MELLINGER: Dear Chiefs fans: C'mon, it's not that bad ...

[pugsnotdrugs19]

LINK: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/sp...223324950.html

ARTICLE:

Spoiler!

BY SAM MELLINGER
December 19th, 2018

This will be hard for some of you to understand. That’s not said negatively. Just factually. Because some of you came to follow the Chiefs because of Patrick Mahomes. Which is fine. Kansas City is not accustomed to rooting for trendy teams. These are strange times we live in.

But here’s a quick primer for those who started rooting for the Chiefs once they began playing a wizard at quarterback: Your new team is a habitual heartbreaker. The darkness in the stories you hear from your new brothers and sisters is real. They are not whining. They are speaking their truth.

And, you know, while we’re on the topic, here’s something for those of you who fell in love with this team long ago — you’ve never cheered for a team like this.

More specifically, you’ve never cheered for a quarterback like this.

You know that, of course. That’s been obvious since Week 17 of last year, if not earlier. But if last week’s loss shook your confidence, it’s worth pointing something out.

If this same Chiefs team — flaws and strengths, studs and duds — wore different uniforms and played in a different city, you would be jealous.

If this Chiefs team wore Colts uniforms, for instance, you would be terrified with all the scenarios of Mahomes driving a figurative knife through your metaphorical heart with a game-winning drive capped by a Tarkenton scramble with a sack-avoiding cartwheel and left-handed no-look pass threading four defenders.

This is, basically, what Kansas City has waited decades to see.

The Chiefs have the best quarterback in a league that’s never been more dominated by quarterbacks. They have the best offense in a league teaching fans who can’t remember the 2000 Baltimore Ravens that, actually, Offense Wins Championships.

These Chiefs have lost three games, by a total of seven points, each literally or essentially coming down to the final play. They are 3-2 against teams currently holding an AFC playoff spot, with two of those wins on the road.

The losses came against the New England Patriots, who have lost three of five, and the Los Angeles Chargers, who lost to the Chiefs at home and have led the Chiefs for just 4 of 7,200 seconds this season.

The Chiefs have flaws. Oh brother, they’ve got flaws. They have a defense fronted by Chris Jones and Dee Ford and Justin Houston with a solid group of cornerbacks and they’re still somehow terrible.

They have averaged 39.7 points in their losses. The defense scored or set up three touchdowns and the offense gave up two touchdowns in those losses, but still. If you can’t relax with 40 points, you can’t ever relax.

This team has problems keeping its quarterback clean, and has consistently amplified its problems tackling (worst among projected AFC playoff teams, according to Pro Football Focus) by being the NFL’s most penalized team.

So even without a playoff collapse presented in regular season form last week, you wouldn’t have to think too hard to come up with ugly scenarios.

But the AFC lacks a singularly dominant team. Usually, when that happens, the fallback logic is that the hottest team wins. Well, the Chiefs are well-positioned to be that team with a win this weekend in Seattle.

The Seahawks are a terrible matchup for the Chiefs, the league’s best rushing team against the worst rush defense. But they are also beatable, and a home underdog against the team so many here in Kansas City are freaking out about.

Win this weekend and no matter what the Chargers do the Chiefs can clinch another AFC West title and first-round bye with a win over the Raiders in week 17 (the NFL’s version of a layup).

Do all of that and they will be going into the playoffs with the league’s best quarterback and offense, and a defense that is at least getting healthier and presumably a little better with the return of safety Eric Berry.

That’s enough to fight with.

Look, the Chiefs might ruin your January. That is in play. Berry could be injured at any moment, a two-score lead disintegrated in 5 minutes, and a badly timed penalty or missed kick will stir up a lot of ghosts. The new fans will be quick learners on that. Welcome to the heartbreak, suckers.

But the longtime fans can learn something here. Meet in the middle. Open your eyes, and see a quarterback and team capable of scoring an average of 37.7 points against six projected playoff teams.

Unless you are old enough to remember 1969, this is the closest the team you root for has ever resembled the team you’ve wanted it to be.

If you’re giving up hope because of one loss in a year without a dominant team, well, nobody can fault you for protecting your heart. But they might also ask a simple question.

What are you waiting for?

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DaFace

You know who seem to be particularly miserable this year? Broncos fans. As in, the ones whose team won the Super Bowl only a few years ago.

Sports fandom is a game of varying levels of misery. Pretty much all fans think the sky is falling no matter who they root for. Our brand of misery is more sustained than others, sure, but it's really not that different than the misery of everyone else.

Most teams in the league right now would LOVE to have the team we have right now, warts and all.

Sure. That's fair.

But that's a Broncos problem. That's a Yankees problem. That's a Blackhawks problem.

When it's been failure after failure, I dunno. Last week really broke me for some reason.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

That's the Chiefs reality the rest of the season until they fire Bob Sutton.

The offense has to be close to perfect and has to minimize the opportunities for the defense to blow the game.

Dude....I'm right there with you....but what about the Cardinals game? What about the Jaguars game?

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

JFC you finally figured something basic/obvious out... congrats.

