49ers at Chiefs - Super Bowl LVIII - The Take

I have been peeking around at things people have been saying about this Super Bowl, and I could make remarks about a dozen of them. I may, I may not.

What I do want to do here is remark about a piece over at Arrowhead Pride from a guy who's essentially saying because he couldn't figure out how the Chiefs could be any good earlier in the season, and because they did end up winning the Super Bowl anyway, that anything related to analytics is worthless.

Sorry, what a misguided take. It isn't the analytics that are wrong, it is how they are interpreted and what people presume about them.

For instance the Chiefs receivers were doing poorly in the regular season because they dropped a lot of passes. What does this mean? It may just mean a difference of winning a couple more games or beating opponents by more if they did make those catches. But it may mean nothing about their overall ability to come through when they needed to such as in postseason action. Those earlier instances may have just been uncharacteristic of them and liabilities that could be easily overcome.

The key to winning is doing what you're good at for sustained periods of time. Sometimes the talent you have on your team doesn't get it done, we all have bad days. The worst teams sometimes beat the best teams because on a given gameday their skill sets come through more often and the better team's doesn't.

Patrick Mahomes isn't miles ahead of other quarterbacks, he's really only slightly ahead. This may be news to many people who believe him to be the GOAT. Oh I do agree he is the GOAT, even over Brady. But that helps make the case. Brady messed up way more than Mahomes ever did (and not because he had more years to mess up), yet Brady got so many lucky breaks to keep his teams in games that he had the advantage of executing his excellent play when he otherwise wouldn't've if, say, again, that Chargers defensive back hadn't foolishly fumbled when the Patriots were beaten in that one playoff game.

The best take advantage of those things. You can look at the most spectacular highlight reel plays from any quarterback, and Mahomes has more because he is indeed better, but it is mostly because he has the ability to make a play even one more time than the next guy. That one-more-time is the difference between a Super Bowl championship and your team dumped into the second-tier power rankings.

With all the punditry and analytics and all the rest of it, it does really come down to two things required for an NFL team to win. It has always been this way no matter what the numbers say or what people blap about.

Those two things:

One, your quarterback.

Two, your defense.

I could add things like "Thuh End," or "Period," or "Mic Drop," sure.

But these do need elaboration, mostly related to what I just shared.

In this Super Bowl the Chiefs made mistakes. Their fine running back fumbled, but so did theirs, really, and each time nothing happened as a result except both teams lost scoring opportunities. Mahomes threw a terrible interception, but again, the Niners could not capitalize. We even had a bad dropped pass... and yet, after all the bad things, our guys had the talent to just make that one-more-play.

I'd heard some say the Niners failure to convert those two critical 3rd downs (one just before the end of regulation and the other in overtime) was because they didn't get the ball to their players. They just wanted to run a particular play that worked. Again, terribly misguided.

Just getting the ball to Christian McCaffrey wasn't a guarantee only because the Chiefs defense had stepped up their game in the 2nd half and were regularly stuffing him. The point is, the Chiefs defense was generally very good, and playing even better in the 2nd half. I did hear people give them credit, justifiably so, but again we have to remember that it isn't that it was anything other than it was that one-more-play better. 

In the game our best defensive players did get pushed around, beaten for touchdowns, all of that. And yes, in some ways the game did turn on very critical single plays, such as the blocked PAT and the muffed punt. 

But that is largely the point. Just like the whole insanely-charmed Tom Brady factor, when those things happen for your team as they did for the Chiefs last night, does your team have the Got-It factor that enables them -- whether from their raw talent or their intense desire or their football intelligence or their fine preparation or any combination of those things -- to get that one-more-play that the other team cannot get.

And that is why you must do all the things the Chiefs organization has done so well in getting those kinds of players (and coaches and front office personnel) on board with their professional football efforts. As much as we admire the Mahomeses and Kelces and Reids and yes, sorry, again, my favorite Chief Brett Veach for having the genius ability to get those guys and assemble the team as it is now, they are really not that much better than any of the other excellent players and personnel on other NFL teams working hard to win.

