Ten Things About Last Night’s Game: AFC Championship: NFL 37, Kansas City 31 in OT

[gblowfish]

Perhaps, "City of Heartbreaking Loss" should replace "City of Fountains" as our moniker?

10. Well, its the morning after. Apologies for taking so long to gather my thoughts and write this, trying to write and work at the same time. Happy MLK Day, BTW. Hope you got the day off. I think by sleeping on the loss I can approach this familiar feeling of disappointment with a clearer eye and the absence of emotional hysteria. Yesterday was a nine hour commitment for Mrs. B and me. We left for Arrowhead at 1:30 pm, got parked in a Gold Lot around 2pm, ate and napped in the car till 4:15. Stood in line in the cold for an hour and a half trying to get into Arrowhead, and didn’t get to the seat until seven minutes into the first quarter. That’s OK. I had to piss like Niagra Falls and it took me around five minutes just to peel down in my Michelin Man Suit just to get cleared for landing. So it was already 7-0 before I even got seated. I guess I should have just stayed in the can till after halftime. I kept thinking why in the world would the NFL schedule the games in the order they did? Why not let the outdoor venue play during the daytime, when it was as warm as it was going to be, and let the dome team play at night? Didn’t matter, TV contracts rule the roost.

9. Let’s get numbers out of the way early. Here’s some fun ones, Pats vs Chiefs: 94-47: Total plays run. 524-290: Total offensive yards. 176-41. Rushing yardage. 36-18: First downs. 0-4: Sacks Allowed. 44-21: TOP. The Pats had ZERO negative yardage plays from scrimmage. With all those numbers, you’d think Kansas City would have been beaten by around 21 points, especially since they were shut out in the first half. Mahomes scored 31 second half points against Hoodie BOTH TIMES he matched up against the Pats this year. Last time we lost in the last seconds by a field goal, this time we lost by a coin flip. Here’s my favorite “Because Chiefs” stat: Since 1940, teams that scored 31 points in the second half of an NFL playoff game were 64-1. Now the record is 64-2. Because Chiefs.

8. You can make a pretty good case for both sides of the ball being responsible for the loss if you want to point fingers. The offense went scoreless the first half. Mahomes did not look good, and his receivers gave him no help. Mahomes was sacked four times and was hurried about ten more times, so the Pats D line dominated our O Line, especially in the first half. Kelce and Hill combined for four catches. Four. After Kelce’s TD he disappeared, and had a ball boink off his face mask that would have gotten a first down. Kelce was outplayed again by Gronk, and has yet to prove himself the more reliable guy in games that matter. Hill was double teamed 95% of the time, which was certainly not his fault. I still think he’s playing hurt as his speed seems to be diminished over the past couple games. So a guy who was a third string back -Damien Williams- ends up with three TDs, and Sammy Watkins is the guy with over 100 yards. Mahomes has the higher QB rating: 117 to 77.1 because of Brady’s two picks. QB rating is the most worthless stat in pro football. Brady was in control the entire game until the last 30 seconds of regulation. Then he won the OT toss, and Game Over.

7. The defense had only given up seven points until less than 30 seconds left in the half. That’s decent. Brady probably would have had 21 if not for Ragland’s pick in the end zone to keep the Chiefs from getting blown out. Nelson continues to suffer from Bartee Disease and seems to either drop a pick, or get burned for a TD every single week. In the second half they had one fourth and one stop. The defense could not hold a four point lead with two minutes to a trip to Atlanta. Then in the OT they gave up three consecutive 3rd and 10’s. They couldn’t get the Pats off the field, so they did not deserve to win.

6. Kansas City seems to have cornered the market on bridesmaid coaches. We lived through Marty’s failures, and stubbornness to change, and now we have Andy, who has lost five playoff games in his tenure; two by two points, two by one point, and one in OT. He stubbornly allowed Bob Sutton to return this year. As of this writing on Monday morning, Bob Sutton is still employed by the Chiefs. God knows why. Andy is seen by most of the NFL as one of those guys who just can’t win the big one. And like Marty, his “coaching tree” has been more successful than he has been. Every year it’s the same story. He’ll get up and say “This is on me, we need to focus on improving and during the off season we’ll get better.” In fairness, we did at least win a home divisional game -which was definitely an improvement- but man, when you’re two minutes away from the Super Bowl and can’t hold a four point lead at home… that really hurts.

