Bills at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game - Something of a Take

Okay, briefly because it is late and I'm tired. Dang these tight Chiefs playoff games are exhausting to watch! Just a few things in my brain right now. Maybe more to share later.

One, something I'm not seeing among all the pundit takes, but it seems to me, especially with now an incredible NFL record 17 straight one-possession score wins, that this Chiefs team doesn't just try to and plan to work like maniacs for the full 60 minutes like most teams, this Chiefs actually does it. Their relentless play for the last 5-10 minutes of game time takes advantage of a weary opponent and because they are that ruthless with their play during that time it does seem to be successful in intimidating them to a very costly degree. In that then, this Chiefs team deserves to be called dominant even though the score differential may not reflect that. Hey, this is the NFL and for the Chiefs to do this is unheard of.

Two, something I think will be talked about is the odd play-calling of the Bills coaching, not just at the end of the game, but throughout. The Bills played really well for the entirety, and let's be honest, they were winning at the line of scrimmage -- on both sides of the ball. The main issue was their neglect of James Cook who was gashing us all night long. What happened? Why wasn't he the focal point of their offense late in the game?

Three, something that isn't talked about enough but should be, something I've shared a number of times before in this blog, but just the genius work of Brett Veach to shape this roster. Yes, Mahomes is great, yes, Reid is great, yes, Spags should be in the Hall of Fame just as the best defensive coordinator ever. But Veach has just done amazing work keeping the guys we need to keep and getting the guys we need either in the draft (that 2022 version - still amazing), in free agency, or just plucking guys like Kareem, D-Hop, and JuJu who have been terrific contributors.

There's more, but for now there is this.

One more thing. Yes, it appears there will be the standard whining and moaning about the reffing. That unsuccessful 4th-&-inches run by Allen late in the game, when, yeah, it did look like he got it, was crushing for the Bills. But yeah: Oh no. We can all hear it, how the Chiefs get all the calls, yadda-yadda. This whole thing requires more of an address, much of it already shared ad nauseam.

Anyway, lots to talk about until the Super Bowl!

Back-to-back-to-back, baby!

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

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Bills at Chiefs - AFC Championship Game - Initial Take

Oh wow. How much the Bills fans must hate Patrick Mahomes. How much the pro football world must hate Patrick Mahomes. So many people seething right now. I wonder how much people are going to blame the refs, I imagine that comes with a real dynastic run.

Whew. This game was what we thought it would be. A dogfight to the end.

The Three-Peat grail is still within reach. 

It will still be a chore. Next up is a rematch with the Eagles, and now they have a phenomenal running back in Saquon Barkley.

Just pounding this out real quick, a bit short of breath. Much more to come!

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"Chiefs Derangement Syndrome" - Preview of Bills at Chiefs AFC Championship Game

I felt I should put in a brief post for tomorrow's AFC Title Game against the Bills. It'll be brief, which is kind of funny because all those days in the past when we were even in the playoffs I tended to blog like a madman. When we won that divisional game in January 2016 against the Texans I wrote gobs since we hadn't won in 22 years previous.

Now we can't lose.

It isn't necessarily that we won't lose tomorrow, the Bills are a viciously good team. But we have won eight straight postseason games which is among the longest postseason win streaks ever. They just pointed out this morning that the spread for tomorrow's game went from Chiefs up 1.5 to Chiefs up 2.5. A few people out there think the Chiefs are just better.

I like our chances, but again, with teams pretty evenly matched and the Bills looking for blood, anything can happen. We'll see.

But with the Chiefs winning quite a lot, many out there like to blap about how much the NFL and the officiating is favoring the Chiefs. "Chiefs Derangement Syndrome" - what a crack-up. 

Along with all the delusional hysteria associated with that are also the many contrary takes and accompanying videos of the Chiefs getting absolutely jobbed on so many calls it isn't even funny. I just saw one featuring four different plainly ridiculous calls or non-calls that went against us in the Baltimore playoff game last year that, when you look at it, really, we should have won that game going away.

Regarding the Texans game last week, I originally thought that yes, Justin Reid was offsides on a Texans kick attempt. Nope. Video replays showed he got off the line right at the exact moment the ball was snapped. Thing is Reid is a really smart player and, yes, he used to play for the Texans. There were others, like the holding call against Trey Smith that wasn't anywhere close to one. He's just so good at pounding his defender that the refs feel like the must rein him in.

Pretty decent social media pundit Trey Wingo pointed out that the reffing can be not-so-good in every game, it is just the Chiefs get so much attention and they are so successful that people notice it more in their games, and rage against it more any time the Chiefs benefit. I saw a take that showed how bad it was in the Buffalo-Baltimore playoff game on Sunday.

To wit:

A Buffalo tackle was called for a hold that totally wasn't, much like the Trey Smith should-have-been-no-call. A Buffalo defensive back totally PI'd the Baltimore receiver, but they called it against the Ravens guy because in that split second time frame it may have looked like a Baltimore penalty to the official. Again, yet another reason they - have - got - to - have - officials - in - the - booth - with - monitors - to - make - original - calls - to - correct - on-field - officials - who - just - can't - see - it - like - all - of - us - watching - on - television - can.

This just isn't that hard, really. Please.

One more from that game. A Buffalo guy rode Ravens QB Lamar Jackson out-of-bounds way past the white area, and dropping him with a hip tackle to boot. No call. 

Interesting that people complained in the Texans game about our QB Patrick flopping once when the defender got a bit too close to the edge of that white boundary out-of-bounds. Well maybe -- thing is, who cares? It's not a penalty. Maybe people think Mahomes is doing too much to get calls, but that's just stupid.

I will say one thing. Let's just face it.

The Chiefs are a really good team. They just are. We in the Kingdom know that so well and are simply reveling in this stratospherically golden age of Chiefs football. And often when you are that good, you just get the calls. It isn't that most of them are not fair. Roll the tape, 97% of them are legit. The point is, when you're as damn good as this team is, things happen to make wins.

It isn't hard to see it out there.

As far as tomorrow's game goes, I like our chances simply because we have the receivers to get the job done. Last week we hardly, if at all, threw to Hollywood or JuJu or D-Hop. But those guys are so good that they must be accounted for, which left things open for Travis Kelce who had a monster game as you remember, as well as Xavier Worthy who if you forgot had five catches himself.

We've got as good a shot as any tomorrow, again, as long as something goofy or stupid doesn't happen. Otherwise we should be good to go.

Bring it on!

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

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Texans at Chiefs - Divisional Playoff Game

I'm going to put in a brief post mostly to simply make the statement that does need to be said because millions of fans who've made the Chiefs their No. 1 NFL enemy are still convinced of this.

Sorry, but no, the officials did not win this game for the Chiefs.

Did two-thirds of the Texans play well enough to win? Absolutely. Give them their due. Did the officials miss a couple of calls that favored the Chiefs? They did, most notably the Justin Reid off-sides on the missed Texans FG attempt and the hip-drop tackle by Bryan Cook. That last one, if called, would have been one of the rare times they would have called it, though, because even though it is a new rule, I've rarely seen a defensive player penalized for it this year.

It isn't that they shouldn't. They should.

But that's a key point regarding the two personal foul calls some think shouldn't have been called, ones that did indeed favor the Chiefs. The first was the roughing the passer call on their fine linebacker, one that was indeed, roughing the passer. Sorry, it was. The second was when another of the LBs dropped on top of Mahomes after he made an awkward slide. I kind-of agree that it really wasn't so violent as to be worthy of the call, but you still can't do that.

Otherwise, while two-thirds of the Texans played terrific ball and made this a real game, that other third that is the special teams did not play well enough to beat the Chiefs who have a pretty good special teams. To wit:

The Chiefs kicker made three FGs and two PATs. 100% of his kicks, total. The Texans kicker missed a FG, a PAT, and had a FG attempt blocked. By Leo Chenal of all people! Again with that! The guy is a kick-blocking maniac!