It is funny, just how much all those other teams are now racking their brains trying to figure out how to replicate what the Chiefs are doing. That's great. The truth is there is just not any ethereal formula for how it works. Every team is doing their best to form their version of this organism we like to call The Chiefs Kingdom. Yeah we've got a Patrick Mahomes, but someday there'll be someone who will be just as good, or better. That's great. That's what makes the whole pro football thing fun.

But for right now?

The Chiefs are the ones who are simply one-more-play better.

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The photo of Patrick Mahomes is from David Gray at the official Chiefs website. Thank you. The photo of Brett Veach is from David Eulitt at Getty Images. Thank you.

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CHIEFS SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS YET AGAIN!

Well, we are officially now a dynasty. They all said if the Chiefs won tonight, they'd be a dynasty. Well, we won. As usual there are a million things that can be said about this game, and so far I'm sure all the pundits in every corner of the broadcasting world and across the cybersphere have already touched on most of it.

I'm not going to say anything right now because it is late, but I do want to make one remark about the two most critical plays of the game in my view. I think many others share this.

With two minutes left the Niners had the ball in field goal range and faced a 3rd down. If they made that 1st down, the game would've been over. The Niners could have just let the clock run down and kick the game-winning field goal with no time left for the Chiefs to do anything in response.

But the Chiefs D held. On 4th down the Niners had to kick that field goal and lament having to leave enough time for Mahomes and company to march down the field and kick their own game-tying FG to send the contest into overtime. This is precisely what happened.

That was major defensive stop No. 1.

In OT the Niners got the ball first and did their own methodical march down the field, and with the new postseason overtime rules in effect whereupon both teams get a possession no matter what happens with the score, the Niners could have scored a touchdown to make it difficult for the Chiefs to have to match it or fail altogether handing the win to the Niners. 

So, with a 3rd down again in the red zone Niners QB Brock Purdy went back to pass and could have thrown an easy touchdown pass to the open receiver in the right flat, but the pass rush was so ferocious -- I'm pretty sure it was Chris Jones yet again -- that he had to ditch his pass.

4th down. Niners FG. This meant the Chiefs could go down and at worst kick a game-tying FG. But at the very best they could score the game-winning touchdown. 

This is precisely what happened.

Those two defensive plays were the ones. Just like it happened for much of the year, when the Chiefs were successful they had an adjusted, adapted, and just plain more robust defensive effort as the game wore on, and sure enough, that precise thing happened in this one.

Those two defensive stops on plays that could have led to certain game-winners for the Niners were stuffed by our D, enabling the Chiefs to become, yes, in the voice the late great John Facenda...

WORLD CHAMPIONS OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL!

I'm certainly thinking about blogging more at some later time, but for tonight...

Chiefs Kingdom rocks!

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

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Super Bowl Chiefs Sunday!

It blows my mind that we do indeed get to do this whole thing again. To put on our Chiefs jerseys and jackets, load up all the Chiefs pennants and chips bowls, and head out to our watch parties and enjoy our beloved team vying yet again for the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL. 

In fact, when I wrote those words did you hear John Facenda's voice saying them? I did.

Most excellently fun.

Anyway, we're off to the wife's cousin's place where, as I shared in my last post, as Rams and Cowboys fans they'll be rooting against the Niners as intensely as we'll be rooting for the Chiefs. I don't know when I'll pound out a post-Super-Bowl post here, but in the meantime, just one note I thought about.

Everyone knows about our inadequate wide receiver play over the regular season, something that did pick up a bit during the playoffs, fortunately. The one receiver who you really couldn't say anything against over that time was our fine rookie, Rashee Rice. While everyone has been raving about Travis (for good reason) as well as his stratospherically electric relationship with Taylor (also understandable reason), I just haven't seen much about Rashee. Maybe that's a good thing, maybe that'll keep him focused on the game as such a young player in the biggest spotlight.

