9. This year Mrs Blowfish and I have been leaving a little earlier than usual to get into the stadium. The roads and bridges around Arrowhead have been torn up, and what used to take about 20 minutes now take me about 45 to 60 minutes to leave home, get into the ballpark, and unpack the car for a "tailgate." First thing I do before leaving home is fly the Chiefs flag. It's not really good luck (at least not this year) but it makes me feel better:
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Then I make sure I have the tickets and parking pass. "Tickets" are actually little credit cards now. They zap them when you go into the stadium.
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Once you turn into the Arrowhead Parking Lot, you have quite a gauntlet to run. First, you go through the toll booth. Yes, $30 to park your car:
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Then you pass other fans that got there early, and are in full party mode:
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Then you follow the signs to weave your way into your lot. I have a red parking pass, so today I parked in Lot G behind the big scoreboard on the west side of Arrowhead.
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It takes awhile to wind your way into your eventual spot:
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We got in around 10:45, so you don't have long to tailgate. I've got it down to a science, where we can pop open the picnic table, get stuff out and down and good to go in about five minutes. Here my Pal Mr. Doggity is tweeting something while we get the tailgate going:
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Today we had brisket, pulled pork, pasta salad, chips, black olives, and chocolate cheesecake for dessert. I'm drinking Tank 7. And of course we have a variety of BBQ Sauces. Gates, Firebug and Doggity's BBQ Sauce:
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The air fills with smoke from all the charcoal grills. It's an amazing scene, and it always smells heavenly.
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The blimp from the ALCS game on Friday hung around over the weekend; probably to do more blimp duty for the World Series. Today it was flying over Arrowhead in a cloudless sky:
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8. OK, so we have a great meal, pack it all up and head into Arrowhead. I didn't take my camera in, because with the security stuff, it's a major hassle now. I did see Eric Hosmer, Sal Perez and Ned Yost up close before kickoff, as the Chiefs invited the Royals players to the game. There were lots of people wearing Royals gear. But what was impressive was the number of Steelers fans. The crowd was anywhere from 30 to 40% Steelers, and there were quite a few empty seats today up in the nosebleed corners. Disappointing but not surprising. A 1-5 start will do that. But the Chiefs fans were the louder of the two fan bases, and it was nothing like the Bears game when Bear fans could be heard above the Chiefs fans. Tony Gonzalez came back for a visit, and chatted with Trent Green, who was on the CBS broadcast today. It was nice to see him in Arrowhead again. There was a guy sitting behind me in a Randall Cunningham Eagles jersey, who said he was visiting from Philly and came to watch Maclin play. I told him Maclin had a concussion and was out. He said "Well, I guess I'll just yell at Andy Reid." I said "get in line...."
7. There was a lot of good and bad today; more good than bad. Anytime you win it's more good than bad. The first half everybody was quite frustrated, because it looked like it was going to be the Cincy game all over again, and we were going to kick field goals and lose. Defense did a great job holding the Steelers to only three points in the first half. -By the way, I wanted to mention to you guys watching at home on TV. When you yell stuff at your TV like "THROW THE BALL IN THE FRICKIN' END ZONE" believe me, I have your back at Arrowhead. I'm within shouting distance of both Smith and Reid, and I say exactly what you are saying at home. This play with less than a minute in the first half is why Alex Smith is so frustrating. Chiefs get the DJ pick, get set up down to the Steeler 30 yard line. We run a play and it's 2nd and one. We just need one more decent pass to get a reasonable field goal attempt for the Brazilian Midget, who's been pretty good this year. Instead, Alex does the ONE THING you can't have, a sack.
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We have to burn our last time out, and on the third down play, Alex can't hit an out route. So a 47 yard field goal goes to a 54 yard field goal, and the Midget misses. I told my friend Mr. Doggity if we keep kicking field goals, we were gonna lose. And luckily in the second half, the offense decided to start driving for seven instead of three. Not settling for three in the second half is what won the game, along with the defensive effort.
