nice, that'll fix things. No, sorry, it just proves this thing is so very wrong.

One more related item is just the impact of the expectations of the commercial NFLer interests. Last night in the college football championship game the easily predicted outcome did transpire: a far more talented Georgia team walloped a woefully overmatched TCU team, final score 65-7. It was 38-7 at the half. 

There were only two things I thought about. One, I sure would like the Chiefs to beat every team they play 65-7, every game, for the next, oh, 800 years straight, at least -- but then, yeah, who would pay any attention. We certainly wouldn't be a media darling team would we -- who would care about any of the spectacular Ring-Around-the-Rosie elaborate Snow-Globe-&-orchestral-music-box dipsy-doo wildly-spinning-carousel twist-a-loo slamma-blamma triple-reverse hook-&-lateral cross-field double-pass-back quadruple-leaping 99-yard-bombapalooza to score the special 17-point touchdown plays we run every other down?

Yes, sadly, I agree that would be bad. Weirdly, when you think about it, being the obsessively devout Chiefs fans that we are, it is actually a good thing that every game features the very necessary possibility you could get your ass whupped. Not-so-delightful at all, but reality.

The second thing I thought, however, is the one that is most concerning, and that is how disappointed the advertisers must have been in the 4th quarter of that Georgia-TCU game. I didn't watch any more if it after the half. I'd bet most of the country didn't either. Even fans at a watch-party had their attention elsewhere and not on the commercials these guys paid gazillions of dollars to air.

How much, exactly, does this affect eventual outcomes and indeed what may happen to work things in certain ways to get closer scores?

Honestly, I don't think this is a new concern at all. 

The best and most honest way the NFL addresses this, to its credit, is to try to have some sort of parity among the teams to begin with. This is not a bad thing, although yes, as a fan of a single team you do want your team to win every game 65-7, woo-hoo!

I just saw written by some fan or pundit -- I don't remember which -- when the NCAA puts that 12-team playoff system in place (when is it, next year? I don't know) every team qualifying to be in the "Final Four" will be an SEC team. True that. This year the teams making the playoff could have easily been, along with Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee for sure. LSU finished really strong, South Carolina looked really good late, Mississippi State was showing its chops -- indeed it has almost gotten to the point that every team wants to be in the SEC!

College football has become like that European soccer league, where they have that Premier League thing going in which teams that play well elevate themselves into a higher level while teams that don't play as well are just dropped to lower levels. I do not know the details of any of how that works exactly because soccer is supremely boring to me, I simply do not pay any attention to it.

But I do follow how sports leagues work, and the only reason I bring it up is just to think about what happens in a league that has in it any given team that is simply too dominant and worries the advertisers. They're saying Georgia will win it all again next year in college football. Will the strong competition in the SEC be enough to make it interesting? I mean really, Ohio State gave Georgia a good run in the playoff game, so I don't think we're quite to Premier League status yet.

It is just again, how much exactly do the Scorecasting or The Fix Is In realities result in, shall we say, alternative strategies to keep games closer than they should be? If that is the case, then it is frightening to think of the ways NFLers might be perfectly okay with those things subversively arranged to affect game outcomes, and that is very bad.

The 8-9 team in the playoffs. Finally I have to make mention about something else I'd touched on in "The Devastating Hunt": how much the NFLers really do prefer certain teams to be in playoff action, merely because they are simply more of a draw. I've always felt they've never liked the Chiefs, but hey, the Chiefs are looking like they are having fun, they have a terrific quarterback, they play an exciting brand of football -- so they may actually like them for now.

But they still aren't the New York team or the Boston team or the Los Angeles team or the Dallas team for that matter. Earlier I'd posited that the NFLers certainly do not favor any team in the AFC or NFC South divisions, namely (AFC) Indianapolis, Houston, Tennessee, Jacksonville, (NFC) Atlanta, New Orleans, Carolina, Tampa Bay. 

The NFLers must be happy this year because only one of those teams had a winning record, Jacksonville, and even that record was 9-8. That means the NFC South representative this year is Tampa Bay at 8-9, and yes, this team is led by Tom Brady. The luck this guy has is legendary.

Is Brady a good quarterback? Yes, indeed. But is he even more the GOAT at being lucky? Without question. Here his team has a losing record and he still gets another playoff appearance. You just can't make this stuff up.

Ultimately, though, while I understand that the rule is each division gets to have a representative in the playoffs even if that team's record is 6-11, I question that especially when another NFC team had a 9-8 record and are not in the playoffs. Whaddya know, yet again, the abject silliness of this. The luckiest quarterback in the history of just about anything anywhere gets into the playoffs with a losing record, while the unluckiest team in just about anything anywhere, the Detroit Lions, can't get into the playoffs in spite of having a winning record.

Really, I actually think that rule could be changed. If your division winner doesn't have a winning record and another team does, you forfeit your privilege to qualify. The NCAA has a bowl-game rule now: don't have a winning record? You don't get a bowl game. Why don't they have something like that in the NFL?

And please, I would be all in on this rule even if the playoff-qualifying losing-record team was the Chiefs. It would just not be right, even for my own team.

