The Kansas City Chiefs Game Today

2012-02-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

The Quarterback Project

I simply cannot stop thinking about how much the Chiefs have been destroyed through their many years of AFL-NFL play by not having a quarterback that they have drafted and developed. Because of this not-quite-so-consuming-as-it-seems obsession, I have taken some spare down-time to look a bit into the meaning of having that guy (or not having him as the most relevant case may be), and I have indeed come across some very interesting things.

First of all, back in October of 2008 after a game the Chiefs played against the Panthers, my blog post unofficially commenced The Quarterback Project when I discovered the extent to which a team truly must have a Hall-of-Fame caliber quarterback or you are just not going to have a chance to win the Super Bowl. Could your not-HOF QB get you there once and by chance your team wins it? Sure, but I discovered those instances are very rare and far between.

Here is that post, and I'm not going to repeat all the significant information here. I will say that since that post, I've slightly shifted a few of my considerations for who should be where. For instance, I've moved Peyton Manning up to the "Hall-of-Fame great" category, and while he and Tom Brady are still active, I don't think anyone could doubt they'll both be in the Hall. I also noticed a few of them are in the Hall but I don't have them at "10," but that's because I just don't think they rise to the greatness of that level -- people like Joe Namath and Bob Greise. Again, as I mention in the post, this is certainly up for debate, but I don't think anyone can argue with the general placement.

Anyway, here's that list again, updated for 2012: (* indicates still active)

10: (Hall-of-Fame great) Troy Aikman (3 Super Bowl wins all together), Terry Bradshaw (4), Tom Brady* (3), John Elway (2), Brett Favre (1), Peyton Manning* (1), Joe Montana (4), Roger Staubach (2), John Unitas (1), and Steve Young (1). 22 total Super Bowl wins among them.

9: (Hall-of-Fame great but not the greatest) Len Dawson, Jim Plunkett, Phil Simms, Bart Starr. 6 total Super Bowl wins.

8: (Near great) Drew Brees*, Eli Manning*, Kurt Warner. 4 total wins.

7: (Very good) Ben Roethlisberger*, Aaron Rodgers*, Joe Namath, Ken Stabler. 5 total wins.

6: (Good) Bob Griese, Jim McMahon, Joe Theismann, Mark Rypien, Doug Williams. 6 total wins.

5: (Average) Brad Johnson. 1 total win.

4: (Fair) Trent Dilfer, Jeff Hostetler. 2 total wins.

3: (Poor) No one

2: (Dirt poor) No one

1: (Worthless) No one

Once again, see the post for more qualifying info, but the main thrust of this post is the same as it is with all the others:

The Kansas City Chiefs.

Why haven't they even been in a Super Bowl since the merger? Since 1970? Since the last time they won the thing? Yes I am indeed very very very very very proud of them for that. But since then?

It has been abysmal. Let's face it. We've only even made the AFC Championship game once. Eeyralphh.

And the main main mainest answer of all?

They just haven't had that quarterback.

Now let me make this clear. There have been a number of quarterbacks that I have been extraordinarily proud to have lead our team. Don't get me wrong. Joe Montana is my favorite player of all time. Steve DeBerg's year in 1990 was, to me, one for the ages. Trent Green was brilliant for us, he really was. I could name a few others in several instances that just made a Chiefs fan proud. And I'm not even mentioning Len Dawson, but that almost goes without saying.

But here's the bazillion dollar question.

Do we actually want to win the Super Bowl or not?

So what I did to get some grasp of all this was to go through all the teams, just to see which team has had the worst time with drafting quarterbacks. Knowing about the Chiefs awful record of drafting and developing (D&D) quarterbacks of their own, I was sure they would be the worst. I found that indeed there were some other teams that were really, really bad with it, but after it is all said and done, I think I could confidently conclude that yes, indeed...

The Chiefs are the worst.

So, let's dive into The Quarteback Project and look at each team -- yes, I want to be exhaustive this time. Yes, all of this comprises my opinion, but I try really hard to align that opinion with the facts. If you disagree, let me know, fine, but I think you'll find that I do give the highest honor to the truth about things. And yes, if you are a resolute Chiefs fan, you'll probably need that resolve to sheild you from the ugliness that is about to follow.

What I'm doing here is looking at all the quarterbacks drafted from 1960 when the AFL came into existence and was considered sort of an unofficial starting point of the modern era. Sure, some will say it was 1958 with the Colts-Giants "Greatest Game Ever," but close enough. I'm then going to just look at those quarterbacks -- I really focused on those in the top three rounds -- as well as a few others of note selected from other rounds and see how many each team have actually received some pretty decent mileage from.

There are the very rare Tom Brady's, but they are extraordinarily rare. I should say that as I went over the list, I was kind of surprised by the number of highly drafted QB's all over the place who themselves were complete busts. That is not surprising, though, when you think that in any professional team athletic endeavor, some players will just emerge as better than others. The "bad" ones may not have necessarily been that bad at all, it is just that we pay more attention and award more accolades to the better ones. The fact remains, however, that if you aren't going to get a guy somewhere in the top three rounds, somewhere among the top 100 players coming from the college ranks each year, you aren't really serious about getting to the promised land. And even then it really should be from among the top ten or twenty players at that.

But again, what is each team's record for getting good play from their drafted and developed quarterbacks? Let's just do this alphabetically:

Arizona: They have had really only two good quarterbacks that they D&D'ed: Jim Hart and Neil Lomax. Hart was signed as a free agent and was pretty good for them through the 70's. Lomax (2nd round, 33rd overall) was a stud who I believe went to quite a few Pro Bowls. Matt Leinhart (1/10) and Kelly Stouffer (1/6) were their most notable busts.

Atlanta: This team was a beast with D&D'ing QB's, but they never got the best Falcons success from them. Matt Ryan (1/3) is their latest highly drafted guy, but he's been a bit disappointing. Their first solid D&D QB was Steve Bartkowski (1/1), who was terrific. Chris Miller (1/13) and Michael Vick (1/1) were also good QB's, and interestingly they drafted Brett Favre (2/33) and Matt Schaub (3/90) just before sending them elsewhere where they shined.

Baltimore: The main guy they got, they have, and who has always taken them far is Joe Flacco (1/18).

Buffalo: Jim Kelly (1/14) was their main guy, and they also did well with Joe Ferguson (3/57) early in the 70's, but he was known mostly for just handing the ball to O.J. Simpson.

Carolina: Their big prize is Cam Newton (1/1), who just finished a fantastic rookie season. That team already has their super D&D guy.

Chicago: Rex Grossman (1/22) got them to the Super Bowl in '06 -- in fact do you know that Grossman is the last QB for a Super Bowl team who is not on that list above? Way back in '06?! That is, the losing QB's in the last five Super Bowls have been Brady, Roethlisberger, Manning P, Warner, and Brady -- all on the list of already super Super Bowl-winning QB's. Doesn't this say something to the value of those QB's?! The Bears also had Jim McMahon (1/5), Jim Harbaugh (1/26) (for a while), and Bobby Douglass (2/41) who was known mostly for his great running ability.

Cincinnati: Andy Dalton (2/35) is their rookie who had a terrific year, but earlier they got wonderful work from Boomer Esiason (2/38) and Ken Anderson (3/67). Greg Cook (1/5) deserves mention because he was an amazing QB who had his bright career ended by an awful injury. Busts may include Carson Palmer (1/1) who hasn't really done what was expected (he's now on the Raiders) and does include Akili Smith (1/3).

Cleveland: Oh my oh my, who can forget Tim Couch (1/1) and Brady Quinn(1/22). Those two guys alone should make this the top worst QB D&D team, but sadly for them, in 1985 the Browns did get a splendid quarterback in Bernie Kosar, who practically abused the system to allow the Browns to get him through the supplemental draft. This team also got some decent play from Mike Phipps (1/3).

Dallas: Troy Aikman (1/1). Danny White (3/53). Roger Staubach (taken very low in the draft because his Naval commitment needed to be honored). Even Craig Morton did well for them.

Denver: One of the most revealing things The Quarterback Project has showed me was that when a team can get a super studly quarterback in the draft, they can actually use their high picks for the next several years to get guys that will help the team in other areas not quarterback. This was the case with the Broncos, who didn't draft John Elway (1/1), but it was as if they did because they plucked him right away from Indianapolis. He was so good for them that Denver didn't pick a high QB in the top rounds until '92, and even then, why? It was also very-not-so-great Tommy Maddox (1/25). Anyway, teams like the Broncos were so successful in large part because they truly could have that extra draft advantage for years. And I can't refuse to mention Tim Tebow (1/25), who for all the questions about his ability has still infused the NFL with a tremendous jolt of popularity.

Detroit: A poor QB drafting team to be sure (and their playoff record -- or non-record as the case may be -- demonstrates this). They still have Matthew Stafford (1/1) now, and he's been great when he's not been injured. They also got some decent play from Charlie Batch (2/60) and Greg Landry (1/11). Mention must be made of the whole Joey Harrington (1/3) mess that many believe belied his talent.

Green Bay: Aaron Rodgers (1/24), nuff said. Bart Starr was also a D&D'ed guy, and the Packers actually got good mileage from a number of lower drafted guys, like Don Majkowski.

Houston: David Carr (1/1) was their big pick-up, but he played for a woeful expansion team. They haven't really been around long enough to see how much a good D&D'ed guy would mean for them. This year low drafted T.J. Yates was their third string guy who came in when Matt Schaub and their second-string QB got injured, and he still led them into the playoffs.

Indianapolis: Peyton Manning (1/1), nuff said. In fact, (to say more) the Colts have not drafted a QB anywhere near high since he was picked in '98. No wonder they've done so well. I should add, though, that they did also get good play from Bert Jones (1/2) in the early 70's.

Jacksonville: This team is one of those that just didn't draft QB's high. I noticed New Orleans and Washington were other teams that just didn't do that. They did get a major bust with Byron Leftwich (1/7). Since they've only been around for, what, 17 years, the D&D range is very small. The first part of their history was taken up by expansion team pick-up Mark Brunell, who did great for them, and the second part by David Garrard who was a 4th round draft selection.

Kansas City: I'm going to save Kansas City for later. (Hey, why spoil all this fun looking at all these really good D&D'ed guys from allll the other teams?...)

Miami: Dan Marino (1/27), nuff said. Okay, I'm going to say more... and that more is Bob Greise (1/4). Nuff said now.

Minnesota: Fran Tarkenton is the obvious one, but you should also remember Tommy Kramer (1/27), who was a really good QB for them in the 70's, I think early 80's. Wade Wilson also did well for them, plucked in the eighth round. By the way, are you noticing how many guys who stay and are at least a little bit good are all first rounders? It kind of means something to have that one guy drop right into your hands in the the first round of the draft every once in a while, doesn't it?... (That whimper, just at the end of that statement, there, was from a Chiefs fan, by the way, just in case you didn't quite catch that...)

New England: Okay, do I have to say "Tom Brady, nuff said"? No, because I have to add Drew Bledsoe (1/1) (who still got them to the Super Bowl in '96), Tony Eason (1/15) (who got them there in '85), and Jim Plunkett who was a No. 1 overall pick who did okay in his rookie year but jettisoned only to eventually land in Oakland where he won two Super Bowls for the Raiders.

New Orleans: Archie Manning (1/2) was a phenomenal quarterback on a wretched Saints team.

New York Giants: They too have benefited from doing very well with drafting quarterbacks. Phil Simms (1/7) from '79 got them a long, long way. They picked Philip Rivers (1/4) in '04, but instantly traded him for Eli Manning (1/1) who's won them two Super Bowls. Hey, even Jeff Hostetler (3/59), who was a back-up his entire time with the Giants, got them their '90 Super Bowl win.

New York Jets: Sure many people think Mark Sanchez (1/5) should be better, but ya know? He's still gotten the Jets to two consecutive AFC championship games, in '09 and '10. Chad Pennington (1/18) was okay, but Ken O'Brien (1/24) was even better. I also think Richard Todd (1/6) was a fine talent -- I really liked watching how he fired the ball. And who was that other guy?... Um, Joe, somebody... Namath or something like that?...

Oakland: This is one team that could very well challenge the Chiefs in the bad QB drafting game, I have to admit. JaMarcus Russell (1/1), Todd Marinovich (1/24), Marc Wilson (1/15). Can't say I'm not unpleased. But hey, they still have it all over the Chiefs with their one, solid, D&D'ed guy, Ken Stabler (2/52).

Philadelphia: Donovan McNabb (1/2) was very good for them. So was Randall Cunningham (2/37). Yes, not the best overall Eagles quarterback showing through the years, but then, yet again, how many Super Bowls have the Eagles won?...

Pittsburgh: These guys haven't had just one great D&D QB, they've had two: Terry Bradshaw (1/1) and Ben Roethlisberger (1/11). Not fair. They also got some nice play from Kordell Stewart (2/60) and Neil O'Donnell (3/70), though I know how much Steeler fans loathe these guys for just not being Bradshaw or Roethlisberger. That's Steeler fans for you.

San Diego: Again, involved in the Rivers-Manning switcharoo, and while the Chargers haven't done anything Super Bowl-ish in Rivers' tenure, he has still been a spectacular quarterback for them. Throw in Drew Brees (2/32), Dan Fouts (3/64), and John Hadl and you have a very successful D&D team, the notorious Ryan Leaf (1/2) debacle notwithstanding.

San Francisco: As much as everyone lauds the Niners for getting such good play from such low-drafted Joe Montana (3/82), he was still picked in the third round, so it wasn't as if he should have been some kind of surprise. Alex Smith (1/1) is their guy now, and he's had a hard time of it with a very disjointed team. He did great this year under Jim Harbaugh and won a clutch playoff game against the Saints, so he may have it in him to do well for some time.

Seattle: This has been a poor D&D team, too, with a classic bust in Dan McGwire (1/16), except that they still have one good solid QB they can hang their D&D hat on: Dave Krieg. Undrafted, he still signed and worked his way to being one of the top QB's in the league.

St. Louis: Sam Bradford (1/1) is their guy now, and he's a good one. (With these very young guys, like Stafford of Detroit and Dalton of Cincinnati, it will still take a while to see if they pan out, yes, but their early play has been pretty good.) Jim Everett (1/3) was drafted by Houston, but he went right to the Rams so it was as if he was drafted by them. Roman Gabriel was a very good signal caller for them in the late 60's, early 70's. And who can forget Kurt Warner, undrafted, but in one magical year, 1999, he just exploded for them. He went on to help the Rams be dominant in the early 00's and continued his great play later with Arizona.

Tampa Bay: Josh Freeman (1/17) is their great hope now, but they also had Vinny Testaverde (1/1) (didn't do so well with a poor Bucs team) and Doug Williams (1/17) (who did do well leading the Bucs to the NFC championship game in '79). Tampa Bay also drafted Steve Young, but didn't do very well developing him and shipped him to San Francisco where he flourished.

Tennessee: Vince Young (1/3) was a recent bust, but they had Steve McNair (1/3) who led them to the 1999 Super Bowl. When they were the Oilers before they had the services of Warren Moon for a long period of time, they drafted Dan Pastorini (1/3) and he did well enough to get them playoff action in the late 70's.

Washington: Again, the Redskins never drafted QB's high. They got a Super Bowl from D&D'ed Mark Rypien who was a sixth round selection, but guys like Joe Theismann (drafted originally by Miami) were pickups from other organizations. Jay Schroeder (3/83) was servicable for a while, and as far back as 1961 they got Norm Snead who did some good things for them before going off to Philadelphia.

Now to the Chiefs.

Only thing is, this introduction has been quite expansive (and I'd still like to delve much deeper into each team!) I'm going to have to return to The Quarterback Project with a different post for next time, just to address the Chiefs in this whole picture. I'll shoot for next week so this post and its meaning can settle firmly in the minds of those who still need some convincing about the stratospherically significant impact a fine D&D'ed quarterback has on a team.

I don't think for a second that Scott Pioli doesn't know all this.

But then, really, what is all this for?

It's all just therapy, really.

And for Chiefs fans without a single truly meaningful D&D'ed QB in its entire history, unlike, well, every single other team on this list, it is very important that we therapize. I guess.

Anyway, the full lowdown on the history of Kansas City Chiefs quarterbackitude and their D&D activity -- err, their bountiful lack of it -- next time...

(And a quick note: If you see any discrepancy about information I've put together here, I'd love to hear about it! I want it to be as accurate as it can be, so corrections are most welcome. Also invited are the best takes regarding the opinions -- robust debate is also welcome!)
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2012-02-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

Long Live the AFL! ( ::Sigh:: ) - Final 2011 Season Note

As we prepare to endure another Chiefsless Super Bowl, I thought I'd wind down the season with one last post. Today is indeed one of those days when I'll be drawn into watching at least a bit of the game. Some years I can delightfully get away with not seeing any of it, like last year when there was no party we had to attend and I could joyfully escape the day without knowing anything about what happened.

But today there is a Super Bowl party held by good people in a nice home with fine comestibles, and my sports celibacy does not allow me to be pathologically anti-social. So I will go, and indeed I will have a good time with friends. In honor of Lamar Hunt I will have at least a tepid rooting commitment for the Patriots, the old-AFL team that is appearing. This doesn't mean the old-AFL teams have really done anything Super-Bowl-wise. Six of the ten haven't won at all since the merger in 1970 (Chiefs, Jets, Chargers, Bills, Titans, Bengals) and the last non-Broncos-or-Patriots win was by the Raiders in January of 1984. But then I detail all the current old-AFL team woes in past posts.

So this still keeps me hoping that the next dominate NFL team from the old-AFL will be the Chiefs. It's their turn all right. But former Patriots mover-and-shaker Scott Pioli has got to take care of business.

The thing is, I know nothing about what we've done since the last game of the season, except for a few things I've picked up on my radar. For instance I have no idea if we've decided to keep Romeo Crennel or be earnestly in the hunt for the next Bill Belichek. I don't know what we're doing with our current quarterback situation. I did hear that after he was fired, Todd Haley complained that the things he shared with others through communication technology were being monitored by higher-ups, which can be good if it means we're taking care of business by ensuring we have the best personnel we can to win football games, or bad if it is considered to be invasively creepy.

In other words, is the organization going to carry itself as all business and will the people in it be enthusiastically committed to excellence all around? Or is it too psychotically paranoid and only frightening all those within the organization leading to many more years of poor performance on the field?

Will Scott Pioli be a beloved leader or a whacko dictocrat? Whichever one he is will be the main thing that determines whether or not we'll be the next Patriots, bringing back a long lost stature to that old-AFL.

As for what can happen with championship-team-assembling type things, we just have to hope that that quarterback falls to us in the draft. Already Pioli has insisted he won't trade up to try to get one. That's actually a great move because the price is always stratospheric to move up a handful of spots. Even though we really need that guy, we just have to hope like crazy a QB good enough to be picked at No. 11 is there for us.

There is only one other exception to the that-QB-has-got-to-be-snatched-up-very-high-in-the-draft requirement. If that guy just is not there, we could get by if a dominant pass rusher is available or the next Ray Lewis. It cannot be another Tyson Jackson! If we don't have that guy right there at No. 11, it'll just be another instance of failing to overcome the Curse of Odin's Revenge.

If there is one thing to be learned from the New York Giants making it to the Super Bowl, it is that an otherwise crappy team is there because

a. It has a fantastic coach in Tom Coughlin,
b. It has a phenomenally resourceful quarterback in Eli Manning,
c. It has an overpowering pass rush.

You have those three things and you're in the Super Bowl. It isn't for nothing that the Giants are there again after beating the undefeated Patriots four years ago.

Will the Chiefs get a coach that gets the most from the players he has and knows how to manage a football game?
Will the Chiefs be blessed to have that field general who can run the offense and just make things happen to win games?
Will the Chiefs slot in that last piece of the puzzle and add that pass rusher to compliment Tamba Hali to truly dominate on defense?

As it is I also noted that Willie Roaf got inducted into the Hall of Fame. How awesome is that. Very much no surprise. It has been my contention that Roaf was the most important player on those early '00's Chiefs teams. Trent Green and Priest Holmes, awesome players, truly, taking nothing away from them -- but they weren't half of who they were without Roaf there. When he retired, I knew it was going to be very hard. And it was. The late '00's were abysmal for the Chiefs.

As for the early '10's here, I have high hopes for Branden Albert and Jon Asamoah. Hopefully Jamaal Charles and Tony Moeaki will be back strong. It is easy to see the potential of Jonathan Baldwin.

But what about our Eli Manning?

Will he be there?

And can the Chiefs start to actually make the AFL what we all thought it should be after they won it all in '69?

Can the Chiefs finish what they started?
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2012-01-08T21:01:00.000-08:00

Chiefs 2011 Postseason Report

One thing should be made perfectly clear from this endeavor.

All it is, is therapy.

If all this is to you is a whine session, then move on to other web pursuits. If you think this is all just one pity party bash, then please, you are welcome to leave now.

I don't believe this is, but it is sharing truth in a setting where maybe a few typically heartbroken Chiefs fans can gather and commiserate, relate, just find solace in the comfort that others feel the same way. I'd like to think there'd be a handful of stout, resolute, and quite viscerally engaged Chiefs fans who'd hang around.

As it is, I commence yet another postseason blog post that does not end with any playoff wonderfulness in any way. The last time we got any of that was 1993, if you even remember. In fact, the first therapy point comes simply from this simple observation, a quite sorrowful one.

Today my son had some of the Giants-Falcons game on, and I happened to catch it during a time when New York was just starting to roll over Atlanta. Mention was made of Tony Gonzalez having never tasted playoff victoriness ever in his stellar career. Just the magnitude of that fact: Not a single time has he reached the next tier of postseason fun. Indeed this would be the second one-and-out he'd experience with the Falcons, after I believe three with Kansas City. I truly felt very sad for the guy.

A little later in the day I saw that the NFL Network was showing the NFL's all-time top hundred players, this episode: numbers 41-50. Coincidentally, the instant I turned it on there was Tony Gonzalez at No. 45. Now you'd think he should be higher, but come on. This is No. 45, people, out of 57 bazillion total NFL players throughout all of NFL history. He was just ahead of Roger Staubach for cryin' out loud.

And yet, here he is, the all-time all-great tight end in all-pro-football-great-anything, yet again today suffering through watching the playoff opponent run off the field with smiles and never ever getting to have that feeling.

All of us Chiefs fans just feel for the guy.

We understand.

Later in the day I found that the Broncos pulled off a close win in their playoff game with Pittsburgh. An 8-8 team winning the division then coming through with tough, clutch play to win against a very good Steelers team.

::Sigh::...

How many times did the Chiefs have a 13-3 record and hosted that first playoff game -- Let's compare: 13-3, 8-8. 8-8, 13-3. Hmm. Kind of a difference. -- and just drop everything they did well during the regular season and lose. I mean just drop it like buck snort from a sick cow. Actually in some of those games I don't even think any of it even got on to the field.

So yeah, to the facts:

Since the merger in 1970, the year after the Chiefs last won the Super Bowl, the Chiefs have won the division six times (a pathetic total to begin with -- that's out of 42 years) and then went on to win a playoff game after that once. That was in 1993, the last time they even won a playoff game at all. So, the Chiefs division-title-and-at-least-one-playoff-game-win to playoff-one-and-out ratio is an abysmal one to five. (The five: Mia '71, Ind '95, Den '97, Ind '03, Bal '10.) I haven't done it for every team in the NFL, but I have for the current AFC West teams, just to compare (sorry, but this will be especially gruesome - you may want to look away for a couple moments).

San Diego: 6 to 4. In their first playoff game after a division title they lost to Houston in '79, the Jets in '04 (Marty Schottenheimer's doing, what else), New England in '06, and the Jets again in '09. But again, they got to enjoy six other times when they won at least one playoff game after winning the AFC West.

Denver: 8 to 3. Their three were to Pittsburgh in '78 and '84 (nice revenge for them today) and Jacksonville in '96 (which they were able to avenge big-time the following year by whacking the Jaguars 42-17 on the way to their Super Bowl win that year).

Oakland: 11 to 2. That's nice. The Raiders have lost only twice out of the gate after winning the division. One was the infamous Immaculate Reception game of '72, the other, a loss to New England in '85. But that's it. Eleven times they've won and then won again. The next time you hear a Raiders fan complain about JaMarcus Russell, or not making the playoffs since '02, or how many ref calls have gone against them (puh-leaze), or even how many times the Chiefs have beaten them recently in the regular season, you have every right to tell them where they can shove their pathetic whimpers. The Chiefs have a long way to go to even come close to matching the Raiders' past success.

Kansas City: (Again to compare, and to embrace the pain of course) 1 to 5. For the most part, win the AFC West and win a playoff game. Unless you're the Chiefs. I remember wearing my Chiefs jacket with pride in '95 just before we faced Indianapolis, just thinking in my tiny little brain, actually thinking with great joy that after all of this great 1990's Chiefs greatness we'd have to do well in the playoffs sometime along here, this is as good a time as any for my team to actually do what everyone else has gotten to do.

I simply did not grasp the terrifying impact of Odin's Revenge.

Just to finish the whole playoffs horror, I counted all the playoff games played, just playoff games played since that last time our Chiefs hoisted that World Champion trophy. Again, since the merger, only three teams have a playoff-games to team-years ratio worse than the Chiefs: Arizona, New Orleans and Detroit. And those two latter teams there are right now so good with such good quarterbacks that they'll soon put the Chiefs in the dust in this category.

In 42 years, the Chiefs have 15 playoff games. Just to compare (avert your eyes if necessary) Pittsburgh 53 games. Dallas 53. Miami 42. San Francisco 42. Just the AFC West: Oakland 37. Denver 34 (and still counting as of this post). I could go on, and on, and on. 13 NFL teams have at least 30, twice as many as the Chiefs.

Considering the math a different way, since 1970 the Chiefs have on average one playoff game just about every three years. The Steelers have a playoff game every year, with two every five years, averaged out.

And here's a great one: With Houston winning yesterday, the metropolitan area of Kansas City (Chiefs and Royals) now has an effective playoff pro football/pro baseball drought of 44 team-years, officially twice as long as any other city with an NFL team and a major league baseball club. The next longest drought is now Cincinnati, at 22 years.

Every other two-team metro area has a drought of less than 22 years. More than half are less than ten. The Chiefs and Royals, 44 years.

Okay, breathe, that's it, breathe. Remember, this is therapy. Just us Chiefs fans having a nice, meaningful, comforting group session. Just working real hard (deep breath) to acquire the necessary coping skills (exhale) to confront with the brutal reality (that's it, breathe again, very nice...) of the vast dust and cobweb network that forms throughout the Harry S Truman Sports Complex every single January and October. (Ahh, better...)

Let's get right to what makes it all worthwhile.

This year. What to do from this point forward.

What needs to be done is simple.

First, for the umpteen bazillion bazillion quazillionth time, draft and develop a quarterback who'll be very very very very very very very very very very good for a long long long long long long long long long long time. This is number one, light years above anything else. I'd like to say this is the only thing, but I'm afraid that this isn't going to mean much unless the second thing is done.

Second, we simply, plainly, purely, absolutely, necessarily must hire the man. It is imperative that we do not hire another Todd Haley. Nothing against Todd Haley, the point is we need a Bill Walsh. A Bill Parcells. A Bill Belichek. We need Bill Somebody who'll coach this team into winners. I say "No Todd Haley" because Clark and Scott cannot again make the critical mistake of thinking someone like Todd Haley is somehow going to be a solid NFL coach when he simply isn't.

This hire has got to be the one. In fact it would be ideal if it was a pick that would be around for a while. Getting Dick Vermeil to run the team in 2001 was genius because the guy was a genius, but we all knew he would last only a few short years. Oh that we'd have a Dick Vermeil guy for a dozen years, or more if we're that blessed. I can't say I'm not scared to death, however, that we'll settle on some retread NFL guy or some college dude who just doesn't have it in him.

As for that quarterback, it would be even more ideal for a close-to-Andrew-Luck guy to be available at No. 11 or 12 or around there when we draft. I just know nothing about college-to-NFL quarterbacks, but what about that Oklahoma State guy? He looked pretty good when I happened to catch him. Will the Baylor guy, I think he won the Heisman, will he be there? I say "I think" a lot here because I just pay no attention to college football, or any NFL football if I can help it.

I only care about the Chiefs on the field and watching them win.

And I trust that Scott Pioli knows what he's doing there, and I simply can't see how he can't see how much we need that highly drafted and deftly developed quarterback.

As it is, it seems it'd be a good call to sign Kyle Orton for a couple of years as we nurture our brand new quarterback. I think Orton has potential to do some good things while we get the guy ready for prime time. I really don't know what the Chiefs are going to do with Ricky Stanzi, I mean, do they think he'll develop into the next Tom Brady? How much of a crapshoot is that?

What about Matt Cassel? Sorry, unload him. Please, I do actually like the guy. But let's be honest, he's a second-string guy who hardly played at all in college and had one decent year with a terrific Patriots team around him when Tom Brady went out for the season. In 2010 he had a fine year with a schedule of very weak teams, and then showed his true colors in the last regular season game and the typical one-and-out playoff game when he played wretchedly. This season before his injury it was just too aggravating to watch him, too many times flinging the ball everywhere but into receivers' hands.

The proof is in the puddles: Look at our offense this year. (Sorry, more ugly stats for gurgling and spittling.) Throw out the Indianapolis game when we scored four touchdowns, and the total for all 15 other games was 14. Less than a touchdown a game. We only scored two touchdowns or more four times (including Indy). From Halloween on, which comprised the final nine games, we didn't reach the 20-point mark a single time. An offense like the Packers' regularly had three touchdowns on the board before the national anthem ended.

It simply cannot be emphasized enough.

Now's the time to get that quarterback.

Clark, Scott, please please please (okay I won't write a hundred "pleases" here) see the importance of having that guy and get him.

To finish this off, I do want to give a rousing shout-out to our defense, who really held its own all year. Yes, there were those wretched games against the old AFC East teams, but if you throw out those games (once again, NE, Mia, Buf, NYJ, and Ind) and the Detroit debacle, in the remaining ten games we gave up an average of only 12.3 points a game. Now yeah, there were those other six games, but hey, Curse of Odin's Revenge.

Otherwise there is one thing I want. It is the one thing every Chiefs fan wants.

It is for our team to do what it takes to win playoff games.

I don't even want any luck. We've never had it but I don't think most of those NFL teams who've won have had to rely on a bunch of it themselves, really now. We are so due, to be sure, but what good is just luck? Besides, it just takes so much more to end the Curse.

I don't even want a spectacularly good team. We had that in the 60's and 90's, and in those years when we were truly a dominant NFL football team, we got one Super Bowl title and pretty much diddly otherwise. How many really good teams get into the playoffs and just don't have it when it counts -- don't we know about that.

Will winning in the postseason involve luck? Oh that we'd get at least a bit of it for once. Will it involve fielding a good team? Certainly. But there is one thing that's more important. No, all I really want is one simple thing.

I just want us to win football games when it counts.

And this simply requires taking the defense we already have (but still getting that Ray Lewis guy in there!) adding a smart inspiring coach and a sharp talented quarterback, and

Getting the job done.

That's all.

Clark.

Scott.

All us Chiefs fans are asking for one thing. Shouldn't take much, we even believe in you, we do.

Get the job done.

Oh that we could then move from therapy into just flat-out watching us get that trophy back, and take pride in our team -- that they just got the job done.

The joy...
_

2012-01-01T18:08:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Broncos - Week 17 - Record: 7-9

Every New Year's Eve I think about it. If you're a true Chiefs fan you know what I'm talking about. It was five years ago yesterday.

We're at 8-7 barely hanging on to playoff hopes. Two weeks earlier we'd endured a horrific loss to the Chargers, and only a gimme win over a weak Raiders team a week later had us still on life support.

On the morning of last Sunday of the season we handled Jacksonville while New England was easily taking Tennessee out of the running. The Steelers were having a hard time with Cincinnati, though, but we got that splendid Santonio Holmes catch and sprint for a touchdown in overtime to dismiss the Bengals. Then, glory be, the Niners wore down the Broncos in another overtime win and shazam --

We're in the playoffs.

Five years ago yesterday, one of the magical Chiefs moments of all time.

But here's the thing.

That is one of our most magical moments?

I mean, hey, I'm really taking nothing away from it. It was wonderful.

But in reality, this is really hurtin' -- that this is what we're most proud of over the past however-many years of Chiefsosity.

There's that, but, ahem, no big-time clutch division snatching win, no spectacular postseason performance to defeat a team everyone thought was invincible, no scintillating run through the playoffs captivating the attention of an entire nation, no absorbing Super Bowl hype about the Chiefs and their chances in the biggest game whatever those chances might be.

No, sadly, no. And yes, I do spend a lot of time on this blog sharing the woeful story of our beloved team. Sure, it could be seen as a pity party, but to be honest I do write all of this for the therapy, yeah, to relate to those who feel the same way -- I make no apologies there, in fact, I do enthusiastically invite you to the party...

But I also do it just to say what's what about the Chiefs, and mostly for the past many years it has been less that stellar to say the least.

You don't think I want to say all kinds of delightfully awesome things about the Chiefs? Really? For one you've seen me write glowingly about great-things Chiefs, I do it all the time -- I've even been very guilty of looking too longingly through the rose-colored glasses and been wrong quite a bit about how good we are!

For instance look at today's game! Our defensive backfield was just amazing, again! I've always raved about our terrific Brandons and our safeties like Kendrick Lewis, and this without the rose-colored glasses! These guys were beast again, and what's more amazing they've been doing it without Eric Berry in there! I can even give a shout-out to Sabby Piscitelli, the guy who I once saw somewhere rated the worst D-back in the league.

Hey, he was still part of the core that showed there is simply no way Tim Tebow can do the comeback thing without solid pro-form passing skill. Down 7-3 with a minute left, he just could not do a thing with our D-backfield in there. Really, he hadn't seen that all year.

Welcome to the real NFL, Tim Tebow.

So while our defense did another fine job, our offense... Errrghhh...

Our offense.

Final end-of-season stat: The Chiefs' offense scored 18 touchdowns this season. 18. Eighteen total. Do you know how contemptibly pathetic that is? That's barely a single touchdown a game. I mean it is really hard to mince words here. The numbers speak for themselves, and if you watched this team play all year you'd know.

It was all right there to watch.

Just for comparison, Green Bay's quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers and his scrub back-up who played just for today, finished the season throwing three times as many touchdown passes alone as the Chiefs entire offense scored.

I'm not going to get into all the why's and wherefore's until next week when I write my special final post of the season with the standard riveting analysis of the season.

But one thing I want to point out from this game is something that is critical for us to address in order to be on track for future success.

With the one minute left the Broncos started at their own 25 to begin that last patented miracle drive they've become so famous for. The Chiefs defense knew -- as everyone in the universe knew -- that all they had to do was smother the receivers (which again, they do very well) and contain with a very simple four man pass rush, and the game would be theirs. Sure enough three straight passes did not get them the first down, until Wallace Gilberry slammed into Tim Tebow's knees. Bam, just like that, personal foul, 15-yard penalty, first down Denver.

Now, if you are on any team and you want to win the game for you and your teammates and your mom and dad there cheering in the crowd, and you are told in the least uncertain terms possible, "Make sure you don't go into that drawn circle on the ground over there and spin around three times clockwise with your hands on your head while singing 'Hello, Dolly' in falsetto," don't you think it'd be reeeeeeal easy to just plain NOT DO THAT???

