Broncos at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 7-5

I never do my blog during a game. Well, not never, but rarely. But I'm starting this here in the 1st quarter, because, well, I have work early tomorrow. And I will preface all this with this: I will never give up on my team, ever. There is still lots of time left for the malevolent forces of the universe to be turned back for once and the Chiefs to overcome the curse once and for all. Maybe it will happen here in the 2nd quarter of this game. I hope. I always do, no matter what. But for now...

The Horse Curse is alive and well.

I did actually think we'd do well in this game. I actually thought we'd have a chance, that we'd have to beat an aging Peyton Manning sometime, that a banged up Broncos team would give us a little bit more of an edge.

Not.

Right now we're down 14-0, and it hasn't even been that close. Two three-&-outs for us, two slices right through our melted butter defense for them. We have an agile, mobile, smart quarterback who hasn't done squat. They have a quarterback who can't move an inch with his legs, but completes passes at will. Whoever Peyton Manning is against everyone else, he's twenty times as good against us. Third-and-long? He's just toying with us.

Thing is, this has less to do with Smith vs. Manning as it does with their O-line vs. ours. Their O-line is sharp, strong, and beating the tar out of us. They have a third-string running back in there who's running up and down the field, and it's because they're executing with an O-line that is, well, it is obvious. Let's give them their due.

It is also their wide receivers vs. ours. Don't laugh now, but the distinction is somewhat comical. Sure, we don't throw the ball, and it's not just because our pass protection is for crap tonight, but because our receivers just aren't up to the quality of Denver's, by light years. I hope and hope and hope and hope we can still be meaningful on the pro football field this year without wide receivers even remotely close to Denver's -- I hope and hope and hope...

Oh, and yeah, make that now three three-&-outs. Denver's resumed carving up the leftover turkey. The 2nd quarter has just started.

What happened to this team that beat New England and Seattle? Was it because those teams just had really down efforts those games to give us the terribly false impression that the Chiefs were anything? We looked very poor against the Raiders and I actually thought we'd step it up this time, make those corrections, play well and, yeah, even win this one. Show the league that we're for real.

But damn.

In fact, I noticed today the Raiders lost 52-0 to the Rams, who we also hammered. That's very scary. The Raiders beat us, but then they get utterly blasted today. Were we that bad against this woeful Raiders team?

Well here, we're not just bad but stupid. The Broncos just ran a fake punt for a first down. How do we let that happen? We missed a tackle there also, and really, we've been missing tackles all night.

They keep showing us that they've got this special "six-linemen" set. It works because we simply can't play eight guys up to defend the run, because Manning and his receivers are so good.

Thing is, the Broncos being banged up? Sorry, but it is really hard for us to get it done without Derrick Johnson, Mike Devito, Larry Allen, Eric Berry, and a host of other good players we have out for the season. Yes, all teams have their injuries, which says something else. The Broncos are just really good at getting the most from the players they have. As great as it is to have Andy Reid and his coaching staff, they just look completely overmatched by this team.

The Horse Curse is a mean mnnkin nfnkkll...

Ahh, just looking forward to the day when we can beat the Broncos with a team that's good enough to be destined for authentic Super Bowl contention. Yeah, it happened all the time in the '60's. Guess we're being punished for that now -- in the AFL's early years I think we went 25-2 against Denver head-to-head, go ahead and look it up, it's something like that. Now I'm pretty sure Denver has caught up to us, at least close to us -- through the awful Kansas City '70's, the strong Denver '80's, we did play Denver okay in the 90's, but since then it's still been pretty much all Denver...

::Sigh::

But then, I have faith.

Some day that curse will end. It will.

Oh, we got a first down! Awright! And right after that Jamaal got positive yardage! Awright!!!

And wow! Jamaal gets a clutch 4th down run! Then a long pass to Kelce, then a touchdown pass to Fasano! Yaaay! We do have a couple of decent tight ends! Coo-ell!

Second half starts, and YES. Houston gets to Manning and forces the fumble deep in Broncos territory. In fact the color guy announcing says what we've all been thinking when facing Manning, if we can just get to him after he waits that one more second, we'll stop him.