Just this one note, however. Remember what school he came from.

Southern Methodist. 

Remember too, this was the very beloved alma mater of Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, as well his son and current Chiefs owner Clark!

Just sayin.'

GO CHIEFS!

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The photo is from Rob Carr at Getty Images. Thank you.

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Super Bowl Preview - 49ers at Chiefs

Not going to spend a lot of time analyzing all of this to death. It always comes back around to this simple truth.

If the Chiefs don't have some crazy-ass stupid thing happen to them at the most inopportune time, they will win.

Period.

The main reason is shown in the posted image, one I clipped from a fine video a guy did about the worst drafting NFL team since 2012. The video was mostly about that particular team (the Jets) and its epic drafting failures, but right at the beginning he showed the graphic related to what it takes to have a championship team.

Thus, the Chiefs.

That we have Patrick Mahomes who simply refuses to lose and a defense that is not overwhelmingly muscular but is very skilled and extraordinarily strategic. Really, if you have a quarterback like we do and a defense like we do, as long as proper business is carried out, we have nothing to worry about.

(And I love how one of the featured key players in the graphic is our fine punter. Definitely though, Tommy Townsend is fantastic, he should get the credit he deserves!)

The game is played in Las Vegas, and the only thing that is splendid about that is it is the new Raiders home. How sweet is that, the Chiefs are playing in the Super Bowl on the Raiders home turf. Ahhh... Nice...

The thing that is very bad is this, yet another article describing the wretched problems with gambling into which the NFL has embroiled itself. Yeah it makes sense. So many get interested in the thing when they can bet on it, and the NFL tried to get a piece of that action by making quite specious relationships with the Draft Kings and Fan Duels and the Bet MGMs and all the things that makes Vegas just the most splandacularly spliniferous place anywhere.

Excccept... there's their part in destroying the lives of all those they've encouraged to hand over rent money because they just have to bet the over. There are all the questionable relationships among players and other NFL personnel with the nefarious elements who can easily give them a call, text, poke, anything that compromises the integrity of the game.

Yeah, I so want my Chiefs to win, be a dynasty, be "America's Team," engender the fandom of every person on the planet, be the greatest anything of all athletic endeavors in all time, space, and dimension -- all the rest of it. 

But wow.

The gambling associations, the alcohol promotions, the racialist browbeating, the unchecked promiscuity of many of the athletes, the ugly vulgarity spewed everywhere -- so many facets of the game just make it so difficult to fully champion.

I'll be watching with family, it'll be fun. I'll be proudly sporting my Mahomes jersey with some of my favorite people, several of whom are Rams fans or Cowboys fans who'd like nothing other than to see Patrick take apart the 49ers defense. That'll make it extra fun, for sure. So yeah...

Just got to keep it in perspective, and no matter what be proud of what Clark, Brett, Andy, and the rest of the major players in the Chiefs Kingdom have done to work as hard and as well as they have, simply be an inspiration. Maybe that's just the best thing of all in this, and hopefully those good things will be the best Chiefs thing there could be.

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Chiefs at Ravens - AFC Championship Win - The Take

Nkay, here's the game, based on my notes. My considerations are peppered throughout.

After a first three-&-out the Ravens offensive line did start to mean business. The Ravens were not bad on the ground, but then as the game progressed they really abandoned their bread-&-butter, their running game. Some of that may have been the Chiefs staying ahead of the Ravens on the scoreboard for the entire game, but that is no excuse for Harbaugh to give up on it too soon.

Of course, the Chiefs defensive line became more stout as the game wore on, and as far as our pass defense went, we kept the Ravens to a single field goal after their first early touchdown. Three factors: One, Spags' game plan (extra pressure on a passing Lamar Jackson), two, a solid pass rush (collected a few significant sacks), and three, the masterful play of our secondary.