Now, pretend you're an NFL player on an NFL team making bazillions of NFL dollars, and you are told, "All you have to do is not run into the quarterback's knees. I mean, really, listen very carefully: just stand there, push on the O-lineman a few times, glare at the quarterback and wave your arms around frantically at times, BUT DON'T RUN INTO THE HIS KNEES," you'd think those instructions would be reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally easy to follow!

But no.

We have to shoot ourselves in the foot yet again.

And that's the whole point about this.

The whole episode illuminates the need for a head coach who can get this team, ahh, here's the word, get ready for it because it is a wonderul, wonderful word --

Disciplined.

Oh, I like that word. It is a marvelous, marvelous word, don't you think?

That the Chiefs would have it.

And I'm not just talking about regular plain old pro football discipline.

I'm talking about teams-that-regularly-compete-in-the-playoffs discipline. Teams that go at least 11-5 every year, who don't have the extraordinarily stupid, profoundly annoying, and contending-team-eviscerating penalties happening over and over and over -- I mean we had a bunch of those yet again in the game today!

And that means we get that coach who can do that.

Romeo Crennel, great. Great for the defense. Awesome: we held Denver to three points on the day, at their place. Awesome awesome awesome. Romeo Crennel you are the man for that. You - da - man.

But our offense did squat. Dexter McCluster's TD run? A thing of beauty. Don't get me wrong -- a thing of beauty.

But that was it. It - it - it.

We just need the guy that'll unlock this team's potential. Look at what Jim Harbaugh did with the already very talented and amazingly underachieving 49ers.

We need the guy like that who's going to get this team to not only be the class of the AFC West (which admittedly should not be hard to do these days) but to be one of the class teams in the NFL.

But again, next week is the season analysis post.

For now, just pride again in a team that finished the season with a good win, and while it wasn't like 2006, it's still always good, and perhaps even a positive note to get the team a bit excited for next year.

(And hey, even with the win, the Raiders were still booted from the playoffs when they lost their game! Oh yeah!)
_

2011-12-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Raiders at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 6-9

Remember Christmas Day 2004? The Chiefs and the Raiders, at Arrowhead, a wild back-and-forth affair that ended with one of the best Christmas gifts a Chiefs fan could ever have. Down 30-28 with a minute left, Dante Hall takes the kick-off and splendidly scampers deep into Raiders territory so we can kick the game-winning field goal. Final score: Chiefs 31, Raiders 30.

It was a nice Christmas gift to have at the close of a miserable season that year when we went off to lose too many games in really stupid ways. Well, yeah -- sorry. You're right. What other kinds of ways do the Chiefs lose games?

We got no such Christmas gift this year -- and it's at the end of a season that was typically stupid.

Okay, okay, it's Christmas, I shouldn't be so Scroogely.

It was nice that Dexter McCluster finally got untracked and zipped for the yards and yards and yards he should be zipping regularly after getting a screen pass -- this one in the last minute of regulation to set up the tying score that gave us a chance to win. Okay, okay, so there was something nice.

But there wasn't much else.

For one thing we just don't have that "X Factor." Yes, for as overrated as some say Dante Hall was, he was still a gamer, a go-to-guy, a leader -- and I'm sorry, he was an exciting player who did get the job done on the field when it needed getting done.

In contrast, one play typified the way the Chiefs play football today -- at least the way the offense plays football. We were driving at about midfield, and QB Kyle Orton had to scamble out of the pocket and run. He got the first down, except... you know what happened.

The ref put the ball at an awful spot.

4th and half-an-inch. Literally, it was half-an-inch.

So they give the ball to Jackie Battle, who on virtually every one of his runs he chugs for about two more yards after getting hit. He really does, the guy is a genius at that.

But here his mind is telling him, "All I need is half-an-inch."

He gets a quarter-of-an-inch.

Grrreat. The Raiders zip on down, kick a field goal to make it 13-6, a score that really allowed them to win it in overtime.

The point is, why isn't this team thinking about just getting tons of yardage -- as many tons of yardage as they could get on any play they run? Every other play Battle has the ball he's getting three, four yards -- why not now? And if the other team has 57 guys lined up right at the point where the runner is going to try to get the first down, then why can't we do other things, such as, ohhh, pass to the guy who should be wide open and get the first down that way?

It's because we just don't have that "X Factor" mentality. We just don't.

Maybe this is a good thing, however.

After the wonderfully splendiferous win over Green Bay last week, I started getting scared the Chiefs would go ahead and make Romeo Crennel our permanent head coach. Yikes. Sorry, but we need a true solid leader-type to take the troops into battle. I love Romeo Crennel, his defense is the best thing about this team, but he's not head-coach material.

Clark, Scott, please please please please please please please please please please please go insane to find the next Bill Parcells or Bill Belichek or Bill Walsh -- why are all the great coaches named Bill? Well there ya go, start looking at guys named Bill, but not Todd or Herman or John or Frank or Gunther or any of the guys who are just not going to get us to the promised land.

Fact is with Romeo at the helm this game was a disaster. Yet again we got close to the end zone and failed time after time after time. We had a complete breakdown on the special teams line when we got two field goals blocked. And the penalties just piled up again.

The Raiders themselves were getting penalized themselves out of their rear ends -- but we were matching them penalty for penalty, how wretched was that. (The Raiders, BTW, are on pace to break the record for most penalties by a team, set by - ::sigh:: - the 1998 Kansas City Chiefs, who had over 150 for the season. That's about ten a game. I simply did not know that -- still, eerrr-rahlphff [gratuitous upchuck noise]. 1998 was the year I stopped paying attention to sports cold turkey -- now I know some of why...)

So yeah, the best thing for Chiefs fans to do in this last game is endure -- I know it will be very difficult -- to endure the Chiefs looking miserable in a final season loss to the Broncos. This will ensure a number of things:

1. A better slot in the draft so we have a better shot at getting that future Hall-of-Fame quarterback we so desperately need.

2. Chiefs management seeing that Romeo Crennel is not the guy and Bill Exceptionallyterrificprofootballcoach is.

3. The Raiders will be booted from the playoffs. I mean, come on, how bad is this. If the Chiefs beat the Broncos and the Raiders win, the Raiders go into the playoffs. I mean we can put up with a lot -- hey, we're Chiefs fans -- but this goes beyond the pale...

Now yes, I will never root against the Chiefs, ever, in any game. But the fact is this.

A Chiefs win helps the Raiders.

The humanity!
_

2011-12-18T15:48:00.000-08:00

Packers at Chiefs - Week 15 - Record: 5-8

I really don't think there has ever been a Chiefs game I have witnessed in which I was going so far up and so far down with my range of emotions than I was with this game.

And I will tell you right here -- and you have every right to refuse to believe me in the most abject way possible --

I really did feel we were going to win this game.

For some reason, through the entire week, I just had this feeling deep in my gut that we were not only going to make this close, but we were going to flat out win it. I just felt that the team would rally around the new coach. That late in the season at home we could take down a top team like the Packers. That Kyle Orton was going to show that he could still perform at the top level of QB play in the NFL.

We got the kickoff to start the game, and I was flying high just watching our team do something it has just never done, not for a long time.

They were executing a long, grinding, sustained, solid, sure-ground-gaining drive.

And one of the things I thought about was how much this just wouldn't've happened with Todd Haley in there. It just wouldn't've. I don't think there is a single Chiefs fan who did not share this exact sentiment. Romeo Crennel put together the ideal game plan to take on the Packers. It really came down to one simple thing, and it worked beautifully.

Keep Aaron Rodgers off the field.

Through the game we had clock-chewing drives, giving Rodgers many fewer opportunities to do his magic.

Another thing that blew me away was something the announcers said right outta the gate. The Packers were something like 31st, I think it was, in total defense.

Guh???

An undefeated team with the 31st ranked defense in the entire league??? They added that the Packers have always taken advantage of turnovers. Makes perfect sense. Cough up the ball and Rodgers gets more chances. In fact Orton was with Denver when the Packers blasted them earlier in the season, and he threw three picks in that game.

Well, for one, we had no turnovers on the day -- again, very controlled, time-managed offensive football.

And another, Orton was magnificent today. Something close to 20 for 30, about 300 yards, hitting his receivers at clutch moments, letting them get good separation -- how splendid was that to watch for once. And he threw to ten different receivers, how's that for decision-making at quarterback. With his leadership the offense as a whole pounded out over 400 yards.

400 yards? The Chiefs? When was the last time you saw those two things written so closely to each other?

But then there were those emotional drops. My insides were a roller-coaster through this one. The guy who roughed the punter when we stopped the Packers in their first series. Give Rodgers a second chance?! Are you insane?! Let the guy kick it to Alberta, Canada for all we care! And how about all the times we simply could not finish the drive. How many 18-yard field goals did Succop have today? Four? And that one time we had 2nd and 1 from the Packer three and couldn't even get a first down on three successive plays! Aaaaaagh! (There goes my heart, doing that huge loop-da-loop...)

Well, there's work to be done there.

But our defense. How great were they today. I do think a lot of it was the offense being on the field long enough to keep them rested so they could fire out when they needed to be in there. They had a handful of sacks on Rodgers and kept him flustered enough all the other times.

A lot of that was due to our fantastic defensive back work. Wow. Again they showed they are one of the best. And that's without Eric Berry in there. Yes, I'd love to see more push on the D-line, and more aggression from the linebackers. Good thing Derrick Johnson is having a career year to keep things decent in that area.

No question this is a wonderful win for us. Can't help but be reminded of the Steelers win a couple years ago. But we can't say too much about what this means in the grand scheme of Chiefsdom. It really doesn't mean a whole lot except that we showed the NFL world that the Chiefs can play football.

For now, that's pretty dang fine.
_

2011-12-11T14:09:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Jets - Week 14 - Record: 5-8

There was a commercial aired during the first quarter of this game that featured a dais upon which stood a really good pro prospect smiling in front of several camera flash bulbs going off. He was being handed a check by some exec who said to him, "You'd better cash that now before you get hurt ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha..." Sitting just to their right was an actor playing his coach, and he looked exactly like Todd Haley, I swear. At that moment he had the most harrowing look of dread come over his face as he started thinking of all the bad things that could indeed happen to his prized new player.

I don't know what the commercial was selling or anything of that, something about some financial firm accepting photographs of a check, I don't know. But one of the coach's graphically portrayed portends was this guy walking into the street looking at his cell phone at the exact time a huge bus approachs to plow into him.

What was amazing was that this guy looked so much like Todd Haley, it just made me think. That bus is not imaginary, but real. And it has a name. All Chiefs fans know it.

The Curse of Odin's Revenge.

A major feature of the Curse is our inability to do anything meaningful against AFC East teams. The Curse's most gruesome feature is something I've written about at length in this blog, our 0-9 playoff record against old AFC East teams since our last Super Bowl win and the 1970 merger (0-3 to both Miami and Indianapolis, 0-2 to Buffalo, 0-1 to New York). In fact, the highlight of this game for the Chiefs was the one-minute highlight reel the CBS broadcast team showed of the Chiefs win over the Jets in the '69 divisional playoff game. Yes, that was the last time we have beaten an AFC East team in the playoffs -- 42 years ago.

The Curse has reared its ugly head this year. Here were the scores of all our games against AFC East opponents:

Week 1 - Buffalo: 41-7 loss.
Week 9 - Miami: 31-3 loss.
Week 11 - New England: 34-3 loss.
Week 14 - New York: 37-10 loss.

Let's see, that's AFC East team 143 points, Chiefs 23. AFC East team 18 touchdowns, Chiefs 2.

See, the NFL is supposed to have this thing called parity. Really. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd love for the Chiefs to blast every opponent they have, but if I can't have that I'd at least like them to be in every game. And the fact is the whole operation is designed to make it that way.

There is just no way we can have the luck we have against the AFC East and it not be because of The Curse. I'm just waiting for the day when that thing will finally be lifted somehow, by some miracle. Maybe it will be when we do make that splendidly wonderful decision in the draft to take a QB very high and he's actually very good. Wistful ::sigh:: there if you didn't catch it...

But here's something else that I just have to make mention of.

Remember that old NFL Films clip of Marv Levy yelling "You overofficious jerk!" on the sidelines? I'm pretty sure it was when he was with the Chiefs. All we were doing today was yell that at the television screen.

There was that one drive that got the Jets their last touchdown, and practically the entire drive was penalty yardage against the Chiefs. About half were mildly earned, but the other calls, just wretched overofficiating. The most atrocious was the pass interference call against Kendrick Lewis on their wide receiver who replays showed actually was the one who pushed Lewis to get into position.

If you read the relatively new book Scorecasting, make sure you read the section on why home teams generally always have the advantage in all pro team sports. There are all kinds of presumed reasons: home teams have the fans, the comforts of home, not having to travel, all that stuff. But none of it really pans out, and the authors looked at it all with a precision examination and guess what they found.

It is the reffing.

And it isn't necessarily the refs being evil or anything, it is just their decision-making is indeed colored by the atmosphere, the pressure, and in some cases just responding to the cues from whatever powers-that-be about who should be winning.

Now, I'm the first to refuse to blame a game on the refs. Not because we shouldn't make excuses for bad ref calls or even that it all evens out (because it never does for the Chiefs, really, it doesn't), but just because they're human, and that's cool, that's fine. They even use instant replay. (Even though that never really helps the Chiefs either, as all Chiefs fan know, but I'll save that for another post.)

What we do need to cover for whatever reffing there might be is the drafted and developed top quarterback. The Willie Roafs and Will Shields back on the O-line. The Buck Buchanans and Curly Culps back on the D-line.

And yeah, we still need a coach who can call the right plays at the right times in the right games and just have his team damn well take care of business. I mean, I will tell you, I was actually cheering Todd Haley for getting that unsportsmanlike conduct call against him for jawing at the refs because they so deserved it. They really did. You go Todd, let 'em have it. And I do mean that, this isn't one of those facetious making-fun kind of things. He boldly did what was necessary to stand up for his team when the refs were being, in the famous words of Marv Levy, "jerks."

But really. This is Todd Haley's legacy? This?

We should just flat-out have a football club from the front office on down that does the job.

And is no longer crushed by The Curse.
_

2011-12-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

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

The kind of luck the Chiefs have was shining in all its brilliant awfulness when brand spankin' new quarterback Kyle Orton bounded into the game, only to have a defender destroy his right index finger while he was throwing a pass on his very first play as a Chief.

You.

Have.

Got.

To.

Be.

Kidding.

Me.

I almost shook my head right off my body. This is great, just great. Todd Haley pulls Tyler Palko, who however not-that-great he is talent-wise is still playing his heart out, and then has to put him right back in and tell him to lead the charge again against one of the NFC's best after unceremoniously being sent right to the bench.

Turns out Palko was a big part of getting us the one play we needed to win the game. For all the awful awfulness of the typical Chiefs luck, we got a stadium-full of luck on the last play of the first half. We're watching this thing in our man cave screaming at Todd Haley (as we often do, naturally), this time to just try for the field goal and get those three points on the board. It'd have been a 56-yard attempt for Succop, but at least our chances would have been better than a desperation Hail Mary pass.

In what has to be about the most total reversal of fortune you can get after something like the Kyle Orton incident, Palko jukes and dukes to allow our guys to get down the field, and fires that thing perfectly, right into the middle of the expected crowd in the endzone. Widely celebrated Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher bats it down, right into the waiting hands of Dexter McCluster.

Touchdown Chiefs.

How about that.

The Chiefs win it on a Hail Mary.

Granted it wasn't at the end of the game, but it turned out to be the only touchdown of the game, and the difference for the Chiefs victory, final score, 10-3.

Talk about luck going our way for this one.

The crack-up was that the announcers were talking about this being the first touchdown for the Chiefs since 1793. As if this play really relieved our offensive barrenness. Sure it won us the game, but come on, should it really count in ending this drought of 57,002 straight drives without a touchdown? I just don't think it should.

Please. We're still pathetic on offense. Come on, when was the last time we've scored two touchdowns in a single game? The Oakland game? Are you serious? No, wait, it was the San Diego game, but still. We only got two in that game, and so what. That was still ages ago.

Again mention must be made of our defense. Yes, the Bears lost their really good back Matt Forte to injury early, but then we lost Eric Berry eons ago, so we're even. Whatever the case, our defensive guys were beast yet again. The stat of the day was our seven sacks on their quarterback. How on earth did we do that?

Could be their poor offensive line play. Could be the effects of that conditioning that's been helping us all year. Could be the inexperience of their second-string QB. Could be our inspired play. Could be superb play-calling by Romeo Crennel. Whatever the case, we kept them to a single field goal for the entire game. Now its a total of six opponent points allowed for the past six quarters of NFL play.

And that is with an offense that had no more than four plays in a series far too often. That is, our defense was always on the field. Without much rest they still played with heart and with skill.

Wow. Could Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson be bringing more to the table than we think? Oh, I can't get my hopes up too much. Except Jackson had his first sack of the year today! Yay! Except that was his first?

We still have a long way to go.
_

2011-11-28T11:58:00.000-08:00

Steelers at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 4-7

I'm pretty sure it was a first for the Kansas City Chiefs: two back-to-back prime-time television appearances. Check it out, I think it was indeed the only time in our history we've been on Monday night, then Sunday night the next week.

Oh that we'd be good enough to deserve that, and just as importantly to have it happen again like it does all the time for the Patriotses and Steelerses and Giantses and Cowboyses. That ::Sigh:: you heard from me should resound across the galaxy. I can't imagine the next time we'll get even a single prime-time slot.

What to say about this game? Our defense was truly beast in this one, and I am even happy to give at least the smallest of shout-outs to Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson. Oh, they're still not what they should be, but they joined a truly inspired group to stick it to Pittsburgh, who got but a single field goal in the second half.

But our offense? It isn't just lame but sickening. When was the last time we've scored a touchdown? 1932? I think it was in September of that year if I'm not mistaken, just before FDR was elected president. Someone check that for me, but I'm pretty sure it's been that long.

And here's the thing. We aren't even close to scoring a touchdown. I think we've been in the red zone this year about as many times as the poles shift and thousands flock to Antarctica to sunbath. Seriously, whenever we're even in the red zone from any kind of extended drive, I'm ecstatic about our amazing achievement and marvelling at how incredibly impossible it is. How awful is that. That this is what I have to cheer for.

Our defense played the game of their lives last night. Our line stood them up, and they harrassed Roethlisberger mercilessly. Our linebackers were crazed animals out there, Derrick Johnson and Justin Houston in particular were stellar. And our D-backs, Flowers et al, just smothering blankets, that's all, they just suffocated their receivers. What a joy to hear the NBC announcers Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth gush about how great we were playing.

Except that, just like the wretchedly putrid Chiefs luck, the last words from those guys were something along the lines of, "What an awful putrid wretched ugly pathetic pitiful weak horrible [about 57 other negative superlatives here] play that was." That's what fans across the country were left with about the Chiefs. A phenomenal defensive performance poisoned by the impression of Chiefs abject ineptitude.

And it was well deserved. Very well deserved.

For you see, the Chiefs simply cannot win unless everyone plays splendidly. It is unfair, but without a Hall-of-Fame quarterback in there and a coach who gets us over that last hurdle to be a contending NFL franchise, we simply cannot afford to have anyone not play up to speed every down.

Sure enough, this week that guy was Dwayne Bowe.

Virtually every single week all Chiefs fans are singing the praises of this very gifted football player. But last night he did us in.

With a chance to win the game on a last minute drive, he signaled to QB Tyler Palko that he was going to extend his pattern deeper. Palko saw it, threw in that direction, yet Bowe cut his route too shallow. And after the ball was thrown still within his reach, he gave the most piddly effort with a jump that barely got his feet off the ground, he kept his arms down, and he allowed the ball to sail right into the hands of a Steeler defender.

For Bowe fans who protest, Bowe earlier had dropped a pass that was an easy touchdown when he allowed the D-back to dictate the coverage. It was an easily catchable ball that would've allowed him to crawl into the endzone for a touchdown.

This is why without that future Hall-of-Famer at quarterback we can't win anything. Just not going to happen. Sure Palko is a back-up, but it's not going to happen with Cassel in there either. We picked up Kyle Orton after Denver decided to make the Tim Tebow experiment permanent, but is he the answer? Really, look deep in your soul, is he really going to make a difference?

The reason it is so important in this instance is that you need that guy to read those coverages and have such a focused connection with his receivers that he'll have solid completions to them all the way through each touchdown drive. Lots of them, every game. I did like some of what Palko did last night, he was playing gutsy ball, and actually showed some spunk. But he never really got that connection, and even with the Bowe last-play-awfulness, he still threw into quintuple coverage.

So as it stands, we're in the middle of a stretch when we play all four of the "final four" NFL playoff teams from last year (Pit, Chi, NYJ, GB). That's by virtue of being a division winner last year. Yhee.

For what it's worth, maybe, just maybe in April we'll draft high enough and we'll be lucky enough (hahahahahaha) that the next best quarterback will be a guy only a few notches down from Andrew Luck in talent, or even better, the equivalent of Tom Brady talent who our new coach can develop.

Oh that we'd just have that luck. Then maybe we'll get back on prime-time before the next ice age.
_

2011-11-22T11:37:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Patriots - Week 11 - Record: 4-6

Well, I thought the score would be 45-3, literally, I did think that. Turned out to be only 34-3. Good thing.

Thing is, this was still an extraordinarily painful loss. The Miami loss? That was mostly a surprise, especially for people who after four straight wins thought the Chiefs were all that. The Denver loss? That was just disappointment in a team that allowed the option to beat them.

But this just hurt.

I think some of that was the fact that we actually played New England well in the first quarter. There was actually that tiny bit of hope that we could actually go in there and do something splendid and show our merit for being on Monday Night Football. But after a nice juicy gain by a resurgent Thomas Jones, we got a holding penalty on 7'9" 420-pound tight end Leonard Pope when he was blocking a 3'11" 125-pound New England grunt that looked way more like a hold than it actually was. At the cost of making this much more melodramatic by saying that was the turning point in what was destined to be a blowout anyhow, it went downhill from there.

I think what hurt most was just that this New England team is still so good, and this Kansas City team is still so bad. And I just can't deny that a lot of that is all the delightful St. Patty's luck that drops into the lap of a New England team, and all the wretched Curse of Odin's Revenge misfortune that never fails to afflict the Chiefs.

At the beginning of the game the announcers touted New England's boffo new tight end, some guy named Gronkowski I think -- I don't know because I don't pay any attention to any other team at any other time as much as I can help it. Please note that this was the first time I'd been introduced to this guy, never heard of him before.

But all I could think about was, how come they have him and we don't? How come they still have all kinds of great players leading the Patriots on to playoff appearance after playoff appearance after playoff appearance, and

We just don't?

This hurts because I always think about that game on November 27, 2005. Almost six years ago to the day. We played wonderfully and beat the Patriots, the reigning Super Bowl champs, 26-16. I actually thought -- yes, take a few moments to split some gutstrings laughing, I'll let you -- that this was the turning point. That the transition was ecstatically happening. I mean, that always happens, doesn't it? The poorer teams get the higher picks and the winning teams always have to fall back in the pack, right? That through years of painful awfulness we now earned the right to be in the upper echelon of contenders? Right? Right?

Well, after that game we won again to go 8-4, but then lost two crushing games to Dallas and New York, ended up 10-6, and failed to even make the playoffs. New England, meanwhile, went 4-1, got into the playoffs, and while they didn't get into the Super Bowl they still won a playoff game that year. Two years later they went undefeated while the Chiefs floundered at 4-12. In fact, here's the brutal reality since then, up to date. It is so frighteningly ugly you may want to avert your eyes.

New England's record since that Nov 27 2005 game, including playoffs: 81-26, a winning pct. of .757. They've won 3 of every 4 games they've played. And while they haven't won a Super Bowl in that time, they've still made the playoffs five times, and won five postseason games over that stretch.

Kansas City's record over that same period, including playoffs: 36-63, a winning pct. of .364. That's nearly a clip of losing 2 of every 3 games. Sorry, but that is repulsive. They've made the playoffs twice, and each time they were blown out in their first game.

Getting back to the Patriot's tight end Gronkowski -- this whole thing says a ton. This guy was a beast last night, scoring two touchdowns. I wonder, where did the Patriots draft him? I can't imagine for two seconds they got him high, because the Pats record has been so good, and as such they've had to have drafted low. If that's the case, then could they have drafted him after the 3rd pick in the '09 draft? After the Chiefs used the 3rd pick overall to select the now-completely-invisible Tyson Jackson? This just kills me, it just kills me. It may not have been Gronkowski that year, I just haven't any idea. But what other super-stud players out there ready to make the Chiefs look silly were drafted after Jackson?

Many will say, "Oh you just can't complain with hindsight, it just isn't fair." I respond to that with, Why can't I? Who says I can't? "Oh sure you know now, but there's no way you could know then."

But that's a lot of the point. We should be knowing then. And even so, I've been given to the consideration that the Chiefs have had the worst luck in just not being in the right place in the draft to get what we need. A team like the Patriots, they're in the right place all the time. It is luck, but it is also front office wisdom.

Do the Chiefs have that? I do think we should give Scott Pioli a chance, a guy who worked for a long time in that fine New England front office. But this is precisely why I pay no attention to anything outside of Chiefs games, because these thoughts just drive me insane. To wit: When he was with New England, was Pioli actually in the mix of successful player decision-making, or was it all really just Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, some other Patriot top guy? Or was Pioli just holding their towels and daydreaming about Dancing With the Stars while they were going over team-building strategy?

While I do work really hard to limit my hatred of other teams to the acceptably healthy disdain for the Raiders, I do let my jealousies of teams who continue to be successful at our expense eat me up. As it is, another of those teams is up next week, the Pittsburgh Steelers, supposedly to be played on Sunday night -- yet another primetime showcase for the Chiefs. I say supposedly because NBC could flex us right off that slot, I suppose that would be the merciful thing to do. But that decision would be a clear statement that yet again, the Chiefs are so bad they don't deserve to be in prime time. That hurts. And even if they keep them on the evening airwaves, it's only because they want to showcase the Steelers. ::Sigh::

But yeah, I don't blame them. Who could. It still hurts though.

Yes, our injuries have really clobbered us. But then, that's again just the awful, awful luck of the Chiefs.

BTW, I was at a college basketball game of a friend's son a week ago, and outside the arena in the hall there was a poster that elucidated the factual reality of ACL injuries. Turns out that among the general population they occur at a 60 in 100,000 clip . I did the math and found that this is the same as 3 in 5,000. The NFL has about 1,400 to 1,500 players out there playing on teams in a given year. So that's about one ACL every three years for the entire NFL. Even if you reasonably say that NFL players are more likely to suffer ACL's that the general population, even that doesn't detract from the fact that the Chiefs got hammered by the misfortune of having three of their top players taken out for the year because of it.

So then, if there are, oh, ten players on each team who are really pretty good, Pro-Bowl type players, then, lessee... And we know that it's about 3 in 5,000 chance that it'll happen to anyone anywhere anyhey... Annnnd that means that the average for getting an ACL for any of those ten players on any given team is, like, one every sixty years or so... Annnd the Chiefs themselves have about ten reasonably decent players, among them Jamaal Charles, Eric Berry, and Tony Moeaki... So that means for the Chiefs, having your team ripped apart by ACL injuries to your top guys is 3 in 10 while for everyone else the average is 3 in 5,000...

Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch.

Last night one of the announcers said something very profound, and that is just that even with the injuries, these guys are still NFL players, highly paid and expected to perform. Problem: you just can't do that against a team that has all the luck and skill to keep a team going strong, while your team is floundering in misfortune and inability to cope with it.

That's the New England problem, and why even though we knew what was coming, it still hurt like hell.
_

2011-11-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

Broncos at Chiefs - Week 10 - Record: 4-5

The agonizingly woeful ignominy of being anything related to the Chiefs -- player, fan, doesn't matter -- was highlighted in brilliant blazing colors across the sky by this wretchedly profound irony:

First, rookie Chiefs wide receiver Jonathan Baldwin made probably the most amazing catch of the century, when on a long pass he reached both arms around the defender, grabbed the ball behind the defender's back, and held on for the catch as he fell to the ground clutching the ball all the way. Big, big, big time play in a game that was still close and was in desperate need of a good Chiefs score to make it interesting.

Instead the play was called back, for even though the Broncos guy committed pass interference, Steve Breaston was called for illegal formation -- he wasn't off the line enough. Never mind that this call is never made in the NFL -- never ever never ever ever ever. And I know, in all the NFL games I've seen I'll watch right there on the screen receivers who should be a bit more off the line, right there on the line and they are never flagged for it. And here we are. Only the Chiefs.

Anyway, the penalties offset, and the play had to be done over again.

Only only only only only the Chiefs.

And that's not even the irony. Here's the thing that makes this so ironic.

The Broncos offense completed two passes.

Two passes.

Two passes the entire game. And one of them was pass that traveled about a yard and the receiver took it about 12 yards more.

It was the second pass that killed us, a 60-something yard TD bomb in the 4th quarter that made the score 17-7 Denver. Party over.

Two passes, party over.

Only the Chiefs.

What the Broncos did was run all over us, even after their two top backs were injured early and did not return.

Now, did you get that? Denver did not have their top two running backs, and they still ran all over us -- even using the option. Did you get that? Their offense ran the option about half the time, and were reasonably successful with it. Did you get THAT? An NFL team was able to run the option against an NFL defense. That only happens in a fantasy world.

Unless, of course, the Kansas City Chiefs defense is a fantasy defense, which I am beginning to believe that it is. As in, this team just does not have a real defense.

I've said this a hundred times before, and I really hope that ten years from now when we may actually be a playoff contender I just won't have to say it again, but here goes:

The reason we haven't had any sustained playoff action in the past several years, and we won't for the next several, is two reasons. Let's just share them again so we all know it, and perhaps Clark Hunt and Scott Pioli will know it and they'll do everything they can to avoid it. And amazingly, it has very little to do with Todd Haley!

Okay, okay, here're the two. No surprise because it's so obvious:

1. We have simply refused, in the worstest of all worst ways, to draft and develop a quarterback who'll be solid enough for years to give us the chance to truly compete in this league. Matt Cassel was awful again today, and yes, I'm joining the chorus of Chiefs fans who are starting to call for Tyler Palko to start and Ricky Stanzi to get snaps to see if he'll indeed be the next Tom Brady. Let's get going Chiefs management. Don't futz around anymore with this trying to pick off the shelf some QB from other team's reject pile. Yes yes yes we had fun with a fine people like Trent Green, but please -- this is just not the way to build a championship team. It isn't isn't isn't so stop it already.

2. The defensive linemen who we've selected in the highest rounds of draft after draft after draft have simply refused, in the worstest of all worst ways, to play like they should. Should we again go over the list of all the Junior Siavii's and Eric Downing's and Eddie Freeman's there are? Remember Ryan Sims, picked sixth overall (2002). Add to that Glenn Dorsey, fifth overall (2008), and Tyson Jackson, third overall (2009) (Third. Third. I'm going to cry right now...) That's the reason Denver's third-string backs ran all over us today, and we haven't the faintest of chances to do anything for the next few years -- there's no one there up front to tackle anybody!

Even more depressing is that, really, to give Denver credit, their O-line was outstanding, and is one of the youngest in the NFL. Great. So a division rival will now have one of the best O-lines in the league for years upon years to come. And our defense is, well....

Only any good in a fantasy world.

::Whimper::
_

2011-11-06T17:10:00.000-08:00

Dolphins at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 4-4

Ahh, it is actually a good feeling to know that things are back to the way they should be. Isn't it?

The Chiefs defense: vanilla pudding. The opponent's offense: a chain saw.

The Chiefs offense: a spitwad. The opponent's defense: a reinforced concrete wall.

The fun times could only last so long. Last Monday night we beat a poorly coached, injury-depleted Chargers team and then only barely when we just played tougher than they did and we got an extraordinarily timely fumble recovery.

The three wins before that were close games against a very bad Minnesota team, a very very bad Indianapolis team, and an Oakland team who found themselves very abruptly without a quarterback or their star running back.

This game showed us what kind of team we really are.

But don't be sad! Be glad! These kind of games are the truth clarifying events that will hopefully get things to happen for some kind of playoff contention activity to happen around, oh, say 2015 -- if we're lucky.

Since it is the halfway point for us, let's review quickly the five keys to the season I shared before the first game, and see where the Chiefs are for each.

No. 1: Todd Haley has to be a big-time big-game head coach. Many think that his work at getting the Chiefs to 4-3 after the 0-3 start is remarkable. Nah, I just think they've played weak teams and they've gotten breaks. Don't get me wrong, I've loved seeing them win. I always do no matter what.

But I haven't changed my mind. Todd Haley needs to get fired. Today we played an 0-7 team with a back-up quarterback and we simply did not know what the heck to do on both sides of the ball. It wasn't just a matter of us not having the players. We didn't execute plays, we didn't tackle, we didn't cover receivers, we didn't hit our marks. We yet again had too many stupid stupid stupid penalties, and we just plain looked stupid out there. The snap that Dustin Colquitt did not put down for Ryan Succop to kick the field goal was just a graphic reflection of what this team looked like. And I'm sorry, but the "But they were tired after playing on Monday Night" excuse just does not hold water for a second.

It is Todd Haley's doing.

He may be a great rah-rah guy, but this team is still a train wreck. Just wait until we play New England. Pittsburgh. New York. Green Bay. In fact the only team we play without a winning record the rest of the way is Denver.

Chance it'll happen: 75%. The 25% chance it didn't happen is pretty evident now.

No. 2: Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson really need to start playing like the top draft picks they were. This is another huge disappointment. That these guys have not played like they should've up to now is just too telling. It does not take this long for guys who should be better to show they can really do it.

Dorsey is just too slow for the NFL game, and Jackson can't see the field with the vision a D-lineman needs to have at this level. Far, far too often Dorsey just can't get enough of a push to disrupt the opponent's passing game, and far, far too often Jackson lets a runner slip past him when he should be coming off his block to make the hit.

Chance it'll happen: 55%. No surprise that the 45% it wouldn't happen has materialized. This is one of the more crushing situations because these guys were drafted so, so high. Yet again more highly drafted Chiefs D-linemen just turning into busts.

No. 3: We must absorb the loss of Brian Waters on the O-line. This is probably the one area I'd actually give to the Chiefs. Jon Asamoah has actually done decently, and the fact that Jackie Battle has been a wonderful surprise in replacing Jamaal Charles has been testament to that fact. Our O-line has actually been okay at supporting the run, and today's poor sack day I think was more Matt Cassel just not throwing the ball than the failure of the line.

Chance it'll happen: 80%. I don't think we're better, just about as good. We could be much better, and maybe we would with Waters. But I still think we've done pretty well considering.

No. 4: Matt Cassel has got to show Hall-of-Fame characteristics as a signal-caller. Not. Waaay not. Today was a classic example. Sorry, but the "He just had a bad day" excuse doesn't cut it. He just has too many of these days. Not all the time, I agree. Sometimes he's really good, I know.

But we will not win anything with him in there.

Today he showed that he just doesn't have enough confidence in himself to fire the ball in the creases and seams where it just needs to be thrown. Contending-team quarterbacks regularly throw the ball into those places only they can throw, amazing everyone. Matt Cassel just does not do that much. He's a gamer, he's a leader, he's a competitor -- all that, awesome, he has Pro Bowl qualities in those areas.