There it is, the panoply of thoughts and ideas and ruminations and remonstrations as we head into the 2023 playoff season. Wonderfully promising things in store for the Chiefs this year, and even if games are close that's a terrific thing! Sometimes I think for Patrick to play his best the team needs to be behind in the score for a bit. It's scary, but hey! 

That does make it much more fun for everyone.

As it is we'll see who we'll be facing after next weekend's wild-card games. More then!

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The first image of Clark Hunt and the Super Bowl trophy was clipped from a story about Super Bowl LIV at the "St. Mark's School" website -- apparently the Hunts have given to the school for some time. The second was simply in my file. The plot graph was assembled by Arjun Menon with date from Pro Football Focus. The other images were my own screenshots of various things widely shared on the web.

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January 11 additions. I just thought I'd come back here and add these items augmenting this post from yesterday. This tweet features a wonderful but sobering video satirizing the Covid vax hysteria -- be sure to watch it all the way to the very end. This piece by Jason Whitlock addresses that college football title game and the far-too overreaching power of the corporate interests in duplicitously distorting the integrity of the game, with an emphasis on the extreme dangers of forcing vaccines on an unwitting population especially those in the limelight such as high profile athletes. I will also mention that I did also today add the posted plot graph with the Chiefs in terrific shape both now and in the future, a testament to the incredibly good work Brett, his staff, the club's personnel, and yes, Clark, have been doing in shaping the Chiefs into one of pro football's elite organizations.

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Chiefs at Raiders - Week 18 - Record: 14-3

This Saturday game was the first after this past Monday Night Football game suspended after Bills D-back Demar Hamlin endured a critical health issue on the field. The NFL decided to suspend the game permanently making it a no-game-at-all. This meant the Bills and Bengals each would have played one fewer game this season, and that would have an impact on who would earn the No. 1 seed for the playoffs.

Turns out the way the NFL arranged it meant that no matter what a Chiefs win would mean the Chiefs would get that No. 1 seed no matter what Buffalo does tomorrow. If that Monday night game had been completed with a Buffalo win we'd have to have won today and hope Buffalo loses tomorrow. The only thing now that would be a concession to Buffalo is if the Chiefs and Bills both make it to the AFC Championship game, that game would be played on a neutral field.

As it is we got the win, really putting together a dominant effort against the Raiders. This does mean we get the bye next week -- we have it right now, we don't have to wait to see what happens to either the Bills or the Bengals. We really got a nice deal with how the NFL addressed this thing, we have to admit.

The play of the day was an Andy Reid spectacular, they called it the "Snow Globe," and it was neat to see it drawn up for this game, one that really wasn't nearly as important as a playoff game when it would be doubly spectacular.

About the very end of the first half, Chiefs ball at around the Raiders 10, 15 yard-line, the offensive unit huddled in a circle arm-in-arm and spun around in an 11-man circle. Really. Just like on the 1st grade playground. They surely did it because when they broke the huddle they wanted to surprise the Raiders defense. Breaking from their "Ring Around the Rosie" fun they spread themselves all over the place, with Jerick McKinnon taking the shotgun snap and Patrick Mahomes lined up behind him.

McKinnon took the ball and after a quick RPO move pitched it back to Mahomes taking a few steps to the right, who after catching it immediately threw it back across the field to Kadarius Toney who wove his way to the end zone for the touchdown. 

Wow.

Thing is they got one of our O-linemen for holding, so the play was nullified, but on the replay I just could not see where No. 52 who they called it on, or No. 62 who it may have been on, did any real holding at all.

Not to worry. Next play, Mahomes just very conventionally handed the ball to Toney for him to zip and zoom through the left flat to get the TD.

Couple quick notes. Really liked seeing Ronald Jones get a lot of reps. Most of them were in garbage time at the end, but he did get more other runs than in any other game. Good to see him get that work and do reasonably well at that, even scoring a touchdown. And our pass rush was on it today. We had something like five sacks I believe. Excellent play there will be critical for a deep playoff run.

See you in two weeks after we do the wait-see for who we'll be playing then!

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The image of Kadarius Toney is courtesy of Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs website, thank you.

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Broncos at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 13-3

September 17, 2015. 

That was the date of a Thursday night primetime Chiefs-Broncos game -- second game in a most promising third season of the splendid Andy Reid regime. The Chiefs had already won their opener. 

This one featured Knile Davis taking the handoff with two minutes left of game time and running it in for a Chiefs touchdown to put the Chiefs ahead 24-17. It was a glorious moment, enjoying this nice lead very late against a Broncos team that had already beaten us six straight times over the previous three years.

Thing is, we gave Peyton Manning too much time on the clock, and sure enough he sliced up our defense to score the game-tying touchdown. Shortly thereafter Jamaal Charles took his shot at a handoff, fumbled the ball, and a Broncos defender scooped it up and ran it in for the Broncos game-winning touchdown.

Darn.

What is crazy is that game was the first of five straight losses that season, and yes, I was going crazy. I think we were all beside ourselves. We win the opener, then lose five straight games -- during which we also lose Jamaal Charles to an ACL injury, effectively ending his short but brilliant career.