McDuffie, Reid, Sneed, Conner, Williams, Watson, Bush -- all on rails today.

The Ravens' first turnover was a strip sack fumble by Charles Omenihu. Concern for him emerged when he went out later with a knee injury -- he's been terrific on our D-line. The Ravens had two other turnovers, both critical to keep the Ravens from winning. 

Mahomes and Kelce in particular were their typical excellent selves in the first half, scoring a touchdown and making critical connections, one of which was Mahomes throwing a last-second duck before going down -- Kelce snatching just-off-the-turf to make the key 1st down play.

Thing is, with a nice lead Mahomes worked hard to keep Jackson off the field by managing the game trying to do what other teams want to do to the Chiefs -- keep Mahomes off the field. My fear was I started to see something here that was really annoying in last year's Super Bowl, and it happened with great frequency: Creed Humphrey's snaps. They were again really crappy. Over and over Mahomes had to pick the ball off his feet, and in the Super Bowl this year that has got to get cleaned up.

At one point Jackson had a pass batted up high in the air and as much as we're all hoping for an interception, instead Jackson split the defenders and caught it himself then ran for good yardage. That's nice. A perfectly fine play to remind us all of that Marcus Mariota touchdown in that 2017 playoff game loss to the Titans. A bit later, though, we did stop the Ravens offense.

Back with the ball in Mahomes hands, the Ravens' defense started playing with more fervor, but too often it was too much fervor. They started to rack up dumb penalties, the one of note here was their No. 98 lineman just cold-cocking Mahomes in the head, then when he went down dropping his 300-pound body on top of him. He was justifiably penalized, but if the Ravens played with some decency they'd have had a much better chance of winning.

Just before the half we matriculated the ball down the field enough for a field goal making the score 17-7. I'm sure most watching were stunned by the score. I made note of what television announcer Tony Romo said, something that will definitely be a Chiefs meme as we head to the Super Bowl.

"Mahomes is showing them, don't make me an underdog..."

After the second half started it was clear that the Chiefs defense made adjustments to further throttle Jackson. One post I saw about this game was that the 2007 Patriots and 2023 Ravens were historically great teams. (The Ravens this year clobbered good teams all year long... clobbered them, scores of 56-21, every other game.) In both teams' last postseason games they each scored 17 points, and were beaten by... wait for it...

Steve Spagnuolo.

It looked like the Ravens would get right back into the game when Jackson hit Zay Flowers on a medium crossing route and he dived into the end zone. Looked like a touchdown, until we all watched the ball squirt into the endzone. Trent McDuffie jumped on it, and we all wondered -- ahh, was that a fumble? Did he actually fumble it before he got across the goal line?

Sure enough, replays show -- he did. What a critical play by L'Jarius Sneed with the punch-out a half-yard from the Ravens TD. 

As the 4th Quarter progressed Mahomes was working valiantly to manage the game. Keep the clock moving even though the Ravens were playing ferocious defense. Again often enough the Ravens were playing too ferociously earning penalties that really hurt them. There was another roughing the passer call against a Ravens guys who hammered Mahomes with a helmet-to-helmet.

Our special teams were terrific, and one of their best plays was a Tommy Townsend punt downed at the Ravens one.

The Ravens started moving the ball, though, and yes, there were a couple pass plays that were really close PIs on the Chiefs. Joshua Williams tugged pretty good on Odell Beckham Jr's arm on a deep miss, and on a Deon Bush interception in the end zone that should have never left Jackson's hand we got a decent push on their guy at the back of the end zone right when the pick was made.

There was enough static about the officiating going unfairly against the Ravens, and there sure are a lot of people thinking the NFLers are favoring the Chiefs because of the Taylor Swift attention the Chiefs are getting. But the officiating? It was actually pretty even, indeed even going against an overly aggressive Ravens team but that was all easily justified. 