5. Eric Berry should be on an operating table THIS MORNING. The Chiefs gave him millions of dollars this year. Berry played when the spirit moved him, and when he did play in three games, Chiefs went 0-3. I like Eric Berry and admire him. But the old saying is “You Can’t Make the Club from the Tub.” If he needs to get his heel fixed, fix it TODAY and get him on the road back to health, or part ways. Houston was invisible. He had two tackles, no sacks, no impact plays. DT did that too during his career, disappeared in playoff games. Dee Ford will be cast as a scapegoat, but the rest of the defense was just as culpable. Chris Jones had NO tackles, and when he managed to touch Brady, was awarded the biggest bullshit roughing penalty of the season. Ford will most likely be our franchise tag player. Hopefully he’ll learn and grow.

4. If we go Little Mary Sunshine, what good was there? Well, I read a stat where the Pats roster guys had played in over 130 AFC Championship games between them. The Chiefs roster? ZERO. So, our 53 man squad all got to experience what it takes to win an AFC Championship game against a veteran team who’s been there, done that. We took them to OT. Mahomes did all this in his first year as a full starter. This is his first full tour of duty, and he lost the Super Bowl by a coin toss. At 23 barring injury, he’ll be ruling the AFC West for a long time. Butt Kicker was money in bad weather. He’s also young and could be our kicker for many years. Those are all very good things.

3. Who do you fear in the AFC West? Oakland. Nope, they’re a train wreck. Denver? Nope, not until they get a QB and their defense is aging fast. Bolts? Phyllis will be eligible for a senior discount at Denny’s very soon. If we can get a defense, we could be the next Patriots. The spotlight now turns to GM Veatch. His Speaks draft looks like a disappointment. We got bupkis from Speaks and T-Pass this year. On this draft, he better pick ALL defense. We need two corners, a safety who can help in run support, a middle line backer who can thump, and more depth at the other linebacker positions as well. Looks like our pick with the Rams on the Peters trade won’t be all that, because the Rams will be at the end of the draft this year. They must dump Sutton, and get a defensive minded guy in here who can do better than giving up over 500 yards and 37 points at home in an AFC Championship game. Tick tock, tick tock…

2. So today I have that too familiar feeling that I’ve lived with my whole adult life. No Super Bowl for Kansas City again this year. Oh well, maybe we’ll be this close again 25 years from now. I’ll be 84 years old then. I probably won’t give a flip by that point. I may not even remember who the Chiefs are or why I should care. But if you remember after the second Bolts game, I said in the Ten Things that the Chiefs would not go to the Super Bowl this year, because they can’t stop the run, and they can’t get good teams off the field on third down. That’s exactly what happened, and so here we are. Am I crushed? No, actually I’m strangely satisfied with how everything went down this year. We made it to the final four. We got the home playoff loss monkey off our backs last week. We got an AFC title game at Arrowhead and took the greatest NFL dynasty team of the last 20 years into overtime with a rookie QB. They fought like Hell, didn’t embarrass the city, and came up a bit short. I can live with that.

1. Many have said the Royals equivalent to this year was 2014 when Alex Gordon stood 90 feet away from tying Game Seven at Kauffman. The Royals came up short in an improbable season. Then in 2015 they came back with a vengeance and crushed it. I have a good feeling that if Veatch can fix this defense, or at least improve it from being worst to mid pack, we can make this whole thing work. Chiefs were worst in the league in penalties. That goes to coaching, and Andy Reid is responsible for fixing that. Both championship games went to overtime. Both big market teams won with help from the zebras making calls or non-calls to steer the games during critical moments. Take that as you will. The NFL got a Los Angeles team into the Super Bowl with a mega-billion dollar stadium under construction that they seriously need to succeed. Remember, the NFL owes you a football exhibition for entertainment purposes only. Were you entertained? Because…… Chiefs.

At least the Lamar Hunt trophy got to visit Kansas City for the first time. Maybe one will live here someday. Have a great off season, and thanks for all the kind comments over the past season about the Ten Things. Maybe Next Year. Maybe Next Year.

[FAX]

Originally Posted by gblowfish

In the first half the defense was on the field the entire half. IIRC, KC only had three first downs the first half. When they came out in the second half, they got the ball and marched right down and scored a TD within a minute or two. The team never really looked shell shocked. I think by game end the defense was gassed because of TOP. Whoever won the coin toss to go into OT was probably going to win the game. Mahomie just never got the chance to win it.

Yeah ... I know that, Mr. gblowfish.

I was asking about the behavior/demeanor of the guys on the sideline. You're right there and I was curious if you noticed something ... attitude-wise. To me, we seemed emasculated from the jump.