Except that we came back to win the next 11 straight, the last of which was a 30-0 playoff trouncing of the Texans for our first playoff win in 22 years. After so many insane playoff debacles, that was a glorious moment indeed for the Chiefs Kingdom, a game that was highlighted by the one and only Knile Davis' opening kickoff return for a touchdown.

Thing is, even though the Broncos would go on to win the Super Bowl that season, the Chiefs still pasted the Broncos in their second matchup of that season, highlighted by the -- amazing to think about -- benching of Peyton Manning. He was just having a horrible game that day, but the thing is this.

That was the first win of the subsequent now 15 straight wins over the Broncos.

This season we beat a Broncos team twice by scores of 34-28 and today 27-24 -- note those scores, they are against a team that has scored a total of 20 or more points in a game three times this season except for those Chiefs game scores. That 28 was the most they'd put up all season, against us.

Thing is most all of those 15 wins over the Broncos have been really close and many of them downright crushing to the Broncos Kingdom. I don't remember everything about them, but I do remember a Tyreek Hill bumbling TD catch that was only a TD because he bumbled the ball at the goal line before clutching it. I think it was the same game when our kicker Cairo Santos kicked the game-winning field goal in overtime by banging it off the upright. I remember another game when our huge 350 pound defensive tackle Dontari Poe threw a touchdown pass to our tight end. Just last year late in the last game of the regular season Nick Bolton scooped up a fumble and housed it when the Broncos were about to score and actually very likely win one against us.

Today I can't help but add a note about the officiating that I feel unjustly went against the Broncos. I am committed to being fair with calling out the calls, and two stand out. At the end of the 3rd quarter a Broncos receiver made a terrific catch way downfield between two Chiefs defenders, but the ref called offensive pass interference. Sorry, the contact was incidental and yes, it should not have been called against the Broncos. Furthermore a clutch Chris Jones sack at the end of the game ended with him unnecessarily slamming Russell Wilson to the ground as he made a last-ditch attempt to get rid of the ball, and yes I do feel Jones should have gotten a roughing-the-passer call against him.

There was so much more heartbreak for the Broncos in all those games, but hey, good for the Chiefs Kingdom. The point, however, is that the Broncos, especially this year playing as poorly as they have, have just played us really well.

That or...

The unspeakable...

We just suck more than we think.

Chris Jones today made the game-securing play powering his way through the line to get the clutch sack late to effectively end this game, but we were still too bendy on defense letting this Denver offense move the ball and even take the lead 17-13 late in the 3rd quarter.

Patrick Mahomes made key plays -- even catching one of his own batted passes and scooting for six yards! But he was off today and our running game is just not exactly truly precisely actually what we'd like it to be, the blossoming of Isiah Pacheco and fine play of Jerick McKinnon notwithstanding.

I took a peek over at Arrowhead Addict and they had a feature on the five key players in today's game. I'll just share the names and you can go over there and look at what they say about them, but if you watched today's game you'd know why they were mentioned. They were Joe Thuney (who had to leave for injury -- his status unknown at this time), L'Jarius Sneed, Blake Bell, Trent McDuffie, and Kadarius Toney.

All fine players, all doing fine Chiefs things today.

Thing is, what else is going on that make games like these so hard to command as we should be, easily?

I know this is the NFL and "any given Sunday" and all the rest of it. I know sometimes Andy Reid just makes the most bewildering play calls. I know this very good team just beats itself way to often.

And I know the NFL has those criminal gambling connections along with all the other NFLer Scorecasting influences that afflict us. I can't neglect to add this screenshot from just before the start of today's game: Fine respectable former QBs Phil Simms and Boomer Esiason basically being showcased in an advertisement for one of those gambling sites, FanDuel, exactly the same kind of operation about which Len Dawson was excoriated for even having-been thought (incorrectly) to be associated with the week before Super Bowl IV.

Purely Chiefs-on-the-field: I just have my serious questions about this team's chances in the postseason because of all that stuff. I will say I'm really really really glad the players and coaches don't believe any of that stuff and just play their rear-ends off every game. That's a good thing. If they aren't and they're fooling us all, then shame on them. But as far as I can tell -- I've shared this a number of times before: in a kind of perverse sense Brett et al have to know what they're up against and understand they must work that much harder to take care of business.

Add to this the reality that at any time we could be most seriously afflicted by any one of the Four Horsemen of the Football Apocalypse: penalties, bad calls, turnovers, and injuries. Already we're all wondering what is happening with Joe Thuney.

But again, ultimately, the game is just entertainment. I've got to keep that in mind, that's just reality. Nobody watches anything NFL if the Chiefs blow out each opponent by average scores of 59-2 on the way to 38 straight Super Bowl titles.

Now we just wait for tomorrow night's Bills-Bengals game to get an idea if we've got a good shot at the No. 1 seed. To be honest, all this stuff is tremendous fun, regularly seeing the Chiefs somewhere way at the top of the overall AFC standings in everything they show on television and on the web around the end of the pro football regular season. 