The Ravens managed to get a field goal to get within one score, but in the end that was all she wrote. On 3rd down just before the two-minute warning Mahomes threw a perfectly dropped medium-deep ball that -- ta-da! -- Marquez Valdes-Scantling caught to seal the win.

MVS has been excoriated for his not-so-great play this season, but remember last year's AFC Championship Game against the Bengals? He balled out when we needed it the most. Tonight he caught just two passes, but this one as he was falling down secured the win for us.

Overall, it was certainly Mahomes and our defense, but we got exceptional work from our O-line, our solid back Isiah Pacheco, of course Travis Kelce, our special teams, and our fine coaching led by the master. 

That defensive effort in all these critical games? It can't be denied that Brett Veach reeeally concentrating on drafting defensive players has paid tremendous dividends.

And one last thing for now. Just thinking about all those playoff disappointments because there was just that feeling that the Chiefs just didn't have enough got-it to close the deal.

Well, whaddya think of us now?!

On to yet more Super Bowl glory!

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

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Chiefs at Ravens - AFC Championship Win

Remember that horrific Sunday morning in January 2018? Remember how it felt knowing the Chiefs lost for that umpteenth time in the playoffs to a clearly inferior team? Remember how much you were hoping it would be different, but that it just seemed to be a distant ridiculously fantastical daydream that would ever happen?

Well, wake up.

The Chiefs have shown today they are definitely the most dominant team in the NFL. They made mince meat of an exceptionally good Ravens team with a ferocious pass rush, an aggressive secondary, Pacheco's patent grinding, and just enough excellent play from Patrick, Travis, and his receivers to win this one.

There is more but we've got stuff to do right now!

Fun Chiefs playoff winning! The best!

More to come!

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AFC Championship Game - Chiefs at Ravens - Preview

It is literally five minutes until game time, so this preview post won't be long.

As it is the line went from -3 for the Ravens earlier in the week to -5, so it seems the people with skin in this one don't have much confidence in the Chiefs.

A major key is the injuries. We've lost left guard Joe Thuney, and this is majorly critical. We will also be without Willie Gay and Derrick Nnadi, extremely critical to stop a fine Ravens running game highlighted by Lamar Jackson's insane scrambling ability. The Ravens, meanwhile, are relatively healthy, with only nagging injuries to a D-back and their excellent tight end Mark Andrews who's playing after being out for several games.

So yeah, this game is definitely a "In Mahomes -- and our decent defense -- we trust" game.

Being the team who is considered not-as-good as the other team, maybe we'll get a break in this one and steal a win as we'd been victims of being the better team and still losing so many times. 71, 90, 94, 95, 97, 03, 13, 16, 17, and 21 were all years we were better than the other team in the playoff match-up we lost that season.

Game-time!

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Chiefs at Bills - Divisional Playoff Game Win - The Take, Part II

"Patrick Mahomes is inevitable."

This was the entire substance of a widely reposted tweet put out shortly after the Chiefs win on Sunday. It does pretty much say everything, since everyone was all talk about how Mahomes had never played a road playoff game in his already illustrious career, and then he went and took care of business in Buffalo.

One of the best of those myriad factoids related to his phenomenal success is that the Chiefs have now won two playoff games in five straight seasons, an NFL record. Shall we? 19: Texans & Titans (and more!); 20: Browns & Bills; 21: Steelers & Bills; 22: Jaguars & Bengals (and more!); 23: Dolphins & Bills (so far!) Yet again, just a joy to enjoy after eons of crushing playoff one-&-outs.

I have to add a couple more things here quickly, and I may add some more in another post.

One, after Mecole Hardman fumbled the ball into the end zone resulting in a touchback for the Bills, this ding-dong idea that the NFL must change this rule started to get some legs yet again. Please, this is a fully ding-dong idea. I hope the NFL doesn't listen to these idiots bleating "The punishment is too severe for just fumbling the ball into the end zone." I'm very afraid the NFL will bend and the game will be bastardized even further.