FAX

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by FAX

Yeah ... I know that, Mr. gblowfish.

I was asking about the behavior/demeanor of the guys on the sideline. You're right there and I was curious if you noticed something ... attitude-wise. To me, we seemed emasculated from the jump.

FAX

I never saw body language that said shell shock. Saw a lot of sad faces on the field and in the stands at the end. Oh, and some of the Pats players were being dicks by taunting our fans. All I can say to that is payback is a bitch. We got some on the Colts this year, we bitch slapped the Steelers in their home in the regular season, now these guys will be on our list. We'll owe them one if they ever make it back to an AFC Championship game after GOAT and Hoodie retires. A lot of teams are going to work out a lot of frustration in NE.

[L.A. Chieffan]

Thanks for the Ten Things all year George. I've said it before but it's always good to hear from the perspective of the fans at the game since I can usually only watch on tv. I'm always looking out for you when they show the players near the tunnel.

My dad is 74 and has been rooting for the Chiefs since their inception. He went to a bunch of games at the old Stadium. We watched this game together with my 17 year old son. I can feel a new tide coming. Thanks again for being there as well as everybody else that showed up last night in the cold. Thank you

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by HemiEd

Oh and one more thing. On the kickoff that was ruled not to have hit Edelman, shouldn't have been Chiefs ball anyway? They recovered it before it went into the end zone, kind of like an onside kick?

No that was a punt a muffed one but I believe it hit his thumb and forearm but was ruled it didn't touch him so it was downed by contact wherever the Chiefs touched it by picking it up. The call on the field was a muff and you cant advance a muffed kick another stupid rule besides the point.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by L.A. Chieffan

Thanks for the Ten Things all year George. I've said it before but it's always good to hear from the perspective of the fans at the game since I can usually only watch on tv. I'm always looking out for you when they show the players near the tunnel.

My dad is 74 and has been rooting for the Chiefs since their inception. He went to a bunch of games at the old Stadium. We watched this game together with my 17 year old son. I can feel a new tide coming. Thanks again for being there as well as everybody else that showed up last night in the cold. Thank you

You're welcome. If you look for me and Mrs. B, the Chiefs bench has behind it two sets of stairs that lead down to a tunnel to the locker room. As I face the field (the press box is at my back) I sit over the set of stairs to the left (west) at about the 49 yard line. I've been on TV a lot. I refuse to act like Mr. Crazy Fan who loses his mind when a TV camera is pointed at me. I was on the other side of TV cameras for the first ten years of my professional career, so excuse me for not going full Bozo just because ESPN points a camera my way. Another interesting thing was, I didn't recognize most of the people sitting around me last night. Most of the regulars who sit by my side or behind me had apparently scalped their tickets. The guy who sits to my left went to some Mexican beach, and sold his three seats for $4200 total. I guess if I was more mercenary, I could have made off with the big bucks. I just don't tick that way. Probably why I'm a middle class sales dude living in Independence. Oh well, I'm happy usually

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Mahomes has the higher QB rating: 117 to 77.1 because of Brady’s two picks. QB rating is the most worthless stat in pro football.



That is totally false. It’s the most important. It directly correlates to winning %. Brady’s two picks made the game close. Without them we get blown out by 2TD.


Seeing the diff Mahomes makes after the shit parade we’ve had here at QB makes me a bit surprised you’d argue this.

If Dee Ford doesn’t jump offsides, KC is going to the Super Bowl and this is what everyone would be talking about:

Mahomes-3 TD’s/0 INT’s 117 rating
Brady 1 TD/3 INT’s rating in the high 50’s

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by KC Tattoo

No that was a punt a muffed one but I believe it hit his thumb and forearm but was ruled it didn't touch him so it was downed by contact wherever the Chiefs touched it by picking it up. The call on the field was a muff and you cant advance a muffed kick another stupid rule besides the point.

From the scoreboard replays, I thought it grazed his thumb. We got the pick a couple of plays later, but it foreshadowed what was to come.

[Best22]

Originally Posted by bobbything

I'm crushed. For about 10 seconds I thought we were legitimately going to the SB. Then they announced Dee Ford lined up offsides. A penalty that did not affect Sorenson's interception at all.

I'm legitimately crushed because I am not convinced we will be in this position again. It's so difficult to get to this point. You have to take advantage when you do...and we didn't.

Good write up though. It's going to take some serious time before this one subsides.