The Chiefs opened the game with Nikko Remigio almost pulling a Knile Davis, taking the kick to the house. He didn't quite make it, but still took it to all the way down to about their 20.

It was also sad that former Chief punter Tommy Townsend had a chance to pin the Chiefs back late in the game when the Texans were still in it. He plopped the ball to midfield allowing the Chiefs to control field position.

Couple more things.

First, the main one, and it is not an unusual one. Two words:

Travis Kelce. 

He pretty much took the team and its wilting offense and put it on its back. He made big plays when needed, scored a much needed touchdown -- you know, standard Travis Kelce playoff stuff.

Second, the Texans pass protection just seemed to wear down late. George Karlaftis did not -- the dude has a motor running at 100% for the duration. I believe he sacked CJ Stroud three times in the 4th quarter. Spags also did his blitzing thing at just the right times to stuff the Texans, when again, they generally played really well.

Their running game was great, especially with Joe Mixon handling those duties. Their receivers, particularly their best WR Nico Collins and their fine tight end, were making impossible catches late in the game to keep them matriculating.

I will never not appreciate a Chiefs win, especially in the postseason, but I kind-of feel bad for the Texans. They played like crazy, were in this game, and could have easily won. Really. As it is this is the 5th time in five a Houston pro football team has lost to the Chiefs -- or the first time it happened, to the Dallas-yes-Texans.

Remember?

1962 AFL Championship: Dallas (later Kansas City) 20, Houston Oilers 17, in OT.

1993 AFC Divisional: Kansas City 28, Houston Oilers 20.

2015 AFC Wild Card: Kansas City 30, Houston Texans 0.

2019 AFC Divisional: Kansas City 51, Houston 31.

2024 AFC Divisional: Kansas City 23, Houston 14.

Ouch. I know how much that hurts, it was agony when we simply couldn't beat Indianapolis in the playoffs, remember that? Or do you want to forget too.

It wasn't that Houston was expected to win this game, but still, the fact they played so well, it has to hurt. Houston still must really not like Kansas City.

Meanwhile we just learned that the Washington Commanders upset the heavily favored Detroit Lions, a team that has never even been in a Super Bowl. 

Wow. This NFL football thing can be a bitch. Back before the Mahomes era we knew that so very well. But that's the nature of this thing, it just is.

Can't deny that we may feel the wrath of this next week when we face one of two excellent teams, the Bills or the Ravens. Whichever one wins tomorrow will be out for blood playing the Chiefs, they definitely won't let us off the hook in that one. So many things need to be much better for us next week whoever we play if we hope to make a truly legit run at the three-peat.

On to our seventh straight AFC Championship Game!

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

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Texans at Chiefs - Quick Preview - Playoff Game

With extended family again for the weekend but will be watching the game with them! Don't know if I will get to a Chiefs Game Today post today when I'd like to, just a heads-up that I will soon! Thank you for your readership.

Go Chiefs!

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Chiefs at Broncos - Week 18 - Record: 15-2

Well that was fun.

We had nothing to gain with the No. 1 seed sown up, and the Broncos had everything to gain by trying to win a playoff spot. We had very few of our best players in there, and the Broncos had the full complement of a team that is actually pretty good to begin with.

I actually had a slight vision of Carson Wentz making this something of a game, but as good a quarterback as he is, even he can't do much with a team of 2nd and 3rd stringers. Here were our six possessions up to the end of the 3rd quarter:

Five three-&-outs, effectively, and one decent one that was really just made up of a single long pass completion to Nikko Remigio. That drive ended with a missed Butker field goal.

Meanwhile, with a fine QB fully motivated the Broncos torched us. It was 31-0 at that point. After that it never got any better.

We can chalk this up to all these factors just putting this one fully in Denver's favor, but it is hard to take a butt-whooping this bad. These are still NFL teams with NFL players. Maybe this will be a motivating factor for us to be ready to go with our best in two weeks, but still.

Our tackles today were guys we were really hoping would be on the A-team, DJ Humphries and Wanya Morris. Neither did very well. How many times did Wentz get sacked? I lost count. And our top kicker, Harrison Butker, who the last couple of years was automatic from anywhere on the field and never gave us any worries winning everything for us at the end of game after game, missed another field goal.

On the television I watched some of the Rams-Seahawks game with the playoff-bound Rams having nothing to play for and not playing all their best guys while the Seahawks were playing their best, and it was close the whole way. The Rams were actually playing NFL caliber football however many scrubs were in there.

The Chiefs today?

A complete embarrassment. Doesn't matter how much the Chiefs Kingdom pundits say they don't care or it doesn't matter or whatever whatever, this is still a Chiefs team on the football field, and, um, wow.

Again, this may just be a wake-up call to get us working extra hard over the next two weeks, that's really the only thing positive from this ugliness. Doesn't matter what the reality of the stakes and all that, it was ugliness, pure and simple.

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Chiefs at Steelers - Week 17 - Record: 15-1

Quick take, it's Christmas, family in, you know. I have a brief moment for this one.

First of all, the broken record to counter the blithering other broken record: Stop with the The refs are favoring the Chiefs! BS. They don't, by miles. Do they get some calls? Like the catch that wasn't actually a catch made by Hollywood Brown in the middle of the 2nd half? The Chiefs were just being smart and getting a play off quick so there could be no challenge.

Now of course I do think ref calls should be made from the booth, and those officials should have indeed waved it off. The NFL should be doing that, certainly. But then, a team (the Chiefs themselves?) should have some signal players can make to the sideline any time they saw it and are sure the officials got it wrong on a catch-not-really-a-catch, so our head coach can throw the challenge flag without having to wait around for the replay to try to be sure to do so -- again before the other team runs a quick play to prevent that from happening.

As far as the penalties go, the refs were all over the Chiefs in this one, and from the looks of our receivers they again neglected to call defensive holds against their guys. Today Jawaan Taylor's number was called, what, how many times? Too many, that's for sure. For the most part he was committing the cited infractions, but then again he was facing off against one of the best pass rushers in the league, T.J. Watt. Most of the time he actually did well enough to give Mahomes time, in this one time enough to toss three TD passes against no interceptions. 

Our defense was solid, our special teams did well, we won by a good 19 points against a somewhat bumbling Steelers team. The dagger play was McDuffie's ball punchout on their tight end -- I mean, that guy, Trent McDuffie, what an extraordinary defensive player all around. 

We ourselves could be a bit more composed, we got three unsportsmanlikes, the first two for just doing butthead taunting kind of things -- neither of which hurt us, but still. It is nice the country hates us 'cuz they ain't us, but please. Let's make it about our dominant play, man. That third one? Travis Kelce slam-dunking the goal-post Tony Gonzalez-style to honor the guy after he broke his Chiefs touchdown record. I think that one gets a pass, for sure.

Otherwise, we got to 15-1 and snatched the No. 1 seed. Dang is that great. There's talk of this being one of the best NFL teams ever -- fun to hear, but we still have a whole postseason to navigate. We'll likely play one of these really good teams we're playing right now again 24 days from now, Texans, Steelers, Broncos. The latter one we play to close it all out two Sundays from now, and we'll be resting everybody there a mile high in Denver so it is a real possibility we'll finish at 15-2. But should we get through all that unscathed there is very likely a Baltimore or Buffalo waiting.

For now, the "Three-Peat" train just keeps on barreling.

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The photo is from Tyler McFarland at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Texans at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 14-1

Quick take as, again, family is over and all that.

First, the gruesome injury to the Texans receiver. I just wonder if there is some way they can make sure receivers know how not to run into their teammates diving for plays, or something. Seriously. Just like how they train tacklers to not do certain things in tackling -- for the health and safety of both runner and tacklers -- can't they do something about how to have receivers run routes or know where they need to go to prevent this kind of thing from happening. I know these kinds of things are freak things, and that is the reality of professional football. But is there something -- I'm always great with anything that helps protect the players.