It is simple.

Don't fumble the ball into the end zone. If you want to score a touchdown make sure you hang on to the ball all the way to the goal line. It just isn't any harder than that. If you drop it along the way, and that ball should somehow bounce out of the end zone without recovery by either team, then too bad. You messed up. You lose.

Just

Don't fumble the ball into the end zone.

The other thing I wanted to add here was a note related to the fans who were posting threats to the Bills kicker moving him to delete his social media account. I'd made mention of how decent fans should be responding to the game and its players, and while that all still holds, I do want to add real quick that this doesn't mean we can't feel it when things go poorly for our teams.

I've done it quite often, and quite expressively in this blog effort. I've sometimes allowed myself to become a bit too enraged about what happens out there in the football world with the Chiefs. I even do somewhat regret being so critical of this team, particularly its leadership. In the middle of the 2017 season I had the worst takes on both what Alex Smith was doing on the field and what Andy Reid was doing on the sidelines. There're others I could mention.

Those were just my feelings and my posting about those feelings. I've done it in any number of other ways too. Even quite recently! I still rail against the things the NFL is doing and who they're associating with. They had just announced this Chiefs-Bills game was the most watched playoff game ever. Doesn't that mean the NFLers like Patrick Mahomes et al? I still feel, however, that the NFLers know it'd have been even better if Mahomes were on the Jets or Patriots.

Sure, this is a bit of a me-too post about how much fans can get too absorbed in all of this. What if Reid and company were not as successful as they've been? Would I still be raging at them? I can't say I wouldn't, and that to me is shameful in some ways. A key point in all of this is that it wouldn't be worth it to involve ourselves in this often quite silly thing pro-football-team-fandom if it doesn't involve deep feelings one way or the other.

Does this justify posting threats against disfavored players? Of course not, as I mentioned yesterday.

But I also know that it can be far too consuming, which is a large part of why I really work hard to be sports celibate. I know it isn't perfect, but I know I can go too far in demonstrating those things of the flesh and of the world addressed in that fifth letter to the Galatians: "...jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition..." Yes, this can be me, as it can any other sports fan, as they relate to their team and anything they think will assuage their insecurities.

The answer is Jesus Christ. Our security can indeed be found in Him, the One who's already won. Too many times we want our good-feels to come from somewhere else, but they can only really come from Him, and as we put our trust in His provision of all good things, then, voila, those good things do come.

I found it interesting that there are instances when the Chiefs players pray, I believe they did so in the locker room after the game Sunday, but no one ever widely shows those things. Many players on other teams do the same, of course. I noted that Ravens head coach Jim Harbaugh even shared a Bible verse as he started his postgame presser after the Texans game.

Wow. Nice to see so many of them lead with biblical principles and comport themselves appropriately. Yeah, no player is perfect, I'm not perfect either in as much as I may blog with a robust censure of imperfect people who threaten others on social media. That's the law, yes, it is there, and it is actually a good thing, but blessed be our Lord who gave His life so we could be free from any of that ugliness and live victoriously, all the time, in Him.

Thanks for letting me share that.

Until next time...

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

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Chiefs at Bills - Divisional Playoff Game Win - The Take, Part I

Okay let's start right off with this. I can't not mention how stupid too many pro football fans can be. In fact I will tell you straight away, one of the main reasons I do a relatively decent job of being "sports celibate" -- this means I watch or hear or read about zero sports items as long as my innate sports radar doesn't somehow pick something up -- is because of one of the most loathsome things anywhere in any media: the regular sports fan guy sports commentary show. 92% of the time their sports takes are just flat-out idiotic. And most of any of their on-air time is spent blithering about ridiculously pointless stuff.

::Click::

Eons ago.