You are still a mental defect.

I was making fun of your idiotic opinion dumbass.

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by The Pest

Dude....I'm right there with you....but what about the Cardinals game? What about the Jaguars game?

Unfortunately Bob Sutton's defense won't get the luxury of facing the Cardinals and Jaguars offenses in the playoffs.

[O.city]

Defense got stops against the Ravens.

They've been ok in spots.

But they're not going to play those offenses in the playoffs. They can't stop top level offenses

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

I was making fun of your idiotic opinion dumbass.

and to think that I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt, but your dumbassery remains consistent.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by KCChiefsFan88

Unfortunately Bob Sutton's defense won't get the luxury of facing the Cardinals and Jaguars offenses in the playoffs.

I get that.....I do. But the defenses has gotten stops here and there in other games as well. I'm not sitting here saying that the defense is great though. Shit....they're not even good.

[In58men]

We’ll be fine

[Best22]

Originally Posted by DaFace

You know who seem to be particularly miserable this year? Broncos fans. As in, the ones whose team won the Super Bowl only a few years ago.

Sports fandom is a game of varying levels of misery. Pretty much all fans think the sky is falling no matter who they root for. Our brand of misery is more sustained than others, sure, but it's really not that different than the misery of everyone else.

Most teams in the league right now would LOVE to have the team we have right now, warts and all.

I agree

If we could dump our history from 1990-2017, fans would have more confidence

Sad

Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since 2000 but nobody gives them a hard time about it because they don’t have “9 straight playoff losses” like we did in 2015.

There’s nothing wrong with this team. If this franchise was started in 2005 fans would be beside themselves with joy and extremely excited about the playoffs as they should be: there are no dominant AFC teams, in fact KC has been the most
doninant: we don’t lose to bad teams or get blown out and we are the only NFL team that can say that.

Reality is this team can make a Superbowl it’s a 50/50 tossup for each playoff game.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by rabblerouser

Really?

Because, there we were, at the end of the game with a chance to put the game away...all that was needed was a couple first downs...

-5, incomplete, sack, punt

As soon as that happened, you KNEW Rivers was going to drive the field and score.

I'm ALWAYS worried that Big Red will go Full Reidtard at the end of a game when we NEED the offense to step up.

It's uncanny how the fatman snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

You left out two penalties in that drive. Thats what killed us.

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Sam's right. But this place thrives on angst and drama, so I'm sure most will disagree.

Yep... it's been said for years that people around here love to complain and will always find something to complain about. My general thought was always... well, how the hell do we know that if the Chiefs can't even compete in the playoffs?

Well, now they have the one guy at the one position they've ignored for decades, who can keep them near the top of the NFL for years.... and people are bitching about not being undefeated and being the same old Chiefs.

It's like reading Royals threads in 2014-2015, except this is just the beginning... FFS, if you can't enjoy this, WTF are you here?

[AllInThaGame]

I know it's myopic, but with Berry being back and a credible pass-rush, I think we're down but not currently out when it comes to making the SB. Winning? That's another story all together.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by O.city

And you continue to be wrong.

The other team gets paid to play too and you aren't going to have an offense be firing on all cylinders every down.

This team is built around the offense, so they should be held to a standard. But saying they need to be perfect every series is just dumb.

It isn't expecting our offense to run on all cylinders. It's that our offense consistently and repeatedly completely stalls when we're up by more than 1 score. SD/Pitt - blew a huge first half lead. Denver, Arizona, Jacksonville, San Fran - really, really, really bad second half offense in each of those games. Even the SD game, nothing burns me more than 3 and outs when protecting leads. We had 1 TD drive sandwiched between 2 crucial 3 and outs.

You can make your own theories about why this is. But clearly there is a pattern. Can you look at the Den, AZ, Jacksonville, SF games and tell me with a straight face that our offense was anything short of terrible in the 4th quarter of those games?

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Hog's Gone Fishin

You left out two penalties in that drive. Thats what killed us.

Yeah, but that's kind of the point - the defense puts the offense in a position where they can't make any mistakes late in a game, because the defense can't bail them out. A turnover is almost always going to turn into points, so the offense has to play defense by playing ball control. We're not altogether well suited for ball control now with the running game ailing, and Reid's clock management doesn't help the situation.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

It isn't expecting our offense to run on all cylinders. It's that our offense consistently and repeatedly completely stalls when we're up by more than 1 score. SD/Pitt - blew a huge first half lead. Denver, Arizona, Jacksonville, San Fran - really, really, really bad second half offense in each of those games. Even the SD game, nothing burns me more than 3 and outs when protecting leads. We had 1 TD drive sandwiched between 2 crucial 3 and outs.

You can make your own theories about why this is. But clearly there is a pattern. Can you look at the Den, AZ, Jacksonville, SF games and tell me with a straight face that our offense was anything short of terrible in the 4th quarter of those games?

So they should be scoring 45 per game? Blowing everyone out by what, 4 scores?

That's essentially what youre saying here, no?

That happens, well never in the NFL, but maybe it should have happened here?