Second, put away all that plap about the refs favoring the Chiefs. The Texans' first touchdown featured an obvious hold on their guy, yet in the Chiefs series just before they called a total phantom hold on Trey Smith. Their tight end caught the ball wide open at the goal line, and right after that a shower of boos rained down from the Arrowhead crowd. Huh. 

Turns out they knew: the replay showed the tight end fully shoving the defender out of the way to spring himself open to make the catch. Guh.

Third, Xavier Worthy was on fire. Having Marquis Brown in there and DeAndre Hopkins making more of his amazing short connection catches has really opened up this offense. And just a nod to Andy Reid making it all happen -- his play calling for this game was a million times better than that of the last two games. The times he got Samaje Perine in the mix for huge gains was sweet. It was also good to see him go with Kareem Hunt after Isiah Pacheco just wasn't getting as untracked as he should have. 

Patrick seemed to be fine on the bad ankle, he even had some fine runs including one long scramble bonanza for a touchdown.

On to Pittsburgh for Christmas Day!

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

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Texans at Chiefs - Quasi-Preview and Special Note

Tomorrow the Texans visit Arrowhead for the first of the last three games of the regular season, all brutal challenges for our 13-1 team. My special note is that family will be in for the holiday week, and because it will be pretty packed, that may preclude writing much about these next two games, the second on Wednesday, Christmas Day. 

It is indeed looking like Patrick Mahomes will play on his sprained ankle -- I mean for all his wonderful play one amazingly fine thing about the guy is his ferocious competitiveness. He has so much of it -- we cannot be more thrilled to keep enjoying watching this guy do what he does in the way he does it.

But yeah, brutal schedule stretch coming up here. After the Texans it is the Steelers and Broncos.

I should be able to make some really quick notes after each game, but here while I have a bit more time I wanted to make mention of an extraordinarily disappointing thing that has been going on with all of the American football world.

It isn't the money, really, because the money is merely a reflection of the authentic value of a given individual. That's actually a very fine thing.

It is certainly, however, the love of money, the root of all evil.

I've been paying attention to some of the television ads showing up in our games. Remember when the ads for football were almost exclusively beer, automobiles, shaving cream, and spark plugs?

Well, there are still a few beer and auto ads, but it seems like most of the other ads are for pharmaceutical products or insurance.

Uggh.

I am a stalwart Chiefs fan, and it is a joy to experience this golden age of Veach-Reid-Mahomes-led Chiefs football. We all feel that way. Even at that time later when they are not as dominant, I will still be a devout fan. Have been that way for the last, oh, fifty or so years.

But I can't help but shake my head and feel it when these evils are supporting our football entertainment.

There should be a law against pharmaceutical ads. In fact some have even suggested it. They are spiffy and splashy targeted to people who have no business deciding about these specific kinds of things, so why are they being shown to them? It isn't that they shouldn't be deciding things for their health, but that's exactly the point. Big Pharma works to make it so people are sick so they may continue to have customers. So much could be argued about how much these ads should not be shown, much more put into the substance of our athletes' paychecks. It is much more of a grievous evil than people think.

Then there is the insurance racket. These companies make billions from the task of keeping people frightened of anything and everything, and they feature hip, happy, fun vignettes to get people believing these racketeers have their best interests in mind. I've sometimes thought: huh, what can they put in these commercials to sell their crap, what can they say? The most honest one is the guy who wrecks everything, I think he calls himself "Mayhem." But still, "Here are all the crappy things out there you need to pay us to protect yourself from!" It is just wickedly exploitive.

Of course there are still the auto commercials, except that even those are hawking electric vehicles and doing so because they are subsidized by government to do more to hawk them. Few seem to grasp not only how inefficient electric automobiles are, but also how destructive. It seems most car commercials now feature the latest in fully electric technology that ironically require things that are indeed horribly labor exploitive and tremendously hazardous to the environment.

Then there are still the beer commercials, for a product that is still an illicit drug and one that should also be strictly prohibited. Yes, I've shared before: I am a Prohibition-favoring, temperance movement-cheering teetotaler, but that doesn't change the reality of how dangerous drinking alcohol is. It should say something when they have to put at the bottom of every ad, "Do this or that responsibly," "Don't drink and drive," "Be careful with your wretchedly ugly habit here, okay, just please don't be an asshole after drinking though we know how much we contribute to that," of course so they can try to absolve themselves of any and all liability.

Speaking of those kinds of disclaimers and warnings, there is also the massive prevalence of gambling site ads. I've already gone to the mat about the horrors of those, and yes, every single one of those operations should be shut down -- not just removed from their associations with sports leagues but made against the law. If you want to do all that from your basement far away from any of the sports entities, like it used to be, then I guess you can do that. But now?...

The added note about this is what it is doing to college football. 

It is killing it.

Right now you've got two evils that on the face of it could be decent, but they've been so abused that they are right now tearing the sport apart. You know what they are:

NIL and The Portal.

Not going to go into the details of these twin bastards, there is so much of it, except to say that to have college sports the way it should be, the rule should be this:

Go to school and stay there. Once you sign up, stay there, but on a team, and support your school and your team for four years. Go to class during the day and practice in the afternoon. For football play no more than 10 games a year and then a bowl game if you're good enough.

Find joy in that and be thankful you're getting an education paid for already.

And if you are one of the 0.0000000000000001% of the college players who are good enough to play in the NFL, then enjoy your stay there for, what, on average, two or three years, make some money, and then go to work at the job you learned to do in college just like everyone else.

And for all the teams in the NCAA or whatever governing entity there is there, stay in your regional conferences. Stay there and continue to foster the splendid rivalries you've established there. Enjoy it. Have fun. Revel in the blessing you have by it. Treasure the education you are getting.

This is not hard.

But, well,

The love of money.

This evil has kept wiser heads from prevailing, and it is extraordinarily sorrowful. Trying too hard to make everyone happy, you know, with all the monnnney... they are destroying their sport. Huh, I seem to remember a story about the Golden Goose.

All of this has seeped into the NFL, as well, just be virtue of how they are making their money and their attitude towards it. It's making its way into all of high-level organized sports, highlighted by all the gruesome "woke" stuff that still permeates everything. It does seem like they are dialing all that back a bit, but until they've all completely disavowed any and all "LGBTQ" kinds of things and anything like it, it will still be infected with the money rot and alienate even more fans than they already have.

Alas.

Our Chiefs.

It will get to a point when, should this keep up, my attention to even the Chiefs will wane, especially if and when they are not doing so well. Right now it doesn't seem as if the NFL is suffering much, I mean at least there is a critical mass of fans who really get off on hating the Chiefs for their wild success. That's actually a really cool thing about this Chiefs golden age. You know it.

But yeah, where is all this going...

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The image was clipped from a recent Sporting News item. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Browns - Week 14 - Record: 13-1

Yet again I can't not blog right now here at the beginning of the 2nd period. And yet again I ask the question.

What the ::mnnnph:: is wrong with our offense?

Yes, it could be a good Browns defense, give credit and all the rest of it.

But dang.

We are just getting nothing. We've had five series so far, and we've got a touchdown but that was the series that started deep in Browns territory after a muffed punt recovery. Otherwise we've punted four times, with an effective three-&-out every time -- I think we did get one 1st down on the first play in one of those. 

All I'm watching is what I was so aghast watching in the Chargers game last week. We're running the ball well enough, but when it comes time to pass -- here all set up for us with something of a good running attack -- Mahomes is just throwing the ball wherever.

Really.

Really -- what is up with that? Our receivers? Our tackles? Mahomes just not being so good before he must perform that patented magic show late in the game? Guh? Right now it is raining so that may be some of it.

Funny, the Browns do have Myles Garrett, if you don't remember, he was the guy who was the first pick of that 2017 draft that delivered us Patrick Mahomes at No. 10. He is still very good.