The thing about the regular sports fan guy is way too often he does something as supremely idiotic as post social media threats against the athlete they think ruined their lives by -- in the Buffalo Bills kicker's instance -- missing a critical kick late in a playoff game. The Bills kicker Tyler Bass today closed his social media account because of the overwhelming number of threats made against him. I don't know how many made threats, I'm sure most Bills fans are pretty decent people, but however many threats there were is absolutely inexcusable.

Really, anyone who does that should be arrested and prosecuted, I'm sorry. This is absolute lunacy, it is, criminally so. I don't care if Harrison Butker misses a kick my five-year old granddaughter could make losing the Chiefs' 57th straight playoff game all of which featured already-blown 31-0 leads, I am not going to have anything to do with Harrison Butker except cheer him on nonetheless.

I do not know him. There is no reason for me to think or feel anything about anything he does on the football field. I have ZERO relationship with him and have ZERO privilege to say anything to him in any platform anywhere anyhow.

This is besides the fact that I respect every Chiefs player for just giving his all for my favorite team. Every fan should have the same consideration for every player on their favorite team. Again, I know most do, but... yikes.

This is all besides the very simple fact that when Bass missed the game-tying field goal, there was about 1:40 left on the game clock. You know, I really wish he had made that kick, because then with the Chiefs getting the ball back, Patrick Mahomes could have taken the snap, dropped back to pass, and thrown an easy pick-six whereupon the Bills defender could then have fumbled the ball at the one-yard line, whereupon right guard Trey Smith would have scooped up the fumble and after rumbling about 40 yards running over Bills defenders flailing about trying to bring him down, lateraled it to left tackle Donovan Smith who then could rumble another 40 or so yards breaking tackles until he fumbles it to a Bills defender who then could streak back down the length of the field and could get close to the goal line until he fumbles it, whereupon the ball takes the craziest bounces eluding the grasp of every other Bills defender on the field until it skips and wobbles and spurts all the way back to the Bills endzone whereupon Patrick Mahomes backflips over four Bills linemen and lands in such a way that the ball gets stuck in his helmet faceguard for the game-clinching touchdown.

For you see, now Mr. Regular Sports Fan Guy Smart Ass has a whole bunch of Bills players to assault on social media, and I'm sure he's brave enough to call out every one of them who fumbled the ball and missed tackles and didn't make the play that needed to be made and definitely lost the game for his beloved pro football team.

Never mind that in reality the Chiefs defense in that 4th quarter just got the Bills throttled enough to keep them from making plays. How about threatening those two receivers on their social media sites, the ones who dropped those deep throws they really should have caught? How about threatening the Bills quarterback for missing a wide-open receiver in the end zone on that one key play? How about threatening every Bills player for just not scoring a whole bunch of touchdowns that you think they should have scored just so your pathetic life can have a couple of good-feels you can't get from being a decent human being to begin with?

Even if Bass makes that kick, in all serious reality, Mahomes has that 1:40 left in regulation to matriculate the ball downfield against a tired and depleted Bills defense, a very real possibility, and even if he does only get the Chiefs into field goal range, the Chiefs would be leaving it up to the leg of Harrison Butker, who, if you didn't notice, has been rails this year. And even if Butker misses, the worst both teams have is overtime.

So wow. Not only is the threatening thing just plain criminal for any reason, that they are doing it to this Bills kicker is plainly beyond wickedly stupid.

I would post more but that I got this down is enough for now -- I felt I just had to share this, and I hope others feel the same way.

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

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Chiefs at Bills - Divisional Playoff Game Win

Just a note to make the note that we held on to win this one, once again bringing tremendous heartache to the Bills and their fans. We're going on to our sixth straight AFC Championship Game. Amazing run, truly amazing.

Again we're out of town enjoying a weekend away. Not planning to blog right now, likely later. As it is we move on to Baltimore to play a phenomenally good Ravens team with their own fine defense and exceptional quarterback in Lamar Jackson.

More to come!

Meanwhile, GO CHIEFS!

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

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