Today was an unmitigated disaster of a day for Cassel, but it just revealed that we have got to get ready to put the ball into someone else's hands.

Will that be the next best quarterback after Andrew Luck who we can snatch up in the draft? Will that be Ricky Stanzi whom a good QB-developing coach not-Todd-Haley will turn into a Hall-of-Famer? It definitely must be one of those two options if we hope to be a true contender within the next ten years.

Chance it'll happen: 30%. Definitely the right call here. Very little chance that it would happen, and it didn't.

No. 5: Wide receivers must step it up, a lot. This is definitely one area of success, big-time. Mostly just because of the Chiefs pick-up of Steve Breaston. What a find. The guy has been a stud out there. One of the brighest areas of otherwise woeful Chiefsitude this year.

A shout-out can also be made for Jonathan Baldwin, who looks like a fantastic player, although he really showed his rookie-ness out there today. On one play Cassel, to his credit, threw a strike to Baldwin in the endzone, but he simply turned the wrong way. Once he gets on track, he will be a fantastic target for our new QB next year.

And Bowe. He was simply awesome again today.

Chances it'll happen: 65%. This is definitely a happenin.' Breaston is a vet, but could he be around for a few more years when we gel with Bowe and Baldwin? Funny, I didn't know this, but he's been around the same number of years as Bowe, five. Can both these guys be around for a No. 1 QB pick or developed-Ricky-Stanzi Super Bowl run in a few years?

Oh that'd be sweet.

For now, brutal reality.
_

2011-11-01T20:02:00.000-07:00

Chargers at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 4-3

Awright! We got another Monday night game! We're earning some respect! Awright!!!

Not.

Please know that I was thrilled that we got a primetime affair. But I just happen to be cynical Missouri-style, which means my attitude carries with it a great deal of grit. We still don't get showcased nearly as much as the Packers or Steelers, Cowboys or Patriots. These teams get something like 57 primetime games a year.

"Oh but you're a small market team that hasn't won playoff stuff a lot..."

So what. I do know that we must showcase a fine team to get in a big show like MNF, so that's cool. I'm with you. But here's another thing that steams me. We do get our one Monday Night slot, yet the powers-that-be give it to us on...

Halloween.

Gimme a break and a half.

I'm frustrated because that's a night when I usually have serious family obligations. I do have small children. So yeah, because of travelling and events happening, I essentially was able to catch only two parts of the game.

The first was delightful to watch. Think it was around the end of the first quarter, start of the second. I caught our defense playing with a pretty decent measure of team speed. I mean contending-team-like team speed! Surprise! The line was really firing out after Philip Rivers! Our linebackers were really mixing things up! And our D-backfield was smothering receivers as they are splendidly prone to do! When we got the ball shortly thereafter, here were the plays I saw, in order:

1. Jackie Battle pounding forward for a couple.
2. Matt Cassel squirting out of the pocket and hustling close to a first down (and without doing that weinie slide thing).
3. Le'ron McClain catching a floater and hanging on even after getting illegally hammered by a San Diego defender.
4. Cassel holding on in the pocket then firing a deep strike to finally-out-there-playing well Jonathan Baldwin -- touchdown!

After participating in more family-oriented items, I returned to see that we were holding on to a 20-12 lead. Except that, aagh, sure enough Philip Rivers was there, yet again carving us up like Thanksgiving turkey (wait, that holiday is still down the way a bit).

But carving us up he was. Our D-linemen were breaking through but he was just zipping away from them. We must've had 57 D-backs in coverage and he still threaded the needle. Yeah, yeah, I had no hair left. They get the TD by an inch. They get the two-point conversion by an inch. I'm thinkin' yet again, they're going to break our hearts.

The despair turned deeper when we got nuthin', punted, and allowed Rivers to start carving away again. He got them all the way down to the KC 15 with mere seconds left -- enough time for one more play then the agonizing field goal.

One more play for good measure, which...

Rivers phumbled (the way a top mainstream news site wrote it) right into the Chiefs eager clutches.

OT, a Chargers three-and-out, a stout Chiefs drive, and a Succup FG made it a great Chiefs night. Except that ergh, we had to listen to it on the radio driving home, called by the pukiest sycophantic Chargers announcers. I was almost more glad we won to stick to those guys than just that we got the job done.

So we're now in first place because Todd Haley won't shave his beard. It had better do for the Chiefs what Brian Wilson's beard did for the San Francisco Giants last year, that's all I can say.
_

2011-10-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Chiefs at Raiders - Week 7 - Record: 3-3

Why is Todd Haley continuing to torment us all? Why why WHY?

I still really truly believe in the depths of my heart that this guy just flat-out cannot run a professional football team. And yet now he goes out there and really puts the screws to a decent Raiders team in our fourth road game in the first six of the season.

Granted the Raiders had a completely wretched quarterback situation. Their starter, Kyle Boller, came in to start after Jason Campbell was injured last week. He played abysmally. They had picked up traditionally studly QB Carson Palmer during the week, but he had no time to become familiar with the Raiders offense. He still came in half-way through and predictably was just as bad.

So yeah, the Chiefs got six interceptions on the day (yay!) but was it us, or was it their quarterback? I'd really like to think that our D-backs are as good as I've always said they were, but I don't know.

Why is Todd Haley doing this to us?

In fact, the radio guy today said that Scott Pioli was a nanosecond away from firing Todd Haley in the middle of the Colts game when we were down 24-7.

Grreat. Then we came back.

Then we go and win the thing outright.

Now Todd Haley is doing his "good coach" impersonation.

I'm going crazy, I really am.

We're already fully out of the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. Some half-dozen teams it seems are 0-6 or something as bad. Now we're amazingly a scant single game behind first-place San Diego, who we play next Monday night at home.

So what's it going to be Todd: a world championship (or at least for now, a splendidly inspired run at one), a 3-13 final record so that we may still get a remote shot at Andrew Luck, or -- are we going to end up with the worst of the worstest scenarios of all?...

A painfully underwhelming 8-8 record, a 17th pick in the draft to get someone who just can't help us (namely someone not Andrew Luck), and more absence from any playoff contention?

We still commit too many stupid penalties -- offsides, too many men on the field, excessive celebrations -- ergh these bug... are you paying attention Todd Haley? And Matt Cassel -- ergh. One minute he's doing something utterly spectacular, the next he's throwing a pass like the one where he had an eternity to throw the ball, and he lofts this balloon up for any of the 57 Raiders players, coaches, or fans to swoop under it and pick it off -- needless to say, one did.

Yes, I am quite cynical. That's just me. I only write because I'm a Chiefs fan and I want to see them win the Super Bowl. I know they do too. We all do, I'm saying nothing revolutionary here, I know. And hey, any time they beat the Raiders it is a cause for celebration.

I'm celebrating, I really am. I'm thrilled that we destroyed them in their yard.

But Todd Haley, sorry...

He's still driving me crazy...
_

2011-10-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

Chiefs at Colts - Week 5 - Record: 2-3

Yes, it's true. Todd Haley is driving me insane. Certifiably.

The guy should be fired, still, but he's now doing things that make it less and less likely that he'll be fired. Like:

Getting Matt Cassel and his wide receivers to work together to form a real passing offense. Haley's pick-up of Steve Breaston is now looking like an act of genius (aaagh!) because the guy has been such a stud for us. Yesterday both Bowe and Breaston had two TD catches apiece, and every time they've done their thing I've called them "beast," in the very positive sense quite often used these days. As I thought about it, it works on a different level, as in "B"-st, the letter "B" referring to the first letters of their names.

In fact yesterday Bowe had a catch in the endzone that'll be at the very top of the year's highlight reel, if it isn't already the catch of the year. He was running that patented out-pattern at the side of the endzone with Cassel tossing it up for him to grab. With the defender running into him (clear pass interference) he grappled for the ball behind the guy's back, juggled it a number of times, then snagged it as he fell to the turf.

Cassel himself showed yesterday his never-say-die approach to the game, bringing us back from a 17-0 and later 24-7 deficit. One play on our TD last drive exemplified his resolve. He ran out of the pocket, tucked the ball in, and didn't do the weinie QB slide -- instead he ducked his head and run forward for a couple more yards, getting hammered at the end of the play.

Our defense lit it up in the 2nd half as well, and this led my son to text me about something those close to what's going on with the Chiefs have started to point out. All that oppressive physical conditioning that Haley put the team through just before the season started is paying off now.

When we get to the second half, we are now dominating other teams that are tiring out. Come to think of it, yes, starting with the San Diego game, we've been playing very, very well in the 2nd half.

Now, can a 2nd half team be a contender? I still don't think so, not with this team. Remember, we still played a weak Colts team without Peyton Manning, and it was still very close.

And I still think Haley should go, except that he still did find a replacement for Jamaal Charles, for now anyway. Jackie Battle stepped in yesterday and played marvelously. And he is working out rearranging a defense that was designed around Eric Berry, and at least in the last three games it has played relatively decently.

Aaaagh! Todd Haley is making me crazy, that's all.
_

2011-10-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

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

Okay, so let me get this straight. For Matt Cassel to have a fire lit under his rear end and play well, we need him to get into a sideline shouting match with Todd Haley after one of Haley's plays typically fails? Hey, I'm all in favor of the Bill Parcells style of kickin' player-ass to get them going, but I'm sorry.

I really think Haley has about three Super Bowl victories to go before he is in Parcells' class.

What got it done for the Chiefs today was a blending of all the things that got them into the playoffs last year.

They were, in no particular order:

- Cassel playing like the take-no-prisoners QB that he can be.

- Bowe having one of his patented phenomenal days, with his one beautifully wonderfully excellently touchdown play standing out (and it was indeed vintage Bowe because he bobbled the catch terribly before doing his geniusness on the field).

- Our defensive backs so in the face of the Vikings receivers that Flowers, Carr et al didn't have to take off their jerseys at the end of the game, they were already in the Vikings receivers mouths.

- Tamba Hali getting two clutch sacks and being all over Donovan McNabb like maggots on meat.

- Solid special teams play that included a long run-back on a punt from Gilbert Arenas, a booming 60+ punt from Dustin Colquitt, and five big-time field goals from Ryan Succup including two from 50 yards out.

What we also got were two bonuses that (gulp!) may give the Chiefs the ever-so slightest chance of being slightly competitive this year. (Oh I have no illusions about the slightest of slightosital nature of our chances -- they are still exceedingly slight...)

1. The fine play of another wide receiver. Steve Breaston has proven that he is not another Mark Bradley or Chris Chambers. He has been all over the field, making great plays (last week's catch against San Diego had to have been at the top of the highlight reel all week), and just being a very solid go-to guy when we need him.

2. Stalwart play from our defensive front. Can you believe it? I actually liked what I saw from Tyson Jackson today. And that was with Wallace Gilberry in there still doing better than Jackson. Our overall defensive scheme held super-back Adrian Peterson under 100 yards on the day, and that is really saying something.

Will I still give Todd Haley a break? Nah. Any team can beat any other team on any given Sunday. Today we got good performances from all our guys, at home, in a close contest, against a less-than-mediocre Minnesota team.

So the crusade still moves forward. We should still replace Haley with Jim Zorn (oh my -- don't get me wrong -- just for the rest of the season!) and find someone who'll

Get the job done every single week.
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2011-09-25T16:54:00.000-07:00

Chiefs at Chargers - Week 3 - Record: 0-3

So can we fire Todd Haley now???

Do not let the close 20-17 score fool you. This was a disaster from start to finish, only made close because San Diego had their own injury problems and Norv Turner is still their head coach lousing things up on their side. The Chargers should've won this game 40-10, really. This is a good team that is woefully coached, and oh do we know about that.

Probably the most telling evidence today was the fact that we had to burn all three of our timeouts expressly because we simply couldn't get the right personnel on the field for the right plays, situations that are standard procedure for any team registered to play in the NFL.

We actually had a chance to actually pull this one out (I know! It would've been a miracle!) With a minute left, Haley called a screen pass that was thrown right into the hands of a defender. Screen passes are wonderful plays, especially when you've got a guy like Dexter McCluster, but they must be executed with the greatest precision. The one we tried on that last offensive play fell apart -- simply because Todd Haley cannot get this team to execute as it should.

Sure there are a lot of things that enter into the mix of a loss like this one. Our offensive line is not playing as well as I'd hoped. We're missing key scoring chances (Succup missed his third FG in as many games). We can't get fumbles to fall into our defenders hands. We can't get our teams to mesh at the same times (In the first half our offense stank but our defense played okay. In the second half our offense took off but our defense went soft... Sigh.)

Yes, our injury situation is awful, but it is made worse by the fact that it'll most likely be continued to keep being used as an excuse to keep Todd Haley around. Come on, every other play is a play that just goes haywire because the players look like they don't know what they're supposed to be doing out there.

But hey. At least we're still on track to get some Luck, yes, Luck in caps, and every Chiefs fan across the vast arrays multiuniverses knows what that means.
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2011-09-18T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

Okay, this isn't the "Fire Todd Haley" blog, but it certainly could be. No, it is simply "The Chiefs Game Today," and it is indeed about the Chiefs, and not the coach.

But the "Fire Todd Haley" theme will indeed be running through the course of this blog, this year, this season, and however many more miserable units of time we'll have to endure having Haley as coach until the day he isn't our coach any more.

Yes, today we faced what may indeed be a very good Lions team. They did look very good today, however awful the Chiefs looked. And I take nothing away from the Lions -- they themselves have been so bad for so long that I do wish them well. Thing is, if they play like this regularly, they should win a playoff game this year, leaving only the Bengals as the one NFL team that would have a longer drought without a playoff win than the Chiefs. (Unless, of course, the Bengals win a playoff game too, then... Well, we know the Chiefs won't be winning any playoff games this year.)

Here's the deal for the rest of the year. It is easy, it is simple, it is quite uncomplicated.

We need three things to be a Super Bowl contending team.

Just three. That's all. I don't ask for much. We do have a lot of things in place that are good. Again, I do like our team's owner, I do like our team's general manager, I like a lot about this team. I like a lot of the players. I could list a bunch of things I like about the Chiefs.

But these three things are in such awful, wretched, pathetic, putrid, and any-other-such-adjective that they really are the focus of what needs to happen for the Chiefs for however long it takes for them to happen.

The three things we need are:

- A head coach.

- A quarterback.

- Some luck.

I've already written a ton about a lot of this, but here's the latest:

A head coach. Is there still anyone with a nanoliter of brain cell matter who thinks Haley needs to stay leading this team for one more nanosecond? If so, raise your hand. I thought so.

Come on people, there is no way in the world an NFL team can do what this one has done over the past two regular season games, over the past four altogether including the final game last year and the playoff game, and still hang around. It just doesn't happen.

No no no no NO it doesn't have to do with turnovers, and it doesn't have to do with lack of talent. Turnovers happen but that's just the game. Some teams have better talent than others, but not by this much of a margin.

No, sorry.

This is coaching.

Haley's inadequacy was evident today after the opening coin toss. When you have a team like this one, who uses the run best with the score as close as possible, you want the ball with the score 0-0 at the beginning of the game. Well, the Chiefs won the toss, then deferred to receive the ball at the start of the second half. Yes, I know in the grand scheme of the game it didn't mean anything! The point is that this is the NFL where the talent is not so disparate and there is always the possibility any team can beat any other team on any Sunday!

What happened was Detroit stormed down the field, scored a touchdown, and instantly we were on our heels. And it was worse when we got the kickoff at the beginning of the second half, down then 20-3. So what was the point?

Listen. Let me make this perfectly clear. I am one of those guys who always always wants to hang on to a coach we already have for far too long! I was one of the last guys to support Herm Edwards! I was even with him to the very end, on his side, championing him to stay! I liked John Mackovic! For cryin' out loud I even liked Frank Gansz! (Okay, okay, I admit, not for that long.) I only disliked Marty Schottenheimer after he got fired and that was because I was just so mad at him for being such a choke in the playoffs!

This is one instance, however, when it is categorical. Todd Haley simply cannot stay. He should be fired, and right now. No "Let's give him a bit more time." No "He's just had some rough luck." No "It was the lockout's fault." Or any other excuse.

Take care of business now and get us a coach, even if interim, so we can have a good solid coach.

A quarterback. Today was another nail in the coffin of Matt Cassel, and another point for the case to get the best QB in the draft next year for the long-term future.

The nail was Cassel's complete inability to move the ball through the air. Sure Bowe dropped a couple of passes, but only a few times did he get decent separation. The other receivers were worthless, yet again, and it wasn't entirely their fault. And some of the six turnovers today were interceptions in which Cassel just threw very poor passes.

The point earned for my incessently strident case for a QB was in seeing what first-overall-pick-in-the-draft Matthew Stafford could do for the Lions. What is the main reason the Lions are going to compete this year? Everyone knows the answer:

They have a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback.

You could see it all over Stafford today. He fired the ball right where it needed to be, he knew what was going on, he brimmed with confidence. He still looked a little raw, but I'd sure rather be the team to have a Matthew Stafford getting all ready to make us a true contender right now. Instead we've got a seventh round pick who in college was a career backup throwing a grand total of 24 passes, and absolutely no one even remotely in the mix getting groomed to take this team farther than one playoff game.

Some luck. We are so due for this. We are so due for luck it isn't even funny.

Instead we keep getting the worst worst worst luck you can possibly get.

How's this for our luck? In fact, this will say it all, really.

Here's a simple question for you: How many teams have any players who suffer season-ending anterior cruciate ligament damage ever? I mean of all 144 North American team professional sports teams (football, baseball, basketball, hockey), of all the thousands of players in that mix who play hard and stress their knees day in a day out, how many teams mind-you have a history of having even a single player endure a critically damaging ACL injury?

30 of those teams? Maybe 40 as the most conservative guess? And how many players? Most of them just one. For their entire histories. If any single team has two or three in their entire existence, that's a lot.

Well guess what, completely, thoroughly, and abjectly luckless Chiefs fans.

We've already had two, and may even have a third in three weeks.

That, friends, is not only phenomenally incredible, but that it has happened to three of our very best players makes the odds for this kind of thing to happen simply astrostratogalacticable.

Tony Moeaki against Green Bay: ACL tear and out for the season. Eric Berry against Buffalo: ACL tear and out for the season. Jamaal Charles today against the Lions: it is inconclusive as of this writing, but if you watched it you have to admit it really looked like an ACL tear before he was carted off the field and out of the rest of the game.

This season is making that train wreck look like playtime in the sandbox.

Too much. Absolutely too much. Enough writing for now. This just too much.

Thank goodness I have a whole week to find even more gruesome adjectives that will describe next week's affair with San Diego. I really don't know if I'll find them. I'm already scared that I won't be able to find them for Pittsburgh, and New England -- several weeks from now!

But hey, maybe Clark and Scott will do the right thing with their head coaching situation before then, and there will be just one little thing this year that'll make me a nanoliter less depressed.
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2011-09-12T15:44:00.000-07:00

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

Okay, let's just get this out of the way. No need to pull any punches, every Chiefs fan is thinking it, let's just be honest. Let's just get this thing over with and be done with.

It's time to fire Todd Haley.

What? After the first game of the season? Are you kidding me?

Now, who on earth is actually saying those words I just typed in underline right there? Maybe Clark Hunt, and maybe Scott Pioli, and maybe even Todd Haley's mom. But I really don't think anyone else is thinking those words. I really don't.

Let's look at the facts. And this is from someone who pays absolutely zero attention to anything else except the game. I don't read or hear any remarks from any columnist or announcer anywhere anyplace.

I'm just looking at the facts as they are out there on the bare naked field of play.

I have to start with the complete ineptitude of the entire coaching program, revealed in bright bold colors yesterday. This is 100% Todd Haley's responsibility. I can accept that maybe our guys were really, really affected by the lockout. What I can't accept is the catastrophe that was our attempt to overcome it. There is no reason in the world our guys should not have been better prepared for this one. Our exhibition efforts were abysmal and those who say the preseason means nothing only needs to look at the train wreck that is this team. How many of you could see this coming, watching us waddle around in the four "meaningless" games before the season opened?

What was that? Everyone? Everyone and his uncle could see this coming? What a surprise! (Bitter sarcasm purely intended.)

The fact that the offensive line coach was calling in the plays from the booth is something that just appalled me. The complete failure of Haley to get down precisely what he wants to do offensively through the couple of years he's been at the helm is inexusable. The fact that people like Charlie Weis have come and gone means we absolutely cannot get any coherence on offense. Did you see the train wreck out there on the field yesterday? (Whupp, I already used that metaphor, "train wreck," sorry -- 'cept that it's a pretty dang good one for this team so I may actually use it a few more times. Get ready.)

I guess my question is, don't these guys really want to coach for Haley? Chan Gailey, the guy coaching on the other side for the Bills, was unceremoniously fired by Haley and a lot was said about that. Why? Was there a lot more to it than just professional disagreement?

I can't really say, I'll give the guy that, there may be things about Haley that are very good and nice and positive. But when I look at Haley on the sidelines he just looks angry all the time, like he's going to have a meltdown if his idea or his play or his thing just doesn't work right -- that it is all about him. His whole demeanor just smacks of "this is all about me, so everybody make me look good."

Some may say this is just one game. But the fact (oh those facts) is that this is the third straight home game in which the Chiefs have been utterly, utterly blasted -- again, at home. Not just beaten but blasted. I felt awful for all the fans there, packed house at Arrowhead, ready to watch an at-least watchable game. The stadium was empty by the beginning of the fourth quarter.

This season is over, especially since we lost Eric Berry to an ACL injury. That is just a killer. The one guy who we can really put genuine hope in, the next Ronnie-Lott-Troy-Polamalu guy -- a real defensive playmaker -- gone. And gone after the very first scrimmage play of the game. Just unreal.

That makes it now four straight years of first picks in the draft who aren't going to have any real impact at all. The four? This year (Jonathan Baldwin who got injured in a fight in the locker room -- ahem, did you know your players were doing that Todd Haley?), last year (Berry), and the two previous years (Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey -- did you see our run defense yesterday? -- it'd be funny if I weren't so upset about my pathetic team right now.)

Um, sorry, but I'm just not going to go over all the systemic failures in yesterday's game. The loss of Eric Berry alone doesn't explain this train wreck (okay, I won't use it again...)

I'm just going to say this.

Clark. Clark Hunt, listen up.

Find a coach who really, actually, truly knows what he's doing. I happened to catch a bit of the 49ers game yesterday, the one that featured a Niners team whose management fired do-nothing coach Mike Singletary and went out and paid money to get do-something coach Jim Harbaugh. The very predictable result? They handled a good Seahawks team simply because they'd

Been coached.

Even if you can't get that guy right now, still: jettison Haley, get a decent interim guy to manage the team for right now, and be looking for the next studly sideline general. Who cares if we suck this year; in fact our only hope is to suck enough to get a high enough draft pick to select the top QB in the draft next year.

Come on you guys, Clark, Scott, any other major Chiefs personnel, please... have you no humanity. You have millions of fans who every week deck themselves in red and gold and all other Chiefs accoutrements no matter how silly. They adore your team, Clark.

Please, we all beg you, let's make the firmest of all firm commitments right now. Stop pissing away year after year after year of contention because we absolutely refuse to get a highly drafted quarterback and nurture him. Let's get a coach who can do what no other Chiefs coach in all of our history has been able to do:

Skillfully develop that guy.

Don't believe me? Look at the Indianapolis Colts. For every single year they have had Peyton Manning they have been on the lips of everyone who speaks of the top echelon teams in the NFL. Every single year. Yesterday was the first game in eons he didn't play and look. The Colts were right back to mediocre.

Now this blog post isn't about Matt Cassel. I like him, I really do.

But he will not get us to the promised land.

And he won't get us there especially when Todd Haley is our coach.

For the Chiefs to be a Super Bowl contending team, it is categorical. It is imperative. It is unequivocal. It is everything that is true factual actual and any other superlatively descriptive word that implies factitude:

We need a quarterback that will be in the Hall of Fame, and we need a coach that'll get him there.

It is that simple.

Sure these things don't just drop from the sky. It is very hard work and requires a ton of luck (which the Chiefs are soooo due to get in huge massive slabs). Sure we need great forbearance and patience from Clark, Scott, and all Chiefs fans.

But it has to start right now.

Again, who on this planet who even remotely have any affinity for the Chiefs isn't saying in no uncertain terms, "Fire Todd Haley now"?

Okay, so yeah, let's get to it...

Fire Todd Haley now!
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2011-09-04T22:32:00.000-07:00

Chiefs Preview 2011

Last night I caught much of the exhibition affair with the Packers, yes, that's the one, the one with all the fumbles and dropped passes eventuating in a one-point loss. Yes, a loss even though most of our starters were out there for the entirety. This does not bode well, as exhibition play is always about getting all your rookies and free agents a shot at showing what they can do. We finished it 0-4, which I'm pretty sure is what it was last year.

After the game we watched the last part of the horror film The Ring, about a very creepy zombie girl who comes out of the television and frightens the viewer so thoroughly that it causes not only death but gruesome physical disfigurement. Funny, when I turned off my computer shortly thereafter the giant "KC" arrowhead on my desktop went a very spooky shade of black and gray just before the screen went blank. That never happens.

Of course, I could only think.

Are this year's Kansas City Chiefs going to come out of my television set and scare the bejeebers out of us this year?

I do have some serious concerns about these guys, and I'll share them as I round up the five keys to this season. For each and every one, I'll put down a percentage possibility that I think the team will address them and play well. That is, if it says "70%" that means I think they've got a 70% chance to make the good thing happen and do well. Really, if they do all of them, we're going to the Super Bowl. If they don't, then it's just another zombie year.

Those keys to 2011 in order of importance:

No. 1: Todd Haley has to be a big-time big-game head coach. I really think he has the potential to be a fine head coach, but when I watch him I just sense he is too concerned about how he's doing. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I just get that sense. He's got to jettison all that worry and just have confidence in what he's doing.

It all starts in the front office, and I really like what Clark Hunt is doing in his dedication to the team, and I think Scott Pioli has made some great personnel moves to really start building this team. The key question is will Todd Haley have learned enough in his couple of years already at the helm to really start being a solid, winning head coach?

Chance it'll happen: 75%. Not too bad, because I do think the guy has the smarts and potential. Whether he allows it to flourish without being too self-absorbed is the key here.

No. 2: Glenn Dorsey and Tyson Jackson really need to start playing like the top draft picks they were. It is axiomatic that games are won at the line of scrimmage, and these guys are really going to have to show they have All-Pro skill if we are going to have a chance. They actually do pretty decently with the pass rush -- with a lot of help from Tamba Hali -- but they absolutely must step it up defending the run.

We've been waiting a long time for them to come around. This year is the make-or-break year.

Chance it'll happen: 55%. Not too high, just because if they were something, we'd have seen it by now. I'm sorry -- I just haven't seen it. I just fear Jackson is going to be one of Pioli's major busts. And I have to add that these guys should be better simply because the Chiefs have a very good defensive backfield to help them. Even with that, will they be better? Ehh. Gotta show us there in the Show Me State.

No. 3: We must absorb the loss of Brian Waters on the O-line. This dude was studly, but his discontent eventually led him out when he got the chance. They're sticking somewhat heralded Jon Asamoah in that space and we'll see if he can open up space for our fine runners.

I really believe the key to the Chiefs offensive success this year is Dexter McCluster. This guy is phenomenal, and Todd Haley has shown his confidence in him. The question is, how much will teams now key on that patented shallow-flat route McCluster is so good at running?

Chance it'll happen: 80%. Little bit more confidence in this area, simply because I'm counting on Jamaal Charles being as good as he was last year.

No. 4: Matt Cassel has got to show Hall-of-Fame characteristics as a signal-caller. Oh yeah, how high can one's expectations get? I know, I know. But as I've documented thoroughly in this blog, only HOF QB's get you to the promised land. Is Cassel good? Yeah. Is he great? Nah. Can he be great? I dunno.

Again, I like the guy. He's a leader, a winner, and take-no-prisoners guy. For cryin' out loud he's an All-Pro QB. I know, I know. But I have to admit I'm not sold on the guy and he's just got to step it up for us. A tall order? Yeah.

Chance it'll happen: 30%. Now that's the chance he'll actually turn into a Hall-of-Fame QB. If he's close, maybe, just maybe he can still get us to the promised land.

No. 5: Wide receivers must step it up, a lot. How Cassel does depends a great deal on this critical aspect of our offense, something that was dreadful last year. Sure we have Dwayne Bowe, who is extraordinary. But the rest of the WR corps have been downright abysmal. We picked up vets Steve Breaston and Jerheme Urban. Are these guys really going to be the answer to helping Bowe, or are they going to end up like major busts Mark Bradley and Chris Chambers?

Chances it'll happen: 65%. Who's to say it couldn't happen, but I just keep thinking of Bradley and Chambers. Rookie Jonathan Baldwin is highly touted, but it'll take time for him to develop.

Those are the five keys in my mind. Again, if the Chiefs can make it happen in these areas, we're at least AFC West champs -- and hey, maybe we'll win a playoff game! Yay! If not, Chiefs fans will be feeling a lot like the guy who spent too much time watching the ugly zombie come out of the television.
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2011-01-30T15:36:00.000-08:00

Final Note - The NFL's Revenge Is Still In Healthy Seething Mode

In case you didn't notice, for a third straight year and fifth of the last six, no Old-AFL team is playing in the Super Bowl.

I did write at length about this last year, but it still blows me away that those Old-AFL teams (which will henceforth just be known as the AFL) are still sucking big-time when it comes to anything Super Bowlish. Hey, they can't even get there. Just so you know what those teams are, to refresh: Kansas City, Tennessee, Buffalo, Oakland, New York, New England, Denver, San Diego, Miami, and Cincinnati.

When you look at these teams, particularly as a big fan of that whole AFL thing, you can't help but think of them with a great deal of pride. How they rose from their humble 1960's beginnings, how the "Foolish Club" managed to wiggle their way into the vaunted NFL with the merger of 1970, how they brought so many cool innovations into what is the NFL today.

But if you remember, the "Old-NFL" really didn't take too kindly to the smart-ass Jets beating the Colts in 68. And they really really didn't like the Chiefs doing it to the Vikings the very next year when they blabbed all over the place that the Jets win was the flukiest of flukes. It took the Chiefs to show that the AFL was for real.

Thing is, it was almost as if the Chiefs blew it by rubbing the NFL's face in it.

Here's one more evidence I've assembled that shows just how inept the AFL teams have been on-the-whole since that Chiefs Super Bowl win. Here's the question, think about this: Since the merger, exactly how many AFL teams have won titles in two different time periods with two wholly different teams?

Just in case you don't want to think that hard, I can give you the answer.

Zero.

Here's the brutal truth.

The Raiders came the closest. They won in 76, then again in 80 and 83. You could almost say they half-way did it, but there were guys from the 76 team on the 80 team and guys from the 80 team on the 83 team. The 76 guys were much more scarce on the 80 team because that team was more of that earlier 70's fine Raiders team eventually getting their long-sought-after title, but the 83 team had a few more 80 guys on it, and both were quarterbacked and coached by the same guy both years (Jim Plunkett and Tom Flores, respectively).

Other than that, absolutely nada. There have been only three other AFL teams to even win a Super Bowl since 1970. Miami won in 72 and 73, but only those two years. Denver won in 97 and 98, but only then. And New England won in 01, 03, and 04, and only then. Since 1970 KC, Ten, Buf, NY, SD, and Cin all have big fat Super Bowl oh-fers.

Now let's look at the Old-NFL teams in this regard.

Start with Pittsburgh, who won in the 70's (74, 75, 78, 79) AND the aughts (05, 08). Again, two totally different eras with two totally completely different teams and everything.

Then there's Dallas, who won in the 70's (71, 77) and then in the 90's (92, 93, 95).

Then there're the New York Giants, who won in the 80's (86, 90) and the aughts (07).

Then there's Indianapolis, who won in 70 when in Baltimore, then again in 06.

Then there's San Francisco, who could be argued to have been so good for so long that it was one good solid team effort from 81 to 94. Even though the organization that sustained that excellence was generally consistently stable throughout, you can't deny that the 81 team was completely and totally different from the 94 team.

Then there's Washington, who in some ways was kind of like the Raiders situation in that the Super Bowls were all relatively close together. That is, the "different era" qualification wasn't as clear-cut as the other NFLers. After all they were all coached by Joe Gibbs. But the 82 team was truly a completely different team than the 91 team as far as on-field personnel. The time differential from first to last for the Raiders: eight years. That for the Redskins: ten.

Then there's Green Bay, who may not count if we're just talking about Super Bowls since the merger. Their first Super Bowl wins were before it, in 66 and 67. They won it again in 96. But they could very well make this academic if they win this Sunday, which would make them the first team to win Super Bowls in three completely different eras.

So really, for all intents and purposes, the history of Super Bowlosity has been very ugly for the AFLers. AFL teams with championship greatness in at least two wholly different eras: zero. NFL teams with that kind of greatness: seven. Overall tally since that 1970 merger -- NFL: 31. AFL: 10. Oh, and that 31st hasn't even happened yet, but will this Sunday, Green Bay or Pittsburgh.

I've spoken of Odin's revenge as clobbering the Chiefs, but it can't be denied it has extended to the entire AFL. It is indeed just as much the NFL's revenge, still resplendent in all its rage.

And since this enterprise is only about the Chiefs and the Chiefs doing great Super Bowl kinds of things, I think it is wholly incumbent on the Chiefs to make up for it. So I must add a few notes about what the Chiefs must do to break the spell, to vanquish the curse that has befallen the entire endeavor that Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt worked so hard to bring about.

I usually finish up the season with a note to the current Chiefs general manager, and this is no different. Thing is, I've pretty much already said what needs to be said last week. This is just an elaboration of that one thing.

I went ahead and looked at other team's quarterback situations as far as their success in drafting and developing (D&D) that one key guy. I made an initial attempt to go through the draft histories of every team in the NFL, but that proved to be too daunting. Sure I'd have liked to have seen what the success rate of other teams is like, but I know there'd be those teams with great success like Peyton Manning for Indianapolis, and the busts like Tim Couch for Cleveland the very next year. Every team has their booms and busts in this area, I get that.

I just want the Chiefs to be among the most successful ones, and it is clear they've been among the lamest. Once again, the key is that the Chiefs never, not a single time in their fifty year history have ever drafted and developed a quarterback who's been worth a damn.

So what I did do is look at each team in our division. I noted only the QB's drafted in the top seven for every year since the time of the merger.

If you'll allow me, by team:

Denver: They didn't pick John Elway in the draft, but in 83 Elway announced he would not play for Indianapolis, so the Broncos traded for him right away and it was as if he'd been drafted by them. He went on to have a great career, winning them two Super Bowls. Other than that, the Broncos did draft Jay Cutler with the 11th overall pick in 06, and he led the Bears this year to the NFC title game. They had a high-pick bust in Tommy Maddux in 92 (25th overall), but they got so much mileage out of Elway that it didn't much matter. So far, Denver's D&D QB situation outclasses KC's by miles.