And as we watch this game right now, the Chiefs are deciding to do what we've all been screaming them to do: RUN - THE - FOOTBALL. Worthy just had a nice sweep run. Hunt and Pacheco are taking care of business. And sure enough, Patrick: back to pass... nothing, nothing, nothing, refusing now to just throw the ball nowhere - and he sprints through the line to get a 1st down.

We just got our first 3rd down conversion here with six minutes left in the half for a team that has been excellent at converting 3rd down. Whaddya gotta do with this team.

Annnd... Touchdown. Finally. Running the ball does wonders.

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Now I've zipped down to the end of the game. We finally closed this one out. 

There at the beginning of the 4th quarter holding a 21-7 lead it was clear Mahomes had to pass the ball out of the fine play of our running game. If he didn't, they just key on our running game. That was really what started to happen. Our running game started getting stuffed, and Mahomes was still failing to get the ball to our receivers. Yep, it started to look like the beginning of this game. Lots of three-&-outs or just getting slogged down simply because Patrick could not make those connections.

In fact, at the beginning of that 4th quarter he was 15-32 for 128. Horrible. I mean that is just pathetic for a team like this. Again... what - is - up - with - that.

Patrick's last play of the game in the middle of the 4th was a futile jump pass, and it resulted in an injury to his foot. He did get absolutely plastered on that play, it was ugly. But I was thinking, huh, that amazing jump pass completion he made to Xavier late in the Chargers game last week, probably the most important play of that game, it was truly a Mahomes magic play.

But did that in some way give him the incentive to try that kind of stuff more often? Is this wise? After all he's now out and we must all wonder about the extent of his injury.

And just plain why is he feeling like he must be Superman back there? What is the deal with him just stepping back, calmly scanning the field, and firing it right into the hands of our very capable receivers? Why aren't we doing that? 

Carson Wentz came in, and with just under four minutes left of game time and needing just a single first down to really salt this one away, made two straight completions, to Hopkins then Worthy, to get that key 1st down with just under four minutes left. I'm not saying for two seconds we should think about putting Carson in if Mahomes is good to go, but dang. really, can I say it?...

We've got this regular season. It is ours. We may even get the No. 1 seed, that'd be very nice. But here's the thing...

I know...  Scandalous. Sacrilege. Heresy...

How about giving Mahomes a rest next week. Let his foot heal if indeed it is only something like that -- just hoping it isn't anything worse. Let a very capable and very healthy and rested Carson Wentz practice to the hilt this week and play the entire game next week. 

As it is we got tremendous help from a mostly stagnant Browns offense along with a whopping six takeaways and five sacks from our defense.

But yeah, here we are 14 games into the season and we've just got to stay healthy and be ready for the playoffs. Chamarri Connor looked like he got clocked pretty good. Other key players are nursing injuries. Even a previously injured Harrison Butker missed a gimme field goal today.

And this was the first of three games over the course of eleven days, the next two against two of the best teams in the conference, the Texans and Steelers. This is brutal. Again, the key question...

How about just resting Patrick Saturday? No matter what? Give him a nice recovery rest, to refresh, to renew, to restore, to recapture his game?

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Annnd then there's this. Just saw this a bit after posting here. I can't neglect to share it because it comes from a guy pretty well-versed in all this.

I have shared it before, but here it is well-considered from someone else. How many others? Who else is really looking at this and wondering... feeling exasperated... Really...

Who else considers the problem is not our tackles, or receivers, or the other team just suddenly having a world-class defense, or anything but... ahem...

Is there even a remotely possible chance I will have the overwhelmingly compelling desire to write another "The Exasperating Reid" post? How can that be when, really: Scoreboard, baby. He wins, baby. He's gotten the Chiefs three Super Bowls in the last five years, baby.

What to do with that?...

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The photo of JuJu scoring our 1st TD of the game is from Mikayla Schlosser at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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

Okay, since it is a late it is time to start this blog post. And even though it is merely the closing minutes of the 3rd quarter, this game is yet again way too aggravating.

This Chiefs team is a good team. It is. Its offense is incredibly potent.

But it looks like a limp noodle. 

The comparison: The Chargers are looking sharp, running the ball well with imaginatively arranged running plays. Herbert is looking sharp, stepping back, taking his time, and throwing strikes.

Meanwhile...

It all started when Mahomes threw a wide-open right-in-his-hands short pass to some guy I've never seen before who was playing tight end. He drops it. You've had to have been playing football for at least some time being a receiver of some sort where your only job during the week is to practice catching passes. Here is your only moment, you're in the NFL, and you drop the ball.

The whole thing with our offense isn't just on this poor guy in one play. It is all of them. It is what I mentioned in my takes from the last game: unimaginative play-calling by Andy Reid and our coaching staff taking advantage of the skill we've got on the field. Our tackles are still not playing great, but Mahomes has plenty of time to step back and fire the ball down the field. 

Our first four drives got us bupkis. This team should have been up 28-0. After that time we were only up 6-0. Our last possession of the 1st half was a nifty Mahomes-to-Hopkins laser pass, catch, and dive into the end zone. I can't deny that the Chargers do have one of the top defenses in the NFL, so credit must be given there. At the half it was 13-0. 

Then the Chargers went off. I realized in the middle of this they don't even have their really good RB JK Dobbins or their really good WR Ladd McConkey. And they still torched us for two touchdowns. 

And then on offense to start the 4th quarter? We matriculated well only because of Isiah Pacheco. Then Trey Smith got a cheesy helmet-butting personal foul call to set us back and we had to settle for a field goal. Truly truly truly exasperating, this team. When Isiah's not pounding the rock, Mahomes is throwing the ball everywhere but into receivers' hands. 

This should not be happening.

I'm finding myself screaming at our fine QB like I screamed at Alex Smith any instance just before he got sacked. Remember those times? "Throw - the - ball. Throwtheballdownthefield!" This whole game so far: Herbert throwing the ball right to his receivers, Mahomes looking totally flummoxed. Sorry. Again...

This is not just our offensive tackle play.

So here we are with 4 minutes left and the Chargers have the 17-16 lead. It's nice to see if the Mahomes magic show will be a spectacular one yet again, but yet again, why does it come down to this?

Why, Andy Reid?

Why when this offense should have us up at least 35-17?

Yep, start with two dinky incompletions. That's great, just great. But on 3rd down Mahomes did a magic trick, scrambling and connecting with Xavier Worthy. 3 minutes and we now have the ball in FG range. 

I have to give credit to our coaching staff and Mahomes for this. The television guys just broke down that last running play, here a bit before the 2-minute warning, pointing out that they took care of business to get Isiah untracked to chew clock, get 1st downs.

Mahomes then pulled another rabbit from his hat, avoiding a sure tackle and hitting Kelce for another of those clutch 1st downs.

Now I don't get this. We have the ball at about the 15, and certainly can run the clock down to 0:01, but we're just kneeling until we try the game-winning FG. Why don't we try to score a touchdown? Why not just at least run the ball to try?

For one, this is just so disrespectful. Sorry, but I'd be ticked off if I were the Chargers. Yes, I do know it is much safer to just kneel a couple of times, but the thing is our field goal attempt may not go. While Matthew Wright has actually been very good so far, there is never any guarantee we make it.

Well, turns out our relief kicker banged his attempt off the left upright -- the ball getting through anyway. I'm watching this as the ball sails wide left going, yep, I knew it -- what in the world are these guys thinking out there.

But just like that game in I believe 2016 against the Broncos, that OT win when Cairo Santos did exactly the same thing and the announcer at the time, Mike Tirico, the same one for this game, bellowed "Off the upright, and in!" -- we could breath again.

We did end up winning. Still...

There is one thing to say about this hair-raising affair.

Errrrrrghckghckrrrghck.

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The photo is from Andrew Mather at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 11-1 - Monday Take

One more take, here on a Monday. Please check out my Sunday Take, it has much more on the current state of our Kansas City Chiefs.

But yeah, I just really wanted to add a couple of quick things, all of it related to the penalties situation with the Chiefs and NFL football as a whole.