Just gotta enjoy that fun.

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The image of Chris Jones is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

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Seahawks at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 12-3 - The Take

A few times through the first part of the game Saturday there were indeed penalty situations that did go the Chiefs way. Carlos Dunlap unnecessarily pushed their QB after he let go of the ball and it could've easily been roughing the passer. I agree, but no call. Then there was a really ticky-tack movement penalty on their center that should not have been called. Five yards back for the Seahawks, but it shouldn't have been. I agree.

I will be fair when calling out lousy officiating, even when it afflicts the other team.

Sure enough, however, the penalties started piling up for the Chiefs, and sure enough it was clear to me the refs needed to make sure the Chiefs didn't get too uppity. There was one scoring drive the Seahawks had in the middle of the 2nd quarter that was practically all Chiefs penalties, including a hands-to-the-face on L'Jarius Sneed that I think was ticky-tack but extended their drive as we'd just sacked their QB to bring up 4th-&-very-long.

Seems the Chiefs penalty-oriented penalizings are the ones that really hurt us the most. Please know that I'm very much not in favor of any penalizing items that favor us either, very much not. But I do know about the Scorecasting factor, and I do know that one thing that would help immensely (among several things) is to get those officials in the booth both with monitors to see everything and original calling-out privileges in order to make the right call. I'd add that they must be able to rule authoritatively on those so-called "judgment" calls, so cleaning all that up would also be very beneficial... but, um, yeah, there are the NFLers who may still be in the way.

Just a few observations about this game related to the actual game play and not anything to do with the always ugly reffing.

1. Mahomes and his "Cirque de Soleil" athleticism. This was what the television announcer said, that Mahomes should be in the Cirque de Soleil. What a great call after his phenomenal stretching touchdown that iced this one. He scrambled right, planted his foot into the turf at about the four yard-line, stuck his hand just in-bounds to brace himself, and polished the work extending the football just barely scraping the right side of the pylon.

That's a touchdown.

Thing is, couple plays before his acrobatics he hit Kelce on a couple of big-gain completions, and even better just before our second TD Mahomes threw a pass that dropped right over the defender's right shoulder and into Kelce's waiting cupped arms. Huge gain deep into Seahawks territory -- then Mahomes hit McKinnon for the TD.

There is no question that the most observant pro football pundits know Mahomes is the NFL MVP this year, and sorry, it isn't even close.

2. Our defense was beast in this one. Even with the penalties, we shut the Seahawks offense down. Our D-line in particular made a few plays that we can actually make very well -- batted-down passes. I think I saw we are first in the NFL right now in passes-batted-down-at-the-line.

3. Our running game with Pacheco did all right, but honestly, I get a bit frustrated when we rely on Jerick McKinnon on straight-up running plays. Don't get me wrong, McKinnon is fantastic, I've always liked him. But in this game, with the Seahawks actually doing a pretty good job against our running game? I'd have run a lot more with Ronald Jones, a bigger more bruising back who I really think Andy Reid is not employing nearly enough, especially in particularly relevant situations.

4. Those dropped passes. Uggh. Justin Watson had two brutal ones that both stalled good-looking drives. Kelce had a drop. And while not a drop. Valdez-Scantling caught a pass at the sideline and failed to get both feet down when it looked like he could have done so without too much difficulty. Was it the cold? Temps were in the teens across most of the country Saturday, so that could have been a factor.

5. Back to the defense just to give a kudos to our D-backs, and it still amazes me that we've got all those rookies there. They did a decent job of shutting them down, even though someone like DK Metcalf still had his way with us enough times. A couple times when they were in the red zone we benefitted from poor decision-making by their QB Geno Smith. On one play they really should've thrown a quick corner pass in the end zone to Metcalf, but Smith ended up throwing it away. No TD. Whew.

On another play Smith overthrew his receiver and the ball was caught at the side of the end zone by our guy, Juan Thornhill. Nice pick by the guy who I think is getting too much grief.

Yes, our defense needs to makes sure they stick their tackles, and they did do better Saturday. One nice play I remember was one of those rookies Bryan Cook tracking down their receiver who caught the ball a couple yards from the 1st down. Cook got to him making a nice open field stop, and as it was 4th down it represented a big stop for the Chiefs.

We're now 12-3 and still fighting for that No. 1 seed. Next week it is Denver again at home.

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The image is by Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site, thank you.

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Seahawks at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 12-3 - Christmas Preview

Today's game was right in the middle of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day festivities. The minute it ended we were off to visit family and friends. Tomorrow is more time with family and friends, so I may get a post up but I'm just not sure.

When I do, see you then!

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The Chiefs, the NFLers, and Making It Right

Yesterday was another atrocious day of NFL officiating that may actually be getting people to pay more attention to what is going on with the American professional football game. The Chiefs themselves were hammered mercilessly by the most antagonistic reffing, as they are quite often, and what is actually pretty cool is that I'm not the only one seeing it. 

With new social media venues like Twitter people are screaming about how rotten it is. I've even collected a number of tweets, most of them from the remarks in a tweet by excellent analyst of all-things-Chiefs Seth Keysor. I've put a number of them at the end of this post. 