Oakland: One of the only things that makes KC's dreadful D&D QB situation barely tolerable is that Oakland's has been just as wretched. Think Marc Wilson (15th overall in 80), Todd Marinovich (24th overall in 91), and JaMarcus Russell (1st overall in 07). I can't say I'm not unpleased about all this, as every warm-blooded Chiefs fan certainly can't. But the fact is Oakland still had great playoff and even Super Bowl success with the guys they picked up from elsewhere, much like KC has tried to do its entire existence. They got fantastic play from Jim Plunkett in the early 80's and Rich Gannon in the early 2000's. And it must be said that Ken Stabler was drafted and he did do wonderful things for the Raiders through the early 70's (including that 76 Super Bowl). That clearly gives the D&D QB situation edge to Oakland over KC.

San Diego: Funny that the Chargers are renowned for one of the greatest QB draft busts of all time, Ryan Leaf in 98, but in a twist San Diego has actually made some of the best QB draft picks of any NFL team. They got marvelous work from Dan Fouts (3rd round, 64th overall in 73). Ironically for the Chiefs they picked Trent Green in 93 in the 8th round at 222 overall. Drew Brees, a guy who got the Chargers into the playoffs, led the Saints the 09 Super Bowl title, and is considered one of the best in the game now, was plucked in 01 in the 2nd round, 32 overall. And the Chargers were somehow blessed to get the first pick in 04 which they used to get Eli Manning, but this would only get even better for the Chargers because they traded Manning for Philip Rivers and other fine players who have helped the Chargers dominate the AFC West though the 2000's. Rivers himself has become one of the best QB's in the NFL. So the D&D QB edge here? SD by light years over the Chiefs.

And now for the Chiefs. Come on, be brave now.

The only even remotely bright spot was Mike Livingston, drafted way back in 68 (just a few picks before Ken Stabler, by the way) but a guy who never emerged as a true, solid D&D guy. The catch is that no Chiefs fan can dismiss the fact that when Len Dawson went down in the middle of our Super Bowl season, Livingston held his own and carried the load, indeed quite admirably so. For that we are eternally grateful to the only guy who was ever purely Chiefs-drafted and did anything, even if it was for that one, glorious moment.

Other than that, it gets extraordinarily ugly.

We had Len Dawson go for so long and Livingston play for so long with a weak Chiefs team in the 70's that our next meaningful QB pick was all the way out in 1979. Steve Fuller was taken 23rd overall that year, and to say he was a bust is an understatement. He was very highly touted out of Clemson, and to be honest I remember two things about Fuller. One was that when the 49er scouts were checking him out they actually liked better the guy he was throwing to, Dwight Clark. The other was that in making one last effort at being a fine QB with Chicago, he was overwhelmed in the 84 NFC title game against those same 49ers. Oh well.

Bill Kenney came along and did well, but we still knew we needed someone really good to take the reins. Welcome to one of the greatest QB busts of all time, considering the character of that draft. The famous 1983 class of drafted QB's included the great John Elway, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino, as well as the very good Ken O'Brien and Tony Eason. But selected as the second of that bunch (yes, way before Kelly and Marino) was Todd Blackledge. Looking at the guy you'd have thought this was a no-brainer, the guy looked like a truly studly quarterback. But sadly, this is a team victimized by Odin's Revenge. Turned out he simply could not read NFL defenses and no amount of grand eloquent coaching could change that.

In 89 and 92 we picked up notorious forgettables Mike Elkins and Matt Blundin, respectively. Notorious because they were so highly selected (32 and 40 overall, respectively). Forgettable because, um, who are these guys again? I just remember watching those drafts and each time thinking in the depths of my horrifically scarred heart that this guy was going to be that guy, that one D&D guy who's going to be the first for the Chiefs, the first to actually make things happen out there on a regular basis. Didn't happen -- in the worst way, and I really forget why. I don't think either of them played more than a handful of games at all, ever, for anyone.

We grasped a bit for that guy down in the draft a bit with Steve Stenstrom in 95 and Pat Barnes in 97 (interestingly from Stanford and Cal respectively), but they didn't cut it. A lot because you just can't get Super Bowl quality play from a 4th round pick unless it is some spectacular Joe Montana-like miracle selection. But a lot because, you know, Odin, all that, you know...

In the late 90's, early 00's, Chiefs management seemed to think Elvis Grbac or Trent Green would be playing forever, and they didn't draft a QB again until 06, and they got -- yes the flunkie parade goes on -- Brodie Croyle. Yes, I thought the very same thing then, also... This'll be the guy. He'll get us there. He'll be the first one. Yay. As it is Croyle has started ten games since that time (that is is only ten is rotten enough) and his record is a -- I'm really trying to think of an adjective that is worse than shameful, but I can't think of it right now, I guess I don't need to though, because the record says enough -- 0-10.

Now, here's the thing. Scott Pioli and Todd Haley, here's the thing. Chiefs fans around the universe are talking to you.

That you haven't drafted and started developing a QB since the wayward Croyle attempt in 06 is bad enough. That you had to fiddle around with someone like Tyler Thigpen for so long is really awful. That you think Matt Cassel is the answer is not as bad because the guy is a gamer, plays decently, and had a fine year at least before the Raiders and Ravens games.

But it is reprehensibly inexcusable if you don't get your asses into the draft right now and get the next guy who'll take us to the promised land.

Everyone in the division and most everyone in the entire league has embarrassed us with their ability to draft and develop a good quarterback at least every once in a while.

Right now the Steelers are in the promised land for the third time with a guy at the helm who was the 11th pick overall a few years ago. It isn't some castoff or traded-for guy who'd already spent most of his professional wad with another team. Right now the Packers are in the promised land for what will probably be the first of several times with a guy who was the 24th pick overall a few years ago, a guy who is arguably the single instrumental reason they are there. It wasn't some veteran superstud who's wiping up the last vestiges of a great career -- remember how everyone hated the Packers for jettisoning Brett Favre so unceremoniously? What are those fans thinking now?

Remember how the Chiefs got great, proud play from Joe Montana at the very tail end of his career? For that I am indeed very grateful -- the dude got us to the AFC title game in 93. But that was it.

So in conclusion to this mostly fine 2010 year for the Chiefs, here's the real deal. The real deal if we actually want to be truly promised land-bound.

Mr. Pioli, get that guy you need. Get the one you know is a pro guy, a pro-game guy, a clutch player who gets the job done deep in the playoffs, and get him high. We've got, what, the 24th overall pick or something like that this year? Again Aaron Rodgers was a 24th pick. Drew Brees was 32nd. Dan Fouts was 64th for cryin' out loud.

And Mr. Haley, brush up on your quarterback coaching skills. Come on, this is why we got you -- you got the Cardinals into the Super Bowl three years ago, you are an offensive guy -- get going channeling Bill Walsh big-time because you're going to be developing him. Really Mr. Haley, this is your moment of glory, this is it. If you can't develop whoever Mr. Pioli gets you're worth little because the promised land is all we're after, and you ain't getting there without this guy.

We ain't breaking the curse unless we finally, finally get the best D&D QB guy there is for the next ten years. It is that simple.

And then, and then for the Chiefs, for all of the faithful AFLers, for the legacy of Lamar Hunt who came up with the "Super Bowl," we can avenge ourselves and restore the AFL's rightful place in pro football.

Hey, and maybe, just maybe the Chiefs will soon be the first AFL team to get that second-era Super Bowl.

Get that guy.
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(Just a quick note about "the merger" for those who aren't quite clear on the concept. The American Football League lasted from 1960 to 1969, and throughout the decade it increased in popularity and gained more stature. The National Football League worked out an arrangement beginning with the 1970 season in which the AFL would join the NFL and become the American Football Conference -- with the new National Football Conference comprising most of the NFL's teams. To even out the teams [in 1969 there were 16 NFL teams to the 10 AFL teams], Pittsburgh, Baltimore [later Indianapolis], and Cleveland [later the Baltimore Ravens] offered to become AFC teams. The entire enterprise would be under the NFL heading.)
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2011-01-16T08:05:00.000-08:00

Post Season Report - One Single Thing the Chiefs Need Most

I am a recovering Chiefs addict.

Because of that, I don't see, watch, read, or listen to anything other than Chiefs games on Sunday. While I've already shared some of the key parts of my sports celibacy, there are some reasons that rise above the rest that keep me from paying any attention to any sports things. One of the problems, however, is that my radar picks up sports things all over the place -- well, I really should say things-that-affect-my-teams type of things.

As far as the NFL goes, I only care about the Chiefs. But everything else in the NFL does affect the Chiefs. For instance, I would've only paid attention to teams like Dallas and Seattle to the extent that they shared the record for most consecutive playoff losses with the Chiefs. Now that the Chiefs are the sole holder of that distinction (with seven, see last post), I must now manage the serious disconsolation attending that fact.

I am also always picking up whatever the Raiders, Broncos, and Chargers are doing because whatever happens with our AFC West rivals affects how the Chiefs do through the season -- although again, I never deliberately pay a single lick of attention to any of their games or progress.

I can't. Knowing the things that so viciously rack the Chiefs just too deeply shreds my soul. So even though I step way back from all the Chiefsitude off the field, it is one reason I write about it. I admit this blog is part of the good therapy for a recovering Chiefs addict. But before you scamper away fearing this is just one pathetic whine session, please bear with me because it does get to a critical aspect of the Kansas City Chiefs and their future.

Yesterday was no different in the plain fact that my Chiefs-things radar locked on to two gnawing things that have happened with some regularity, and is certainly one of the most profound reasons this fan is so resolutely celibate. I don't have a clue as to what happened in these two events, because beholding them for any length of time requires enduring torment that is best avoided altogether.

Those two things were that the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers won yet another playoff game. (I will tell you one reason I was eager for an Atlanta win was because I was really rooting for Tony Gonzales and hoping he'd finally get some Super Bowl glory. Sadly, it won't happen this year and probably never will.)

Here's the context, just so you know. I don't necessarily have any animosity toward the Steelers and Packers. My affection for the Raiders is miles beneath any consideration I have for these two teams. If it were any two other teams doing the same thing, I'd be just as jealous. It doesn't matter. (Oh, and yeah, the intense jealosy -- not good. Another perfectly fine justification for staying so far away.)

I will say the one key thing about them in particular is that they are small market teams and ones that are wildly successful. I've always lamented how the Chiefs are a small market team and as such will never get the advantages the Grand Sports Powers-That-Be afford the Patriotses and Giantses. I think the Steelers get a lot of recognition because they've had such a fine organization and a rich winnning history, and the Packers catch the media's eyes simply because they are in the smallest market in professional sports and have this small-guy darling status in the media, kind of like Notre Dame does in college football. The Chiefs have just been done in by poor front office management and wretched playoff stupidness (again, see last post).

So yeah, the aggravation stirred up by the intense jealosy in all of this is just too much. Please know that I'm terrific with small market teams doing great and sticking it to the Powers-That-Be who zealouly labor to manipulate competitive integrity! I just want it to be the Chiefs doing that, that's all.

I can't neglect to share the gory details with you.

Remember just before the '96 season -- I'm pretty sure it was then -- Sports Illustrated had on its cover three key Packers guys (in a spiffy fold-out front cover) right next to three key Kansas City Chiefs guys. "Next Super Bowl: Packers vs. Chiefs" or something like that. Well, the Packers did go on to the Super Bowl that year, and won it. But they did it against the Patriots, and that was even before they had Tom Brady. (Oh, and the Chiefs didn't even get to the playoffs that year, starting 9-4 but losing their last three games.)

Do you know how many playoff games the Packers have won since that SI cover? Eleven. Do you know how many the Chiefs have won since that time? Don't bother, the number wasn't even invented until the Mayans did it. In fact the Packers have won a total of 14 playoff games since the Chiefs last one a single one. (Oh, don't worry, there's a very good reason for that, one which I'm getting to, stay tuned!...)

Then there is the Steelers. Remember when we beat them in the '93 playoffs? Saturday, January 8th (in 1994). What a wonderful, wonderful game. The Chiefs played them hard, trailed by a touchdown in the last minute, got a clutch pass from Joe Montana (what other kind are there?) to Tim Barnett in the back of the endzone at the very end of regulation, and then got a splendidly splendid field goal from Nick Lowery in overtime to win it.

Oh yeah, we were finally on our way. We were finally a perenniel contender. We were finally among the elite of the NFL. We were finally going to have playoff victory after playoff victory and be wonderful and splendid and all the rest of it.

Well, ahem. While we did win our next playoff game that year against Houston, that would be the very last playoff game we would ever win. Now, how many playoff victories do you think Pittsburgh has had since then? :: Gulp ::

Seventeen.

They've also had two Super Bowl victories, and one of the reasons the Steelers are so successful and the Chiefs aren't is demonstrated in what happened in those games. It is as if the Steelers have precisely the opposite what the Chiefs have, and that is beneficially opportunistically fortunate things. The Chiefs just have rotten stupid things anytime they're in a postseason game.

Remember, the '05 Super Bowl? The Seahawks dominated that game. But the Steelers won going away, 21-10. Huh? There were four amazing critical plays in that game that either went against the Seahawks dooming them and their intrepid play, or going for the Steelers and giving them the whopping edge. I don't remember all of them, but one was a play in which they had a fourth and 57 or something like that and QB Roethlisberger scrambled all around then heaved a pass on his back feet all the way across the field for a touchdown -- I mean it was something incredibly stupid like that. Stupid? Yeah, stupid because not only do the Chiefs never get these kinds of things happening for them in any playoff game, they are always victims of them!

Look at the Super Bowl win over Arizona. Everyone knows about the two plays that ended each half. The Steelers won the game on an incredible final-play tiptoe reception by Santonio Holmes at the side of the endzone. But they also got that interception return by James Harrison at the end of the first half that went all the way across the field, and he barely got into the endzone by the teensiest of margins with no time left on the clock.

I have to tell you: do you know what I was thinking after watching that? Here was exactly the very thought I had. Ready?

"That would never happen for the Chiefs."

That's what I thought. Yes I'm sure bazillions of fans of other teams felt the same way about their team, that's cool. But really now, seeing how the Chiefs play in the postseason over the few years they've been in it, we have proof: it really really wouldn't happen for the Chiefs.

Let's get right to the most practical reason the Packers and Steelers do so well. And I'm going to focus on one critically important thing, something I've shared before but again have to get off my chest.

Yes it could be said the Packers and Steelers just have excellent front offices. Well, we're working on that -- I do really like Clark Hunt, following the lead of his dad and having that bold commitment to the Chiefs. I also really like Scott Pioli's leadership and I have faith in his ability to get good players -- his last draft was exceptional. There is the idea that if we have people like that it'll be more likely we'll get the right mix of players to do well, precisely what Pittsburgh and Green Bay have been able to do for so long.

But there is that other major ingredient that the Chiefs have so sorely lacked, and it is indeed one I've mentioned often before. It is no surprise. You may have even guessed what it is through reading all of this sad Chiefs woefulness. What have the Steelers and Packers had consistently that the Chiefs have never had?

A great drafted and developed quarterback.

Yesteryear it was Terry Bradshaw and Brett Favre. These years it is Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers.

Both of those guys are truly great quarterbacks. Roethlisberger has been controversial for his off-field problems and on-field inconsistency, but when it comes to winning he simply gets the job done. He's gutsy and talented and has already won two Super Bowls. That says enough.

Rodgers is up-and-coming -- and I must say I take this from what I catch here-and-there because, again, I just pay so little attention to it -- but he is one of the very best in the NFL right now. Not only did he effectively send one of the greatest ever, Favre, packing, but he has led his team from the No. 6 seed in the playoffs to the NFC Championship game.

Now, this leads us to the Chiefs quarterback situation.

I promise I'm not going to rag all over Matt Cassel. Everyone knows what a stinky game he had against the Raiders, and what an even stinkier game he had against the Ravens. Everyone knows that he was one of the studlier quarterbacks before those games, even overcoming an appendectomy to return and play great against St. Louis, and then against Tennessee. Everyone knows he had a great year overall with the services of only one good wide receiver, and he plays with great dedication and intensity.

I like Matt Cassel.

But the fact is the Curse of Odin's Revenge is extraordinarily powerful. It must be overcome with something much, much more potent than anything the Chiefs have thrown at it in the past. It requires not just a very good quarterback.

It requires a great quarteback.

Now, I've written about this before. Just about everything that needs to be said about having a great quarterback is right there. I really don't need to add anything to it, except to amplify a critical point in this conversation: He has to be drafted.

The Chiefs have never drafted and developed a truly great quarterback. When you look at that list from my post in 2008, of the ten Hall-of-Fame calibur great quarterbacks, seven of them were drafted by the teams they took to Super Bowl success. Only Unitas, Elway, and Young were not, and Unitas and Elway didn't play a single game with the team that drafted them, starting their fine play with their eventual Super Bowl teams.

It simply comes down to this. It is as plain, as clear, as simple as this.

Scott Pioli must draft the best possible quarterback he can, the Chiefs front office must do anything and everything to develop him, and the coaches must teach him how to deftly play the position at the highest levels of NFL competition.

Thuh end.

That's it. Right there. That's the secret.

Yes I know there is so much that goes into it. Yes, there are so many variables to it all. The Chiefs have even tried to do this kind of thing (Brodie Croyle, anybody?) This is exactly why the Chiefs have got to have the right mix of things going on. I've already shared I have faith in Pioli, I also have faith in Todd Haley -- it seems he's really learning and growing and as he gets there we'll have a solid foundation upon which to build our great quarterback situation.

This would require Matt Cassel to do well in the next few years so our guy can develop. Hey, maybe, just maybe Cassel himself can grow into being a great quarterback himself. That'd be awesome, I really hope it happens.

But the fact is this fan doesn't want to win just one playoff game over the next 17 years (oh that we'd have even one playoff win, how delightful :: whimper :: ) I want to have 20. With a half-dozen Super Bowl titles in there.

So yeah. We do need a bruising middle linebacker. If the best player in the draft at that position is available we've gotta snatch him. We do need another wide receiver. We still need offensive and defensive line help, no question, we have needs.

But here's the thing Chiefs fans. If we don't draft a guy who's going to be the next Ben Roethlisberger or Aaron Rodgers right now and get going with this thing right now, we are going to have a really hard time overcoming Odin's Revenge. It is just never going to end.

And wait until you see the postseason stats then, in another 17 years. It's already brutally depressing. It's already blasted my red-and-gold-bleeding heart all over the place.

There's only one way that's going end.
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(A quick note about how I may note so much about all this when I've made a firm commitment to sport celibacy. As I've shared, when things happen here and there and my finely-tuned sports radar just picks it up. I may see something on a television at a restaurant, my son may simply have a game on in the other room, or we may be invited to attend a Super Bowl party. I am sports celibate, but I am not anti-social. I also do allow myself the privilege of scanning past sports information to augment the meaning of my blog takes.)
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2011-01-09T16:52:00.000-08:00

Ravens at Chiefs - Wild-Card Playoff Game

It just doesn't seem to matter.

Do you feel that way any time the Chiefs get into the playoffs now?

Please know that I had no illusions about the Chiefs chances -- everyone and his uncle knew the Ravens were a better team. But I will tell you there was a chink in those illusions yesterday when the 7-9 Seahawks, a team we beat handily at their place, played inspired ball and took out the world champion Saints. I thought, yep, in the NFL anything can happen, the playoffs are always wide open, and we are so due to win a playoff game that our postseason losing just can't keep going like this.

But for the Chiefs, it just doesn't seem to matter.

No matter what, we just can't win a playoff game. Needless to say our cherished team now holds a quite ignominious record: longest continuous streak of playoff losses in NFL history. It is now at seven. When you think about it, this kind of record is very hard to get. If you are a playoff team it must mean you're pretty good, and you're going to win at least one playoff game every once in a while. But, yeah...

It just doesn't seem to matter.

No matter what we do we just can't shake the Curse of Odin's Revenge.

Here it is, in all its rotten colors. Since our glorious Super Bowl win in '69, we have hit the playoff trail a total of 12 times. 41 years, 12 times. That percentage alone stinks. Of those 12 times, we have had a one-&-out in ten of them.

Ten.

Ten TEN TEN one-&-outs. We're presently at six straight and still going.

It just doesn't seem to matter in any of them.

We could be better than the other team (Den 97, Ind 95 and 03) and it doesn't matter. We could be worse than them and hope for a good swing our way (NYJ 86, Ind 06, Bal 10) and it doesn't matter. We could be evenly matched with them and at the end of the game just happen to golly-gosh find ourselves on the winning end (Mia 71 and 90, SD 92, Mia 94) and it doesn't matter.

We could be in close games (Mia 71, 90, and 94, Ind 95, Den 97) and it doesn't matter. We could be in blowouts -- naturally always be on the losing end (NYJ 86, SD 92, Ind 03 and 06, Bal 10) and it doesn't matter. We could even be home (Mia 71, Ind 95, Den 97, Ind 03, Bal 10) where the Chiefs are supposed to be so devastatingly invincible -- in the postseason we only play in feeble Arrow-through-the-heart Stadium.

It simply plainly utterly doesn't matter.

All of this putridtude comes with the services of six different coaches (three of them are or should be in the Hall of Fame -- Stram, Vermeil, and Schottenheimer) and eleven different quarterbacks who have in their resumes a total of 26 Pro-Bowl appearances among them (yes, 15 of them were for Len Dawson and Joe Montana, but did you know that Bill Kenney, Dave Kreig, Elvis Grbac, Rich Gannon, and Trent Green were also all Pro-Bowlers at least once?)

You may say "What about those two years in that time we did win?" I know. But there was only one of those games that I believe we actually played a really good solid game, and that was the Houston game in January of 1994, our very last playoff win of any kind. ::Sigh:: Our offense was pitiful in the Oakland game of 91 and we won mostly because the Raiders played so poorly, and we barely eeked out the 93 Pittsburgh game in OT. Yes we played well enough to win those games so those Chiefs teams wholly deserve the credit, I'm great with that and proud to chalk up those dubyas. The main point is this, again...

Of the twelve trips in, ten were one-&-outs. No matter what, it just doesn't seem to matter. The kind of playoff awfultude we endure just never seems to afflict any other team. Every team sometimes gets a nice playoff performance, things that happen in the game that are good and fun and result in a win. Just sometimes. The Chiefs just always have some kind of repulsive playoff-game leprosy.

Here's a key thing: all ten one-&-outs seem to have similar characteristics. Just lots of stupid wretched things that happen to us every single time. Let me regale you with some, things that wiggled their way into our game today big-time.

Stupid distractions. This whole thing with Charlie Weis leaving to be offensive coordinator at Florida. Not a distraction they all said. Of course it was! I know Todd Haley has to get a good feel for how he wants his coaching staff, I know he really wants to do offensive coordinator stuff and he wants to see how that works out with his staff and Weis just may not have fit in with that. Whatever all the reasons are, it just reminds me of when Paul Hackett said he was going to USC just before the Denver game of 97. It was just a stupid thing that got in the way of our 100% commitment to excellence by every one in the organization. Sorry, but I just never see this crap happening with other truly contending teams.

Stupid reffing. How about the overofficiating against the Chiefs? Yes, you are never supposed to complain about the officiating because often enough it comes back in your favor. I'm good with that, I really am, especially when it comes back in the Chiefs favor fair and square -- exxxcept that in the playoffs, it just never does. The Ravens just flat outplayed us today, but my goodness, Eric Berry was called for a phantom defensive holding call, Glenn Dorsey was clearly held on a key first down run by their guy, and on one of their punts a linemen barely flinched and they called him offside giving them a game-breaker first down. And those spots at the marker that went their way and didn't go ours -- I was pulling out so much of my hair that I had to get hair plugs at half-time, then resumed pulling them out.

Stupid really-stupid things. Needless to say there is all the head-shaking type of stuff that goes against us. The field-goals-bonking-off-the-uprights kind of things, you know those incessent misfortunes that keep your stomach twisting because they just never seem to stop. Off the top of my head, Verran Tucker today made a great catch and had his toe on one foot out of bounds. Here's another one, they punted the ball and got it to bounce at the one nanoinch line and dribble back to the one (and it didn't even count because they got a first down on that lineman offside call). When we punted it went down to the one nanoinch line where our downer had one of his butthairs barely in the endzone, in there enough to bring it back out to the twenty.

Stupid collapses in some key areas of our game that are not merely break-downs but catastrophes. Probably the worst of all is the axiomatic Chiefs playoff truth that however well we did something in the regular season we just can't do it in the playoffs. It's as if we leave all of our talent on towel hooks in the locker room. Happens every time we walk on the postseason football field. Every single damn year we get the chance.

So here is today's lack-of-what-we-did-so-well-in-the-regular-season:

1. Matt Cassel. He had been doing so much to prove that he wasn't some schizo out there, but I'm afraid I'm back to being very concerned. I actually thought our offensive line was going to a problem, but they actually played great. It was Cassel who really really sucked out there today. He had nothing, and he had absolutely zero confidence in himself. Sorry, but even the most vitriolic detractors have to admit that is just not like him. When he could throw the ball he didn't and got sacked. When he did he threw it poorly or right into the hands of the other team. I'm pretty sure he had more interceptions in the Raiders and Ravens games than he had all year. Check it out, I'm pretty sure that's a fact.

2. Holding on to the ball. During the year we had an extraordinarily low 14 giveaways. During the game broadcast they actually put up a graphic there with Chiefs alongside a few really great Super Bowl type teams who'd also had only 14 in their seasons. Today we had five. A lot of this was Baltimore's fine defense, which we knew was going to be a factor, but still! Couldn't we have protected the ball way better, like we did so well during the year? Why do we fail to do it so spectacularly now?!

3. Smart, solid coaching. I don't think Todd Haley really knew what he had to do to beat Baltimore. When the score was 10-7 he went for it on fourth down deep in their territory when a field goal would've tied it and kept things really close. Instead we utterly failed and they took over the game at that point, simply because Baltimore is a team that can take over a game with a 10-7 lead. He also played his defensive backfield deep containment game far too long and far too softly, and their QB Joe Flacco just picked us apart underneath. Their tight end had ten catches, and at one point I saw Tamba Hali trying to cover one of their wideouts.

One of the key things we didn't really have at all in the regular season that was bad and was just as bad in this game was any kind of decent receiving situation to compliment the justifiably studly Dwayne Bowe. In this respect you can't blame Matt Cassel when a defense can so easily take out your only true threat -- I think the closest a football got to Bowe all day was when he walked past the encased signed one in the Hall-of-Fame room there at the New Arrowhead. The Ravens could swamp Bowe because we simply had no one else.

Here was the deal with the rest of our receiving core: Chris Chambers, benched for whatever reason. Verran Tucker, picked up off the practice squad earlier in the year. Kevin Curtis, a cancer-survivor signed on Tuesday (mind you nothing against him being a cancer-surviver, that's great, it's just that he was signed Tuesday). I didn't see Terrance Copper anywhere, but did it matter? You can't expect to succeed in a playoff game with that kind of wide receiver situation. Yeah, the eye-gouging stats here were brutal: our wide-outs caught a total of two passes for eight yards.

The fact is Chiefs playoff football is never being able to overcome our awful things like this receiving travesty, and never being able to take advantage of the good things we do do. Again, you simply can't feel any other way than

It just doesn't seem to matter.

I have to close this season with a kudos to the Chiefs for what they did accomplish. After all they did win the AFC West when everyone was just hoping we'd even come close to a ten-win season. This game was a good one in the sense that I continued to see great things from our getting-better youngsters like Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles. It was fun watching Tamba Hali play like a rampaging bull out there. And I was very encouraged by our offensive line, who in spite of some slip-ups by Branden Albert, upheld their end of the bargain today.

In a perverse way I no longer have to be stressed about the NFL record for most consecutive playoff losses. We already have it, so it's a done deal. Nothing anyone can do about it, and I know why it is happening. In that respect ultimately maybe it will then be the motivating factor that gets Todd Haley to hit the playbook that much more fiercely, that gets Scott Pioli to scour the draft boards that much more rigorously, that gets the whole team will step it up that much more because they are getting slammed with what it truly takes to be a champion.

This Odin's Revenge thing is truly awful. Maybe from all of this our top people will get it done to take it out.

Maybe something like this is exactly what we need.
_

(A quick note about the above opinions regarding the nature of past games and teams. The Mia 94 game was a close one at a 27-17 final score because we were fully in contention throughout. The Ind 03 game was a blowout even at 38-31 because we were always two scores down and never able to really catch up. And briefly, the Mia 71 was at home but not at Arrowhead. One may argue about the team quality assessments, but I consider Super Bowl champion Den 97 the best team in the NFL that year, except for Kansas City. The Chiefs were just better, but were done in as usual by the typical playoff stupidness. And some may say that Marv Levy is one of the coaches who is/should be in the Hall-of-Fame, but I've only counted those who got to the playoffs. Levy did come close to getting the Chiefs in the playoffs in 1981. Still, if we count him that makes four such coaches and we still haven't gotten it done. Sigh.)
_

2011-01-04T19:48:00.000-08:00

Ravens at Chiefs - Playoff Game Preview

So now for the good -- what needs to happen for the Chiefs to beat the Ravens this Sunday. We already know that the Chiefs had a very poor game coming in and the Ravens are a very good team the likes of which the Chiefs have not faced this year. So let's just accept that going in and go over a bit of what the Chiefs genuinely do well that can get them the dubya.

They run the ball exceptionally well, this almost goes without saying. The Chiefs rushing game led the NFL by far. Jamaal Charles is an All-Pro who toyed with breaking Jim Brown's all-time NFL record for most rushing yards per carry. I didn't stay and see it, did he get it? He was at around that record of 6.4 throughout the game. Whatever the case, Charles is a game-breaker, and the Chiefs are a terrific big play team. They also get solid chunks of yardage from Thomas Jones, and coach Todd Haley uses the tandem very well. If the Chiefs can get that part of their game going and keep the game close so they stay a critical factor, they have a great chance.

I have to add that our offensive line has got to step it up. They have played extraordinarily well at times this year, particularly in games after poor showings. This game would definitely fit that description. The Raiders debacle may be a wonderful blessing if those five can pick out where they missed it and how they get back in it and open those holes for the backs. I also noted that Brian Waters was selected to another Pro Bowl. Kudos to Brian -- I'm looking forward to seeing him blow out some nice lanes for our backs.

That O-line must also play like maniacs in protecting Matt Cassel. He was smothered in the Raiders game, but I think at least some of that was Cassel just not doing things like stepping up and just flat-out getting rid of the football. That has been a tick in Cassel's game since he's been with the Chiefs, but the fact is, this year he has turned it around and shown he can play extraordinary football.

That presents another great thing about this team. Our quarterback. Cassel has really had a spectacular season. His phenomenal TD to INT ratio is a testament to his terrific decision-making. He is also a real gamer who will not tolerate losing. That intense fortitude rubs off on the whole team.

Cassel also has a receiver who is yet another Chiefs All-Pro, Dwayne Bowe. That combination is one of the best in football. And even though you gotta wonder when the opponent's defense will triple cover Bowe -- it just seems the other Chiefs receivers never get the ball -- the Cassel-to-Bowe connection has been reliable all season long. That long touchdown pass-play in the Tennessee game when Bowe plucked a strike from Cassel between five Titans defenders was a thing of beauty. It'll be a challenge against the very tough Baltimore defense, but if Cassel and Bowe are in sync we'll be fine.

Our defense has had those few awful games this year, but it has also had those several stellar games. It has ranked in the top half of all NFL defenses through the year. Tamba Hali should have been an All-Pro, and by himself had, what, 14, 15 sacks this year? Remember when the entire team was at or near a record low of sacks for the whole year?

If we can get a good game from Derrick Johnson, we should be able to stuff the Ravens offense. He's always been inconsistent, but this year he's stepped it up and done splendidly in several games.

Our defensive backfield is one of the team's strengths. Brandon Flowers has had an off year, but he's still good. Brandon Carr can play great at the other corner. Our new rookie safety Eric Berry has learned and learned and learned some more, and he has become a true NFL player out there.

An added fine thing is the team's excellent turnover ratio. They haven't gotten a whopping number of turnovers, but they've rarely turned the ball over. When they're on, the Chiefs do a great job of controlling the tempo of a game. Get that awesome running game churning, mix in those crisp Cassel to Bowe passes, and play solid containment defense -- all things we've done really well -- and we'll win.

Our special teams have also done well, and I should add that it feels real good to have a very good punter to keep the offense on their heels, and -- yes, we can say it! -- a very dependable kicker whom we will really need when so many Ravens games come down to a field goal to win it.

Finally I can't neglect to comment on the coaching. Todd Haley is definitely a Coach of the Year candidate. He has steadfastly molded the character of this team, and he is a never-say-die tactician. Some of his decisions this year have been puzzling, but more times than not he's done some wonderfully innovative things and they've worked. He's not splashy, he doesn't overreach, and gets the most from what he has.

The main intangible is the New Arrowhead. If the fans can be in the game and roaring as they should be, that could be an extra little thing that could shake the Ravens. In what should be a close game, that notorious Arrowhead crowd could be a gamebreaker.

The best part is that if we can explode with three or four big plays like we are so capable of, it may not even be close.

Go Chiefs!
_

2011-01-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

Raiders at Chiefs - Week 17 - Record: 10-6

This is a playoff team?

I have to tell you there are a number of feelings that came back to me today. Feelings I've had in the past. Let me share each one with you.

1. This reminded me of the San Diego game three weeks ago, when we got shellacked there too. It was so similar to the extent that our line on both sides of the ball just got their asses stood up. It happened in the Denver game at there place where we also got blasted. Today the Raiders O-line and D-line just made silly putty with our guys. When we had the ball Raiders were all over us in the backfield -- our runners got nowhere and our QB's were sacked six times. When they had the ball our defenders looked like they were running backwards. This is a playoff team?

2. It reminded me of 2003 when we stormed outta the gate at 9-0, then just started to get really tired. Our defense was just not keeping up with the opponents' offensive weapons as the season wore on, and it really hit us in that first playoff game when a young Peyton Manning really took us apart and beat us at home. This loss to the Raiders, by the way, was our first at "The New Arrowhead." The way we looked today I just don't have much hope for next week's New Arrowhead game. We couldn't stop a very aggressive Raiders team that is generally mediocre, what on earth are we going to do against a really good aggressive team like the Jets or Ravens?

3. It reminded me of how much I loathe the Raiders. It's not personal -- it's just the Chiefs-Raiders thing. They've now beaten us four straight at home, and it was the first win by either team over the other by a score more than a scant touchdown or so for eons. The last big-scoring blowout was 49-31 back in 2000. (I should say the Raiders beat us 23-8 in '08, so there is that.) Hard to believe but the last blowout of any sort by the Chiefs over the Raiders, even with all our success against Oakland through the 2000's, was opening day of 1998, when we won 28-8. This was also the first time the Raiders swept us since 2001. It is just representative of the ugly truth that you can have wild success over a team for a long period of time, but sometime, somehow, it is going to come back around and they're going to kick your ass.

4. It just reminded me of all those games this year when I was just convinced we were just not a very good team. The ugly fourth quarter of the Houston game. The Buffalo game when we had to scratch and claw for a win. The San Diego game when I just knew we were not that good a team, after which I questioned my bad-team assessment when we beat St. Louis and Tennessee, but now am back to thinking we're just a bad team trying to wear a good-team mask.