First of all I caught this in one of my social media feeds:

So there you go. A reasonable explanation from the NFL front office that the officials did not miss that last call. Again, it isn't just that it rescued the Chiefs, but it is an instance when your thoroughly messing up shouldn't bail you out. 

And then this brief note here real quick after watching some of this NFL football not-the-Chiefs and seeing some of the social media posts put up about the day's action.

I am even more certain of the value of the things I shared in my Panthers game post, and that is here for you to link to it. For review:

1. Get more officiating from "New York." Meaning get officials with monitors to make calls from the 360-degree vision we all have watching on TV, helping out the refs on the field whose vision is just so limited. 

2. Insist on hands off eligible receivers (and defenders for that matter) from the time the play starts. Maybe it's okay within that five-yards, but I'm even thinking even starting the rule from scrimmage: No jostling, slapping, pushing, bumping, or any touching at all. None. Yes, that means no more "You can manhandle them up to five yards out." See if the receiver can run good routes and the QB can connect. See if the D-backs can make good plays on the ball. And any defensive breakaway violations puts the ball at the opponent's one, 1st-&-goal.

3. Any player, offense or defense, who is flagged for this twice is ejected from the game. Well, okay, maybe give them three times, but have some limit. 

Again, much help from the booth with officials looking at monitors makes this viable.

The main point: Let the players make plays. Stop, please stop with the incessantly thrown flags or having us behold silly plays that deserve flags but don't get them because the on-field refs just can't see them well enough. Send that message loud and clear so the players know they've got to make plays and not commit penalties.

Let's enjoy a mostly penalty-free game again.

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Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 11-1 - Sunday Take

We aren't playing today because we played in a rare Friday-after-Thanksgiving game.

Since then a couple things came to mind I can share as I do some lazy Sunday game-watching.

First, the Chiefs got very lucky on the very last Raiders play that should have been a nothing-burger just before they bang through the game-winning field goal. As I watched that play unfold, the one in which they bungled the snap and lost the ball to the Chiefs yet were flagged for illegal procedure, I did think what I'm sure pundits mentioned afterwards -- a thought I have not seen shared because I don't want to look. 

I just don't want to see any more about how lucky the Chiefs are or how much their wins are rigged in their favor. I'm sick of that.

Anyway, I did think what I think a lot of others thought.

How come the play wasn't blown dead before the Chiefs benefitted from a fumble recovery to seal their win? If it was illegal procedure, then isn't it the case the Raiders would've been penalized the five yards and then just kicked the GW from there? I wondered.

I will add that I was very very very pleased the play was ruled the way it was. And one simple reason I do think it was justified, is that why should the Raiders mess up so horribly, get a penalty and then benefit from their mess-up by being given a chance to win the game? I actually thought, huh, maybe the rule is if you do indeed eff things up like the Raiders did -- penalty, mess-up, fumble -- you simply don't get the benefit of your messing up providing you the opportunity to win.

If it had happened to the Chiefs, I'd be horrifically disappointed, and I'd probably whine a bit about the rule inconsistency, but still, I'd be resigned to our fate for that exact reason.

We effed up. Why should we get a chance to win by benefitting from it? We got ours.

In the meantime, that whole episode doesn't do us good, because again, we get everyone blapping loudly about how we don't deserve to be 11-1.

That leads to the second thing I thought about. And that is simply

This team is actually really good.

I may be wrong. This team may, in reality, at its core, be much worse than we think. It may indeed be much more reflective of a team that should be more like 6-5 if it didn't have all the breaks it's had. Or maybe we just need to accept we're playing other NFL teams that can be pretty danged good themselves, no shame in that.

On the other hand, if you really look at all those games there is no reason to assume those breaks got us to 11-1. For a particular example of an instance, that Ravens' Isaiah Likely toe-on-the-endline almost-TD reception at the end of regulation would've only tied that 1st game of the season given the went for a one-point PAT. Generally speaking, how many other times did we win simply because Mahomes & Co. were that good and because of that they could turn a close one into a win. 

And that's the main thing. I just think the team's exceptional quality of talent is making the Chiefs. To wit:

Mahomes. Nuff said.

Our receiving crew has Travis Kelce and a coming-of-age Noah Gray, but it has added DeAndre Hopkins who has been nothing short of phenomenal. JuJu has been playing well, Xavier even better, and just wait until we get Hollywood in there. And everyone seems to forget very reliable Justin Watson, who, if you by chance should remember, was the only Chiefs touchdown-getter in the game Friday.

Our running game got a big boost with Isiah returning but it was doing well enough with Kareem saving things a few weeks ago. Samaje Perine has also been extraordinarily serviceable.

Our O-line consists of what is widely considered the best interior line group in the NFL: Joe, Creed, and Trey. If they do their jobs, Isiah and Kareem should be fine.

That leaves our tackles. 

I'm not going to say Wanya is this or Jawaan is that, except that we all know they aren't playing the best football. But here's the thing. Here's my question...

The Chiefs are THAT bad barely winning games JUST because of our TACKLES? REALLY?

Yes we all know they aren't playing well. But please. With all those other bona fide pro-bowlers -- every single one of those people I mentioned such -- the Chiefs are a bad team just getting lucky?

Oh my.

So what's the solution? What's really going on?

The whole looking to DJ Humphries slotted in at left tackle may seem like a brilliant season-saving move, but I'm not so sanguine. We've seen this movie before, remember our Super Bowl against the Buccaneers? We had a patch-work O-line that really hurt us, but remember, Patrick played lights out. We lost that game much because our receivers were dropping all kinds of passes, and, this is the key, we didn't have a real game plan to cover for those deficiencies.

And you know what that means.

Andy Reid.

I'm sorry, but so far we definitely should have won more of those games by more than one score. This team is too good to have this many close games. But if you look at these games, you'll see that we're messing up just too many times -- we're just not making the plays we should to put many more hammers down.

Is a good amount of that the fault of our poor tackle play? Sure. But then, with everyone else we have in there, that's the only thing that is to blame? We're bad because we have bad tackles when we have an offense full of pro-bowlers?

Please.

Sorry, but again, and I hate to say it, but that is on Andy Reid. It isn't just that we mess up too much, but our mess-ups are the result of some head-shaking unimaginative play-calling or plays run that had no business being run at those times. How many times do you see that? Be honest. It's a lot. It's happened before, we cringe watching the Chiefs run a play it seems the other team knows is going to be run.

Where is the fun, wild, daring Andy Reid that we've been blessed to enjoy over the past several years? Where is the misdirection, the fake-outs, even the goofy plays he's plucked from the 1947 Rose Bowl team? Have you noticed? They're totally missing from this year's team. 

I believe people hate this year's version of the Chiefs not so much because they believe them so wickedly lucky or feed their theories of bribed officials, but because they are just so boring. Yes, D-Hop has been making some stunning catches and Travis and his after-catch laterals are amazing, but other than that, what are we doing that's special -- that's getting us to show we mean business out there not only making our fans proud but impressing detractors?

I'm not saying at all we have to try to win with gimmicks. Not at all. In fact that's the point. We have some of the best players in the NFL who can do the winning for us. It's just they must be given better opportunities for their play to shine, our poor tackle play notwithstanding. 

Here's a great example: what happened to getting Mecole or Xavier doing jet sweeps? Even if it is a "jet sweep option" at least you're freezing the defense. Sorry but we've been seeing none of that lately. Why?

I've heard some say Andy's waiting for the right moment to spring all that on us. He may, and if he wins another Super Bowl doing that -- well, great. But I also think, why wait? Why not just give us your best now -- and strategically make the other team's players overthink, wonder, play on their heels?

Andy, how about being dominant right now with this amazing offense you have, and yes, make adjustments for tackles who may not be playing that great? 

We play the Chargers on prime-time next Sunday night. They're a solid team, with an excellent quarterback and strong defense, and are now coached by a dude who'll take no prisoners.