The Chiefs are not the only team that can suffer. 

Last night I watched the last minute of the Giants-Commanders game. I only saw the last minute, when down 20-12 the Commanders were at the Giants two yard-line. They handed the ball to a bruising running back who pounded his way into the end zone, only to have it called back because of an illegal formation penalty. The judgment was that the wide receiver on the right side was not covering up the tackle.

Please.

It was a wickedly bad call that cost the Commanders a chance to win the game. The television referee expert they consulted afterwards even said it was a technicality and it should not have been called. Never mind that the receiver was close enough to the line anyway especially when all the NFL team's receivers try really hard to situate themselves so the formation rules are followed and as such are all pretty much all over the place all the time anyway, never mind that the receiver even took a step forward to signify that he's working real hard to follow the rule, never mind that we know the NFL favors the big market teams and the Giants play in the biggest market in the game and that officials are categorically influenced by what the NFLers want with regards to game outcomes.

Thing is the Commanders had another chance to win the game right after that when on 4th down their QB threw a strike to his receiver in the end zone and the Giants defender pulled him down -- slightly but very clearly impeding his ability to catch the ball. Incomplete pass. Should've been a pass interference call, absolutely. No "interpretation" that it wasn't pass interference may be accepted, it was pass interference.

Still, no call. Game over.

I have to add that one of the several rotten calls going against the Chiefs Sunday was one in which L'Jarius Sneed got a PI for barely touching the receiver's left hip. He didn't turn him, the pass was a near-impossible one to catch anyway, it was just excellent coverage. Well, you know what happened. It was on a 3rd down giving the Texans new life on a critical scoring drive. 

The pass interference call is one of the most aggravating things in the NFL, and I know everyone knows it. The "interpretation" thing is just crap because it goes so many different ways, and more times than not it goes the way that the NFLers want it to go.

Another egregious call that was particularly noteworthy was in the Patriots-Raiders game. I am no fan of either team, but with barely any time left in regulation and the score 24-17 in favor of the Pats, the Raiders receiver caught a pass at the side of the end zone that was ruled a touchdown. Upon further review they confirmed it, but everyone watching saw clearly that the dude's foot was out of bounds.

At that point the ball game should have been over, Patriots winning. But, well, the Raiders play in that new spiffy stadium in Las Vegas filled with ravenous Raiders fans who've been ever-so disappointed so far this season and having a tie-game would just be closer and better and funner and much more conducive to not having furious Raider fans be ever-so unhappy with such an crushing defeat by just one single little toe that was actually out-of-bounds but ever-so close so just give it to them...

The Raiders ended up winning the game in the end.

In fact, as I write this, just now I thought I'd check. I typed into Google just these words, "NFL officiating Sunday." That was it. Sure enough, the page lit up with stories and tweets about how wretched the officiating was (again, see below). I can't help but put Brittany Mahomes' tweet right here, because one of the most ugly non-calls yesterday was when the Texans lineman body-slammed Patrick to the turf. 

So the NFL people really appreciate their most marketable stars and don't want them hurt? Really? They really want to protect their most valuable commodities, and please know, not just Patrick Mahomes? Really? They'll make a game-altering call against our lineman just for blurting "Yo momma" to an opposing player but they won't protect the physical health of our quarterback by penalizing an obvious unnecessary roughness penalty that could cause a serious injury? REALLY?

I could go on, but I do want to put down some things that can be done, and believe it or not none of these items include a call to get rid of this ref or that ref. Chiefs fans had it in for one particular official, not even going to name him here, but it has way less to do with any given official on the field than it does with what I've called many times before the Scorecasting factor.

Again, the Scorecasting factor comes from the book written by guys who did the research, provided the evidence, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that officials particularly in games like football and basketball can affect outcomes simply by implicitly -- or yes in some instances explicitly -- knowing what calls to make to please the NFLers. As I've shared here a number of times: I cannot urge you enough to read this book.

I will add that in looking at some comments made for a piece at Arrowhead Pride I was introduced to this book, The Fix Is In, one I know nothing about so I won't remark except to say that if veracious enough based on its premise, then it only adds to everything I've been saying here.

So here are five things -- good, solid practical things all of us can do to one degree or another to maybe perhaps possibly hopefully make all of this right and if not, maybe a little bit better.

1. Tell the NFL to get rid of the official gambling relationships. Please know this truth, no matter how much ridiculously rapturous fun it is or how much blamtastic interest in the NFL it generates, organizations like FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM and the like are horrifically immoral operations and in my view should not only have their relationship with any official sports organization promptly terminated but should have their operations made totally illegal and completely shut down. Will illegal gambling sites still proliferate? Of course they will, but this shouldn't keep the NFL from upholding the integrity of the game by working to thoroughly distance themselves from any of that, as they always did for years and years up until just a little while ago. 