The painful reality is that we have not had one single proven win against a good team like the Jets or Ravens all year long. We beat each team in the NFC West. Whuppy -- they all suck. We got clobbered in three of our divisional games, one by each team, Denver, San Diego, and now Oakland. The other AFC division we played, the South, also kind of sucks, with Indy right now barely trying to squeak into the playoffs.

Add to this the prospect of facing a couple of really awful stat situations, especially in light of how bad we played today. I do plan to preview the Chiefs playoff game later, but I just have to get all the bad off my shoulders now. Get it out of the way. Next blog time it'll be all good. For now, the brutal truth.

First, you must know that the Chiefs hold the record for most consecutive playoff losses in a row. Yes, the NFL record. They share it with Dallas and Seattle, by the way, at six straight futile postseason efforts. The trick is that Dallas' and Seattle's streaks both ended at six. The Chiefs' record is still active. Just for your information: If you remember, after we got wonderful playoff wins in 1993 against Pittsburgh and then Houston, we lost the AFC Championship to the Bills in Buffalo -- that was the first loss in the series. Then in 1994 we lost to the Dolphins, one and out -- two straight losses. In 1995 we lost to Indianapolis, one and out -- three straight. In 1997 we lost to Denver, one and out -- four straight. In 2003 we lost to Indianapolis again, one and out -- five straight. In 2006 we lost to Indianapolis again, one and out yet again -- six straight. Now, what is going to happen when we face a better Jets or Ravens team next week at an Arrowhead stadium that has probably been as cursed with rotten playoff luck as Marty Schottenheimer was? Get ready for sole possession of the NFL record for sustained playoff rottenness.

Second, do you know how many times the Chiefs have won the division and had a playoff victory? The answer is a whopping two. Yes, in the grand 50+ years of pro football wonderfulness in Kansas City, there have been exactly two years when the Chiefs have won the division and went on to win at least one playoff game. Just for your information: those years were 1966 and 1993. In '66 we beat Buffalo then lost to the Packers in the Super Bowl. '93 was when we beat Pittsburgh and Houston, the last year, by the way, we've even won a playoff game at all. Only Cincinnati and Detroit have longer streaks. I did once assemble the same number of playoff wins for the other three AFC West teams in years they won the division. It was a bunch. I've got the paper with that info on it somewhere and don't want to look for it, but trust me, it was a bunch for each. For the Chiefs, two. And what about the Super Bowl year of '69? Remember? We didn't win the division that year. We were the wild-card team from the AFL. Our overall postseason record since that Super Bowl win? Just for your information: 3-11. I call it Odin's revenge, the curse the Scandinavian god put on us for beating Minnesota. Yes, that's right, 3-11. Extraordinarily pukifying.

I know this is depressing, but I have to vent. Please, indulge me. Be a Chiefs fan with me. Thank you. Don't worry, there's more.

Third, if we do get the Jets, we are facing an 0-9 ongoing playoff record against teams from the old AFC East division. 0-9. After we beat the Joe Namath Jets in the '69 playoffs (the year before there was even an AFC East) our postseason losses against old AFC East teams has been in this order (its like a repulsively ugly tapestry, really): Mia-NYJ-Mia-Buf-Buf-Mia-Ind-Ind-Ind. All losses, to zero wins against any of them since. What's funny is none of the teams was New England. Think what it'll be like if we actually got so far as to face New England in the playoffs this year. ::Shudder::

So yeah, right now I'm kinda just coasting along, just shuffling through with my thoughts about how proud I am of this team winning the division. I mean that, after all that today's-game and yesteryears'-playoff blight, I can honestly tell you I am still really proud of these guys. They are a year or two away, during which we can hope for a couple more solid Scott Pioli drafts like he had this year and not like the one the year before when he drafted Tyson Jackson far too high. I hear rumers of an NFL lockout next year, but I know nothing about it because I'm only watching the Chiefs on Sunday. If there is no NFL next year, no big deal. I'd want to see my Chiefs finally start doing well for a while, certainly, to see them actually have a chance in the playoffs. But, whatever.

Yeah I know I'm looking past next week. Don't worry, next week I will be sitting eagerly in front of the television hoping like crazy the Chiefs' good team will show up. It may be best that I think they'll suck so if they come away with a win, it'll feel great, the exact opposite feeling of those postseason instances when we should've won going away like the '98 Denver game or the '03 Indy game. And if we lose, then no big -- we're still that year or two away anyway.

I still have hope for this year though. Maybe we can be that team with the character to play well after having our faces planted on the turf -- we've done it a few times this year. Maybe Todd Haley will have the game plan to answer a horribly wretched loss -- he's done it before. Maybe the New Arrowhead mystique will be a significant part of turning away Odin's revenge this year. Maybe after all those pukifyingly rotten loss statistics, we're due. Maybe we'll just flat-out be that team that gets hot at the right time.

I hope. I really do.

And I'm also hoping to get to a preview this week, to simply go over what really must happen in real reality for the Chiefs to finally break the spell.
_

(1/7/11 note: I have to add that upon further review I saw that the Raiders also beat the Chiefs 24-0 in 2002. I'd forgotten about that blowout simply because it was a loss by a demoralized Chiefs team completely out of contention in wet rainy Oakland on the last day of the season in which the Raiders would go on to romp through the playoffs on the way to the Super Bowl. Yhee. I can add, though, that it was nice when the Buccaneers whomped on them once they got there.)

2010-12-26T19:03:00.000-08:00

Titans at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 10-5

Wow, are we really AFC West Champions? I am stoked that we are -- for indeed we are -- but I only ask because I look at that record there, you see it, 10-5, and am stunned. After each game of the past three years I had been pasting something like 3-9 up there at the top of each blog post.

Ahh, that I get to put the numbers 10-5 there is pure joy.

And of course to proudly proclaim that the Kansas City Chiefs are once again AFC West Champions!

I must also add that I'm sure San Diego fans are not at all pleased with my teams. This past fall my favorite major league baseball team the San Francisco Giants caught the San Diego Padres at the very end of the season, and went on to win the entire shabang. As the Chargers were nipping at our rear ends there for a while I was thinking about those roles being reversed, but a San Diego turnabout was not to be. Today the Chargers were walloped by the Bengals and yes...

The Chiefs routed the Titans.

A couple of posts ago I expressed concern that an opposing team could simply employ the "lightening strike" offense right outta the gate, as a ploy to take down one of the Chiefs best weapons, their running game. But today's game proved that if another team can do that, so can the Chiefs.

Before the Titans could sneeze it was 24-0. They managed a nice long pass play for a touchdown, but by the end of the first half we'd padded the lead to 31-7.

We got that fourth TD of the first half on a nifty pick and run by Eric Berry, who showed precisely why he was the -- what, fourth, fifth? -- pick of entire draft last year. He made a great play on a poor pass, then sped up the far sideline, made a great cut against the pursuit, and shot into the endzone. He even launched himself like a rocket as he crossed the plain -- tremendous fun!

I'm not sure because I didn't catch it, but I don't think we have a shot at a first round bye. We do get the home game no matter what as division champs, and I'm pretty sure we'll be playing either Pittsburgh, Baltimore, or the New York Jets in a wild-card game in two weeks. We'll look more at all of that when the time comes.

As it is we get the Raiders next week in a game that will be anticlimatic (kind of a bummer because I always like beating the Raiders in any game that is really meaningful for both teams) but a nice tune-up for the playoffs.

And for right now, no matter what happens, I have to say how amazing it has been to have a team that has been built and developed and managed and coached and led by the Chiefs ownership and front office personnel. From Clark Hunt all the way through everyone to Todd Haley, they have really done a phenomenal job to get our Chiefs from bottom feeders to title contenders. Kudos to all of them, what a job!

For now, it is all good. It is the best.

Kansas City Chiefs - AFC Western Division Champions!
_

2010-12-19T14:01:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Rams - Week 15 - Record: 9-5

What a contrast. What a contrast. Our quarterback situation with Matt Cassel in there is like the brightest daylight compared to last week. I must say it was wonderful wonderful wonderful to see him back in there leading the charge.

I know I've spoken of Cassel as schizophrenic, but that's only because the quarterback position is so critically important. Whatever my ambivalence, there is no question that Cassel is indeed one of the best signal callers in the game. This isn't just because he isn't Brodie Croyle, but he has indeed played extraordinarily well for most of the season. A TD-to-INT ratio of 2-to-1 is pretty good. Cassel's ratio is something around 5-to-1.

And you can't deny the guy is a proven leader. He's coming off an emergency appendectomy that happened just eleven days ago. That's just amazing.

Above all the guy has guts and wants glory, and those are critically vital ingredients a QB needs if any team wants to by taken seriously in the playoffs. After a miserable first quarter (making it seven straight scoreless quarters) Cassel led a couple of great drives that led to touchdowns, putting us up 14-6 at the half. Just watching him do that nifty spin move out of a collapsing pocket then running for a first down during that second drive was just beautiful.

And then there is the defense. Last week they were simply abyssmal. This week they had someone tell them to tackle.

And they did.

They shut down their fine back, Stephen Jackson. They also held the Rams to a couple of field goals early when they ran all over us. As the game progressed they put more and more clamps on the Rams great rookie QB Sam Bradford, completely shutting him down after that depressing first quarter. Wallace Gilberry will be the guy with his name in the headlines, getting three sacks, each one critical to our victory. Early in the second quarter he put the Rams out of field goal range, and in the fourth he kept the Rams from sneaking back into the game late.

I didn't catch how Jamaal Charles is, because he was injured after a boffotacular 80-yard run to put the game away late. Even though he and Jones were stuffed for most of the game, he is showing that he definitely should be an All-Pro this year. He did walk off the field under his own power and he was sitting there on the bench with ice. I heard nothing about him after that, so we'll see where he is for next week.

Speaking of next week, we've got our last two games at home sweet home! We are so not-there yet. San Diego is still breathing heavily on our backs. But this was a crucially important win, getting it on the road and closing the road season with a 3-5 record -- that doesn't seem impressive, but it could've been a lot worse.

The team hasn't lost yet at the New Arrowhead and they plainly play better with the hometown fans right there with them. Their next two are against middling teams, Tennessee and Oakland, though both can be explosively surprising.

For now, a tough road win is sweet, and nice for a good boost of confidence.
_

2010-12-12T16:29:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Chargers - Week 14 - Record: 8-5

Yes the Chargers were playing like focused maniacs after looking uncharacteristically stupid against Oakland last week. Yes the Chargers were fighting for their playoff lives at home. And yes the Chargers are still a very good team, having stormed back into the division race with four straight wins before the Raiders debacle.

But I am not one to say this was coming or even that on any given Sunday your team can just not have it together. The real fact is

This Chiefs team does not look like a division leading team.

It is that simple.

It wasn't just that we didn't play well. It was mostly a complete and utterly horrific exposure of our quite extraordinary weaknesses. Let's go over them a bit, shall we? (Oh, don't worry, this game was already painful to watch. How much worse can it be?)

First, there is our backup quarterback situation. I was actually looking forward to seeing Brodie Croyle start, thinking that over the past couple of years under Todd Haley and now Charlie Weis -- and watching Matt Cassel make great strides in his development -- he'd mature and be confident and all the rest of it.

Not even close.

The guy is still awful. He has a great arm, great mobility, all that -- yadda yadda, heard it all four years ago. The guy still hasn't a clue as to what he's doing out there. He's now 0-10 as a starter, his last win was with Alabama in the Cotton Bowl.

We'd better hope nothing else happens to Matt Cassel.

As it was Croyle's complete ineptitude was the major factor in us coming that close to having our worst offensive performance ever -- it was a 60-something total yards game back in 1963 or something like that. Today we got something like 70. As far as I could tell we didn't have a single third down conversion, we may have when Chambers made that catch with a minute left, but whatever. We got into San Diego territory twice. Utterly pathetic.

Thing is, was it Haley or was it Croyle? Why wasn't Croyle just throwing the ball down the field early? Was Haley telling Croyle to hold back or was that just Croyle being very bad? Either way, it was all pukifying, abjectly pukifying.

Second, our tiring offensive line. The Charger defense just ran us over, that's all. As bad as Croyle was, our offensive line didn't help him. Yes our QB needed to just plain get rid of the ball. But if you're as nervous as Croyle was, you weren't going to get help from these guys. The run blocking was just as poor.

By the way, a little thing to add. Just a little thing, really, nothing at all. Besides getting thoroughly and contemptuously shut out today, did anyone forget that we didn't score a single point in the second half of the Denver game last week? So, um, yeah, that's six quarters and counting of haplessly scoreless Chiefs football.

Third, our run defense. The D-line and our linebackers were just plain putrid. (Once again the call goes out: Scott Pioli! Scott Pioli! We need a Ray Lewis-type guy in the middle really really badly...) We faced another team that just knows how to stand us up. Not only that but I'm just flat ashamed at our unwillingness to fully pursue and truly finish. That last touchdown by their back-who-wouldn't-go-down was an embarrassment of epic proportions.

For those who didn't happen to behold it. San Diego had the ball deep in Chiefs territory for the 78th time or so in the game. Mike Vrabel had this guy, Ryan Mathews, dead in his tracks until he simply stayed on his feet while all the other Chiefs guys just watched. I guess they paid good money to come to the game to see this guy dance around and they just wanted to kick back in their lounge chairs and enjoy it.

On a more serious note, didn't these guys watch that same guy take the ball in the very first quarter and get hammered in the backfield, yet still stay on his feet for a few more yards? Didn't someone on the defense say the simple words, "Hey, no one stops until that guy's face is planted deep in the turf. Make sure you finish." Was there simply no Chiefs individual within a hundred miles of that sideline to tell all the other Chiefs quasi-defenders that? I mean, I was about 120 miles from there and I was screaming it into the television set, but, well...

Absolutely embarrassing.

Third, our receiving core. Now I can't lay it all on them because of Brodie Croyle, but still, where are these guys? Dwayne Bowe simply can't carry the load. Where is Chris Chambers? Do we have to rely on pick-up throw-in Verran Tucker? Why wasn't Dexter McCluster in the mix more?

Yes yes yes, Croyle just didn't know what to do with the ball, and that's not the receivers' fault.

But if our Matt Cassel-led team can't get the passing game to gel beyond Dwayne Bowe, we're in trouble.

Fourth, our precarious situation if the other team scores early. This relates to the passing game woes. In games when the opposing team scores first, or gets up by two scores, it is very scary because we've relied so much on the run. Regrettably, really good running teams like the Chiefs simply do not make good Super Bowl teams unless their passing game is stratospherically spectacular. It's like a rule.

I know, I know for sure that every team we play from here out -- and they are all still playoff contenders, not to mention those playoff teams if we ever make it there -- they are all going to employ the lighting-strike offense on their first possession to score quickly and take out our running game. Is our defense up to that challenge?

They weren't today, big-time.

No, it wasn't just a case of having a tough time of it today. No, this was not just a bad-day game. It was way way worse than that.

This was a bad-team game.

Sure we're still 8-5 and in control of our destiny. I know all that. But I will say it again in closing.

I only care about the Chiefs being a Super Bowl winning team.

And I really don't think this Chiefs team is even a division winning team, much much less a playoff game winning team.
_

2010-12-05T17:58:00.000-08:00

Broncos at Chiefs - Week 13 - Record: 8-4

This was definitely one of those games in which an exactly equal amount of good things and bad things happened. A lot of very good things, and the same number of very bad things. The good things shout, "We're a true playoff contender with an actual chance to go far!" The bad shout, "We haven't a chance in the playoffs if we even get there!"

The best good thing is that we got a key, clutch, close win in December during a legitimate playoff push! ...BUTTT

We almost fell apart in the second half. We didn't even score a single point.

This means a very good thing was that our defense did the job! The D-line sacked Kyle Orton four or five times, forcing a key 4th quarter fumble after one of them. Branden Carr was spectacular out there, slapping away everything Orton did get off, resulting in a splendidly putrid 9 of 28 passing for the Broncos QB. What a difference from that last game in Denver when Orton torched us for 700 yards passing and 11 touchdowns (okay, it wasn't exactly that, but it was really bad)... BUTTT

Their running back, a not-even-close-to-Hall-of-Fame calibur Knowshon Moreno, went off on us for 175 total yards. So one week our pass defense is atrocious, another week it is our run defense. Sure our pass defense held this team to a very gratifying six points, the same team that put up 49 on us a few weeks ago. Think of what we could do if we put it all together.

A good thing was our continued expedient playcalling on offense. We had great success with those short West Coast offense dump-offs to our backs and tight ends, and the Charles-Jones machine was humming nicely yet again. (And I really should be saying the Charles-Jones-Cox machine because fullback Mike Cox is blocking like a maniac out there -- it is him springing them as much as it is the springees) ...BUTTT

We didn't seem to do anything else with anyone not our backs. Fantasy league guys with Dwayne Bowe are as furious with him today as they have been ecstatic with him over the past several games. Today Bowe didn't just have an uncharacteristic zero touchdown catches, he had zero catches. Champ Bailey had him covered like a blanket on a sleeping baby, and the only pass Bowe caught was waved off because he was flagged for pass interference.

The most troubling bad thing about today's game was the penalties, and they were very costly and very much on the coaching staff. If it is a hold or clip it's on the player. We had our share of those today, don't get me wrong. A spiffy super-long run by McCluster was nullified by one.

BUTTT today we had a touchdown also nullified because of illegal motion or shift or something that happened more than once. The most blatantly telling aspect of this problem was the Barry Richardson meltdown on the sidelines, after he was called for a false start. This was unquestionably a product of his own immaturity and something which all Chiefs fans hope will be dealt with summarily by the coaches. Thing is a lot of that has to be the coaches looking at their own formations and other offense technicalities that have to be worked out or we'll be hammered by them in a crucial late season or playoff game. They happened far too frequently in today's game, helping make this one a nailbiter when it really shouldn't've been.

A good thing is that we're getting some of our key guys healthy again, and sometimes when you're playing well without them and they still get that undesired rest, they may actually play more rigorously in the late season because of that refreshment time. BUTTT

McCluster almost cost us the game when we gave him the ball and sent him through the line late, and he fumbled. We've turned the ball over only nine times this season, which is wonderfully wonderful. In fact we made up for it by getting a key fumble from them a bit later. So it is good we've got Dexter back with all his restored vigor, but it can also mean he and the rest of our returnees are rusty. Our banged up offensive line is also cause for concern because it seemed Cassel had to run around a lot more back there than usual.

The last good thing is that we still have a perfect record at the New Arrowhead, so that's very nice. Even nicer is that we have a two-game lead on the second place Chargers and Raiders with four left. BUTTT...

Errgh, the reality. We go on the road again for the next two. And next week we're in San Diego -- still solid and most likely really smarting from looking so bad against the Raiders today. I know I shouldn't be bringing this up, but remember the last time we were 8-4? It was 2005, right there poised to snatch a nice easy playoff spot, and then we refused to close in Dallas and refused to tackle in New York. Pittsburgh was 7-5 at the time and remember at the time thinking they were no threat. Well, they ran the table and won the Super Bowl, and we finished at a very respectable 10-6 although that playoff spot slipped from our grasp.

We've got to have a lot more good than bad in the last quarter of the season to keep that from happening again.
_

2010-11-28T16:45:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Seahawks - Week 12 - Record: 7-4

When seeing that half our defensive backfield was sitting on the sidelines nursing serious injuries, I really wondered today if we could do that one thing we needed to do to show that we truly deserve to be leading the AFC West... Win a November game on the road. The Chiefs were 0-3 in games when our All-Pro D-back Brandon Flowers has not played.

It was kind of dicey midway through this one. Even though Javier Arenas and Kendrick Lewis were also out there limping around, glory be: Our defensive backfield held their own. They did have a quite embarrassing blown coverage that allowed Seattle to get a make-it-mildly-interesting early 4th quarter 87-yard touchdown pass play, but they did a fine job of keeping Seattle's QB Hasselback from hurting us. They got some help from the Chiefs D-line who sacked him a few times, once causing a fumble that was sandwiched between two TD plays that put this one away late.

They had said this Seattle team was a big-play team, and sure enough they got us early by blocking a field goal attempt, then blocking a punt and returning it for a touchdown.

But then there is this Kansas City offense.

Every time Seattle did something to make it close, our offense did the job. What can be said about the key performers.

Matt Cassel and Dwayne Bowe. These guys played like Hall-of-Famers today. They really did. This was an exceptionally standout performance by both of them. Twelve connections, three touchdowns, and the even better completions were those short slants to get those clutch first downs. 3rd down after 3rd down they converted and keep drives going. The troubling thing is that these guys are so in-sync that no one else in the passing game is getting in the mix. Moeaki is coming off an injury but he had only one catch, the final TD of the game. The other receivers -- Terrence Copper, Verran Tucker, and Chris Chambers -- didn't even have to be on the field. What's going to happen when we need them to produce?

Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones (and DE Shaun Smith with "The Refrigerator" blast into the endzone!) What else can you say that hasn't been said. These guys are still running over everyone. Jamaal Charles alone ran for nearly 200.

Three, the offensive line. Hey, all of this could not happen without an O-line playing their souls out, and playing well. Branden Albert was out, and there were some early critical penalties that could have really cost us. But they picked it up, dealt splendidly with the loud Seattle crowd noise throughout, and made it so the highly efficient Cassel-Bowe-Charles-Jones machine could keep humming.

We're at home next week against Denver where we should be focusing on exacting a bit of revenge for the debacle in Denver a couple weeks ago. But then it is on to San Diego, the road game that will not only show even more whether or not we're a contender, but whether or not we'd be a genuine player in the post-season.
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2010-11-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

Cardinals at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 6-4

Is this a schizophrenic team or what? We blow out teams at home, but struggle on the road. We are now 5-0 at home, 1-4 on the road. At home the team stats are eye-popping, on the road they are barely average. Who are we, really?

Today we pasted a very average Cardinals team whose quarterback seemed to be wearing glasses that made everyone appear two feet taller than they really were, so I can't crow too effusively about our team's performance today. But what I can say is honestly very encouraging.

Matt Cassel and Dwayne Bowe are showing that when they are on, they are one of the best passing tandems in the NFL. Last week they had fun out there in Denver, torching the Broncos with 400+ passing yardage after the game itself was decided. If you counted only the last half or so, the Chiefs actually won last week 29-14. But that was last week.

This week the Chiefs defense didn't allow the Cardinals to do much after they started the game again roaring down the field. Only yielding a field goal then allowed us to make great use of our running game. The dynamic duo Jones and Charles put up 159 on the ground, a grip of good yardage that is kind of the standard now for the Chiefs running game.

But then there is Matt Cassel and Dwayne Bowe. Cassel has 18 touchdowns on the season and only 4 interceptions. That is pretty danged great. I really like seeing our receivers get some real separation out there today making it easier for Cassel. Bowe for his part set a Chiefs record with his sixth straight game with a TD catch, and Bowe's fantasy league owners have been in a state of nirvana thus far. Critical in this game was the Chiefs 80-yard drive to start the second half, and very nice mix of runs and passes that showed what we can do.

The bazillion dollar question at this point: Can we do this kind of thing on the road?

Next week we go to Seattle. The Seahawks are pretty good but can be beaten. I truly think this will be the test. Again, will we show we are true contenders or not?

Can our offense hum like it did today in someone else's yard?

Furthermore, can our defense play with steady, sustained effectiveness -- especially in someone else's yard?

I was beginning to wonder if Dexter McCluster was that much of a factor, since he'd been out for several weeks. We also didn't have Tony Moeaki or John McGraw for today's game, and we had a banged up offensive line. Branden Albert went out with some injury today, and that concerns me. So another very crucial question is, how will our injury situation affect this team?

Next week, on the road. In Seattle is where the real question will be answered.

Are we actually truly really actually contenders?

We'll find out.
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2010-11-14T16:15:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Broncos - Week 10 - Record: 5-4

I'm just going to write this and get it over with. The fourth quarter of this game hasn't even started and it's over. In fact this was over after the first touchdown the Broncos scored in the first minute of the game.

They'd said as the game began that the Broncos hadn't scored a point on their first possession in any game all season. Today they had four touchdowns in their first four possessions. They'd said that the Broncos running game was crap. Today they ran all over us. They also said their run defense was also crap. Of course, what do you think happened? We couldn't get anything on the ground. I'm pretty sure we got our first seven-yard run, our bread-and-butter all year, after we were down 21-0.

I'd seen that the Raiders beat the Broncos in Denver a few games ago, something like 59-14. How in the world did that same Broncos team get the same kind of score against us today? Sure it's the NFL. Those guys aren't Pop Warner out there. "Any given Sunday" is always applicable. Sometimes everything just goes against you and everything goes for the other guys such as it was in this game today. Yeah yeah, I know all that.

But it is official:

This Chiefs team just hasn't proven it is a true contending team. We should have known it all along. Sure the very very very nice 3-0 start was very nice. Very exhilarating -- thank you Chiefs for that. It was very fun, I do mean that. But since then, let's face it.

Our defense couldn't seal the deal against a very mediocre Houston team. We lost a game we had in the bag.

We had to go five quarters before barely beating a very beatable Buffalo team, at home.

Last week the Raiders were falling all over themselves handing us on a silver-and-black platter yet another Chiefs victory in Oakland -- a splendid gift we simply spilled all over the place.

We simply cannot win a road game -- or even avoid getting get massacred in one such as today. Since our squeaker on the road against Cleveland in the second week of the season an eternity ago, we're 0-4 on the road. Can't win on the road? -- It's a rule: You're not a contender.

What is it that really gets me about this team?

One, Matt Cassel. He drives me crazier and crazier. Some plays he's great, other plays he's plain awful. He was sacked, how many times today? Four or five? To give him credit, our banged up offensive line was banged up even more. Still, when the opponent takes out your running game by taking a massive lead early, you gotta have a passing game. Has anyone been really really really confident in our passing game at any point in the year? (Oh, and please, do you really think 400+ yards of mostly garbage-time passing yardage counts?... Really.)

Two, our defensive line. What kind of imposters were those guys out there today? Or were those guys who played so well earlier in the season the real imposters? Dorsey, Edwards, Jackson, Hali were thoroughly stood up today. Correction, if they were stood up that'd be a compliment. Really, they were pushed, shoved, kicked, mauled, completely mowed over by the Denver offensive line. It was utterly embarrassing. If those top-draft-pick guys -- you know them, Dorsey & Jackson -- if they don't come out of drifting back to being frighteningly average, we're not even remotely close to being contenders.

Three, the coaching. Were Todd Haley and his staff really prepared for this game? What do you really think? Maybe they did their best, fine. But it didn't mean a whole lot -- Denver's coaching staff was way more prepared. This was just one coaching staff kicking the pants off another. For one thing Denver's coaches were getting the very best from their fine QB Kyle Orton. He started the game regularly doing play action with a supposedly awful running game and getting away with it. Yes, our defensive backfield is also banged up, yes, I know. But where was the rest of our defense? Oh yeah... They were replaced by imposters, fergot.

What a wonderful word.

Forgot.

Definitely something to do with this piece-a- ----.
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2010-11-07T17:30:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Raiders - Week 9 - Record: 5-3

I could say all kinds of things about the awful officiating crew covering today's game. We had some rotten calls against us, such as the completely meaningless holding call against Andy Studebaker that cost us three points. But the fact is we got some of those rotten calls to help us out. (We weren't even hurt by their total brainlock about what Chiefs down it was before our first touchdown.) This is what is really saddest: that the only reason we were actually in this game is that we benefitted from them.

Add to that this Raiders team was hopelessly abysmal in the first half, and still there is truly no reason we deserve to win this game. Both sides of their line were better than ours, and that alone made up for the fact that most of their play was completely inept. But they were a spirited team that got the job done when they had to. All I can think about is that third and long play from midfield just before the end of regulation with us up 20-17. We had a sure sack that we overran, then Brandon Flowers set up for an easy pick but he got bumped out of the way (very legally) by a more acquisitive receiver who snatched it from him. Next play, game-tying FG.

We'd beaten the Raiders seven straight in Oakland, and I just knew we couldn't keep that streak alive. This was as much the sports gods just making everything work for the Raiders when it had to as it was the Chiefs just not finishing -- yet again.

Yes, the Chiefs did finish last week against Buffalo, but we shouldn't have had either of these games be as close as they were.

Today Dwayne Bowe dropped another pass. Even Tony Moeaki dropped a pass. We had two or three dropped interceptions. Two long Javier Arenas runbacks -- one of them a touchdown -- were brought back by penalties. Our running game only got untracked in the second half. We still had far too many 3rd-and-1's that we just couldn't convert. We didn't have a single good, solid, significant drive that we could proudly say the mix of our playcalling and execution got the job done. Not a one.

And probably the most important factor in this mix is Matt Cassel. Is there a single Chiefs fan who isn't driven absolutely crazy by this guy? I'm in a complete schizophrenic state in trying to figure him out. He is a true gamer, a vicious competitor who you want leading the charge. But then he does things like float an idiotic duck into the end zone that gets easily picked off at the most inopportune time, with less than a minute left in the first half and a chance to get at least a field goal and go up 13-0.

Yes, there were a lot of stupid things that happened in the Raiders favor today, but you know? There were just as many for the Chiefs that kept us in the game.

We have a talented team. If we want a contending team our in-game minds had better be much more focused.
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2010-10-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

Bills at Chiefs - Week 8 - Record: 5-2

Throughout the entire game I was sure this was going to be another one of those typically stupid losses we'd have to suffer at the hands of the Bills. Remember the latest ones? Last year when we couldn't get just one more touchdown and lost 16-10? The year before when the Bills put up a 50+ spot on us? A few years before that, in 2005, when we were true contenders and had one of the most wretched games we could ever play, flopping 14-3?

This was shaping into yet another one. Late in the 4th quarter Mike Vrabel misses getting a clutch fumble by the partially removed mole on his elbow. Then the Bills receiver gets a slant pass and he does get into endzone by what was left of his mostly removed mole on the elbow. Aaaaaagh!

And how many times did we come up a yard short to get a first down. I have truly lost the remaining hair I had in my head.

Amazingly the Bills-game stupidness that has so ravenously infected us went in our favor when the Bills kicker lined a long game-winning field goal through in overtime, but he did it just after the Chiefs called a timeout. He missed his next try.

Now, let me ask you. Is Todd Haley driving you as crazy as he is me? I think I am now officially sick of his vaunted four-down play calling strategy. He really really really really should have been kicking a field goal waaaaaaaaay earlier in the game when it would've been a chip-shot for Succop but instead, well, he didn't go for the FG. You know what happened. He went for it. We failed. We had to sweat out a full overtime before we could win it.

I'm also wondering where the heck our passing game was today. Yes, I know Charles and Jones continue to run over everyone. Our offensive line with a young Jon Asamoah replacing the injured Ryan Lilja was terrific today. But if we are that good with our running game which should open things up big-time for the passing game, then, ahem...

Where is the passing game?

Tony Moeaki caught three big passes, two of them to set up the game-winning FG, but he had only three. Bowe caught three for a grand total of 16 yards. Our leading receiver was Jamaal Charles yet even then Cassel woefully missed him on a long pass when he had his guy beat. Come on, guys, where are all our receivers? You know, the guys who spread out at the far ends of the line and jet out on the snap and run crisp routes and get open kind of down the field a bit? Oh, and yes, for the Chiefs especially: and they securely draw the passed ball gently into their sure hands?

And so yes, I'm back to being really concerned about Matt Cassel. In overtime we were at midfield on third down and Cassel had decent pass protection when he just didn't throw the ball. He then slipped out of the pocket with plenty of time to throw it again--and still didn't throw it. He tucked it in and ran in an obviously futile attempt to get to the first down hash.

So yeah, both Haley and Cassel have already made me lose all my hair. That we did end up winning with some very-late-in-overtime clutch play may enable me to grow some of it back before the next game, but what'll happen next week when we play in Oakland. The Raiders are a much improved team and we've won seven straight there.

If we don't find our passing game, do you really think we're going to keep that up?
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2010-10-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

Jaguars at Chiefs - Week 7 - Record: 4-2

I have to open this post straight away with something that I want to say loud and clear is one of the main reasons we are playing so well. For the past four or five years I've been pulling my hair out about this facet of our game, and this year I am so pleased that I get to sing its praises. What a joy it is to say without equivocation that

It is back.

You know what I'm talking about.

The Kansas City Chiefs --

Offensive Line Is Back.

All you had to do was watch that early run by Thomas Jones that set up our first TD. A 70-yard romp that was split open by confident linemen moving people out with steady profeciency. Our running game ground out 236 yards today, again Jones and Charles popping for six and seven yards each carry. So right outta the gate a very high five to (from left to right)...

Branden Albert
Brian Waters
Casey Wiegmann
Ryan Lilja
Barry Richardson

Not only are these guys opening up those nifty holes for our backs, but they are doing a spot-on job of protecting our quarterback. Cassel was 13 for 18 today, which doesn't seem like much but most of those completions were critical in keeping drives alive or even going for touchdowns, and our running game is doing so well that he didn't have to throw a lot.

And how about getting some of those ball control drives. The Chiefs are now hitting on all the cylindars needed to have wholesomely sustained drives -- yes, wholesomely, not a word used too often in this instance but wholesome because those drives allow our defense to rest and keep a rhythm out on the field.

In the first half it looked like the awful second half in the Texans game was just continuing. The Jaguars would get the ball and just ram it down the field on us. But in the second half the offense got good at burning up clock and getting good yardage, allowing the defense to rejuvenate itself. After the Jags made it close in the third, 21-20, we didn't allow them to get another point. We shut down their go-to back, the very talented Maurice Jones-Drew, even before our extended lead took him completely out of the game.

We also didn't allow a couple of questionable pass interference calls from an overofficiating crew rattle us. And hey! Even though it was a gift, Eric Berry got his first NFL pick and put on a show running it back some 30 yards to put the nail in the coffin.

And we can't not say something about another phenomenal game from Dwayne Bowe. His fantasy league owners have got to be loving this guy a lot, especially after he dropped one of their touchdown passes in the Colts game. His first touchdown today was a terrific comeback to an underthrown ball from Cassel, followed by a number of splendid juke moves to get around Jag backs to scamper into the end zone. His second was vintage Bowe, a fantastic leaping grab and toe-touch to stay in-bounds for the score.

A couple of times I wondered what was going on down there with Todd Haley. One time he eschewed the field goal that at the time would've put us up by 11 but instead did his going-for-it-on-4th-down thing again, and this time it failed. He also called a couple of weird timeouts in early in the second half -- if this had been close at the end we'd've had only one.

But to give Haley credit, there are a number of stats that just show we are building into a really solid team, and much of that is because of his deft architecture.

The Chiefs are capitalizing on their turnovers, scoring on just about every one, while keeping the other team from scoring when they get the ball from us. We are also doing great at minimizing the loss plays -- I think I'd heard the Chiefs are one of the top teams in fewest loss yardage plays. Cassel's only been sacked a few times this year, which is again a testament to the awesome job -- oh what a joy it is to say that -- the awesome job our offensive line has been doing.

Every once in a while I'll see or hear some stat that is just so fun to hear, you know, the kind of stat that is indicative of a team playing really well. I can't remember them all, but it is really fun to hear them.

This is a very fun team to be rooting for right now
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2010-10-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

Chiefs at Texans - Week 6 - Record: 3-2

Hello, Chiefs' young hearty defense.

Welcome to the NFL.