If our coaching staff isn't about working to kick ass instead of futzing around and thinking our tackle problems can just take the heat, look out. This could be an embarrassment.

One more thing. I haven't said a thing about our defense, but I think we have more issues there than just losing Jaylen Watson -- something that has seemed to devastate our D-backfield. Our run defense seems to be much softer than it was last year, and our pass rush is average at best.

What is weird is (back to the offense for a sec) I'm watching the Rams-Saints game and they just showed a graphic: after catching a TD pass for the Saints, Marques Valdez-Scantling had his fourth in four games.

Whudddd?

Are - you - kidding - me?

He never played like that for the Chiefs. While he did have some fine games, especially the AFC Title game against the Bengals two years ago, it seems he is way better than we ever thought he was. In fact, I'm watching DeMarcus Robinson play lights out for the Rams... annnd... 

Can you see where I'm going with this?

Even with the Chiefs I'd always been high on D-Rob, but, well, he just never got untracked. Why? MVS also, why couldn't he show us what he had?

Was it these guys, or was it...

Uggghh...

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The posted photo is from Tyler McFarland at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

Raiders at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 11-1

Okay I really can't wait to ferociously blap about this game. Yes, I know there've been a dozen times it seems in recent years when the Chiefs go down early to the Raiders and come back to win comfortably.

But as I feel the need to type this out here about half-way through the 2nd quarter, since I've got a lazy Friday to enjoy Chiefs football while the wife is out shopping with other family, I can't help but be again extraordinarily perplexed.

So far what we've all witnessed was a Chiefs offense that is playing about as impotently as it can. With the exception of Travis Kelce, everyone has been caw-caw. Mahomes is missing open receivers. Our receivers are not getting open and when the ball is put in range of catching they either give up on it or just drop it. Our running game is non-existent, even with the vaunted Isiah Pacheco back in there.

The Raiders' offense, on the other hand, is far less able than the Chiefs' offense, but they're making plays. They're running around like the proverbial Chinese fire-drill dudes but they're still matriculating. They're just making the fine plays they need to make, particularly by their receiver Jacoby Myers. Just now their 2nd-string QB was running for his life and flung the ball wildly whereupon their strong new TE swept under the ball to make the grab. And their running game they've been saying is the worst in the NFL? They've been chewing up yards like they're the best. Whudd?...

On defense we're just not making the plays. Now I see Nick Bolton not make an interception he should have made -- but hey, their really good kicker didn't make the long FG. ::Whew::

But why a bunch of ::Whew::s. How is this looking kinda like that nightmare last year on Christmas, that tremendously silly loss to Raiders at Arrowhead when the team just farted around the whole game against a woefully inferior team and lost. Remember after the middle of the 2nd quarter in that game, their QB, the same one playing in this game, completed zero passes.

It is kinda looking the same this time.

Let's see. It is now almost the end of the 1st half and we do have the ball at midfield... annnd...

Bam. There you go, a good, nice, Mahomes-slip-away-from-the-rush long completion to Noah Gray. The question now is, will we finish. Will this actually pretty decent team get the touchdown here. Will Andy Reid dial up some plays that get the job done?... Um...

Well, okay, but it seemed much more of the patented Kelce no-look catch-&-lateral to Perine to get that 1st down. Super neat. And then FINALLY, the floating pass to Watson at the side of the end zone who makes a terrific hold-on-to-the-ball catch. And the replay: just that Mahomes got clobbered from his left forcing him to make that pass across his body as he went down.

Wow. That's truly part of the amazingness of this dude, that he can kinda suck for a few plays but if he has one chance to make a truly spectacular, very necessary, quite astonishing big-time play, he does.

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Okay, that was it with my 1st-half venting. Now the game is over. We won.

But uggh.

There was one thing that was very pronounced about this game.

It was far too painful to have to endure. Not just at the very the end but the whole thing.

We had two chances to put this away late in the game. With six minutes left we had the ball, up 19-17, three-&-out. With two minutes left we had it again at midfield after a very fortunate missed Raiders long FG attempt, again three-&-out. But really, it should have never come down to that. Really, there are so many things wrong with the Chiefs, and actually right with the way the Raiders played today.

That last-second mess-up-snap fumble recovery to save our asses when they were in easy FG range not withstanding. 

The Raiders, a clearly far inferior team, just played better. They played with the intention of making the plays they needed to make. They are, after all, an NFL team. Their new tight end is the next Travis Kelce, and he played lights out for them.

The Chiefs showed the whole country that they cannot win a game with the offensive tackle play they have and without the defensive backfield play they need. 

The Raiders also won the game in the trenches just like they did last year. The TV guys kept saying over and over and over again the Raiders were the worst rushing team in the league. Except they outran us 2-to-1. Derrp. Add to this our pass rush is just not the best. Chris Jones and George Karlaftis had some decent stops, but it is just not getting enough pressure on the QB. Double derrp.

Mahomes was frustrated not making the plays he can make with the pocket not as securely protected as it should be. He was sacked five times AGAIN today -- remember last week he was sacked five times, by the Panthers. When he is ready D.J. Humphries can't help but help over there at left tackle. I really think the Chiefs thought that really good-looking draft pick Kingsley Suamataia was going to step right in and be the second coming of Anthony Munoz. That he wasn't by miles has really hurt us.

Even when he had protection Mahomes was just missing, missing, and missing again. Our receivers did not help -- while they did make some fine plays, too many other times they just never got open, made some drops, or simply made poor attempts to get up and get that ball.

Meanwhile their QB was set up for success from his coaching staff. Step back, throw the ball to the spot, and let the receivers do their jobs in the routes he knows they're running. Our defensive backfield certainly helped them out. They gave up big play after big play to Raiders receivers who weren't going to mess up.

We just didn't seem to care enough on offense to make the plays or on defense to stop them.

This Chiefs team should have won going away, really, 30-7. At least. But again, maybe, really just maybe those deficiencies at tackle and the inabilities to replace Jaylen Watson are just far too glaring.

As it is we're assured of a playoff spot. 

But dang.

This kind of effort won't get it done against, coming up...

The Chargers.

The Texans.

The Steelers.

And yes, nowadays, the Broncos.

And and and...

Whatever playoff teams we'll face.

Last year after that horrific Christmas Day Raiders debacle, we ran the table, most notably against very very very good Bills Ravens and Niners teams to win it all. 

Will we keep that phenomenally unprecedented run going for the three-peat?

Errrgmpf.

Not playing like this.

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The photo is from Kyle Rivas at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Panthers - Week 12 - Record: 10-1

Over the course of the week following the Buffalo loss everyone was blaming someone. Even Brett Veach got the treatment for just not making the right picks in the draft. Please. How many times have other teams' GMs not picked the Creed Humphreys and Trey Smiths of the team before the Chiefs got them.

But I am now officially concerned. What is going on with this team? I do think, however, about the many times the Chiefs have had grave disappointments mid-season but we've come back and been amazing. And I didn't think the Carolina game would be a pushover game by any means.

Still I do think our injuries have hurt us more than we think. I truly believe the biggest loss was that of Rashee Rice. It didn't help that we lost Marquise Brown after the very first play of the preseason.

On the other hand, picking up DeAndre Hopkins was a coup, and getting Noah Gray (another fine Veach draft selection) in the mix have helped a ton, especially in this game. Of course Kareem Hunt has been a godsend, but as we all know he simply cannot carry the whole load. He's got to be exhausted with how much we've been giving him the rock.

I am also concerned about Andy Reid -- it just seems he's gotten back to being too conservative with his play-calling especially late in a game. Come on, you've got Mahomes, and D-Hop, and Kareem and Samaje for great screen action, and Gray who'd been great today, and Travis, and...

Putting the hammer down like we should? Today we were up 20-6, and again later in the game 27-16 -- annnd we let them back in it.