Really, this particular item should actually be something I've hoped for for some time now: Fire Roger Goodell. The problem is that he is just one of hundreds of what I've called "NFLers," these are those who have a financial stake or gain from the competitive duplicity that occurs as elucidated by the Scorecasting factor. Firing Roger Goodell would have to include firing those hundreds of wealthy, powerful, mostly commercial enterprise people who are exploiting all of this to their advantage. It is wicked as all get out, but what do you do. Can we still see if at least that one thing can happen though -- summarily ending that relationship with gambling interests? Maybe when enough people see how much it compromises the integrity of the game then maybe it will happen.

2. Call it out. It is amazing how little is said about this situation especially from those whose voice would be quite influential. But hey, I get it. As one wise person once said, when your salary depends on it, then "See no evil hear no evil speak no evil" is the rule of the day. Two of my favorite Chiefs sites, Arrowhead Pride and Arrowhead Addict have today said zero about any of this. The Chiefs Bleacher Report page which posts tweets like they are candy has also posted nothing about the officiating. Fortunately again there are tweets by the thousands out there calling out the horrific officiating in all the games where it occurred.

I will also add that we need to call it out when it is happening among non-officiating personnel. I have to tell you whenever I see Jerick McKinnon do as well as he did yesterday, it always makes me think about how Andy Reid so inexplicably failed to have him run like the wind against a three-man Bengals rush in the second half of that AFC Championship game last season. I already wrote about it in my blog last year, but I am convinced the NFL implicitly tells coaches and others to keep games close, you know, because those NFLers are paying a lot of money for all of this.

My hope is it gets to the point when people are calling for games to be voided -- even though I personally think no games ever should be voided no matter how much cheating was going on. Catch the cheating when it is happening and stop it before teams benefit from it. That's the solution, but I do think it has to come from enough principled fans calling it out and making it obvious.

3. Get the NFL to put those two officials in the booth with monitors. Even if no one quite sees all of this happening, and even if we all believe it is merely officials just missing calls, one thing that can happen that is the easiest thing in the world to do is get those original play-call officials in the booth with monitors to see these things clearly, immediately wire down to the on-field officials, and make the right call.

Easy examples, from yesterday's game, the in-booth officials:

"That PI call you made against Sneed? Didn't happen, pick up your flag. 4th down Texans. Good stop for those Chiefs, don't be the official that determines outcomes especially with calls like that that shouldn't be made."

"That fumble you think Smith-Schuster had? Nope, he regained control of the ball before he was body-slammed to the turf. Make that a possession Chiefs, and tack on the 15 yards for unnecessary roughness against the Texans. And that other call you made against McKinnon there on the same play? Not. That's not the infraction you think it is, sorry. Pick up that flag too."

"Pacheco did have a facemask penalty against him, address that now, get the Chiefs that penalty yardage. We know you may have missed it but, well, it's hard to see how because his helmet was pulled right off his head. Come on guys."

4. Pray for the players, all of them. This is one of the most important of all. Poor officiating is worst not when it affects game outcomes but when it threatens the health and physical well-being of the players. I actually fear for our Chiefs players when the officiating is so one-sided and they don't make the calls against actions that truly hurt our players. A few weeks ago JuJu was hammered as a defenseless receiver, suffered a concussion, had to sit out a game, and the defender was even fined later.

But there was no call on the field. This was absolutely inexcusable, it was inexcusable regarding yesterday's incidents, and again that no meaningful media organization of whatever stripe is contributing to the outcry about this is reprehensible.

So yes, besides calling these things out, please be in prayer for the safety and well-being of the players out there, all of them. Yes I do very much know it is a violent sport, but I am in favor of every precaution that can be made to protect them, even the ones so extreme that it leads to fans blithering about how soft the game has become. Officiating like we saw yesterday does not help.

I will add in that profoundly spiritual sense that along with prayers it is good to have an eternal perspective about all of this. For one it is best to accept that inherent in the game is need to keep all fans happy -- 17 straight Chiefs Super Bowl victories doesn't do that. The best fans are happy when the other team wins and their fans get to enjoy what we've got to enjoy. The thing is, that happens best when we all know the game was fairly and evenly called.

In the end God wins anyway, no matter what. This is besides the point that all this is just a game. It's entertainment. All this is just thrilling diversion, even this whole discussion about it, keeps us engaged, interacting with one another. For anything that is of value it is always nice to see players themselves treat it all that way -- after games they smile and give good-game handshakes to one another, and some even gather at midfield and pray, players from both teams giving God glory thanking Him for all our blessings. Very cool.

5. Encourage what Brett et al are doing. This is the main Chiefs-oriented thing that can be done to address the NFLer's competitive duplicity. Just enjoy Brett Veach and his staff working their tails off to make our team as good a team as they can. I do believe that Brett knows somehow, someway, that the duplicity is working against him and his team, and he fights it by doing what he does best -- putting together a competitive team that not only has to confront the other fine teams on the field but also the NFLer insidious duplicity and the antagonistic officiating that goes with it. 

In some ways it makes sense why so few are complaining about the officiating issue. In a very perverse way it is there because that's what they want. And in that sense it has made it that much more of a motivating factor to get Brett et al to work that much harder because they know what they're up against. In a way it makes our success that much more appreciated. 