You never know

Cowboys were looked at as chokers and “can’t win the big game” for years until they finally won SB VI

Colts drafted Manning in 1998, went 13-3 in 1999 and didn’t make the AFC title game until 2003 where they lost to New England. 2004 they lost a road divisional to NE. 2005 was a heartbreaking one and done. Couldn’t “get over the hump” until 2006, Manning’s 9th season

We never know. Maybe we go 7-9 next year, maybe we go 14-2 and win the Superbowl.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

George, I'm with you all the way INCLUDING your acceptance of the facts of NFL life coupled with the reality of business. Thank you for the write-ups this season, I always enjoy getting your perspective, the perspective of a fan who has literally seen it all in person.
Pat's time, and by extension the Chiefs, will come. Even Brady's kale pajamas and hyperbaric chamber can't stop the march of father time. If the Chiefs had fielded even a modicum of something resembling a competent defense( not ranked 31st overall ), we would probably be singing a different tune today.

[tk13]

Thanks for another great season George.

We made it farther than I think any of us expected but it's still disappointing. It was right there. There's just never any guarantee you get back to this point. You have to stay healthy, you have to have a GM who is finding the right players to improve the defense, etc. But with Mahomes we'll at least be in the conversation.

When the Royals came so close and lost, it really did light a fire in them and the next season they came to training camp early and were completely locked in and on a mission to finish the job. They were as focused as any KC team we've seen. Honestly even compared to other championship caliber teams... there aren't many examples of something comparable to that lineup having 9 guys all locked in at the same time in the playoffs. Almost every single player on that team carried their weight.

Hopefully this creates the same thing for the Chiefs. I said it a while back over in that Tom Brady thread but the Pats aren't going away. Their offense is not reliant on big passing plays, it never really has been. The Patriots just play smart and are able to find your weaknesses and exploit them. And as long as they have Belichick they'll have good defensive gameplans. The Chiefs absolutely have the talent to beat them but it's not really about that, it's about being focused and disciplined and making adjustments as the game progresses. You just have to be locked in against them every play and not make simple mistakes or they'll get you.

I'll say this though, Andy Reid has done an amazing job making adjustments against Belichick. Yes having Mahomes helps, but even two years ago when we beat them at Foxboro the Chiefs scored 28 second half points. The two times we played them this year we scored 31 in the second half. That is some impressive work against maybe the best defensive coach in history.

I've been complaining about the defense all year and how it's going to kneecap us so there's no reason to beat a dead horse, but hopefully Veach and Reid take it seriously and make some serious changes to that side of the ball. Or we'll be here again next year.

[Marcellus]

7. The defense had only given up seven points until less than 30 seconds left in the half. That’s decent. Brady probably would have had 21 if not for Ragland’s pick in the end zone to keep the Chiefs from getting blown out. Nelson continues to suffer from Bartee Disease and seems to either drop a pick, or get burned for a TD every single week. In the second half they had one fourth and one stop. The defense could not hold a four point lead with two minutes to a trip to Atlanta. Then in the OT they gave up three consecutive 3rd and 10’s. They couldn’t get the Pats off the field, so they did not deserve to win.

This sums it up, defense choked and failed PMII.

Great write up as always.

[Demonpenz]

Originally Posted by bobbything

Edit: I don't buy into all the conspiracy stuff below, but I do firmly believe that officials are influenced, to a degree, by narrative.

Yankees make the World Series after 911

Saints win the Super Bowl after Katrina.

Boston wins the World Series after the marathon bombing

Houston wins the World Series after Harvey flooding.

Rams make the Super Bowl after major wild fires and turned around a bad franchise 3 years after moving to a major tv market.

I don't think anyone would argue that the league gives the teams wins it wants.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

You deserved better, George.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

I just wish Veach had a greater sense of urgency. Dante Fowler caused the game-changing pick for the Rams. There were multiple good or elite DBs available in-season and he made a run at none of them. Having Reid or Earl Thomas back there changes that defense.

Mahomes, Hill, and Jones will never be cheaper. Windows slam shut quickly in the NFL, look at Atlanta, and Jax.

[Hammock Parties]

Am I crushed? No, actually I’m strangely satisfied with how everything went down this year. We made it to the final four. We got the home playoff loss monkey off our backs last week. We got an AFC title game at Arrowhead and took the greatest NFL dynasty team of the last 20 years into overtime with a rookie QB. They fought like Hell, didn’t embarrass the city, and came up a bit short. I can live with that.

Feel exactly the same way.

Our time is coming.