Why is Patrick getting sacked at any point in this game, like he did twice when we could have put the game away with just a few minutes left? And once during the drive before that putting us out of FG range? You really want to blame our tackles? Again, please. Sorry, but that is on Andy. He can do it, he always has -- he can make plays that work.

And defensively? By the time the 4th quarter got going -- Carolina had six possessions and got five scores each time? They stormed down the field late and got the TD and 2-point conversion they needed to tie it. One could easily make the argument that the loss of Jaylen Watson to injury was the most impactful. I wouldn't argue against that, actually. It seems to be really hard to find good solid cover guys, and when you get a major gouge in your secondary it can be very bad.

Thing is, with less than a minute left and the ball, Patrick did rescue us from all this by making a spectacular scrambling run for 30-something yards to get us safely in FG range to snatch up this win.

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I wanted to take a moment to share some thoughts about all the penalties. It does seem like every other play includes some yellow flag thrown. Too many penalties just makes the games drag. We can easily say it is the players' fault for just not following the rules and doing bad things on the field causing all the flags.

Particularly troubling are the flags thrown for passing and catching plays, namely those pass interferences and holding calls on pass defenders. One of the problems is the interpretations of what those are, and really, half the time you wonder. Either it was so blatant but not called, or it was barely anything and it was called. (And yes, the Chiefs don't get favored with those kinds of calls, especially in today's game...)

One pundit, I think it was Trey Wingo, pointed out in a social media post that the officials on the field are seeing the game in a linear fashion, while we are all watching in 360 degree digital. Absolutely. Somewhere else it was pointed out that the Chiefs had been asking for more attention from officials "in the sky" for some time. They are just starting to get around to doing that, and yes, just getting the call correct.

But it isn't enough. I really think there should be changes in the rules with regards to the passing game on the field. Consider the following.

After five yards off the line, defenders cannot touch at all any eligible receiver. No touching at all, meaning no jostling, no hands lifted up on the body in any way. If it is incidental such as the receiver happens to touch the defender while on his route that can be allowed, but really, for the most part: 

HANDS OFF. 

Totally. No reaching out or touching the opposing player, on either side. Don't even bump the player before the ball arrives unless you are clearly in a position to play the ball.

If you don't keep off, it is a penalty.

It may be said this will increase penalties. Hold on, just a minute. There is more.

The penalty should be much more severe, in a number of ways.

One, get the "interpretation" from the official in the booth, or in New York, or wherever. Again, let the people who see the game on the monitor from the 360 perspective make the call. Communication technology is so advanced officials on the field can get word when there is really a penalty.

Two, if a receiver has gone past the defender and he is PI'ed or held, put the ball at the one yard-line. This is kind-of the same as the breakaway rule in the NBA for a player clear to make a dunk and he is impeded deliberately to keep him from scoring. This should prevent all the contact that mess with the big explosive pass plays we all like to see.

Three, the one that I think will do the most to empower the players to not commit the penalties we are so tired of seeing: if a player gets flagged for two such fouls, they are ejected from the game. I know this sounds excessive, but if you want the players to be incentivized to not make those penalties on those pass plays, then mean business about it. Again, take a page from the NBA. Players there must take a seat if they commit too many fouls. Let's do this in the NFL. In fact, it would be much easier for them to just back off and play the passed ball.

Just play the game.

It may be said "But so many scores will be 57-54!"

Awesome. What is wrong with that? As it is too many games are 10-6, defenses are too unnecessarily aggressive, they get away with too much, and penalty flags fly left and right. If your defenders are good, they'll play the ball, not impede the receivers. If your players are smart and good enough, they'll play with the best they can bring and not commit stupid penalties costing their teams games when they get ejected for them.

And really, this applies to offensive linemen holding. This actually helps the defenses! The number of times I see offensive linemen hold and it isn't called. On the other hand, stop calling phantom holds, like the Chiefs got last week in the Bills game. Critical holding call against us helped them in a major way when the D-lineman was really just flopping.

Hey, more attention to doing it right and proving your football athleticism, I'm all for. In a very real sense, that is what we really want to see out there.

We definitely want to see way fewer penalty flags.

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The photograph is by Sam Lutz at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Bills - Week 11 - Record: 9-1

As much as we own the Bills in the postseason, they own us in the regular season. We lost to them yet again, this loss ending our perfect season record and 15-game winning streak.

Not going to get much into this one, except to note that we still really should have won this game. My own concern was with the defense, especially in the 2nd half when we've traditionally activated the halftime adjustment plan and put the hammer down.

Today we did the patented Spags blitzing way too much, because their fine QB Josh Allen was killing us when we did it. Halfway through that half I was screaming at Spags to stop blitzing. But he kept doing it. And we kept getting beat. Hey, I'd've been great with them rushing three for that matter with a shadow just to force him into some of those errant throws he'll always make at some critical time.

And that run he made for the dagger TD late in the game. What was with Nick Bolton totally whiffing on that? Sure it'd've been nice for us to stop them on that 4th-&-2 play, but wow, Allen had no business doing that. 

I know many will say Patrick had an off day, and he did, really, but mention must be made of the amazing Mahomes TD throw to Noah Gray for his 2nd TD. If you watch the replay he threw a bullet whizzing past three Bills defenders to the back corner of the end zone while running full-speed to his right with a pass rusher a millisecond from pulverizing him. Look at how he threw the ball. Just more of the kind of QB we've got there.

No worries. Let's just see what happens when it really counts in January.

Good thing about this one is simply we got that loss out of the way, we did lose to a very good team, and it is again an opportunity to regroup and address the things that went poorly for us today. At 9-1? We are still so much in the driver's seat.

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Broncos at Chiefs - Week 10 - Record: 9-0

When the Chiefs failed to score a touchdown down around the Broncos' 5 with a little over five minutes left I knew we were in trouble. It'd've been nice with a mere FG and a 16-14 lead for our defense to clamp down on the Broncos' defense just like they had throughout the 2nd half, employing the patented Spags surprise blitz packages at just right moments. The Broncos could not cope with any of that, yet here at the end of the game they were matriculating just fine to get into game-winning FG range.

So getting it all the way down to one second left to make sure there weren't the two seconds making it easier for Mahomes to go 60 yards for Butker to come back at them for the Chiefs game-winner, the Broncos lined up for the gimme FG until the Chiefs did something that only championship teams do.

They actually played as ferociously as needed to block the kick.

Which they did.

Peeking around briefly at the social media posts related to this event I saw many of the standard blaps, including "The refs are Chiefs fans" over and over. Yeah, whatever.

But this one stood out.

"The Chiefs hate is about to be at record levels."

So much fun.

Thing is, the Chiefs should never have gotten down to having to do that. There is no reason in the world they shouldn't have scored a couple more touchdowns today. Granted the Broncos defense is really pretty good -- not neglecting to give them all the credit they deserve. But all I heard this week was how DeAndre Hopkins was going to make it impossible for an opponent to keep the Chiefs from scoring touchdowns in the red zone.

Um, yeah.

It is really good, however, that since Hopkins got here Kelce has been reanimated. Today he had eight catches and a nifty touchdown. Thing is, we can't get JuJu and Hollywood back soon enough. The Chiefs just can't seem to get it going with Xavier Worthy who had a number of targets but only caught one pass. It wasn't even that D-Hop wasn't good, he was, he had four fine grabs on the day. The other WRs? Iggh.

We also can't keep running the ball going to the well too much with Kareem Hunt. As well as he's done so far he needs a break sometimes. They're stuffing him and when he's getting a breather there is no one else to go to. We ran the ball only 16 times today and only Carson Steele got other carries, two total. Eee-yee. So yeah, Isiah Pacheco can't return soon enough, and hey, where is CEH? 

So yeah, this one might have been one to be okay with getting a loss and taking the pressure off the whole "being undefeated" thing. Not that I don't want the Chiefs to win the next 57 million straight.

But it was nice to see them still sell-out to block that Broncos game-winning kick. Just says we are the championship team we are.

All haters welcome.