And now, derrck. On third down Smith does his awkward throw to Bowe who awkwardly tries to catch it, with predictable results. This just isn't Manning to Thomas. It just isn't.

By the way, just looking here at that Broncos-Chiefs head-to-head history. Know that great Thanksgiving night win we had against Denver in 2006? Just a few weeks before Lamar Hunt passed away? That inaugural NFL Network game we won 19-10? It was a terrific win, one we needed and helped us later get into the playoffs by virtue of that miraculous New Year's Eve course of events.

That win was four victories over Denver ago. Just four. Since 2006. We've beaten Denver only four times since that game. Denver's already beaten us five straight times since we last beat them at the end of the 2011 season. Errrgh...

So yeah, it's now 20-10, not an insurmountable lead, but damn. We just can't keep them from getting 1st downs. Their O-line is just killing us. We're still not tackling.

Still hoping still hoping still hoping...

Urgg. After we stop them, they get an interception off a batted ball high in the air, deep in our territory. That's nice. We get a nice turnover early on, but they get one back here. Unlike those fine Chiefs teams of, say, the '90's, we are not being helped by the turnover this year. We stink at that. But then, I never want to rely on that. Turnovers are nice, but we've got to be good. We just need to be better than the other team.

But you know? Our pass defense has actually been doing a pretty decent job here against Manning. 'Course it's now 3rd-&-eight, sooo... Hmm! Manning misfires, and they have to go for the FG. Okaaay...

But, grahhh... what's with that. Alex Smith does a play action thing on 3rd down at midfield and the Broncos just stuff it. I mean that play wasn't even funny. It looks as if they know what we're doing. That curse is gruesome, it just makes it so the opponent's players have this extra sense. Figures.

Now we've lost Allen Bailey. But then, great play on a third down play by Phillip Gaines. We're doing okay with our pass defense against Manning, we really are.

Buuutttttt, what am I thinking. On another punt play by them, one of our guys accidentally, barely touches the punt down the field so the Broncos get it again deep in our territory. Ahem, curse. What am I thinking.

Damn it I'm sick of this crap.

Sometime it's going to end. Sometime it's going to end. Sometime it's going to end. I just know it...

Now it's the 4th quarter, when we've been pretty beast this year. Time for the fine comeback. I'm up for it. Smith's just completed two fine passes. We're down 26-10 but there's time.

Hoping hoping hoping...

Avent, then Kelce, now Bowe. My wife just said, "We should've been playing like this since the beginning..." What a crack-up. Now Smith runs for a 1st down... Oh, and that's nice, Von Miller just barrels into the back of Smith with his helmet to get the personal foul call. That's nice.

Oh yeah, take that. Smith comes back to throw a touchdown pass to Jamaal who stays on his feet to shoot into the endzone. 26-16. Still lots of time. Our pass defense has been doing well against Manning and his receivers, can we keep it up?

Nah. We still can't stop their run. They're back to carving us up. They've run for 200 yards, so, yeah, not having Johnson, Devito, and Berry is bad, very bad. Their O-line is still playing well. Oh well. And ya know, even though we are doing okay against Manning's passing game, we're still not getting picks. We have just got to intercept a ball here and there.

And Conner Barth kicks another FG. That's nice, another former Chief, just like Succop kicking a bunch of FG's against us in that first game against the Titans. That's nice. That's just like the curse, just like it.

And more curse: sure we're down by too much, but a blatant Denver pass interference isn't called, then we get a penalty against us for delay of game. Can't say the refs aren't a nifty part of the curse.

And a nice pass to Avent, then Avery, then the completely gratuitous fumble, and... yeah.

Nckkkgk. That's it. Done deal.

As it is, we'll just have to hope for another 2006, the way this is looking. We're suddenly at 7-5, seemingly out of it, really not as good as we should be, umm... What else?

Amazingly they just showed the latest playoff qualification picture. We're still in the mix with a bunch of other 7-5 teams. Maybe we'll win a couple more games and get into the playoffs, maybe. We still have to face Arizona, Pittsburgh, and a phenomenally clutch San Diego who as you know is a vibrant part of the Horse Curse. Whew.

So, yeah. It'll end some day.

Maybe...

Just maybe...

It'll end soon.
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