Eleven Things About Tonight's Game: Week 12

[gblowfish]

Eleven Things About Tonight’s Game: Week 12

11. DOINK. You get one extra thing for overtime.

10. Wow. Ain’t it fun to beat the Donks in Denver? I’ve been traumatized so many times by Horse Face, and Five Head, and Bubby Frickin’ Brister, and now by some guy named Spunky Semen. The Donks pushed it all night long, trying to win on a 62 yard field goal. Only problem was, they left KC with the ball and a minute to go at midfield. And as we all know, there’s nothing prettier than banking in the nine ball to finish running the table. After Denver jumped over the center to block a field goal and win in New Orleans a few weeks back, all I can say is, to do this in front of 76,000 of their smug fans, their victory this time was IN-COM-PLETE.

9. So much good and so much bad in this game I hardly know how or where to begin. Coming into the game, it didn’t look good. Donks have won the division five straight times. They are the defending Super Bowl Champs. They had two weeks to prepare for this game. They had won eight straight on National Night Time TV games played in their home stadium. The last time the Chiefs were on National Night Time TV on the road, they got their ass kicked in Pittsburgh. Chiefs were missing their best wide out (Maclin) a starting DB (Nelson) a starting DE (Howard) and during the game lost playing time from Poe, Houston, DJ and Hali for injury, all of whom are All-Pros. Also, when you factor in that Phillip Gaines gave up more passing yards personally to the Donks (209 yards and 2 TDs) - that’s more than Alex had in the entire game, INCLUDING OT (190 yards and 1 TD). This is one of those games that if you look at the stat sheet, there’s no way KC should have won. But they’ve had the knack to win head scratchers, and this may be the grand daddy of them all.

8. Denver converted 7 of their last 9 attempts on third down. KC’s defense again this week could not get the opponent off the field on third down. KC came into the game as one of the worst teams for red zone conversion to TDs (only the Jets are worse) and one of the worst teams on third down. Coming into the game they were 36% for the season converting third down. Tonight they were 29%, which was even worse. Alex was pathetic in the first half. He was 5 of 12 for 26 frickin passing yards at halftime, with 49 measly yards of total offense. Remarkably, the Chiefs were up 9-3 thanks to points scored by the defense and special teams. Chiefs defense didn’t wilt until the second half, when Phillip Gaines got barbecued like a brisket. Gaines made a decent stop in OT to force the 62 yard field goal attempt, which was redemption. Peters was conspicuously quiet tonight, as the Donks wanted no part of him or his side of the field.

7. Three players mattered on offense: Hill, Kelce, and Alex. We’ll take them one by one. Hill had a game for Chiefs history tonight. He’s the first rookie since Gayle Sayers in 1965 to have a rushing, pass receiving and kick return TD in one game. Outstanding. Plus he made several key plays in the final drive and in OT. His play made a difference when it counted. Kid could be All-Pro his first season. His return on the free kick after the safety was a thing of beauty, shades of Dante Hall tormenting the Donks back in the day. No bigger play than to get the TD at the end of regulation. And of all guys to catch the two point try, Mister Harris of the Stone Hands himself. And it was a tough catch with a guy draped all over him.

6. Kelce had an incredibly mixed game. He started horribly, dropping three or four passes in the first three quarters of the game. He ended up with eight grabs for 101 yards. He’s one of the few NFL tight ends that leads his team in receptions and yards for the season. He is a primary weapon. His final catch to secure the bank shot field goal was almost dropped. If you watch that play he almost lost the ball on the way to tucking it in. Big time players make big time plays. That was a big time play.

5. Alex was well on his way to being the goat once again. He averaged 3.8 yards per pass and was sacked six times. He was killing me in the first three quarters. How many six yard passes on third and ten? Too many. How many passes for loss? Too many. How many balls thrown deep down field? None. His receivers didn’t do him a lot of favors, especially in the first half. KC had no first downs in the second quarter. When your offense only generates seven points before the final two minute drill, it’s bleak. But Alex engineered a world class drive to get the game tied. 75 yards on 13 plays with NO timeouts left, AND nail the two point conversion on the road. Credit where credit is due. That was big. And Schwartz was getting his lunch ate by Von Miller all night long. Why they didn’t double team Miller, or leave a back in to pick him up on obvious passing situations, I don’t know. Fisher seemed to handle Ware pretty well, only giving up one sack. Alex got sacked six times and still won the game. That’s endeavoring to persevere.

4. Special teams gets the game ball. Colquitt punted like a beast; nine punts including a 61 yarder. Winchester the long snapper got the only turnover, a muffed punt. Hill scores on the free kick; The Midget makes all his field goals and PATs. Denver did nothing on returns and had no chance on kickoffs. Well done Dave Toub.

3. Justin Houston was officially Justin Houston, and not a minute too soon. Three Sacks, forcing a safety, many run stuffs, led the team in solo tackles with ten. His effort was Derrick Thomas like. Nunez-Roches played another good game, being forced into full game service when Poe went out. Chris Jones knocked down passes and collapsed the pocket, and chased Spunky Semen all over the field. Berry brought the wood, knocking the day living shit out of several Donks. The pass rush also force Denver into several holding penalties. The Donks had 15 penalties for just shy of 100 yards, including one against their head coach for bumping into a ref running down the sideline. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen in a game before. Plus the refs actually called the Donks for overloading the formation on a field goal block, putting seven guys on one side of the center. That took points off the board, and led to getting a TD instead of taking a field goal.

2. I think if Denver goes for it on fourth down instead of trying the 62 yard field goal, they may have won. They had converted several third and longs in their final three of four drives, and our DBs were prone to illegal contact or DPIs. If they fling one up on Gaines or DJ White or anybody not named Peters, they would have a pretty good chance of moving into better range. I think Kubiak didn’t respect KC’s offense, and thought even if his guy missed, he could hold KC for one minute, and get the tie. Luckily, we were left just enough time to pull it off.

1. This game will go down in Chiefs fans memory like Marcus flying through the snowflakes and over the line to score. Like Montana to Willie Davis to beat Horse Face. Like Dante Hall going all Daffy Duck on kick returns. Like Jamaal Charles running for over 200 yards. It’s a doozie. We still owe them for years of playoff pain. So no matter how good this win feels, much like the Colts, we owe these bastards some playoff pain. Right now Denver is outside looking in. They’re chasing both KC and the Fade. Even San Diego won today at Houston. So this win was HUUUUGE. Let’s hope to get healthy bodies back for the trip to Atlanta. Julio Jones vs. Phillip Gaines is a very scary thought. Tomorrow, KC will be very sleepy at work, but it will be a fabulous Monday!