For four-and-a-half games this year, we had all reveled in our stalwart Chiefs defensive exploits. Both Brandons covering receivers like shrink wrap. Our swift linebackers eagerly devouring runners. Our resolute D-line standing people up. The whole bunch never allowing more than two touchdowns in any game.

But then they face a never-say-die excellent offensive machine.

Houston torched these guys for four touchdowns in four final possessions, making our D-guys look like a Pop Warner B-team. This was an awful loss, a win that the Chiefs had in the bag until Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson, Owen Daniels and their valiantly persevering offense made them look silly.

And here's the thing. We all like that Todd Haley is ambitious with his play calling. He has made this team a fun team to watch.

But he really needs to know how to finish by just flat-out getting the job done.

There was simply no excuse, no excuse in the universe for him to pass on 3rd and 2 with two minutes left, needed just one first down to really put the Texans on their heels. We'd been running all over these guys, gaining 6 or 7 yards a pop, and we throw a pitifully incomplete pass to bring up a 4th down and running no time off the clock. This gave their stellar offense tons of time to continue to roll over us.

There was simply no way we could have let them back in it.

Yes, there are all kinds of great things to say about our Chiefs performance today. Our 3rd down conversion rate was a wonderful surprise. I mean, really, we've been justifiably ripping the passing game, but today it was great. When we get our passing game and our pass defense together we'll be a genuinely contending team.

Yes, I do question if we are true contenders. We have so much promise -- hey, for the first time in years our offensive line is something that we can be extraordinarily proud of -- Charles and Jones each got nearly 100 yards again. And Dwayne Bowe had another of his games when he shows us how great he can be.

But the most positive thing about this game may just be that we lost so horribly. Maybe this is the wake-up these young kids need to have to know that in the NFL you can't just waltz right over people.
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2010-10-10T20:48:00.000-07:00

Chiefs at Colts - Week 5 - Record: 3-1

Ya know? Really. We do have a pretty darn good team. Before the game I was really thinking, as I'm sure many were, that we'd get our comeuppance in Indy. Here is this young team facing the great Peyton Manning and the vaunted Indianapolis offensive machine, and they'll really know what the NFL is like.

We didn't win, but we held our own. Our defense really clamped down on that Colt offense, and only bent a bit too much when allowing a touchdown with a scant minute left. Our running game still churned out good yardage keeping solid drives going.

But then...

There is that passing game.

And the one pile of refuse that I was really hoping was finally taken to the dump and left there once and for all: dropped passes.

It is also still obvious we are not getting our routes run out crisply, Matt Cassel is just not getting the ball where he needs to as often as he must, and come on -- those dropped passes. What is this? You just can't have guys dropping passes in the NFL. You just can't. I'd like to think we are contenders, I really would, and looking at a lot of the positives today I think it's very reasonable to think so.

But this passing game does indeed cause me great concern.

I mean, on the one hand you do have those instances when a Chris Chambers runs a nice route underneath and follows it with a nice run to get a clutch first down at the end of the half. But on the other hand you get Dwayne Bowe getting just open enough at the side of the end zone to haul in what was nicely becoming his patented TD grab, but he drops it. Come on. We've got Chris Chambers and Dwayne Bowe as our top receivers. These guys should be studs. But then...

On one hand you've got Tony Moeaki making nice grabs for good yardage. But on that other hand you've got too many blown opportunities where our passing deficiencies really kill us, like the time we had a fourth down and Cassel just threw the ball into a crowd at the goal line.

Next week it is Houston who looks very good this year, from the little that I've picked up.

Back to the drawing board for Charlie and the passing game guys.
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2010-09-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

49ers at Chiefs - Week 3 - Record: 3-0

Is this team fun or what?

For all the crazy Chiefs gymnastics out there that made Arrowhead -- err, 'scuze me, the NEW Arrowhead -- the place to be Sunday, I will tell you that the most satisfying thing was simply that

We got our first long sustained drive to result in a touchdown.

This offense is showing promise. Now yes, everything fell into place in this game. That just won't happen every game. We also benefitted from some spectacular big plays, so let's just get right into them.

- A phenomenal interception by Brandon Flowers -- the tip, the bounce off the foot, then into his hands while lying flat on his back.

- The screen pass to Dexter McCluster -- this guy in the open field is unbelievable. And the flyyy-ing into the end zone. How great is this! This is not even to mention his scintillating punt returns to set up great field position.

- The flea flicker out of that wildcat formation. Thomas Jones to Dexter McCluster to Matt Cassel coming from the wide receiver position. And Bowe with the nifty catch in the end zone -- too much!

- The one handed grab in the back of the end zone by Tony Moeaki. Please know that no Chiefs fan will every say "Tony who?" when it comes to Tony Gonzalez -- in fact he had a nice TD of his own for Atlanta today I found myself cheering for -- but is our new Tony great or what?!

I always glow about good Chiefs things in my classroom, and last week one of my students mentioned that we are getting great work from our rookies. No kidding. And we haven't even heard much from Eric Berry yet. Thing is, he is still part of a defense that thoroughly shut down San Francisco. Frank Gore, nothing until the second the last play of the game when it was meaningless. Victor Davis, one catch on the day. Alex Smith, every other pass an incompletion and he was constantly pressured. In fact I'm pretty sure we are already getting close to the number of sacks we had all of the season two years ago.

And our offense really shined today. Yes, again, those big plays were a part of it, but Haley is coaching this team to have a tremendous amount of confidence in their athletic abilities. He's really taking advantage of it. The key is our running game. Jones and Charles each had over 90 yards, and that tandem is gelling wonderfully. The Chiefs offense had 16 -- count 'em -- 16 plays of ten yards or more. What a splendid change from all those three-and-outs we've suffered through for years.

That means, yes, finally, we can give a rousing cheer for the offensive line! Hurray! Ahhhh... Not since the Willie Roaf Will Shields days can we do that. This new guy Ryan Lilja, what an addition. Brian Waters is still a stud. Branden Albert coming into his own. And how sweet is it to have Casey Weigmann back anchoring the line and standing people up.

All around, just a wonderful day for the Chiefs.

3-0 baby!

Bye week next week, so we can relish this for an extra week! We got Indy the week after, at Indy, so we'll see then if we're really for real. For now...

This was just pure fun.
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2010-09-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

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

How sweet that is, to write "2-0" there at the beginning of a "Chiefs Game Today" blog post.

I will tell you that I'm still out here visiting my mother who has been in the hospital, that is why my post of last week was so abbreviated. I will say she is doing much better, and I have a minute to share some Chiefs oriented thoughts for this week.

I will say, however, that when I wanted to get over an watch this one at the local sports bar, I was completely occupied in being with my mom at one of the more significant junctions in her recovery, so I only caught snippets here and there. I did catch the highlight reel, as I must sometimes do, and caught some of the vital statistics, so I can offer a bit of a take.

I am extraordinarily impressed with our defense, which is the one thing that I didn't see much of at all. What I did see was Eric Berry chomping majorly on a play-fake allowing the Browns to go up top and get a long TD pass. At that moment I thought, "Wow does this rookie have a lot to learn." Apparently he learned quick because the Browns did not score a point for the rest of the game. Oh how I wanted to see that!

The offense did much better as well. Not only did Cassel engineer drives to get us field goals a number of times, but he made those clutch third down completions to keep the defense off the field enough to be rested to shut down the Browns offense. Oh oh oh how I wanted to see that!

Thing is, we did not score an offensive touchdown today. Yes, I did see Brandon Flowers' beautiful come-back-on-the-ball interception and TD return, but that's just another big play that helped get us a win. We absolutely must have sustained touchdown drives on a regular basis if we hope to be contenders. Two games so far -- zero sustained offensive drives resulting in touchdowns.

The fact that they mixed Jones and Charles up is a great thing, but that passing game has to click even better for us to get those drives. It was good to see the improvement after that wretched passing day against San Diego, but we still have a long way to go.
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2010-09-16T17:45:00.000-07:00

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

The Chiefs are vibrantly important, certainly, but there are other things that rival and indeed surpass the Chiefs. Major stuff happening now precludes me from putting down the typically vast amount of Dave take on the Chiefs even with our inspired New-Arrowhead play Monday night.

With that in mind, here are the bullet takes of my myriad thoughts:

- Exhileration. A big-play Chiefs win on national television was definitely fun.

- D.J. That's two games in a row now that Derrick Johnson has been a beast on defense. (Remember last year's final game in Denver?) How great would it be for him to be coming into his own.

- The Dee. The whole defense was stellar. They all were beasts out there, really clamping down on a strong San Diego offense. That last minute stop was simply splendid.

- The passing game. Yeah, what passing game. It was shameful to say the least. Matt Cassel and his receivers should be apologizing profusely to the defense for never getting a first down to give them a rest in the second half. (I mean, really, did they even get a first down in the second half?)

- Dexter. Let's hope Haley can finally figure out how to use this guy.

- Injuries. Good to hear Tyson Jackson will be okay. I know Brandon Flowers was down but back up again, I just don't know what his situation is though.

There are a few other scintillating things I could punch in here as well, but I've got to move out. Next week should be better. Look to see you then.
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2010-09-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

Chiefs 2010 Preview - The New Arrowhead Era Begins!

Since I've been doing this blog for a few years, and each year I've assembled at least a handful of thoughts about our beloved team before the season starts, I thought this year shouldn't be any different. I do forewarn you, I've paid the teensiest attention to any Chiefs off-season activity. The only nibbles are those that my Chiefs radar just can't help but pick up wherever however.

Why then should you read any further? Because I believe I have the most unadulterated persepective about what I think about this team. My thoughts are not unduly colored by the highs and lows of things Chiefs personnel have done in the off-season, things that would make a rich and full projection of Chiefs future success haplessly distorted.

Oh, I will include some of those things I've discovered here and there, I can't help but. I will emphasize, however, that this is all about game day analysis. I just want to see, hear, and know of what goes on out there on the field.

For instance I did see very short parts of the Green Bay exhibition game. I never pay any attention to pre-season because that always presents the most warped picture of how a team will do in the regular season. I saw that we got two quick scores (yay!) but then did diddly the rest of the way (boo!) I noted that we beat a Green Bay team that I'd learned had clocked Indianapolis (yay!) but I also saw we did it to a Packers team that didn't even play their starting QB (boo!) Really, what can you tell from that?

So here is the reality of our prospects this season, as I see it.

We do have very strong people at key positions. My son told me he'd completed his fantasy draft and picked up Jamaal Charles, who'd been widely ranked in the 15th to 20th spot of all fantasy players. That's great. I was also initially disappointed that we'd gotten a DB, Eric Berry, with our very first very high draft pick this year. I thought our D-backfield was one of our strengths, but I'm getting word that this guy is a true game changer and simply could not be passed up.

I also know that everyone is excited that we've got all the parts in place front office and coaching-wise. Scott Pioli is taking no prisoners in building a fine team. Todd Haley is fully utilizing the very high learning curve and was able to bring on board top former Patriots coaches to make that horsepower in the Chiefs engine really go.

What really has to happen in real life real regular-season real play starting right at the gun on Sept 13th are two key things. To me these are the real keys of real everything. They are simply

1. Our very very very highly drafted defensive linemen simply have to dominate the line of scrimmage. You know who I'm talking about. This is the year Glenn Dorsey must finally shake off any remnant of knee trouble and anchors the defense right at the snap of every play. Tyson Jackson looks like a monster on that line but he's really got to have much much more than a gentle shove against the opponent's lineman.

2. Matt Cassel has to show that he's the real deal. As last year wound down (I think I wrote about this in a blog post), my uncle sent me a very troubling report from an observer noting that the offensive line problems may simply not be with the line but with the quarterback. I'd mentioned that I was concerned that Cassel was throwing a heavy ball, but the further concern was that he just wasn't getting rid of the ball in time. When you and your receivers aren't in sync, that makes the whole offense lethally sluggish. Charlie Weis has really got to have the Bill Walsh touch with this guy for us to have a shot.

Those are my main concerns, and they are not insignificant. For the first time in a long time I'm really not so worried about the offensive line, because I know it was one of Pioli's off-season priorities, and it did pick it up a bit at the end of last season.

The other major item to address is the biggest Chiefs deal of the off season, really. That would be the major renovation of Arrowhead stadium. I hear it's spectacular, but the most important thing is that maybe this "New Arrowhead" will bring a completely new wave of luck for our Chiefs.

As if we need reminding, since Arrowhead opened in 1972, the Chiefs have played a grand total of five post-season games there.

Five.

38 years of Chiefs professional football games, and Chiefs players have been blessed to step on the Arrowhead turf to do playoff battle a teensy-weensy five times.

Oh, and they've won two of them.

In 1991 defeating the Raiders 10-6, and in 1993 defeating the Steelers 27-24.

Thuh end. That's it.

So yeah, a brand spankin' new NEW NEW Arrowhead can't come any sooner.

This brings up the most important factor in the entire mix, really. That would be the owner, Clark Hunt. One thing I happened to see was a link on Yahoo for a page ranking NFL team owners. It was Friday, but I didn't look at it, though I was really tempted.

To be honest I can't see how Clark can't rank highly. He has given so much to make sure Arrowhead remains one of the premier sites to see NFL football. In what I've seen he's gone above and beyond to proudly carry on his dad's legacy. And that's one of the reasons I didn't look at what Yahoo pundits thought about NFL owners.

I think he should rank reasonably well, but I'd just be ticked off if he didn't. I'd be even more ticked off if he had a poor ranking for good reasons which I just don't know about. This kind of scenario is precisely why for these kinds of things, ignorance is the sweetest bliss. It is why you'll only hear from me again after September 13.

It simply does my heart no good to presume things. I only need to know what's happening on the field.

And this year that means our boys take the field in a new Arrowhead with a few years under our belts of what I see is a new, committed, experienced, group of managers, coaches, and players.

See you next week!
_

2010-07-26T20:12:00.001-07:00

Chiefs Highlights Extravaganza!

I would never write a Chiefs entry this early in the season, and while I'm sure the Chiefs are right in the middle of a certainly quite intense training camp this entry has nothing to do with that. All I care about is the Chiefs actually winning actual football games on the way to an actual championship.

But I still love the Chiefs and seeing them out there on the football field working for that win, even if those exploits are on video tape. Of course this includes a deep abiding enjoyment of great Chiefs history (however much that may be, and while it isn't vast it isn't insigificant either). Because I love all that NFL Films stuff, I had to put up a blog post to announce my discovery of a phenomenal new resource for Chiefs wonderfulness.

The website hulu.com has a link to videos provided by the NFL Network, who has quite deftly made a page for each NFL team. That means, yes, glory of all glories, there is a Chiefs page! You can go right to it, right now even! Look over to the right on this page, and the link is right there among the other links, titled "Chiefs Glory on Hulu." If that is too laborious, here it is right here in these very words, click them, go ahead! And get right to the menu of Chiefs shows the NFL has made available for you to enjoy.

Among the highlights there include the special feature about the Chiefs training camp of '07, Hard Knocks, an acclaimed documentary series about how tough it is to make an NFL team. What a deal that our team was featured as prominently as it was (even though we did kind of suck that year, if you remember losing our last nine straight games).

The very best, however, are all the items from the bountifully formidable early Chiefs years -- the Super Bowl win, the Hank Stram feature -- ahh, it can't get any better than that.

So consider this a free public service of your dutiful Chiefs game day blogger! Check it out and enjoy!
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2010-01-25T16:34:00.000-08:00

The AFL Teams Doing Nothing in the Super Bowl Yet Again

Two notable things have happened this year in the world of NFL football. One is something that has been going on all year long--the 50-year commemoration since the AFL began. All right, way to go, yeah-heh, love the old AFL and all that cool high-octane offense stuff, yay AFL! This is not to mention that Chiefs main guy Lamar Hunt started the whole thing. Awright!

The second thing happened yesterday.

When the New York Jets lost to the Indianapolis Colts, my main thought was, "Hmm, that's the NFL's revenge right there." What I was referring to was the exact same match-up in Super Bowl III, the one in which the upstart Jets and their Joe Namath swagger defeated the powerful Baltimore Colts, a game widely considered the seminal game in NFL history. The idea: The AFL showed it could play with the big boys.

Then I thought about it. Have you thought about it? Has anyone thought about it?

That second thing: Yet again an AFL team has failed to get into the Super Bowl.

Yes, I used the words "yet again." This year's match-up will feature the very-much-not-old-AFL Colts versus the always NFL-NFC Saints.

I thought about it for a while, and I did the mental gymnastics to go back and look at all those good ol' AFL teams and their success in Super Bowls past. I discovered something pretty amazing. In Super Bowls, AFL teams have actually, really, truly, splendiferously

Sucked.

So I took the time to really do the math. And here it is, with each AFL team featured in an order with some semblence of meaning. You'll see it as we go. (Simple point of fact: by AFL, I mean the American Football League teams, most of them starting out in 1960 with two more added later in the decade. The league was absorbed into the NFL in 1970 with all of them becoming the AFC with the addition of three old-NFL teams. The NFC consisted of all the other teams and both conferences together became the NFL.)

10. Chargers. Super Bowl record: 0-1. In the one Super Bowl they got into they got crushed by the 49ers. Countless times they've had fine teams, but each and every time stumbled in the playoffs.

9. Titans/Oilers. 0-1. The Oilers had the first two AFL titles but, alas, the Super Bowl was not played back then. Since then the team, like the Chargers, had fine teams but just couldn't get into the big game at all. (Do you think of that complete collapse against the eventual Super Bowl participants, the Bills, in like, 92 or 93? I always do.) The Titans made it in 2000 only to have Kevin Dyson come up an inch short of the goal line giving the Rams the win.

8. Bengals. 0-2. The only post-season success the Bengals have ever really had was in three of their many AFL/AFC years. One of them was a one-win-but-then-out, the other two they went the distance, right into the big game, only to face the 49ers each time. Each game was relatively close, but the Niners prevailed both times.

7. Bills. 0-4. Four straight trips to the Super Bowl, four straight defeats. The first was that narrow loss to the Giants on the Scott Norwood last-second FG miss, but the next three were utter debacles at the hands of the Redskins and Cowboys.

6. Jets. 1-0. Oooo! Wow! Jets legitimize the AFL! Wowwie wow-wow! But, that was way way way back in 1969, it was their only appearance ever. That's, oh, lessee, 40 years ago.

5. Chiefs. 1-1. The Chiefs win over the heavily favored Vikings the very next year was just as important as the Jets win because it proved it was not a fluke. In fact to the not-surprise of those who knew, the Chiefs were an exceptionally good team, and coach Hank Stram's game plan in the big game was one of the most ingenious ever. But as has been attested to in this blog, the Chiefs have pretty much shlurped ever since, at least as far as doing anything Super Bowl-wise.

4. Dolphins. 2-3. Yes, that's right, a 2-3 record. You'da thought that with the Dolphins so dominant in the early 70's they'da had 57 straight Super Bowl victories. But the year right after their undefeated season they beat the Vikings for a two-fer, and then after that, nada. Even Dan Marino's team got into only one, and in that one they got clobbered by those 49ers.

3. Raiders. 3-2. This team could easily be considered the best among the AFL teams in Super Bowl play. Their three wins were all convincing efforts, but the last of those was 26 years ago. (And, it really should be noted that the two Raiders losses were themselves convincing. This team has never been in a close Super Bowl contest.)

2. Broncos. 2-4. Put here at number two because their Super Bowl wins were some of the more recent among the AFLers. We still can't forget that the four losses that occurred before them were all some of the most embarrassing shellackings in Super Bowl history. Indeed the last of those four was a 55-10 slaughterhouse special at the hands of those, yet again, 49ers--the most lopsided loss ever in the history of the event.

1. Patriots. 3-3. Listed here as first because they've had the most recent wins among AFLers, three of four from 2002 to 2005. But before that, they too were generally pathetic up until they got there for the first time in 1986 whereupon, yes, they got mauled by the Bears in the second most lopsided score ever in a Super Bowl. While taking nothing away from the fine play of this team during their Super Bowl run, they did win each of those early 00's games, each one of them, by only a field goal. And need we say anything about the one game just a couple of years ago which they were supposed to win more than any other in Super Bowl history, the one in which they went in undefeated and then let the Giants squeak away with the win?

Now, is this pathetic or what? Really, look upon the horror, if you dare...

An overall 12-21 record in Super Bowls for this bunch encompassing the entirety of all of the 43 Super Bowls played so far (with no chance this year to improve on even that putridity). Only two of the ten have a winning record (the Jets and Raiders), six have a losing record. (Hey, at least the Chiefs are even. Whee.)

AFLers have a miserable five wins since the Raiders won in 1984. Just so you know, that's 26 years in all-- only five wins. And those by only two of the ten. Right after that 1984 win, by the way, AFL teams went on an eleven-game losing streak. Eleven straight, all lost by not just AFC teams but Ay-eff-ehl teams, every one of the them, six different teams in all.

And how about this one: If we say, for these purposes, a blowout is any victory of 13 or more points. Sure there could be argument about what really makes a blowout, but 13 would qualify as a good whupping. There have been 15 such losses by AFL teams, to only six of AFL teams over NFL/NFC teams. That means for every one time an AFL team really put it to their Super Bowl opponent, there have been three times that an AFL team has been blasted.

Wow. This is just amazing, the irony of all the celebrating about the AFL's beginning and all, and we're in the Super Bowl week with not an AFL team to be found. How about this thing called "The Super Bowl," the very term itself coined by none other than AFL founder Lamar Hunt.

All this tells me is that an AFL team is really really due to kick some Super Bowl butt, like, oh...

Hey! The Kansas City Chiefs! They're one of those teams! It's gotta be them!

Next year, it's the Revenge of the AFL! It can only be the Chiefs! The spirit of Lamar Hunt lives on!

Awright!
_

2010-01-17T19:29:00.000-08:00

Chiefs Doing Nothing in the Post-Season Yet Again

This blog is wholly about addressing games the Kansas City Chiefs play and only those games. I do nothing but look at the games. With some few exceptions (like this one) I make only one post a week--the one regarding what happened in the game of the day.

But since this is playoff time and I should be writing about our Chiefs playoff games (but am not, thank you Carl Peterson) I wanted to blog a bit about the very sad history of Chiefs playoff activity. I have no delusions that this may be considered one great big whining session, but oh well. For one, it's my blog, and for two, I know the Chiefs must win games with wise front office decisions, deft tactical leadership, and plain flat-out on-the-field excellence.

But if luck is a component in the mix, then over the many years the Chiefs have had very little of it.

So you may call it what you want, but henceforth this shall officially be my year-end bitch session, and I've got the statistical goods to back it up.

For one thing, I updated the latest Kansas City playoff drought numbers, a statistical nightmare I put together and posted on my blog at the end of last year. This year it was no better. There it is, KC's football and baseball teams still sucking and reaching a 40-year combined team playoff drought. It is updated right up to the present moment with today's NFL playoff action included. Annnnd, there we are there at the top, us Kansas Citians. Next up is Cincy at 33. Then Houston at 22. Then Detroit at 21.

Everyone else, every single stinkin' other city--20 of the 24 in all-- with a playoff drought fully half of Kansas City's, or less.

See, I happen to be kind of a Royals fan, too, and it was as if the sports gods watched Bret Saberhagen leap for joy putting away the last Cardinals batter in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series and said, "This just cannot be. The Royals winning the championship? Especially after a gift call from an umpire the day before and all the things we did to hose them through the 70's no matter how good they were? We'll never let that happen again."

Now I don't attribute the Royals suckitude since then solely to supernatural forces. It has a ton to do with the fact that major league baseball itself knows it would die should anything like the sustained success that the teeny tiny market Royals had through the 70's happen again. I made some notes in a post from last year about how exactly it is that the Royals cannot win, and it is here (right after last year's playoff drought list).

But let's talk Chiefs futility.

One thing I did was get a feel of how the team did versus the key teams they must do well against, namely those teams in the rest of the AFC West, the Broncos, the Chargers, and the Raiders. Indeed since this is the 50th anniversary of the AFL, it is worth a look at this classic divisional set-up and how things have gone through the five decades.

First, let's look at division titles. The Raiders have 16, the Chargers 15, the Broncos 10, and the Chiefs 6. (The Dallas Texans don't count because that's not Kansas City, and the Seattle Seahawks had a few in there when they were in the AFC West.) Then I looked at how many playoff games were won after winning a division title. Here's that list: the Raiders 18, the Broncos 13, the Chargers 9, and the Chiefs 3.

Now, just look at that. Fifty years, and a puny 6 division titles for the Chiefs. FIFTY YEARS OF AFL/AFC EXISTITUDE, and a pitifully putrid 3 playoff victories coming off a division title.

Now yes, the Chiefs did win a few playoff games as a wild-card, and yes they did win the Super Bowl coming out of being a wild-card in 1969. For that I am bountifully grateful that we had such a phenomenally great team like Hank Stram's Chiefs and we could blow away teams as a great team like that should. At least for that one beautiful, glorious, splendidly marvelous year.

But again, the sports gods...

"What? The Chiefs? They can't win anymore, they're in such a teeny tiny market, and they didn't really deserve it because they didn't even win their division, so we'll just have to hose them for the rest of eternity..."

So then, what about the whole divisional title thing? Just FYI, here are those titles, and here are those playoff wins. Don't worry, it won't take up much blog space--whew, good thing... The titles: 66, 71, 93, 95, 97, and 03. The wins: against Buffalo in 66, against Pittsburgh and then right after that against Houston in 93.

Thaht's it. Thah end.

In only two years of the entirety of this 50-year thing we're all celebrating right now, two of fifty, a whopping four percent of the time did we have a year in which we won our division then went on to win at least one playoff game. There it is, those years again: 1966 and 1993.

You'da thought we'da had more in that 90's decade, but lest you forget that once we breathed playoff air we choked nearly every time. We now have the current on-going record for consecutive playoff losses. Yes, uh-huh. We do. When I saw that stat just after the Colts loss after the 06 season I was stunned. Thinking back to that glorious win over the Oilers in January of 94 I just never woulda thought. But yep, right there, the Chiefs have a record six-game playoff losing streak and counting, meaning if they get in again and lose, then they'll be the sole holders of that distinction. (Seattle had six in a row a while back until they won, and Dallas also shared the record but their six game streak ended last week when they beat Philly. For the record, those six in the Chiefs ledger: Buf 93 season, Mia 94, Ind 95, Den 97, Ind 03, Ind 06.)

I still shake my head.

But wait. There's more.

Just this week I thought, hmm, on this year of the 50th anniversary of AFL/AFC wonderfulness--the whole of which commenced, I might add, by the intrepid catalysm of Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt--I would look at total playoff victories through the fifty by all the original AFL teams. Total, meaning all of them, all wild-card, divisional, conference, Super Bowl, all of it. Well, let's look at that shall we, and for our weaker Chiefs fan brethren, you may want to look away.

Here's the list.

1. Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland Raiders (25)
2. Boston/New England Patriots (21)
3. Denver Broncos (17)
4. Buffalo Bills (14)
4. Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans (14)
6. Los Angeles/San Diego Chargers (10)
7. New York Titans/Jets (10)
8. Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs (8)

You must note that the Chiefs-not-Texans have only had seven playoff wins in the fifty years. And to think that there have been times when I've actually been kind of sad the Raiders have themselves sucked so thoroughly these past several years (BTW, this year they set an NFL record for seven straight seasons with at least 11 losses--are you sad?), or even thought those who thought the Chiefs should not have beaten the Raiders in the 1969 conference championship game might have a point. Or that since we've pretty much had our way with them for some time (for practically all of the 90's and most of the 00's) that somehow it is their turn...

Somebody, please whack me in the head with a two-by-four, I give you permission.

What really makes me crazy is that I look at all of this just knowing in the very depths of my soul that we are so, so due for at least a teeny tiny bit of success, yet I also know that the sports gods will just do something to hose us and of course, yes, this is precisely why I spend zero time looking at any Chiefs item outside of actual gametime. I only end up going and getting my hopes up and then another Christmas Day 1971 happens. Or a Lin Elliot bricking three FG attempts happens. Or an Elvis Grbac thoroughly ignoring his outlet back for an easy game-winning TD happens. Or a young Peyton Manning converting on 57 third-downs happens.

I dunno. Sure this blog post is just one massive vent. At this point it's really all I have. Until next September when I can see if Scott Pioli has put together a team that can actually do great things for a long, long period of time. See if Todd Haley has taken those parts and assembled them deftly. For everything I have in me as a Chiefs fan I wholly expect them to, I really do.

So until September when maybe, just maybe the Kansas City Chiefs can begin to be the dominant team of the second half of the AFL/AFC Century.
_

2010-01-03T16:56:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Broncos - Week 17 - Record: 4-12

Can you believe it? In Denver, meaningless game for us, do-or-die-and-need-help meaningful for them, and we come in there

And pummel them.

Jamaal Charles has officially made us completely forget Larry Johnson. He zoomed off for 259, not only the highest rushing total in Chiefs history but one of the top performances by anyone in NFL history. Derrick Johnson, our stunningly athletic one-time star defender-- this year just floating around here and there-- goes to the bank twice with interception returns.

This game was sweet from the beginning because for once, for once it looked like we were all about getting the job done from play one. When I watched the very first play from scrimmage I could swear I was looking at that beautiful Steve DeBerg play-action --remember that?-- sure enough it was Matt Cassel using Charles to draw up the defense then firing a perfect strike to Terrance Copper for 50. Bam. Then another BAM. Bam, bam and in four plays we got a touchdown, amazingly, the first one all season from the first offensive drive of a game.

We got the job done.

We cannot lose sight of the fact that a single game does not a team make. Okay, sober time now, we're now officially in the off-season so let's be candid. This has been the worst period of play the Kansas City Chiefs have ever endured. Worse than those miserable mid-70's years, worse than the lean John Mackovic years (he never had a team with fewer than six wins), even worse than the ridiculously awful Frank Gansz years (even he managed to get four wins in each of his years). Since that glorious last day of 2006 when we miraculously shot into the playoffs, we've played a total of 48 regular season games and have won ten of them. Do the math. That's 38 big huge smackin' losses.

You'd think that with all of this we'd have a losing franchise record, but we actually have a winning record overall (385-358-12). There are a couple of reasons for this. One, the Chiefs were bad-ass good in the 60's and 90's. Yes, all around the mediocrity in our history, we had those two wonderful decades. And two, the Chiefs were never really very bad in any year. I know that's hard to believe even with our beloved Frank Gansz in the mix there, but it is interesting that in our worst years we've only been very average, never a 1-15 record or even anything close to it outside of 2008. That's nothing to cheer about, yes, but still...

This is why I bring up this last spate of Chiefs play--these past three years of horror. Taken together they indeed represent the worst times the Chiefs have ever experienced. Last year we set a record for least number of sacks. This year (for all intents and purposes because it isn't an official record, but close enough) we settled in with the teams who had record dropped passes, around 50 on the season. Our defense was ranked dead last in the NFL. And what cannot be quantified is our abject failure to get any meaningful push on either side of the ball-- arguably the most important part of the game.

But, ain't no way I'm ending the last blog entry of the season that way. I only do so to amplify the stakes here. The fact is, there is that hope.

And it is very real.

I'm not just whistling in the dark. There are some very positive things going on. Two plays in particular that just made me proud to be a Chiefs fan, because they just did so well blocking. Jamaal Charles' first touchdown was just a five-yard scamper, but the blocking made me think about what we had in 2003 when Priest Holmes so splendidly danced through the line. And the first of Derrick Johnson's interceptions was taken back with the help of phenomenal blocking by his defensive cohorts.

With all the accolades I have to mention our kickers, yes our kickers. Ryan Succop tied a record for FG percentage by a rookie--how awesome it was to see him bang through just about every shot he had. And Dustin Colquitt nearly got to a record for most punts inside the 20 in a season. That is great.

Today the Chiefs were gelling and making things happen as a team--oh how sweet...getting the job done. That this happened there in Denver, our first win there since 2000, extraordinarily sweet. We put up a whoppin' 44 there today, the most in their yard since 1966. Sweet sweet sweet. This game was a complete and utter joy to behold.

Now it's on to April and the beacoup load of draft picks to keep building on this. What a fantastic way to go into the offseason. Oh please know this is by no means the best it can be...

I eagerly await the the last game of the regular season when it is way way better than this, when we actually move on to the playoffs.

If we can build on this, and there is every reason to believe we can, it'll happen.

I confess, I confess with an overflow of the most heartbreaking memories that there have been many times when things looked bright for us, and later things went very, very badly. I so very well know this may be one of those times. Many of the pieces are indeed in place, particularly in the front office, that make the hope real, and while sometime later it could all end very badly yet again, I can only close this season with the thought--especially after this final game of '09--

That at least there is that very bright hope for now.

It is very good indeed.
_

2009-12-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Bengals - Week 16 - Record: 3-12

We have dropped so many passes this year that I think Tim Castille had to make up for all of them by making an amazing catch in the end zone while being brutally sandwiched between three Bengal defenders. I don't think Castille's had any other passes thrown his way all year. If we've needed anyone to catch any balls, why don't we just throw to Castille every play?

Anyway, our defense stepped it up big-time today after their stunningly putrid performance last week, actually containing a good Bengals team and holding the game close until the last quarter when punter Colquitt and downer Quinten Lawrence pinned them at their own 2. The Bengals even ran a play in which they lost a yard, so with 2nd and 11 from their own half-yard line, you know what happened? Of course you do...

The Chiefs couldn't finish.

Yet again.

The Bengals drove the length of the field to score the game-winning TD, burning up most of the rest of the clock.

Matt Cassel still had a full two minutes to show he's a big-time clutch performer, but after a couple of decent gains, he threw an interception to end it. Well, live and learn. Good thing he's doing that now and not when we're actual contenders and we'd really need it.

He also threw another interception that technically was an overthrow to Dwayne Bowe, but it really gnaws on me to watch a great talent like Bowe just not get up to get that one. He really could have. This is precisely one of the things that gets me about this team. It just doesn't have that whole feel of being a solid "get the job done" team. Do you feel that way?

Just make the tackle. Just catch the damn pass. No matter what. Get the job done.

The contending teams do this. They look like they'll make the play they need to make no matter what. Far too often the Chiefs look like they're just trying. That's dandy. Trying. Cool.

But how about we get the job done.

Oh, and Larry Johnson didn't hurt us, mostly because the go-to back they've had all year was doing just fine. Again, we did much better stopping their guy, and our now-solid go-to guy got another 100+ rushing.

With that in mind, I thought now is as good a time as any to share my ratings for our key players. With only one more game after this, might as well get right to it. They are classified as follows.

1. Untouchable. These guys we keep no matter what.

2. Touchable but with the right price. Should keep but if an offer comes up... Placement in this category does not mean I do not like these guys. It's just, hey, it's all about the Chiefs. If an offer comes up...

3. Okay, but if we can fill their spot, then...

4. Moderately serviceable, keep if we absolutely can't fill their spot.

5. Will not miss them.

So here goes:

Untouchables: Brandon Flowers. Yep, that's it. One guy. Pathetic, I know. But at least Flowers is here. What a phenomenal talent this guy is, and he's only just learning. Today he wrecked his shoulder big-time and was back out on the field in the next defensive series. Every Chiefs fan should love this guy.