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The image is simply a video screenshot of the television broadcast of the blocked field goal.

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Buccaneers at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 8-0

Another primetime game. Ho-hum. Well, actually, it can't be any better. I can't help but think of the too many lean years when the Chiefs never saw a nationally televised evening game. This one is also on ABC, and that is nice as it is precisely where the traditional Monday Night Football game experience should be -- meaning it is not just on cable.

Since I can blog and watch this thing unfold at the same time I'm just going to track our drives with the score posted after each one. Make it simple tonight in a game we should win, but then... yeah...

1st drive - We moved the ball well, getting it nicely to Travis Kelce. We finally throw the ball deep and a wide-open Worthy near the goal line can't adjust and not go out of bounds on a sure TD. On 3rd down Mahomes lets himself get sacked to keep us from any points. We punt. 0-0.

2nd drive - We moved the ball well again this time with DeAndre Hopkins making the plays. Then we try a double-reverse to Worthy but an unblocked defender messes it up.  Big loss. We must settle for field goal. 3-0.

3rd drive - Matriculated well again. This time Justin Watson is the key receiver. A swing pass to Worthy goes nowhere -- just seems Worthy is playing like a rookie tonight. But then, DeAndre Hopkins. Dang. As Mahomes is getting hammered he drops a deep pass into Hopkins' breadbasket around three defenders. Then the TD pass to Hopkins in the back of the end zone. Dang what we're seeing from this guy is truly something the Chiefs have not had at wide receiver. He is looking like the future Hall-of-Famer that he is. 10-7.

4th drive - With two minutes left in the 1st half we started okay, but, well, turnovers. At midfield with a minute left Kelce had the ball knocked loose. Bucs recovered. 10-7.

5th drive - We got the ball once again but now with :30 left. Got nothin'. Halftime 10-7 us.

6th drive - Now in 2nd half, 1st possession. Fat zero. Three-&-out. Mahomes was totally flummoxed. Bucs just making plays tonight, on both offense and defense. 10-14.

7th drive - Worked Kareem Hunt much more. Also started raining more heavily. Matriculated well, yet again. Got down to 3rd-&-goal and Mahomes magic happened again with a run to the line-of-scrimmage then a quick flip to Perine for the TD. 17-17.

Except the magic came at a price.

Mahomes tossed that ball awkwardly, landing weird on his left leg, and it looked bad. He was helped across the field to the Chiefs sideline, but it did appear he straightened up when he got there, walking decently. At the time of this writing right this minute we have no idea what happened.

After the commercial break we saw that he came out of the medical tent and jogged along the sideline. Oh my. Apparently it was just an aggravation of the left ankle issue he'd been having. Major ::whew::

8th drive - Mahomes back in there, doing decent matriculating. Hunt getting called upon a lot again, and what a runner. He finds creases wonderfully. Thing is they simply don't take advantage of that workload, employing more play action off Hunt's success. But with about 4:00 left we get the pop slant at the goal line to who else, the guy who's going to for-sure make the clutch catch, D-Hop. 24-17.

9th drive - Now we have the seven-point lead with 2:30 left. It is pouring rain, and it is funny that the greatest downpour during an NFL game happened back on the last game of the 1979 season when, you guessed it, the Chiefs played the Bucs in Tampa. Thing is now we're just giving hand-offs to Hunt and they are predictably stuffing him. The only thing that really does is get the Bucs to burn timeouts. Yep. Erggh: Three-&-out.

10th drive - After the Bucs drove right down the field to score a game-tying TD -- something we could have done -- actually just run some decent plays on that drive just before to at least try to get some 1st downs -- derrp, we were left with :30 to try to get down to try to win it. We did squat. Had to punt to take the game to OT. 24-24.

11th drive - We get the ball to start OT. Matriculating the ball really well yet again. Now we're mixing it up brilliantly. Showing different looks -- giving it to Hunt sometimes, getting it to D-Hop, Travis other times.

Finally.

From the one, give to Kareem and he powers his way into the end zone.

Thuh end.

Still undefeated. 8-0. Now holding a 14-game winning streak, longest ever in Chiefs history. Before the game I happened to catch the odds for an undefeated season at 4%, and with the win tonight that goes up to 8%. That's pretty amazing actually -- just fun that it's even there. No big deal if we lose one though, take the pressure off really. Tonight it was pretty close to being the one.

Except this one should not have been this close. The Bucs were without their two best WRs, but give them credit, their other guys actually played extremely well. We kept messing up too many times. Even though Patrick did not have a pick for the first time in, how many games? It's been a few. 

Still there were too many things we did that got us derailed against what they said was a pretty weak pass defense. Again, kudos to them, their pass rush was stout, their heart was fully in it, their offense messed with our defense quite effectively -- I mean I watched our defense just get taken like it never had before.

But then for the Chiefs, what an addition is D-Hop. I honestly do not think we win this game without him, and we just got him a week-&-a-half ago. Yeah, I can only echo what so many are thinking -- they even mentioned it on the broadcast tonight, "It just isn't fair."

All good for us.

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The photo is by Sam Lutz  at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Raiders - Week 8 - Record: 7-0

The big news this week was that Brett worked out a sweet deal to bring in DeAndre Hopkins. Just a couple years ago he was definitely one of the elite wideouts in the league, let's hope he still has something meaningful to give us on our grand quest. Sure enough he got that deep out route on our third play of the game to get a clutch 1st down on our way to our first touchdown.

This is one of the great things about the Chiefs right now. With Andy Reid we've developed such a phenomenal culture of excellence and winning that these kinds of players want to come here. It seems like every year we work out bringing in somebody or even somebodies to give us that extra lift. This year there have been a few: Kareem and JuJu and Mecole, all again, and now D-Hop. 

The first half was fine, we actually got a TD, then forced the Raiders into a nice 3-&-out, and could zip down and bang through a FG to make it 17-10.

But then the 2nd half started and it was bad. A drop, a bunch of penalties (poor Wanya Morris -- we do have an issue at left tackle, I think), and the Raiders were in business. Fortunately they could only manage a FG, and when a tipped Mahomes pass dropped into their laps and they had the ball right next to the goal line, our D put together a super nice goal line stand.

No Raider points at all.

On offense our superior interior line -- you know, just like Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, it is now Thuney-&-Humphrey-&-Smith (and if you don't know the late 1900s Cubs infielder reference, look it up) -- along with the pounding of Kareem Hunt enabled us to chew clock throughout the second half and keep the Raiders offense off the field. Our 3rd down efficiency is also pretty danged great -- I know we take it for granted that whenever there is a 3rd down and within 10 yards to go there's a pretty good chance we're going to get it.

Travis Kelce had a game, and the word is D-Hop really helps opens things up for him.

As usual, the latest on Mahomes success against AFC West teams -- he's now 32-5 against them. This stat is just phenomenal in a parity-overwhelmed NFL.

Thing is we lost Nazeeh Johnson to a concussion and he may be out for a while, making us very thin at the corners. Brett then addressed that need today (remember I'm posting this on Monday) by rushing out and trading for a pretty good edge rusher from the Patriots.

Guh? Why not an actual cornerback?

Really, it is because if your pass rush is extra ferocious, it makes the coverage guys' jobs easier. Yes, we've already got a pretty danged good front seven, but Brett is thinking fresh legs -- so critically important when you've really got to stop an opposing offense that is working it, getting good chunk yardage, staying on the field and make things difficult late in a close game.

Our D is slowly being considered elite, and it is because of Brett's emphasis on getting the best D guys he can, as well as Spags' amazing game planning and later adjustments.

Next up major revenge action against the Buccaneers!

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The photo is from Sam Lutz at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.

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Chiefs at Raiders - Week 8 - Record: 7-0

For the first time in his career Patrick Mahomes is starting a season 7-0! Let's keep this train rolling!

Thing is, a lot happening today, so I'm not able to pound out a post tonight. I will tomorrow! See you then!

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