My thoughts on the game last night

[Mr. Flopnuts]

There were a few spots that I look back too and think that we did ourselves in. First off, the guys came out nervous as a mother****er and made some silly mistakes. LOTS of dropped passes early on (Avery anyone?) that could've and would've changed the momentum and feel of the game right out of the gate. You come out fired up, and not scared and who knows how the game plays out right from the start?

Why on Earth would we want to put the ball in the hands of the weakest unit of our team to start a game? Win the toss, defer and let your ****ing defense try to create some field position for you to start the game. Use your strengths to your advantage! Get the ****ing crowd out of it a tad with a big 3 and out to open the game, and try to put yourself in a position to have a 60 yard field instead of an 80 yard field with the crowd in full throat. I know the crowd would've been loud anyways, but seriously, who here wouldn't have played D to start off with the choice?

Turning the ball over directly after creating a redzone opportunity for ourselves was the beginning of the end and none of us really knew it at the time. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot. We've talked all year how unpredictable turnovers are, and we all know this team was 9-0 directly because of their abilities to not only create those opportunities, but the fact that we were very good at protecting the ball. It was a fluke deal, and completely out of the blue, but the timing was pitiful and deflated our entire offense. Between the drops and that untimely fumble, I never saw any fire out of our offense the rest of the night. I mean there wasn't much before, but that completely took the sail out of our winds.

Kicking an 18 yd FG in Denver, against Peyton Manning. Uhh, what? Who the **** does that? Take your ****ing chances and pound that ball up their asses for the 4th straight time! I was livid over that last night. I know in a lot of situations when you have a defense like ours, and more importantly an offense like ours, you have to take points anytime you can get them. Not against a goddamned record setting offense like Peyton's Broncos. You have to score TD's when you're inside the ****ing 5, and you have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get them. I would've rather flamed out right there, and at least went after it. We knew we were giving up more than 17 last night. My thoughts the whole week was to hold them under 30 and create some opportunities on offense. That one swing would've made the game 27-21 with 5 minutes left to play.

Demps totally had a read on the pass he jumped, and he should've taken that ball to the house. He flat out missed it, and it cost us. That would've shifted the momentum to us, and fired up our front 7 coming right back on the field. That one play alone, while there were a few that were gamechangers, was the one that I think would have won us the game had we made it. We had a lot of our own shortcomings to overcome, but had he made that play I honestly think we win the game. Not gonna ride the young man too much here, I think he made a good play on the ball and I'm impressed he read it so perfectly, but you have to convert on those rare golden opportunities.

If Jamaal Charles breaks that carry and doesn't stumble, he goes to the house. No one was going to catch him. I will never give him shit for stumbling on a play, because most of the time he will take that ball to the house. It is however a Goddamned shame that the one time he flubs up is in primetime, on the road in Denver in the biggest game of their lives because that was another turning point where we didn't capitalize. Does anyone think he gets caught if he keeps his feet and momentum running down the sidelines?

If any one of us had been told we would hold Denver to under 30 points we would've taken it, and ran with it. What if we were told we could hold them to 20? I blame the last TD they scored on some of the shittiest, most vanilla play calling I've ever seen in a big game like this in the 3rd quarter last night. Our D is holding them to consecutive 3 and outs and we can't get any kind of game going at all. Just a couple of first downs in that stretch and our D probably doesn't let Peyton slice through us like a stick of butter to end the 3rd quarter. And that was the game changer. Yeah, the FG that made it a 3 possession game put the nail in our coffin, but having multiple opportunities to go and tie the game up, or at least pull us within 4 would've been a huge lift to the D and kept them playing inspired defense.

All in all, this game wasn't even close. They handled us in their house on primetime television. But they didn't blow us out. And they didn't beat us nearly as much as we beat ourselves. Things aren't always going to go your way, and you won't get all the bounces like we had in every game leading up to last night. It felt like all of it caught up with us. How these guys respond next week back at home will make a big statement on what our playoff chances look like, and whether or not we can snap the playoff losing streak. That's my biggest deal. I really didn't expect to make the playoffs this year, and if we can just win a damned playoff game I will call the whole season a miracle. That said, if we continued doing what we had done all year, and capitalized on other team's mistakes, and our own opportunities, we all wake up feeling amazing about our 10-0 team.

The rematch in KC is going to be a HUGE game and the entire Nation will be tuned in again. We still control our own destiny, and even though we weren't close last night, I still feel better about this team than I honestly thought I was going too this morning. They have the ability, and talent to make a pretty good run in the playoffs. We all know how they respond this week however is going to dictate how the rest of the season and that run goes though. Watching a team react to it's first loss is always interesting. Having it come this late in the year is the difference between a Super Bowl run, and an epic collapse. We've seen both in the NFL in recent years, I'll be curious how this Chiefs team plays out. We could easily go down in history either way...

Edit: 1 more thing. I'm not jumping Marcus Cooper's shit. Someone on this defense has given up a long play every single week it seems like. Last night he gave up a couple of big plays. Not the end of the world, and he's still overachieving like a mother****er. His entire season, and acquisition feels like a huge gift. Let's not get down on him too much considering who he is, the role he plays, and how he's done as a whole up to this point. He has a big future ahead of him in red and gold.