Touchable but with the right price: Matt Cassel, Dwayne Bowe, Ryan Succop, Dustin Colquitt. Yeah, pathetic that only two regularly playing guys show up here. And even so, you'd think Cassel and Bowe would be untouchable, but damn it, Bowe just too often doesn't make the play he can make when he must, and damn it I'm just not yet convinced Cassel is going to be Super Bowl calibur. Any team that wants to actually win the Super Bowl some day must have a QB who is nothing other than a future Hall-of-Famer, or very close to it. (See this post for more.) On the other hand it is great we have both our kicking specialists very solid for a long time to come.

Okay, but if we can fill their spot, then... Chris Chambers, Brian Waters, Jamaal Charles, Mike Vrabel, Brandon Carr. Waters is a perenniel All-Pro stuck on a very weak O-line, but he's complained too much about the Chiefs. Must of it is wholly justified, but still. Chambers and Vrabel have been terrific pick-ups, and I like them both a lot, but if they're not going to be super vets in the next few years their spots will simply have to be filled. Charles needs to give me a full season before I consider him more highly.

Moderately serviceable, keep if we absolutely cannot fill that spot: Glenn Dorsey, Tyson Jackson, Branden Albert, Tamba Hali. Look at this list. All guys on the line, the most important part of the game. Don't win the line, don't win the game. And Dorsey and Jackson are only this high because they were our really really high picks the last two years and they damn well better be a billion times better than they've been.

Will not miss them: Everyone else, which sadly is way too many of our players. Exceptions to this may certainly include people like Wallace Gilberry who has actually made a few sacks this year (you mean we've actually sacked guys this year???), and Quinten Lawrence who's still young and may have decent service in him we haven't seen yet. I don't know the potential of these guys or any of the guys the Chiefs themselves are high on that I can't see from the behind the sidelines. Other exceptions include injured guys like Jarrad Page who may certainly come back and prove they should be in one of the higher categories.

Again, the key, the key of all the keys, is whether Scott and Todd can really look at those guys and see if they will be rock-star players or just guys to replace because they won't ultimately be all about, yes, here it is again...

Wait for it--

Get the job done.
_

2009-12-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

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

How wretchedly woeful is this, as I listen to the Arrowhead fan boos reign down on the Chiefs and their loss to an equally pathetic Browns team.

Len Dawson said it best when at one point he very simply and very plainly said something he'd been saying all year. "Where was the defensive line and the linebackers?"

Here were the un-eye-popping stats for their go-to back of the game, some previously unknown guy named Jerome Harrison. 88 carries for 301 yards in 13 games. Last year he had 246 rushing yards total.

This one game: 34 carries for 286 yards, the third highest rushing total in NFL history.

There are a number of other woefully wretchedly woeful things I could mention: Our special teams finally got beat bad, letting their go-to return guy torch us for two touchdowns. The Browns had scored 158 points all year, they put 41 up against us today. A team put 40+ points against us for a third game in the last four.

And yet again yet again yet again--our dropped passes.

Last week I brought up the idea that Matt Cassel might be throwing a heavy ball. I realize I was too severe. Much of the problem is that we just have a bunch of receivers with bad hands. Even Dwayne Bowe returning after his four game suspension dropped passes. Today Cassel demonstrated he's got what it takes, nothing different than what we all know about him, and that with some time, coaching, an O-line, and receivers without butter on their fingers he can't help but get even better.

Otherwise, what's new. Just another woefully wretched woefully embarrassing experience.

Thank goodness that there is some hope. There's Cassel. There are our fine cornerback Brandons, Flowers and Carr. Our fine kicker is so young that we can count on him being around for a while, at a point when we'll actually have a pretty good team. Our fine punter was still (with the exception of one shank) booming punts again today. Jamaal Charles with his trick shoulder and all is getting us to believe he may actually be an above-average back.

And our fine industrious GM has his nine draft picks in the first six rounds in April.

Right now it is really bad, but there's every reason to believe this is the worst it will be. It can only get better. Maybe not this year, that's a given, but there is real hope.
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2009-12-13T17:10:00.000-08:00

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

Remember the days when Arrowhead was the most raucous stadium on the planet? The radio broadcast has been having promos honoring the 50 years of the AFL, and today's was about the Chiefs seminal Monday night game against the Bills back in October 1991 when they stomped them 33-6. There was the DT-led defense and the rumbling touchdowns of the Nigerian Nightmare, but the highlight was the fans who yelled so loud that the noise level reached just 14 decibels below that which is tolerable to the human ear.

Ahh, those were the days.

These days there are a smattering of encouraging cheers, God bless those fans. After our team sucks for a while, however, there are mostly just boos.

We played a Bills team that also sucked, but alas, we suck way worse. The only thing that was really anything to smile about was Jamaal Charles' zipping 76 yard touchdown. In fact he ran for a total of 143 yards, yet I just can't figure why we didn't hand him the ball more considering the Bills poor run defense.

Matt Cassel threw 43 passes when a few more of those really should have been runs.

And that leads to one of the key things I am now starting to believe is plaguing us. It is something I hadn't really been afraid of before in any way, but now I'm starting to get a bit scared. That key issue is--

Matt Cassel.

Now, here's why he should not be any concern at all. The guy looks like a quarterback, he really seems to have the tools required to be a great one. He has shown flashes of brilliance and has made some great decisions, even in situations when he needs to be clutch. He's also very tough, and does things that a leader should do out there.

But here are the things that are starting to scare me. First, and something I think is a serious problem, is that I really believe he throws a very heavy ball. We just have too many dropped passes for a pro football receiving core. Everyone is dropping passes. He is also overthrowing everyone. It makes you shake your head till it almost comes off your body to keep seeing our guys out front and then watch the ball sail beyond their reach.

He has also been making some awful pass decisions. He was picked four times today--granted one was at the end of the game on an attempted hail mary, but still. We all know last year he played for a fine New England team with better receivers and a very fine offensive line, and this year he does have an awful offensive line. I mean, I would not be surprised at all to watch Cassel at some post-game press conference very understandably say, "When we get a better offensive line we'll be able to do a bit more."

But it is starting to become very evident that there is still major stuff Cassel needs to work on. And really, this gets back to the coaching. When is Todd Haley going to get this guy to settle down and stay within himself? When is he going to really coach him on those mechanics, especially getting him to throw a much softer pass? When is he going to see what the limitations are of this team and play the best game with what he's got?

Of course we just have to wait until Pioli can build a decent team with some strong drafts so he's got people he can actually showcase. But then we don't necessarily have to wait for that-- we just need to get the right mix out there and find those gems wherever they are.

There is no question our offensive line has to be a priority, and since I tend to liken our team now to the 1990 Cowboys who were able to go from the pits and build a great team into the 90's (yes, at least I'd like to think we can do that), I looked at their stellar offensive line to see how many first round picks there were. I was amazed at what I found.

None of them were first rounders.

The highest was huge Larry Allen, plucked in the 2nd, and he still went on to a slew of Pro Bowls. Then there was stud Erik Williams, a 3rd rounder. Amazingly, the stalwart left side made up of Mark Tuinei and Nate Newton were not even drafted. They were just found, and developed into those positions. They played like madmen and made the Pro Bowl in however many years they did.

So really, any future success is in the hands of Scott Pioli. That's all it is. Will he do better than other GM's at finding talented players? If he does better, we'll do better. If he doesn't, we'll just wallow around in the muck more and more.

Already the list of needs we have is a mile long. I'm sure I'll take some time to flesh this out a bit more, but with three weeks left all I feel like doing is grouse about what we need.

We need at least two good solid offensive linemen. Maybe more. Today our great red-and-gold hope in that area, Branden Albert, was again far from spectacular and piled up more penalties. Brian Waters is the only guy who is remotely decent and everyone knows how frustrated he is with things.

We need at least two good solid defensive linemen. You'd think they'd be Tyson Jackson and Glenn Dorsey, but Jackson was invisible yet again and Dorsey injured his knee today. Great. You remember this was the real concern with him from day one. That's just great, just great.

We still need that Ray Lewis type presence in the middle of the defense, we so so SO need that. We need a great pursuit guy to compliment him on the outside, and while Tamba Hali has been mildly serviceable, we simply have not been able to overcome the failure of Derrick Johnson to blossom.

And one of the most important things, we need Todd Haley to get off his rear end and really coach this kid Cassel if we actually want to stop embarrassing ourselves out there.
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2009-12-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

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

Well, at least they weren't wearing those old AFL uniforms today. I really thought they would, the game being Denver-KC, but they didn't. Actually, that's really too bad because right now, we really could use another team's uniform to hide behind.

We stink. What's new. Our offense stinks--I don't really know if I've ever seen any pro team in any single game flat-out drop as many passes as our guys did in this one. Our defense stinks--I don't really know if I've ever seen any pro team allow the opponent to just run over a defense like we let Denver do to us today.

Thank you Carl Peterson.

But instead of ragging all over this team like I get sick of doing every stinkin' week of the season, it is really time to just reflect on something that, ironically, Carl Peterson did do that was really great.

He drafted Derrick Thomas.

Today was Derrick Thomas day at Arrowhead, and at least there was that. And how great is that. Got his number retired and all kinds of other things happening to honor one of the greatest Chiefs ever, indeed one of the greatest players in all of NFL history.

As much as I abhor what Peterson did to our current team, I could not help but be blown away when watching his presentation speech for Thomas' Hall-of-Fame entrance back in August. Peterson not only did great, lauding Thomas with the deepest respect, but regaled the audience with a narrative about a career that I never knew was as stratospheric as it was.

Really, as much as credit as should justifiably be awarded all the Chiefs players of the 90's, Peterson minced no words: the wonderful success of the Chiefs during that time was due more to Thomas than any other player.

I remember it all myself. I think I just sort of took it for granted that we got turnover after turnover after turnover, and that we did so with a designed Thomas-led lightning attack. Back then it was not like today's Chiefs, who only get a turnover to keep a 44-13 score from being 51-10.

Thomas did it so we could win football games.

It was indeed crushing when he passed away in 2000, as if he was destined to play just during those 90's. You couldn't help but wonder why the good ones have to go like that, and go so soon.

So in a season that's just one great big miserable practice session for our beloved team, how great is it to see all the accolades go to a Chief among Chiefs.
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2009-11-29T17:57:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Chargers - Week 12 - Record: 3-8

Yet another blowout at the hands of the Chargers. Right now this is a team we just can't do squat against, amplified by the fact that every game we just seem to have a bunch of really stupid things happening to us that undercut our efforts even more. Today it was uncharacteristically bad shotgun snaps from our center, a fumble after a long run by our halfback, and Matt Cassel (who seems to be particularly cursed by the Chargers) throwing an interception off of a lineman's helmet and losing a ball he was about to pass right into the hands of a blitzing safety.

Let's face it, the Chargers have the offense we wish we could have. Taking nothing away from our up-and-coming guys like Cassel, the Chargers simply have better backs (LaDainian Tomlinson, one of the best ever), taller faster wide-outs (our small corners played their hearts out against these guys but still couldn't stop them), a more experienced savvy quarterback (one of the best in the league right now), and a line that--well, any line is better than ours. I mean, we should compare their O-line with our D-line, and it just wasn't even funny. They just shoved us all over the place.

To be honest, our soft defense is really concerning me. Yes, let's give Tyson Jackson another year. Okay, let's give Glenn Dorsey yet another year. I'm just afraid of how many years we have to give these guys. Our D-backs are holding their own especially since we lost Jarrad Page and Maurice Leggett for the year.

All I think about is how those past awful drafts of Carl Peterson has murdered us. I know I know I know it's all about Scott Pioli now, I know. I'm great with that. But the whole draft thing just highlights the stark contrast between a team like the Chargers and ours now. Do you know that we had only three guys that we drafted playing regularly in our offense today. Just three guys. Here they are, don't need much space to put 'em in: Branden Albert, Jamaal Charles, and Brad Cottam. And really, Albert is still very green, Charles is fast but still hasn't proven to me he's a go-to guy, and Cottam is not much more than a 3rd string guy.

Three guys.

That's pathetic. And, really, in that sense, it is a testament to how brilliant Pioli has been in putting any remotely decent NFL offense out on the field to begin with.

Oh, and yeah, I haven't mentioned Larry Johnson, but I can't refuse to point out that for Cincinnati today, he ran for over 100. Sorry all you Larry Johnson un-fans, but they guy is still a stud and was run outta town by a bunch of politically correct thugs who can't see what our offensive line is really like. Oh, and I caught this also, about another supposed former Chiefs miscreant. Jared Allen leads the league in sacks over there with Minnesota. He's got 11. The Chiefs I think had 10 all of last year.

I must say there were two terrific things about this game. One, our special teams are really playing well. Yes it is tiring to have to keep speaking about how great our punter is, but our kick coverage has also really been good in this year when so many kicks are being returned for TD's. It was nice to see our coverage guys stuff Darren Sproles. Kicker Ryan Succop only put through two conversions today, but this guy is solid and looks like he'll be here for a while, something we haven't been able to enjoy since Nick Lowery (with humble apologies to Pete Stoyanovich, but he was pretty much passing through).

And the second great thing is we weren't wearing those silly Texans helmets. I know it's all "AFL 50 Years" and all, but they already did the throwback uniforms back in the '94 season, and it was indeed wonderful then, for a year. After a while it just gets old. I have to say I'd be very very happy to never see the Texans thing again. And hey, the team is not even really wearing the old Texans uniforms.

But next week we get Denver. Again, if they've got those goofy horses on their heads, I could (if they absolutely must) tolerate another Texans helmet just to see that.
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2009-11-23T16:40:00.000-08:00

Steelers at Chiefs - Week 11 - Record: 3-7

I don't think there is any question this win was one of the greatest regular season wins in Chiefs history. We've been so bad, and yet today we defeated the world champs with a new GM and coach working their asses off to get us back into NFL contention. No question. This one means a lot no matter what has happened or will happen.

Thing is, this one had connections with a whole lot of other Chiefs-Steelers games. Here we go...

Old game: 1986, last regular season game. Remember that one? The Chiefs take on the Steelers at home and get into the playoffs for the first time in 15 years on the strength of three fabulous special teams touchdowns.

This game: Jamaal Charles opens the affair with a spectacular kick-off return for touchdown, and Ryan Succop wins it with an overtime field goal. Our punter Dustin Colquitt has been fantastic and our kick coverage has been stifling. Our special teams does it again to Pittsburgh.

Old game: 1993, first playoff game. Remember that one? Again at home against the Steelers, we're down 24-17 late when Joe Montana hits Tim Barnett in the back of the endzone to send the game into OT when Nick Lowery ends it with a field goal. 27-24 final in OT.

This game: Was this a carbon copy of that game or what? Down 24-17 late, Matt Cassell hits Jamaal Charles swirling out of the backfield to tie, then OT, then the game-winning FG. 27-24 final in OT.

Old game: 2006, middle of regular season, we play the then also world champ Steelers in Pittsburgh. We get slaughtered. I don't even think we moved the ball a yard, and when they got it they scored a touchdown instantly. It was embarrassing.

This game: Let's face it, the Steelers still outplayed us up and down the yard. Their running game was way better, their passing game was way better, their defense was way better. But then...

Old game: 2009 Super Bowl, Pittsburgh vs. Arizona. Sure it wasn't the Chiefs, but remember, the Cardinals offensive coordinator for that game was Todd Haley. He made the Pittsburgh defense look silly, and Arizona should have won the game except for that very last play of the first half. Remember it? Kurt Warner throws a very ill-advised pass at the Pittsburgh one yard line that is intercepted and run all the way back for a touchdown. Instant 14 point swing. That really meant the game right there.

This game: The Steelers are up 17-14 and threatening again when Ben Roethlisberger was pressured and threw a pass right into the hands of Andy Studebaker, who ran like no linebacker I've ever seen zooming right down the field only to be grabbed from behind all the way down at the Pittsburgh seven. We kick a tying field goal--bam, instant 10 point swing. That was the difference in this game, taking advantage of the few big plays just like Pittsburgh did against Arizona and against Seattle in their '05 Super Bowl win as well. Ahh, turned the tables on those guys--very nice.

Old game: Any 2000's playoff game between the Patriots and Steelers. Scott Pioli was working for the Patriots front office helping build their team.

This game: Now Pioli is with the Chiefs and doing all he can to put guys who can play out on the field. His grade so far is an A+. Sure a lot of these guys are picked off the reject pile, but he's done phenomenally so far. Think of Chris Chambers for one. Remember when this guy was a stud for Miami? Now he's magically on our team and he came up with two utterly clutch catches yesterday, the latter one being all him snagging Cassel's short pass and streaking well into field goal range in OT.

I caught this interesting fact during the game. It testifies to why the Steelers are world champs and the Chiefs are struggling. The Chiefs have no one on their roster from the 01-04 drafts. No one. The Steelers have seven. The reason this is an encouraging stat is that we no longer have Carl Peterson mailing it in, we have Scott Pioli working diligently to make sure we've got the best team we can get. Right now just starting out that means finding small gems in a mountain range of shale. The Chris Chambers, the Andy Studebakers.

I can't wait until he starts finding them in the draft.

Yeah, yeah, I'm excited right now. I still do know we gave up five sacks, I still do know we let Roethlisberger pick us apart all afternoon, yeah yeah. Same ol' same ol.'

But today we played with heart and desire and steeled (or I should say chiefed) determination. We were down any number of times but we got back up and got the clutch big play. (Oh I can't neglect to say how fun it was to watch Derrick Johnson sack Roethlisberger and a lineman together in one tackle--how great was that!)

Everyone on the team was playing like a winner no matter what. It's there, it was so great to see--it's there. Next up is just putting it with the talent.

Very sweet.
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2009-11-15T17:46:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Raiders - Week 10 - Record: 2-7

So much stuff is banging around in my head about everything Chiefs right now that I think I'll just splat it out here in a very simple "Good thing bad thing" format. I dunno, I'm just all over the place right now. Forgive me.

Good thing: We've now won seven straight games at the Oakland Coliseum, and I heard some radio guy say that's the longest streak of any team over any other team at their place in the NFL right now. Yay!

Bad thing: The Raiders are so inept they keep handing us these wins. Hey, I'm am waaay not complaining. But watching these games all I see is the Raiders looking purely awful, so I can't really say how much of this is Kansas City's goodness as it may be. Both of their recent skill posititon high picks, QB JaMarcus Russell and WR Darrius Heyward-Bey, just played miserably, however much this elated me and every Chiefs fan everywhere. Thing is I just want to beat them because we're beating a good team ourselves because we're really good.

Good thing: Jamaal Charles had a 100 yard game that included a nice pinball machine run for a touchdown.

Bad thing: Well, bad things: One, we got our first rushing touchdown of the season here in game nine, two, Charles is prone to fumble (sure enough he did fumble it over to the Raiders right after I found out we're doing great in not-losing fumbles on the year, something like tied for best in the NFL) and three, we don't have Larry Johnson.

I should add my what-will-most-likely-be final two cents about the Larry Johnson thing. Let me just say I'm not pleased with it. I'm not pleased with it because he was basically run outta town on a rail. Again, as I've said before, I'm not a fan or a not-fan. I just want Larry Johnson to score touchdowns for my team. This is not to say I don't care about him and his character. I do.

But I just think his release was the result of what a whole bunch of people thought about his character than what it was. Sorry, but that stinks. I very much chafe at the blatant holier-than-thou attitude by media toadies and fans alike who seem to pick and choose what kinds of things to revile and make unjustified claims about this or that thing, and the target gets caught up in the whirlwind.

In this light I'm sick of the way many speak about these issues, offering a choice that goes something like this: "Which would you rather have, a questionable character guy whose got great talent, or a stellar character guy with average talent?" How many stick their chest out and sanctimoniously say they'd take the latter?

Yeah, right.

So, I will always respect whatever decision Clark and Scott and Todd make for the team's sake, in whatever whirlwind conditions there are, but I can't say I think it's justified.

Good thing: The offensive line seemed to play inspired ball today. They're still far from great, but I really liked things like how Brian Waters caught up to that fumble that ended up deep in Raider territory.

Bad thing: What in blazes was Todd Haley thinking not kicking that field goal late in the third quarter? What was he thinking? I just didn't catch it--somebody tell me because I am completely at a loss. It would've been a chip-shot for Succop. Are we just getting too good at fourth down conversions that Haley thinks we're somehow going to make all of them? By not kicking it we gave the Raiders a chance to win it with a touchdown late, and they almost did if they didn't screw it up themselves.

The only thing is that maybe Haley will be really learning from all this for when it'll actually count.

Good thing: We get the Steelers next week who themselves are coming off an awful loss against the Bengals. I say this is a good thing because this will be a decent test of whether or not we're making some progress.

Bad thing: Saw that Jarrod Page was put on the season-ending injury list, so our D-backfield is still in bad shape. It was nice to see Mike Brown make those clutch interceptions, but still...

Good thing: We're at home for Pittsburgh.

Bad thing: Please please tell me we won't be wearing those Texans helmets again. Once is fine, but let's just be the Chiefs, awright? I know that they are actually great for when we're playing dreadfully and not have to actually be thought of as the Chiefs. I don't think we'll be wearing them next week, but I have a baaaaad feeling we'll see them again for Denver. Ugh.

Actually, I'll be okay with that if Bronco players wear their AFL helmets with the goofy cartoonish horse and the oversized hooves looking like it is being sucked right into a good Kansas tornado.

Yeah, I know, I don't think they will because they didn't have those helmets in 1960. The only thing is, the Raiders today weren't wearing their helmets from 1960, which featured the entire surface completely black.

Good thing: It looks like this year we won't match our record for fewest sacks! I know we've been getting at least a handful of them, we got one or two today I know. From what I'm hearing, anyway, Glenn Dorsey is improving. If the learning curve is nice and steady let's hope that applies to our other very young linemen.

Bad thing: We're still not getting that push, standing guys up, and firmly closing holes. Too much time for QB's and too much space for runners. Again, let's hope these guys are good learners.

It'll be most important when we're actually contenders.

And hey, we can actually beat good teams because we're actually good.

Ahh, that'd be a very good thing.
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2009-11-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

Chiefs at Jaguars - Week 9 - Record: 1-7

There were two basic reasons we lost this game.

1. Our two starting safeties were injured. With a young, learning, and not-yet-quite-really-strong defense you just cannot afford that. Big plays by the Jaguar offense were once again our undoing. Their go-to back is a phenomenal All-Pro, and he stood this defense up practically all by himself.

2. We still have a really crappy offensive line. Still. Still still still still STILL.

Note that none of the factors had anything to do with Larry Johnson.

Now I don't know all the things about what he said or what happened, but I got some ideas from the comments in and around the game today. From my perspective I'm neither for or against Johnson. Yes I want him to behave, but from what I see a lot of his "misbehavior" is the result of the wrath so many have against him. Quite frankly, if he's ticked off at the Chiefs, I understand. I'm ticked off at the Chiefs too. This is besides the fact that he's really not a bad guy.

But I also think he should keep his feelings in the appropriate place. As Joe Chiefsblogger I can say just about anything. But he's a player on the team and his words carry a zillion times more weight. What I think he should be doing is leaving his vitriol behind because its quite justified object, Carl Peterson, is long gone. He should be giving his new GM and coach a chance--they've given him a chance and Clark's paying him buku bucks. I think he knows that, and he has apologized for the umpteenth time. Fine.

On the other other other hand, what about whether to keep him or trade him? Again, I don't know. If he had an offensive line I think he'd be just as great as he was in '05 and '06. Everyone knows this and anyone who doesn't is in serious denial. So don't blame Larry. But I will say if we can get a first round draft pick for him and that huge salary, I'd definitely make that deal.

Meanwhile, it was cool to see a fine receiver like just-signed Chris Chambers nab two clutch TD's in the last minutes during our frantic blitz to come back. A nifty on-sides kick recovery, a spiffy two-point conversion to get to within a field goal late--good fun in a game we just weren't in for the reasons mentioned above.
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2009-10-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

Chargers at Chiefs - Week 7 - Record: 1-6

It was kinda cool to turn on the TV and see the Chargers playing that spunky little high school team from Texas. I couldn't tell where in Texas the team was from, but they all had figures on their helmets that were shaped like the state of Texas, so I knew they were from Texas.

But wow, to hold an NFL team like the Chargers to a mere 37-7 win was amazing! Did you watch those high schoolers play such gritty football? It was inspiring!

Just how hard those high school receivers tried to catch the ball all those times just before they dropped it. Just how much their runners strained to get at least a few yards with an understandably way overmatched high school offensive line. Just how well their high school quarterback did, only throwing three interceptions. Hey, one of his receivers actually made a terrific catch for their one touchdown! Maybe the Chiefs can keep an eye on this "Bowe" guy and consider drafting him in a few years.

And the defense, wow! Their defense backs were actually playing pretty close to the Charger receivers before they made all those catches for big yards and touchdowns! Only a few times did they look completely lost out there at the snap, such as when Darren Sproles caught that screen pass and ran 50 yards for a touchdown, but what do you expect from such an inexperienced high school team?

I know the Chargers have to get a good practice game in, but I think they went a bit too far when that rusher easily slid though the line to block the punt then easily jump on it in the end zone. That was just a bit too cruel. Come on, give these kids a break, huh?

It is a good thing the Chiefs had a bye this week and...

Wait, you mean...

The Chiefs bye is next week?

Then who did the Chiefs play today?...
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2009-10-18T14:36:00.000-07:00

Chiefs at Redskins - Week 6 - Record: 1-5

Woo-hoo! Even as a Chiefs fan, every Sunday can't be contemptible. It was starting to look like the whole Chiefs thing was just one long long existence of hopeless agony, and after going 2-28 over the last two years this consideration was certainly not unjustified.

But we got a fantastic win today! It wasn't pretty, we still have tons and tons and tons to do to get to be a contender in the NFL, but today was very very sweet. Beating them at their place even! All the good stuff (for once, a number of pretty good things!)...

Larry Johnson getting just enough push from his line at opportune times to ramble for over 80 yards. Not the standard 100 we'd gotten from him regularly when we actually had an O-line, but very nice for today.

Dwayne Bowe did get the 100-yard game, in receiving, making some very nice grabs and runs.

Special teams getting a super blocked punt, very opportunistic.

Our defense! Awright! Holding the 'Skins to just two field goals! Yes you could say the 'Skins beat themselves by playing so miserably--we came in as the 32nd ranked defense in the NFL. Ouch. But we'll take it! It's a great shot in the arm for a team that has been heeding the Haley call and working so hard. I mean, how about that safety from Tamba Hali? And hey, lookitthat, Glenn Dorsey is actually really starting to be a real presence on the D-line!

And what can you say about Ryan Succop. I can say it is about damn crackin' time we got a kicker who we can actually know will make a field goal when he's supposed to. I mean, come on, am I right? Are you like all Chiefs fans who for years have hated to endure the utter awfulness of sweating out every single score we try to get with a kick? Aaagh! Sure I could be whistling to soon, but the guy was terrific today, four-for-four with two of them beyond 40. Awesome.

That's it, that's it. Only great things about our boys this week, and forgive me if I forget some things. A sweet wonderful switch from all the despair of weeks past.
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2009-10-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Cowboys at Chiefs - Week 5 - Record: 0-5

We can't even pretend to be a team from Dallas to get a win.

It was neat to see the throwback uniforms, the Chiefs version what it was. All they did, really, was change the helmet by replacing the "KC" arrowhead with an outline of the state of Texas and a star where Dallas is located. It was fun to hear the talk about how back in the early sixties the Cowboys would not play the Texans because it was considered that the Texans were the better team.

It was also sweet to hear how Scott Pioli is right now doing much of what the Cowboys did in the early 90's. Back then Dallas was a pathetic mess--sounds quite familiar doesn't it?--and Jimmy Johnson came in with his oversized toolbox and really started messin' with things. I am so hoping the same results will eventuate for the Chiefs.

As for today, no one can say the team is not playing with great desire.

They just aren't playing with much talent.

I'd give the benefit of the doubt to some of our specialists, but, what's killing us is our line on both sides. Same old song and dance. Matt Cassel played wonderfully, but he was still scrambling around behind a line that just couldn't protect him. Larry Johnson looked like a statue out there because he simply can't go anywhere. Not a single O-lineman can stand anybody up, so, every running play--bam, instant statue.

Even though we took Dallas to overtime, this defense made a nobody wideout, Miles Austin, look like a superstar by utterly failing to make easy tackles. This is besides the fact that this very average Cowboy team helped us out tons with fortuitous turnovers and convenient penalties.

So yeah, loss 28 of 30 games now.

But yeah, if we can snag three Super Bowl championships or so in the next few years after this prolonged torment of abject destitution, I'll be fine.
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2009-10-04T18:06:00.001-07:00

Giants at Chiefs - Week 4 - Record: 0-4

Even though we have such a bad team, I still shake my head after each of these losses wondering how this could be. Oh I do know why it is, and his initials are Carl Peterson. But I just think here on the occasion of our 27th loss in the last 29 games, I just think wondering just how this state of affairs can be when just a bit more than a mere 10 years ago we were in the class of the NFL.

Tonight in the other room my wife happens to have the Pittsburgh-San Diego game on, and I think about Pittsburgh being a team from such a small market, like Kansas City, but I just feel very jealous that they can have a prime-time showcase every other week while we must wallow in a sea of 12 noon central games. Today's game was actually broadcast nationally but that was only because we were playing the Giants, one of the best teams in the league.

For as much as our trooping trooper team ("They played like troopers out there yay!") gave the Giants a good run, it looked like the Giants were just treating this like a practice game. I can't say it enough, I love my Chiefs, every one of them, all the time. But I can't help but share what I see here.

I will mention our good things. Brandon Flowers, what a terrific cover guy. Mike Vrabel, nice to have him and see how New England has been so dominant because they've had players like him. Bobby Wade helped make our receivers look like a solid strength of our team with a fabulous play sweeping under a pass for a diving TD. And yet again, Dustin Colquitt is one of the best punters in the league. I'm sure I could name a few others.

But our line on both sides of the ball is still just mince meat. Our offensive line actually showed some ability today, a little. One thing that would help is for Todd Haley to stop running plays like that little QB hold-the-ball thingie then hand-off to Johnson. That went nowhere all 57 times it was run. I'm exaggerating of course, but it seemed like it was that much and I think the only time the fans really booed was when they saw that play for the 57th time.

Haley is just trying to be too fancy out there when he needs to get these guys going with the basics first. When we were down on the one-yard line we didn't send Johnson over the top once. Even with our O-line it's worth at least one try.

Meanwhile the overall Kansas City sports patheticness just keeps steamin' along. The regular major league baseball season ended today with the cross-parking-lot neighbor Royals finishing in the cellar of the AL Central for the umpteenth year in however many utterly forgettable years. Barring a miracle of all miracles for the Chiefs this year, it'll be a combined 40 team-years without an NFL playoff win or MLB playoff appearance for a big league pro sports Kansas City team. That's the largest of any other municipality by far. (The next up is Cincinnati with 32.)

Sigh.
_

2009-09-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

Chiefs at Eagles - Week 3 - Record: 0-3

I'm afraid this blog is going to be pretty much like all the other blogs about this pathetic team, only worse. Actually, I should add that this is a good thing, because there won't be any of that close-game nonsense that fools us into thinking we have a team that can compete in the NFL.

Well, here's the blog entry for this week...

Them: Running, passing, catching, scoring.

Us: Fumbling, getting stuffed at the line, piling up penalties, moving backwards into 4th and 30's.

Really, do I need to say anything more?

Well, because I have to write to assuage the agony that is my team, here are a few other thoughts.

Remember four years ago when we played the Eagles? We were ahead 24-7, at home, and ended up getting clobbered. Today we were down 24-7 and, well, you know what happened this time. Whimper.

That year, by the way, was actually pretty decent--we finished 10-6 just missing the playoffs. And we missed the playoffs because we just didn't tackle when we had to--remember that awful Giants game that killed us? Funny, it looked like nothing's changed since then.

'Course, that's because for years and years we'd been laboring under the misapprehension Carl Peterson could actually get us players who could play. Well, enough of them, anyway. I've always loved all my Chiefs. I still want them to win a Super Bowl, though.

Seems like the Chiefs are now officially the worst team out there. The Lions won today. That's two wins each for the Lions and Chiefs in their last 27 games. Yeah, we're 2-25 since the middle of the '07 season.

Takes time takes time takes time. Pioli-Haley Pioli-Haley Pioli-Haley. Pant pant pant pant...

Must finish though by pointing out that one bright spot, Mark Bradley's nifty catch at the side of the endzone for one of out TD's. At least we've got some pretty decent receivers. Yay!
_

2009-09-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

Raiders at Chiefs - Week Two - Record: 0-2

What's funny about this game was not that we lost to the Raiders, because usually that alone is enough to steam any Chiefs fan. With this game, it just doesn't matter who it was, what's really aggravating is that we lost to a team that played so pathetically.

The Raiders just went nowhere on offense the entire game, and our defense decided to play the matador defense in the last drive where they needed to score a touchdown from deep in their own territory with little time left. This is how ridiculous it was. Their QB completed something like three passes all game up to that point. Then we let him look like John Elway at the completely wrong time.

We also lost because Cassel made several awful throwing decisions, a couple of critical interceptions and a wasted toss that cost us a FG at the end of the first half. Turned out the be the difference in the game.

Yes, there is a learning curve, and it was Cassel's first regular season game on a bum knee. But it is just frustrating that this learning curve is so steep. It is Mt. Everest steep.

I'm telling you, it is steep now making for awful losses like this one, but it'd better make for some spectacular character building that'll do us good later.

Errrrrrrrgh... the Pioli-Haley train still just starting out of the station. Okay, patience now... Takes time...
_

2009-09-13T13:24:00.000-07:00

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

It's true that we never even should have been in this game at all. But the best thing about this was that we actually were in it and that was only because of one thing.

We actually had some ganas.

I don't know about you, but I really did sense the impact of the new Pioli-Haley regime out there. Looking at everything about this game (such as a teeny ten first downs for us and over thirty for them) you know these Chiefs had no business being on the same field with those guys. Our offensive line continues to be thoroughly inept--same old story, no holes for our runners and no time for our passers. Our defense is just not up to stopping quality offenses no matter how tired our own offense made them.

But we still got some fine big plays from Jon McGraw and his great punt block and scrambling touchdown, Derrick Johnson and his fine interception and run, and Ryan Succop and his 53 yard field goal. Hey, isn't it great we have a field goal kicker named "Suck up"? Okay, I'm sure every Chiefs fan has already blabbed about that to death. In fact if we want him not to suck maybe it's best we don't mention it. We so need a kicker to not suck for once.

Anyway, kudos to Pioli and Haley for actually doing things to get us to a point when we'll actually win a few games sometime soon. Since this was the first real Chiefs exposure I've had since December, I noted for the first time that Pioli picked up veterans like Mike Goff and Ikechuku Ndukwe for the O-line. Our O-line still has a reeeeeally long way to go, but at least he's looking to do something about it.

Haley is also instilling a no-nonsense business-like approach to the game, challenging some guys who should be way better to actually be the better they're supposed to be.

All of this resulted in a game we were stunningly in all the way up until the middle of the fourth quarter when our still-workin'-on-it defense was just too damn tired to do anything. Baltimore had the ball for 40 minutes of the game. Even Pittsburgh's steel curtain would melt if they had to be out there for that long.