There is no way we can't be proud of the Chiefs success. We just got our 7th straight AFC West title, only two other teams in NFL history have had such an achievement. We have two very significant Super Bowl wins, the last one of the AFL and the confirmation (after the Jets win the year before) that Lamar Hunt's league was for real and could compete just as well against the NFL teams; and the one on the 100th anniversary of the NFL and 60th of the start of the AFL. Both were wins for the ages, everyone knows about Hank Stram's "Matriculating the ball down the field" performance in the 4th one, and the Chiefs 21-point 4th quarter comeback in the 54th one stands alone among them all.

There are so many Chiefs Kingdom things to be proud of no matter what happens that is ugly and rotten and wicked no one seems to care to do anything about. 

Again, in many ways overcoming those things makes being a Kingdom member that much better.

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Here're those tweets, by the way, as part of this blog effort to call it out. (Will add that I know none of these individuals. I don't see why I can't simply reproduce them here since on Twitter they are open about sharing their identities in whatever form they choose to share.) It is easy to see there are so many who see exactly what I see -- it isn't hard actually.

I cannot neglect to add this excellent tweet from Jason Whitlock related to the Commanders officiating debacle, this one speaking to another factor that is wrecking the game and one I also addressed in a post at the end of last season.

One more! I know I'm adding this a bit after posting this, but I can't neglect to include this one. Again, I'm not the only one thinking these things, seeing what's going on:

Chiefs at Texans - Week 15 - Record: 11-3

Yes, I do think we now have a problem with our kicker. This many misses especially on extra points or even more critically on very-close-game field goals is just getting a bit concerning...

But that's really not the issue.

Yes, I do think we have a serious problem with our pass rush -- I've said before I think Brett should draft a front seven guy with each one of his picks next year. Okay, okay, extreme, but we are just not getting to the passer.

But again that's really not the issue.

The real issue is the NFL and its wretched officiating. I'm not even saying the officiating is necessarily bad, I'm just saying it is wretched because they make calls against the Chiefs that are either egregiously bad, negatively affect our chances to win a game, or both.

That is wretched.

I saw a posted message on social media from a Chiefs fan kind-of-guy who said every fan thinks the refs are against their team. Yeah, I understand that, but, well, it's worse for the Chiefs because we all know the NFL hates our team.

Some will say "How can that be when we have one of the most marketable football stars ever in Patrick Mahomes and he and his team are featured all the time in prime-time and all and they all seem to like that?"

No, the NFL just wants the Chiefs not to win games by so many points if they do win, or if they can to get them to lose a few more times so they'll be kept back in the pack keeping things more competitive. This is besides the fact that KC is a podunk prairie town that is not New York Boston Los Angeles or Dallas. This is a point made many times before and I know not everyone agrees, but I do think it has a great deal of veracity -- something I've also elucidated quite a bit in this blog effort.

Today was no different.

Any time the slightest offense could be called against the Chiefs, it was. A number of times the Texans messed with us in some major way, it wasn't called. I could spend much more time on this and share a number of instances of both.

Here was a classic example. 

About halfway into the third quarter, with the game still very close, JuJu gets a pass and after a step or two he is lifted off the ground and slammed to the turf. Penalty flag flies. Good thing, total unnecessary roughness call against those guys. A chance for me to give the NFL a "good guy" kudos for actually insisting the officials protect our players. Okay.

Umm...

Turns out the penalty was on Jerick McKinnon for an illegal block, one that looked perfectly legal but they nailed him on not putting his hands up for the block but instead slightly hunching over to make it some kind of dangerous block -- even though he was straight up facing the defender and the defender saw him right there in front of him the whole way. The announcers described it as such, as did the television officiating expert they regularly consult. It was about as ticky-tack as you can get.

Not the end of the story.

Turns out JuJu ever-so-slightly had the football come loose while high in the air before being body slammed to the turf, except that -- here's the key part -- he regained control of the ball securely before actually losing it when his body crashed to the ground. At first JuJu was just down there, as he should have been -- you know, ground can't cause a fumble, all that -- except Houston challenged that ruling and won. The announcers and the television officiating expert seemed to feel it was a fumble, and the call reversal was justified, and all the rest of it. Nonsense.

Not only was it now Houston's football, but they got an added 15 yards to boot. Whuttt... It should have been our ball with an added 15 yards for us.

"Oh but that's just an interpretation. They all even out."

No, they don't. And while the Chiefs players and coaches and personnel and other fans who like to join them can say things like "Don't blame the refs," I can, and I think I have very good reasons to.

My attitude right now is this. It is one about which I've shared many times before, but I must calcify it in the depths of my soul.

I like my team. I like Patrick Mahomes and his phenomenally tenacious play and winning attitude which rubs off on everyone else. I like all our offensive weapons even if none of them are Tyreek Hill. I even like my team's defense even though I know about its inadequacies yet will never criticize them in the way many have criticized people like Juan Thornhill. I will also always appreciate a fairly fought pro football contest if evenly and justly called even to the point of my team itself not being given any undue favorable calls by refs because I don't want to have any such advantages because those would compromise the integrity of my own team's win.