6. Defensive effort was more like what we've been expecting earlier in the year. Hali had one of the best games of his career. He got two big sacks in the second half, including the game clincher that let KC get the ball and kill the clock:
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Hali's career had registered a sack against every team in the AFC except Pittsburgh before today, and in this game he got two big ones. He's been a great player for us, and even though he's clearly in decline, it was great to see him shine one more time. Derrick Johnson also had a great game today. He made a very athletic pick to stop one Steeler drive; and tipped the pass the bounced around and ended up with Eric Berry for the other pick today. DJ also pass defended the tight end very well, and Berry played a great game, making a 4th and one tackle on run support to snuff a Pittsburgh drive in the second half. It was really a thrill to see Berry play more like his old self, and I'm sure Hali, DJ and Berry enjoyed sticking it to their old coach Todd Haley.
5. Smith didn't play well in the first half, but played much better in the second half. His passing was erratic in the first half, but got more accurate as the day went on. Kelce and Wilson both had more than 70 yards receiving, most of that on YAC. Kelce has been playing hurt. He probably broke his nose against the Vikings last week, and he came off the field a couple times today after taking hard shots to compose himself. But the dude is a warrior. Smith spread the ball around to seven different receivers, threw for around 250 yards, had one TD and no picks. He was only sacked twice, although one of those sacks was costly because it took the team out of field goal range right before the close of the first half. KC was above 50% on third down conversion, first time that's happened this year. Pittsburgh was 20% on third down and only converted on fourth down one of the two times they tried it. I don't think Tomlin respected our defense much. Today the defense was up to the task, and thankfully didn't crumble this time in the fourth quarter at home.
4. The offensive line did a much better job today. The Canadian Doc played better at guard, but he may be an injury concern. He came off the field in the third quarter holding his arm and shoulder low. He went back in, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him on the injury list. WTF is Eric Fisher doing taunting anyone? That was an amazingly stupid penalty. He runs up, taunts a Pittsburgh defensive back -who he didn't even block-, does it after the play, and does it standing right next to a ref. Hey Mr. Number One Pick: keep your cake hole shut, and just pancake the guy the next time you see him on a sweep. Grow up, already:
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3. Sean Smith was making me crazy today. He made a few nice defensive plays, but on others he looked totally disoriented and lost his guy. In the second half, he has a pick thrown right to him in the end zone and he flat drops it. Three plays later, Jones throws his only TD pass in the same corner of the end zone. Then Smith has a clear and stupid penalty on a fourth down play to sustain Pittsburgh's last drive. Luckily, Hali got his strip sack a few plays after that. Abdullah has been missing tackles again. The long run Bell got down the side line (Chiefs gave up 121 yards rushing to Bell today) was because Abdullah went flying past Bell and whiffed on the tackle. Abdullah was beat on the Bryant TD catch too. Peters may have dislocated a finger in the first half. He came off the field and went straight to doc, and it looked like the doc snapped the finger back in place. That had to hurt like a bitch. Peters taped it up and went right back in. I think he's a tough guy, and will be a very good player for us down the road.
2. Andy called a better game today, especially with no Charles and no Maclin. West rushed for over 100 yards and had his first NFL TD. Conley had 63 yards receiving and got his first NFL TD as well. Ware saw the field and had a couple carries. Nelson and Peters both played on pass coverage. So the young guys contributed. Reid got TDs in the second half instead of playing for field goals. It was nice to win one at home, and send all those garish black and gold wearing Steeler fans back to Pittsburgh. Have fun with negotiating all the road construction on I-70 from here to Western Pennsylvania. Oh, and as I was writing this, I watched Matt Casshole throw a pick six to the Giants. So I'm having a really enjoyable Sunday.
1. Next up, an 8:30AM game in London. I haven't had a beer before 8AM for a long time, but looks like I've got one in my future on November 1. I understand if you go to London to watch the Chiefs, Clark Hunt will buy you a pint at the Chiefs official pre-game tavern party. Looks like I'll be having a Bass Ale in my living room here in KC instead. It was good to win today. It's like, you know, better than losing? I'm not all that excited, because we beat a team's third string QB, and if not for three turnovers -and Pittsburgh does not turn the ball over often- it's a much closer contest. 2-5 is still disappointing, but not as bad as 1-6 would have been. And the World Series starts here Tuesday night. I wouldn't miss that, even for a trip to Europe!