I've always hated hated hated moral victories, but this was about as good as any. It's a fantastic first step for an inspired team and the Pioli & Haley building program.
_

2009-09-06T17:04:00.000-07:00

2009 Chiefs Preview - It Isn't Pretty

Anything that really counts for anything in the NFL begins a week from today. The regular season commences and our Chiefs open at Baltimore. I'll pop in each week to offer some thoughts from an impassioned fan so devoted to his pro football team that he can't do anything but tune in to the games for three hours... and that's it.

Thing is, my Chiefs radar is always up--it is indeed impossible to draw it in--so I'll pick up things here and there. The smattering of Chiefs items I've caught leading up to next Sunday will provide a pretty good idea of why I do no Chiefs thing unless it is Sunday from 12 to 3 central time.

Item #1 - With a desperately desperate need for offensive linemen new GM Scott Pioli used his 3rd pick overall to get a not-nearly-heralded-at-No.-3 D-lineman from LSU, Tyson Jackson. Pioli had better have the greatest prescient ability not held by other experts and I am telling you flatly I would luuuuuuuv for Jackson to be the reincarnation of Bruce Smith.

But I don't think so. Cynical me. I've just seen too many of these guys we're trusting our GM to know better about turn out to be not what they should be. Jackson at No. 3? He'd better be a nuclear-powered Bruce Smith. They say his pairing with fellow LSU alum Glenn Dorsey will be a fine thing. Whoa. We're still waiting for Dorsey to be studly which he waaay wasn't last year.

Item #2 - I saw one single Chiefs play this preseason. As I was heading out the door at our hotel room during a vacation stay, my son had some sports report on and I happened to see Chiefs highlights coming on. I turned to catch the play (that radar being fully enabled) and what did I witness? Was it the fantasy in my brain--brand spankin' new QB Matt Cassell throwing a spectacular TD pass against the Seahawks?

Not exactly.

Instead it was Cassell finding himself suddenly subsumed by of a phalanx of Seahawks injury-causers, disappearing until he emerged limping around. And why was he in that position, Chiefs offensive linemen? Yes, I'm talking to you, Chiefs offensive linemen. Explain yourselves.

See, that's what steams me just as much as any lasting injury effects of the Cassell incident. Even as much as the fact that exhibition play even remotely allows an NFL team's quarterback to be in such a position--is anyone planning to do anything about that?

It is most steam-making to know that we just didn't do a whole lot to build the most important part of an offense besides the QB, and that's the offensive line.

Now, maybe they did. Maybe Branden Albert is ready to take on the second most important single position on the offense, left tackle. Maybe this is the year these young kids start to blossom on the way to fine Super Bowl runs over the next several years.

Yes, yes, I'm serious about that. Maybe. We just need to give Pioli and Haley a chance. I'm fine with that. It's just when you see them use a No. 3 for someone not projected to be anywhere near there, when you see your OL utterly fail to fully protect your QB of the future, when you see stuff like this for a team that just can't afford it, it can just be very discouraging.

It sure can't seem like it can be any worse. In the last 24 games we've played, we have 2 wins. Think the Lions were worse? Not by much. The Lions have had one win over their last 24 games, but that one game: beating the Chiefs.

I guess the adventure is in just seeing what happens next. At least there's that.

2009-01-25T09:17:00.000-08:00

(Part 5 - Conclusion)
Past Disconsolations and Future Deconstructions of a Kansas City Chiefs Fan (Go to Part 1)

“The Los Angeles Chiefs.”

Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Okay, okay, before you go ballistic on me now, hold on. Just hold on—whoa up, I said whoa up for a minute…

Can there be any reasonable explanation for the fact that the second largest market in the country has been utterly bereft of any NFL presence in any way for the entirety of the past 14 years? Do you realize that for 14 barren forsaken years the NFL has done without the gobs and gobs and more gobs of revenue a Los Angeles franchise would produce for NFL-itude all around?

What could possibly be the reason behind such a patently insane state of affairs?!

Well, there is actually a reason, one which makes perfect sense for all NFL things financial, and it highlights the real issue with the individual pro football markets.

Let's start with the markets first. Because the NFL gets most of it revenue from the gargantuous television contracts it has with the various networks, money that is spread equally among all the teams, there isn’t really a whole lot any given ballclub can do to directly use its market to get better players on its team. Free agency really isn’t a workable item for pro football, and that is simply because the careers of pro football players are so short and the team dynamic is so important that shifting around players too much won’t provide any given team the capacity to gel so it can win.

So what is it precisely that a team owner can do to make the team more marketable? There are really only a couple of things, and both of them are major. The first is simply to provide the best stadium accommodations there can possibly be. Sure this involves rows upon rows of luxury boxes, but any businessperson will assess the market and respond accordingly.

Every year Forbes puts out its infamous list of “10 Teams Most Likely to Move.” The three NFL teams to make it most recently were the Vikings, Bills, and 49ers. When you look at those three teams you’d think, “Golly, those have been some pretty successful teams!” (Actually, the Niners haven’t had a winning season in six years, but they are practically married to the Bay Area.) What gives?

It is one thing, and one thing only: Each has a really crappy stadium arrangement.

Now to the Chiefs. Arrowhead has always been one of the prime spots to watch pro football anywhere. It has always been an exceptional facility, and even after 30-some-odd years it is holding up so well that (yay!) the Chiefs didn’t make the Forbes list. Clark Hunt oh-so-well knows the virtues of having a primo stadium situation, so he is now looking to pour his monetary contribution into what he can do there.

What is it that gets all team owners going ga-ga to make sure their own market situations are top-notch?

This is the answer to the Los Angeles question.

Because there it is. Out there just waiting, lying there on the left coast.

Los Angeles.

All this time Los Angeles has been used as leverage to force other markets to invest gobs of money to stay viable. I remember from the little that I read about the Cincinnati stadium situation that its people were getting soaked to make sure their sporting venue enjoyment was spot-on. Because of my sports celibacy I never saw how that turned out, but I know everyone in a metro area is expected to pony up in some way—often it’s with a grip of tax revenue in some form—or it’s “Off to L.A. with us then!”

The real sticking point is that Los Angeles has been plagued by that dratted stadium issue. The Rams and Raiders unceremoniously ditched the Coliseum, snubbed the Rose Bowl, and abandoned any other plan that kept them from getting precisely what they wanted.

But lo and behold…

Did you know that there is a major Los Angeles area stadium project in the works as we speak? This is not just any old stadium—the rich football-crazy powers-that-be have learned. This is beyond state-of-the-art. Situated about 30 miles east of Los Angeles between Diamond Bar and Walnut, it is a comprehensive commercial development wrapped around a stadium design that features exclusively luxury boxes on the entire upper half of one whole side, stretching from goal line to goal line.

Teams should be salivating at this.

Are the Chiefs?

Let me say right now that I’m not suggesting a thing, except that I want to see the Kansas City Chiefs winning Super Bowls. Note, I want nothing less than the Kansas City Chiefs winning Super Bowls.

But I admit I have my doubts. And my doubts do relate to the market problem. While the draft restrictions and revenue sharing genuinely give the Chiefs their fair shot at winning, I still firmly believe the market thing is detrimental. Players do have a vested financial interest in playing for teams the media decide to showcase more, the best front office people earn a greater measure of respect with a winning environment aided by large-market advantages, and NFL is fine with the those teams getting that wider attention because it does generate more revenue overall.

The added concern for the Chiefs is how much financial capital Hunt will direct toward stadium improvements while the team is left hanging. This leads to that other critically important thing a team owner can do besides tinker with stadium stuff:

He can create, build, and foster a winning environment throughout the entire organization. This doesn’t require as much financial capital as a profound commitment to the vibrant development of human capital. It must course through the owner’s veins so much that it permeates the entire organization, and it is far more about incisive leadership than adept money allocation.

Indeed this is the one single answer to those who’d screech, “What about the small market Pittsburgh Steelers? What about them? They’re always successful!” The reason is simply because in the Rooney family they’ve been blessed with arguably the best ownership situation in all of pro football. It has been so good they have been able to neutralize the effects of their small market status.

Again, the essential element is the kind of top-down leadership that breeds team success. Here’s the question I ask you, really, this is the gazillion dollar question of all questions:

Can Clark Hunt do that?

If the answer is yes—that is: Yes, Clark Hunt’s leadership will breed sustained team success—then what am I saying? Los Angeles—where’s that?

But if the answer is no, he can’t do that… If instead Clark meekly hides behind a milquetoast “hands-off” policy or flails about meddling in things he shouldn’t...

Yeah, I want the Chiefs winning in Kansas City.

I want the Chiefs

—winning—

in Kansas City.

But, ahem—just to ask the question, now, just to ask it…

What if the Chiefs cannot win in Kansas City?

What if Clark Hunt just can’t do that job, some of it from no fault of his own other than he’s just got that smaller market? What if the stadium refurbs end up meaning squat because no one wants to come watch the team anyway? What if Scott Pioli just isn’t getting that talent out there onto the field? What if we continue to be stuck in that long putrid rut so reminiscent of the Chiefs in the 70’s, then the mid-80’s, then the late-90’s to early 00’s, and now again?

To be honest, I shudder at the thought.

I can guarantee you, the NFL will not for two seconds allow whatever Los Angeles team there is to wallow in mediocrity for years upon years. This isn’t even to say there is necessarily any competitive duplicity going on—the market asymmetry already supplies that.

Some thoughts to ponder, that’s all. I know there are many Chiefs fans who’d care nothing about the team if it isn’t in Kansas City—that’s fine. I know there are those who’d want to see the team succeed even if it was in another place such as Los Angeles—there is a certain dysfunctional quality to that sentiment, I will agree.

The dilemma is still bracing.

On the one hand: Chiefs! IN KANSAS CITY! Always losing!

On the other hand: Chiefs! WINNING! But in Los Angeles!

Yes I know there are many who’d say “Why the dilemma? The Chiefs can win in Kansas City!” Yes? No? I don’t know, challenge me. Is it truly possible for the Chiefs to win in Kansas City? Or should we give it up to a situation elsewhere where it will have a better chance of winning? I’m all in for giving Clark a shot at it, I’m with you there! But then, on the other hand… aagh!

What do you think?!

Let me just close with a few last items.

One, we’ll have a new head coach. I’m sorry to see Herm leave, I liked him, I really did. But I also believe the head coach has much less of an impact than the GM who gets the guns for him and the guns themselves out on the field, particularly those crucial linemen on both sides of the ball.

Two, the Carolina Panthers—another small market team—seemed hopeless in 2001 when after winning their first game lost all 15 remaining games in that season. Two years later, they were in the Super Bowl. Hey, at least we won two games this season.

And finally, I just happened to recently catch this really pretty cool thing about our Chiefs. Get this: They have an overall winning record against every other team in their division. Would you know it? Yeah! Against the Broncos, our team is 53-44, against the Chargers they are 50-46-1, and against the Raiders they are 51-44-2.

Come on Clark! We actually have a legacy! Let’s keep it!
_

2009-01-21T19:33:00.000-08:00

(Part 4)
Past Disconsolations and Future Deconstructions of a Kansas City Chiefs Fan

Size matters.

As in market size, that is.

It seems to me that most people shrug off the idea that larger metropolitan markets offer their teams distinct competitive advantages in professional sports leagues, but as an Economic instructor for twenty years I also know that most people are economically illiterate. I do not say this with any antipathy toward anyone, it is just a fact of life—most people just don’t know enough about basic fundamental economic truths to really understand. Many of them are seasoned sports pundits who make grand pronouncements of what’s really happening economically in professional sports, when they really don’t know. They offer terrific insights as to why a batter is hitting .450 or how well a given linebacker rushes the passer, but when they pontificate about the economics of big-time sports, far too often they just sound foolish.

They’ll frequently put up some numbers, feebly trying to claim that market-size does not matter by pointing at the few small market teams that have occasional success and the few big market teams that don’t have a whole lot of it. “See!” they blab, “Markets don’t matter!”

But they do. The reason is simple. The more revenues an organization can gather from whatever source as a direct result of having more fans, and the more latitude they have to translate that into spending the required amounts of money to hire the best personnel on or off the field, the better advantage the team will have to win games. Just because some big market teams do poorly with this largesse or some small market teams do well with what they have does not obviate that fact.

I have even posited in the past that the game is manipulated to the extent that media-favored teams are given advantages as well. The purpose of this is also elementary: A professional sports league cannot survive with revenues it expects to get if small-market or media-disfavored teams are regularly showing up in championship games.

I will confess that this distinction is much more pronounced in other leagues than the NFL, as a general rule, only because the NFL works industriously to ensure each team has some equal chance of success by strictly regulating player entrance into the league with the draft and significant reserve constraints, and by evenly distributing television revenue among all the teams no matter how big the markets are. A Pittsburgh-Seattle matchup for the whole enchilada, say, would make league execs cringe, therefore you will never see a Pirates-Mariners World Series. You will, on the other hand, occasionally see a Steelers-Seahawks Super Bowl (as we did in 2006).

What does this have to do with the Kansas City Chiefs?

Obviously the answer to the trivia question at the end of the last post is our cherished city. You can look at the post to see the question, or should be able to figure it out just by looking at the following information.

City, Combined Years, NFL Team (Last Playoff Win), MLB Team (Last Playoff Appearance)
Kansas City, 38, Chiefs (1993), Royals (1985)
Cincinnati, 31, Bengals (1990), Reds (1995)
Dallas, 21, Cowboys (1996), Rangers (1999)
Detroit, 19, Lions (1991), Tigers (2006)
Houston, 19, Oilers (1991), Astros (2005),
Pittsburgh, 16, Steelers (2008), Pirates (1992)
Cleveland, 15, Browns (1994), Indians (2007)
Miami, 13, Dolphins (2000), Marlins (2003)
Baltimore, 11, Ravens (2008), Orioles (1997)
San Francisco, 11, 49ers (2002), Giants (2003)
Seattle, 10, Seahawks (2007), Mariners (2000)
Oakland, 8, Raiders (2002), A’s (2006)
Atlanta, 7, Falcons (2004), Braves (2005)
Minneapolis/St. Paul, 6, Vikings (2004), Twins (2006)
New York (1), 6, Jets (2004), Mets (2006)
St. Louis, 6, Rams (2004), Cardinals (2006)
Tampa/St. Petersburg, 6, Buccaneers (2002), Rays (2008)
Denver, 4, Broncos (2005), Rockies (2007)
Chicago, 2, Bears (2006), Cubs and White Sox (2008)
New York (2), 2, Giants (2007), Yankees (2007)
San Diego, 2, Chargers (2008), Padres (2006)
Boston, 1, Patriots (2007), Red Sox (2008)
Milwaukee/Green Bay, 1, Packers (2007), Brewers (2008)
Phoenix, 1, Cardinals (2008), Diamondbacks (2007)
Philadelphia, 0, Eagles (2008), Phillies (2008)

(Just some brief notes: For baseball, mere appearance in the playoffs is considered here because it is harder to get in to begin with and easier to win at least one game in a series. For football, at least one playoff win is considered because it is easier to squeak in but harder to win at least one playoff game. Also, Houston's NFL team is now the Texans, Washington is not on the list because the baseball Nationals have been in D.C. for such a short time, and the New York teams were divided into two pairs.)

With these criteria you can see that Kansas City has a longer combined playoff drought for its baseball and football teams, and what’s so notable is that it is twice as long as every other city except Cincinnati and Dallas.

What do baseball’s Kansas City Royals have to do with any of this?

The Royals were probably the best overall team from the early 1970’s through the 1980’s. Before free agency and other big-market, media-favoring disadvantages eviscerated their competitiveness, they ran a remarkable operation under the leadership of Ewing Kauffman. But as Kauffman aged and had to consider a successor, he insisted on handing the team over to someone who would keep the team in Kansas City.

I won’t say here categorically what’s what regarding who could have bought the team but didn’t because a prospective owner would want to move it from Kansas City, but the fact is since 1993 when Kauffman passed away, the team has been under the thumb of David Glass, and it is no secret that his management has been widely considered to be one of the worst ever in sports history.

I do not disagree that Glass’ ineptitude is greatly responsible for the Royals failure for so many years. But I do honestly believe Glass would never for two seconds have been the owner if Kansas City was a more viable market.

Yes, this breaks my heart. But I just don’t think this is lost on insightful Kansas City fans.

Even Chiefs fans.

The Royals have to do with the Chiefs because, even though the draft and revenue-sharing allow the Chiefs reasonable contention every once in while, the team is still crippled by being in a small market not necessarily favored by the media that generates the league revenues that all teams enjoy.

Please make sure you know what I’m saying here. Kansas City is one of the most awesome places in the world. I am enamored with it any time I visit. It has an endearing quality that goes far beyond its renown as the Midwest railway hub, its spectacular fountains, and its barbeque eateries. It isn’t just lyrics in the song from the classic musical Oklahoma that tell of people traveling from states all around just to be there. It actually happens.

I am not mincing words here. It is not even that I believe these things about Kansas City subjectively, I know it is an objective truth. Funny, I even happened to hear a morning radio talk show guy just the other day say, “I’d never been to Kansas City but it is great! I loved Kansas City! It is a wonderful city!” I did not know the context for which he said that, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. He was about as effusively sincere as I could ever hear one be.

Make no mistake about it, I love Kansas City, I love the Chiefs, and I always will, period.

But it is also true that as much as the NFL portrays itself as the big-market-numbing, insist-on-parity king of the pro sports leagues, it cannot deny that it has had an ace up its sleeve to keep its teams viable in their locations. It has been holding that card up there for 14 years now and it is there exclusively to ensure that markets are able to support their teams for the entire league’s financial profitability. That card is...

Los Angeles.

(Part 5 sorts all this out. Stay tuned.)
_

2009-01-18T13:29:00.000-08:00

(Part 3)
Past Disconsolations and Future Deconstructions of a Kansas City Chiefs Fan

So the Chiefs have a new boss. Scott Pioli. I know almost nothing about him. What I do know about him I know only because my sports radar picks things up from news, random comments from people, those things. Apparently he came from New England, and he was sought after by a number of teams, including the Browns I think.

But that’s it. I don’t know a lick of information about him other than that.

The reason for my blissful ignorance is because of what I’d committed to doing after that fateful Monday night game against Denver. The day after that game…

November 17, 1998.

That was it. That’s the date.

On that day I firmly decided to completely abandon all my attention to any and every major sports thing there was. No more watching or listening to games. No more reading about them in the newspaper. No more gazing at televised replays and accompanying commentary about that touchdown or that homerun. No more starting conversations with others about this or that piddly little sports thing just to see if what they said would give me a teench more confidence about my team’s imminent prospects.

This newly professed sports celibacy was certainly a challenge, but for just over ten years now I’ve done pretty well. It has indeed been rewarding to put away all the fits of rage when my team didn’t do what I think it should have done, all the petty jealousies when some other guy got the trophy, all the selfish ambitions that made me revile other people I don’t even know. And all this from a guy who has never bet a dime on a sporting event.

Yes I’ve gone off the wagon a few times. I have peeked at championship games a couple times—I confess I did enjoy watching KU’s Jayhawks get that clutch NCAA basketball title against Memphis this past year. And I haven’t become a complete sports recluse—if someone else wants to engage me about sports items I’m not going to ferociously shun them from my presence. If my son continues his fine play in organized baseball I’m not going to smugly refuse to follow his progress—in fact I’ve recently softened a bit of my baseball celibacy to join him and do the dad-son thing in cheering on the Angels, a team he has become quite fond of.

I am, however, still firmly committed to staying true because it does help me focus a bit more on what’s important. Not that rooting for my team isn’t, and this is why in 2002 I decided to allow myself one simple sports indulgence. Yes, you know what it was:

Follow my Kansas City Chiefs once again.

I picked a fine year to do it. We started 9-0 that year, with Trent Green slinging the ball beautifully and Dante Hall zipping in and out of special teams coverages for eye-popping scores. It was fun. While the years following haven’t been as spectacular, I’ve actually enjoyed doing precisely what I committed to do, and that is to just watch the games.

Still, no newspapers, no web-surfing for every Chiefs nibble, no nothing except tuning in each Sunday from 12 noon to 3 central. Yes, I know during those three hours I can’t help but absorb all manner of Chiefs information from the marvelous to the abominable, but, whatever.

In the middle of the 2005 season I started to make this Chiefs thing more vibrant by starting a blog with this novel perspective as its theme. All I would do is comment on what I got from those three hours. Nothing else would color my commentary, even though I do admit some of it will contain that static I pick up with my sports radar—it’s just impossible to shut that damn thing off. I do also allow myself to research events and information from previous years, which is why I can include some historical context.

So now we’re back to the present and our brand-spankin’ new GM Scott Pioli of whom I know little and respectfully hope to keep that way (I think I did know far too much about Carl Peterson).

This whole dynamic relates to why I go to great lengths now to avoid all the static. If I scour the web and find every thing about Pioli there is to know, I’ll discover one of two things, or both. Before I get to those things you must know this.

I once also followed the 49ers like a madman, since I spent much of my upbringing in the Bay Area. I don’t think you can get two opposite ends of the GM spectrum as you can between Joe Thomas, who in 1978 practically destroyed the team, and his successor Bill Walsh, who is canonized for almost single-handedly reinventing the passing game, possessing one of the most phenomenal eyes for talent the league has ever seen, and making the Niners the most dominant team in the NFL for years and years.

So I could look at Pioli and (1) see traces of Joe Thomas—even if there are none but I’m just obsessively looking for them—which will only depress me. Or I could look at him and (2) see traces of Bill Walsh, at which point my elation will be so high that when Pioli doesn’t win us the next 57 straight Super Bowls all I can feel is, yes, depression.

Oh, so then nothing but depression results from my completely uncharitable voyeurism of this fine new football executive we have? Therefore, what’s the point.

My concern goes much deeper, and it has to do with some things I’d been thinking about for some time. They are ruminations much more far-reaching than whatever it is our new GM can do for my beloved pro football team in Kansas City, and I want to share them here in this blog.

But that is for next time. For now, here is a trivia question, some chewing tobaccee for your mind: Which city with a major league team and an NFL team (there are 24 of them in the U.S.) has the second longest drought without a playoff appearance by the baseball team and a playoff win by the football team? Answer: The second (note: the second) longest drought is Cincinnati at a combined 31 years, the Reds having last been in the National League playoffs in 1995 and the Bengals last earning an NFL postseason win in 1990. The third longest is 21 years, by the way (Dallas, if you can believe it--the Cowboys haven't won a playoff game since 1996).

Now, ahem, can you possibly guess which city has the longest drought? And do you know how long that has been? Hint: the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex is a quite barren place in October and January.

(Part 4 is next. We've done the past as pretext for the future, now for those deconstructions...)
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2009-01-15T18:49:00.000-08:00

(Part 2)
Past Disconsolations and Future Deconstructions of a Kansas City Chiefs Fan

I must confess I am one of the worst losers I know. You’d know because of how gracious I appear when losing. That may not seem to make sense, but ever since I was shredded by some personal events as a child and I put all my emotional eggs in my sports teams basket, I realized I’d alienate just about everyone if I didn’t learn to manage those feelings.

It may have been best then that the 1970’s were a terrible dry spell for the Chiefs, and that I’d pretty much resigned myself to Chiefs ineptitude. But surprise! In the fall of 1981 I was paying little attention to the NFL when I discovered my team was actually winning games! And they were winning enough to be in real contention. This splendid feeling dissolved as the season waned and they couldn’t hold it, but they ended up 9-7 and captured our hearts.

I followed the Bill Kenney years with eager hope, fondly remembering a Thursday night nationally televised game in which he took apart the Raiders. Joy! And when we drafted Todd Blackledge I was sure he would be the guy to lead us to the promised land, after all, he was the second quarterback picked after John Elway in that 1983 superstar quarterback draft.

1986 would see us genuinely contend again and three spectacular special teams touchdowns against Pittsburgh in the last game of the season would usher us in the playoffs for the first time since that 1971 Christmas day game. The problem was Blackledge had been playing far less spectacularly than we’d all hoped he would. All those years we were hoping against hope he'd get it, but he just never ever could read defenses. The playoff game against the Jets would finally show that he was just not the guy, and our special teams excellence would prove our undoing as it would encourage the hiring of the special teams coach Frank Gansz to run the whole team. I’d always thought Jack Steadman couldn’t run a football team, and this ridiculous move was the topper of them all, yet another symptom of the front office bungling that had doomed the Chiefs to mediocrity for nearly twenty years.

As bad as it was, one of the most extraordinary experiences I’d ever been blessed to enjoy occurred during the awful strike-marred season to follow. After spending time visiting family in Topeka, my uncle in Kansas City offered me the opportunity to use one of his season tickets to come to Arrowhead the day before I was scheduled to fly out. The Chiefs were at home to play the Jets and I wasn’t going to miss this chance. It was the only time I’d ever been to Arrowhead.

It was a rainy drizzly day and the Chiefs were starting third-string quarterback Frank Seurer, and bless him, the little guy played his heart out. Jets back Freeman McNeil ran all over us gaining 184 yards, but we still made it competitive losing by only a touchdown. Just soaking it all in, beholding my team in the very distinctive temple of all things Chiefs, getting to see the magnificent Christian Okoye rumble up and down the field, sitting right there close to the action at around the fifty yard-line with my fellow impassioned Chiefs-rooting uncle and cousin—it was nothing but a transcendent experience.

Still, the discouragement continued until 1988 when the bright light of day streamed in. The Chiefs seemed to get it in gear and brought on board Carl Peterson and Marty Schottenheimer to run things. No Chiefs fan was capable of restraining their glee at this uncharacteristically radical move by Chiefs ownership, handing the team to two proven winners to really, actually, truly get the Chiefs into the upper echelon of NFL contention. Their efforts culminated in 1993 when the Joe Montana-led team played in the AFC Championship Game for a chance to get into the Super Bowl.

Even though we lost that game to the Bills, every Chiefs fan had every reason to believe that the rest of the 1990’s would be ours. Hope not only sprang eternal but was bursting out of all of our red and gold pores.

Thing is, the playoff game to get us to Buffalo, the win against Houston, would be to this point 15 years later the last playoff game we’d ever win.

What followed through the rest of the 1990’s was a series of some of the worst, most horrific clutch losses any team can sustain, much more a phenomenally talented team like the one the Chiefs put on the field. There is no question Marty Schottenheimer had a lifelong playoff curse against him, really. He was a rotten postseason coach, but even that cannot explain the abysmally bad luck his teams have had in the playoffs—just witness what happened with his Browns and Chargers teams.

1998 was the year that the Chiefs simply put me out of my misery, precisely because it was so miserable. It started with extraordinarily high hopes that we’d finally get deep into the playoffs. A 13-3 record assured us home-field advantage throughout and we had an impenetrable defense, yet sure enough we had Marty calling the shots. We weren’t helped by a number of other silly things that gave Denver the critical edge they needed to eek out a win in the divisional playoff game. I spent the entire time shaking my head, and I think my head would’ve fallen off my neck if the game had gone on any longer.

In the summer my hopes were sky-high as we picked up some key defensive players. I remember one of them was Chester McGlockton, and I thought we are definitely going to the Super Bowl that year. I was even more stoked when we took care of the Raiders with ease to open the season on a Sunday night and continue to win 4 of our first 5. Finally! Smooth sailing to dominance in the NFL.

Then the losing began. First it was to New England, and I remember being abjectly bewildered as to how we could be getting so thoroughly pasted. Then we dropped another game, then another, then yet another. It reached a head on Monday night against Denver when I was going bananas wondering how the bleeding was going to stop. This had to be it—we weren’t this bad a team and the game was at Arrowhead.

I was driving home from work, flying down the freeway so I could catch the game on television, but it didn’t matter. I was in a state of catatonic numbness listening on the radio as Bubby Brister—little second-string quarterback Bubby Stinkin’ Brister—run for a 38-yard touchdown. I was completely flummoxed as to how on earth that could be allowed to happen, of course not watching it I just couldn’t imagine, and to this day I don’t know and don’t want to know.

Yeah, it didn’t matter. We ended up getting clobbered, and I knew at that moment that I just had to do it. I just had to. My insides were just completely chewed up. There was nothing left there.

I had to give it up, let it go.

(Part 3 next time will address what precisely this meant. Stay tuned.)
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2009-01-10T19:34:00.000-08:00

(Part 1)
Past Disconsolations and Future Deconstructions of a Kansas City Chiefs Fan

This is a critical time in the destiny of the Kansas City Chiefs football franchise, and I wanted to take some time to expand a bit on this humble blog I’ve been doing now for about three-plus years. I’d like to share a bit about my own history with the Chiefs, provide some context for this blog’s approach, and share some visceral thoughts about what I see is going on with the widest overall picture in mind. I’d like to simply include this in installments as I proceed.

I was born in Manhattan, Kansas, where my dad was going to school (Kansas State) and serving in the National Guard (Fort Riley). Seeking a promising business opportunity provided by his uncle, he took our family to California when I was two.

I started paying attention to professional sports in 1971 when my father took me to my first professional sports affair, a bright summer day game featuring the major league baseball Giants and the Cardinals at Candlestick Park. I was overwhelmed by the glory and pageantry of a live sporting event at such a magnificent venue. Hey, Candlestick was state-of-the-art in those days.

Earlier in that year I remember being out in the front yard with my dad and all his tools and handyman equipment. He was working on one of his wonderful home improvement projects, and on the radio was Super Bowl V between the Colts and Cowboys. I’d really known nothing about any team, and I was rooting for the Cowboys for no reason other than having a rooting interest. I recalled it was hard to know who was doing what because the quarterbacks were named Morrall and Morton.

The following season the Kansas City Chiefs were in the playoffs again with a very strong team, playing at home against the upstart Miami Dolphins. Every Christmas afternoon we’d go to the very spacious Los Gatos home of the same uncle who inspired our move out here, and I remember peeking frequently at the game on television. As a ten year-old I was busy bopping about with cousins and such, but I did watch enough of the game to appreciate this team and its play. Ed Podolak will always be one of my heroes for his phenomenal game that day -- I distinctly remember standing there watching him take that punt in the second overtime and zoom down the far sideline deep into Miami territory to get us into easy game-winning field goal range. Well…

Every Chiefs fan knows the outcome of this affair. As I was so young, it would not have the heartbreaking effect later Chiefs playoff catastrophes would have. But this team that was cheered on by my close Kansas City family was forever most prominent in my heart as my favorite professional sports team of them all.

(Part 2 is forthcoming, featuring my Arrowhead stadium experience...)
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2008-12-30T17:02:00.001-08:00

A Letter to the New General Manager of the Kansas City Chiefs

Dear Chiefs General Manager,

I would like to humbly welcome you to your new job. Thank you for taking on the challenge of rebuilding a storied franchise. I know you will give your full devotion to this noble cause. As long as you wear the Chiefs emblem proudly you will have our 100% support.

I’d like to begin by asking you to understand that there are many genuine and thoughtful Chiefs fans who’ve been extraordinarily disheartened by the way things have been going with our team. While the devastating losses are difficult, we can endure them as long as there is a commitment to excellence throughout the organization.

We’ve had reason to be proud of what our team has accomplished, particularly in those years when Chiefs football was synonymous with excellence, notably the decades of the 1960’s and 1990’s. What is quite encouraging is that this team does show great promise in spite of its horrendous won-loss record over the past two years.

I trust that you will make terrific decisions as our new general manager, I’d like to take a moment and simply share with you thoughts from a fan about what may help this Chiefs team. I am sure you are aware of these things, indeed you certainly know much more than any of us do. I’d still like to share what I think are our top priorities, ranked from least important to most important. Of course all are critically important.

8. A receiving core to compliment Dwayne Bowe. The Chiefs have never really had a dynamite set of wideouts, and while it was nice to have had people like Eddie Kennison, wouldn’t it be great if we can get someone to compliment Bowe on the other side? We can’t expect Tony Gonzalez to last forever, I mean, does he even have another year left in him?—If he does, great! This may not be such a big deal if Mark Bradley and/or Devard Darling can be solid next year.

7. A solid kicker. Huh? A kicker? What’s with that? It is no secret that the Chiefs have an oppressive kicking curse hovering over them. I think it started right after Jan Stenarud ruined the Vikings with his leg in Super Bowl IV, it has carried through our very best—Jan himself (in ’71, the infamous Christmas Day loss to the Dolphins), Nick Lowery (in ’91) and Pete Stoyanovich (in ’98), all of them missed critical FG’s that lost us playoff games—and it continues to this day, to wit: Two years ago we wasted a critical fifth round pick on Justin Medlock, and last year we signed John Carney as a fill-in and who made the Pro Bowl this year—with a different team. Oh that we’d have a reliable long-term kicker who’d just once—just once!—bang in a clutch field goal in a playoff win. Oh what joy!

6. A head coach who calls full, confident games and finishes. What’s this, way down here sixth in the order of priorities? Really, head coach should be higher, but I personally like Herm Edwards. He’s a gamer, he wants to win, he wants to surround himself with good people, he relates well with the players. I’d like to think he’s willing to learn more about what it takes to consistently win. But really, this is your call.

5. A mean middle linebacker. Not just any mean guy but a steaming fuming raging guy with a killer instinct that cannot be quenched. Last year I asked Santa Claus for a maniacal Ray Lewis-type guy, but I must’ve been bad that year or something. He sure didn’t get him for us this season. Really, we could use a whole bunch of these kinds of guys who know how to shut down a team’s running game. And for Derrick Johnson, the guy has tons of talent, we’ve all seen it, somebody needs to go down there and light a fire under his rear end. That’d be great.

4. Tamba Hali, Tank Tyler, Glenn Dorsey, and Turk McBride to sit in front of hours and hours of game film featuring Bruce Smith and Reggie White mixed with stirring, rousing music. I’d like to think our guys there are going to be pretty good-- all top prospects, solid picks, young guns, but guys who just didn’t do a whole lot out there this year to stop opposing offenses.

3. An offensive line that stands people up. This is axiomatic, I know, games are won in the trenches. But as all of us Chiefs fans know so well since we had such a kickin’-aye line for so many years, we have really got to have that Jonathan Ogden guy anchoring the line for gobs and gobs of years. I’d spend the third pick in the whole draft on that guy, but only if he ends up doing real Jonathan Ogden-type work for us.

2. A world-class quarterback. Please please please please please please please get us a word-class quarterback. Please draft and develop him for the duration of our team’s imminent success. Please do not pick up a guy from the scrap heap who may have a couple quality years left. And please don’t hang our hopes on the gonzo play of Tyler Thigpen—while fun to watch, it won’t get us rings.

Finally, the most important item of them all…

1. Respect through the league and the professional football world. Really, it’s about time we got what so many other teams have been privileged to enjoy, a rank of status from which people see us as the class of the profession. While it is definitely our turn in our division—the Broncos, Chargers, and Raiders have all had much more overall success through the past several years than we have—the only way we can get that is not because “it is our turn” but because our commitment to hard work and smart football is felt and shared from water boy to owner. Yes, it’s a cliché, but it sure would be nice to have it.

I just urge you to continue to take pride in your efforts and in achieving that highly respected status for professional football in Kansas City, even if the owner is not where you think he should be in all of this. Clark Hunt is still new to it all, and it'd certainly be great if he becomes a truly class owner in the mold of an Art Rooney or Wellington Mara. No matter what happens, we are hoping you will take the baton and do what you know you do best.

Chiefs fans will be looking forward to 2009 with eager anticipation. Thank you for joining our team!

With greatest respect,

A Chiefs fan
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