The main point is I simply must keep my emotions in check when it comes to our chances in the postseason, simply because it is obvious what is against us. The Chiefs have hosted four straight AFC Championship games. Are you absolutely effing with me, that is unreal. Some television pundits have been given to call it the "Arrowhead Invitational," how wonderfully unreal is that.

But it is wonderfully unreal enough to the NFL to do things to try to spread the wealth around to the other teams. 

We did win this game, indeed. It was neat to see us get the most significant turnover of the game, in overtime deep in Texans territory, and then watch Jerick McKinnon jet into the end zone from some 20+ yards out to win it.

The thing is it shouldn't have been this close, against this team in their present situation. For the 57th time this was made much closer than it needed to be thanks to the NFL and its consideration of unchecked Chiefs success.

I guess I should just cool my jets, but that's a lot of what I'm saying here. Maybe all the crap afflicting our team is a good thing because a nifty overtime win is always way more exciting than a 48-3 blowout.

And a win is a win.

Do you know that besides clinching our 7th straight divisional title today (which we would have done sometime coming up here even if we'd lost today) we've had ten straight winning seasons? I'd posted about this before -- that we'd had two other nine-straight-winning-season stretches. Two others! This one makes three! Hard to believe that the Chiefs can really be counted as one of the most successful franchises in NFL history -- what with our 70s team and our most-of-the-80s and most-of-the-00s teams.

I know I've shared this graphic before, but I'm posting it again here. Eighth best ever. Pretty cool no matter how much the NFL hates us...

Which of course makes it all that much better.

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The image of Jerick McKinnon is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Broncos - Week 14 - Record: 10-3

Okay here's my story with today's game.

We had the opportunity to see a good friend's son sing in one of those college music program annual Christmas presentations featuring a zillion orchestra people and a zillion choir singers. It was scheduled for right smack in the middle of the Chiefs game today, and as much as it pains me, family and friends and events-with-them and the accompanying participation in music that is all about praising The Savior takes priority, and, well, it always has.

So we watched the first few minutes and our failures twice to score touchdowns, settling for FGs each time. Errrghck.

On the way to the concert I took in the information shown on the gamecast, and saw that Jerick McKinnon scored a long TD. I did not know until later that this was the typically very very very fun play in which Patrick scampers away from the rush and flings a no-look pass right into his receiver's hands upon which he sprints for the long TD. Fun.

Just a bit later McKinnon scored another TD to make it 20-0. Before you could blink Willie Gay batted a Russell Wilson pass into his own hands and he scampered for another Kansas City score.

27-0.

We arrived at our destination knowing the Chiefs must have been so sore from yet another ding-dong loss to the Bengals last week that they were taking it out on the poor Broncos this week.

We went into this wonderfully delightful live music experience knowing this one was going to be 57-0 when it was all over.

Ahem. 

Just before our show started I peeked at the score and at halftime it was 27-14.

Whaaattt?

Turns out watching the game later on the DVR, the five minute gametime-frame before and after the halftime break was a nightmare for the Chiefs. The Broncos put 21 on the board in that gametime span. Mahomes threw picks, goofy-dumb things happened, and back over at the Christmas music show intermission about 40 minutes later I again pulled out my phone and the score I saw at that point was 34-28 with an eternity of time left in the game.

Whut thuhhhh...

Turns out that was the final. Neither team scored again.

Before he got creamed Russell Wilson showed something of his former excellent self, there was that. He did suffer from sacks and mess-ups, but just as he did for Seattle he made winning-type plays when he had to.

You could say the Chiefs offense didn't take care of business as it should to keep it from being so close, but then you could also say the Broncos defense didn't do its job of keeping opponents' scores low as it has all season. You could also say the Broncos offense somehow scored 100 points more in this game than they did in any other game this season -- but then there were those goofy-dumb things the Chiefs defense had to deal with, like those critical 4th down conversions that gave Denver life.

And then there is yet again the Patrick Mahomes factor. He threw three nasty picks, that second one a particularly goofy-dumb one that led to one of those Broncos TDs. But then there was that notorious goofy-fun play everyone was talking about but that last Chiefs TD was just as noteworthy as Mahomes got crunched by a legion of Broncos D-linemen and still got off a strike to JuJu in the end zone.

That was the difference maker in the end.

There's more, but you know? I can't neglect to put in a good word for a player who is really one of our best players but fortunately rarely gets on the field, and that is our punter Tommy Townsend. This year he is booming punts, and when we needed it very very very badly late in the game he blasted a punt to put the Broncos way back at their five-yard line. They then went three-&-out to take more time off the clock and remove one more scoring chance for them.

Really, after this one, the only thing you can say considering everything that happened in it is whew.

Whew whew whew whew whew.

I'd like to think our defense is not an issue and we just had to deal with yet again those goofy-dumb things that plagued us again this week -- one of which was again those silly interceptions thrown by our fine quarterback that I know he can rectify. 

The learning from this that we can get even with a close win that shouldn't have been that close -- that's a very good thing from all this.

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The posted image is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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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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