Ten Things About Today's Game

[gblowfish]

10. A crucial core ingredient of a "Long Suffering Chiefs Fan" is knowing what it feels like to have an opposing quarterback reach down your throat, literally rip your heart out, hold your heart in front of your face and laugh at you while they dance off your field with a win. Today was one of those days. I've seen Elway do it, and Kreig do it, and Fouts do it, and Stabler do it, and Gannon do it, and Harbaugh do it, and Peyton do it, but I've never seen Phyllis do it like this before. This was the classic example of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. In my forty plus years of going to Chiefs games, there's been lots of days where I sat in toe numbing cold weather and endured the Chiefs sucking and losing. This one will be remembered for a long time. You can't blame this one on the offense. If you would have been told beforehand that the Chiefs would rack up 38 points, and that all those points would come from the Alex Smith led offense, with no points from a defensive or special teams play, you would think that would be plenty to cushion to win going away. Problem is, today was an old fashioned AFC West Shootout. This team is not built to get into an old fashioned AFC West shootout. The weakest part of the defense, the defensive secondary, was horribly exposed by an experienced, sling it everywhere and anywhere QB. We left him too much time to win a shootout. He shot, we lost. But he never should have had enough time to pull it off. More on that later.

9. It was a seriously cold day. Not as cold as the Kicker Who Shall Not Be Mentioned Game or the Herm Sucks Against Miami New Years game, but pretty damn cold. That should have been an advantage for KC. Instead, Phyllis and the Bolts rack up almost 500 yards of total offense, including 387 yards passing. How? By throwing check down passes to his running backs, rub off pick play slant patterns and an occasional down field heave to poorly covered wide outs. I swear to Jesus, our DBs look like they've never seen a slant pattern in their lives. Again, more on that in painful detail later. First I want to talk about injuries, and how they didn't beat us, but they sure as hell didn't help.

8. Hali goes down on a freak play in the first minute of the second quarter. He takes an outside rush on Fluker, plants on his right foot, and just falls down. There was no violent collision, no dog pile, no cheap shot. He just fell down. At this point in the game it's 7-3 KC. Hali is replaced by Zombo, who goes on to play a decent game. You can see Hali's injury here:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/20ihwnq/5)
Inside the two minute warning, Houston is lined up covering Gates. Woodhead takes a carry through the line, Houston beats Gates' block, and reaches out with his right arm to try to get a hold of Woodhead. As his right arm is out reaching, Berry comes in on run support and smashes Houston's outstretched arm when he plows into Woodhead. Houston rolls around on the ground kicking his feet, comes off the field, never comes back. He's replaced by Moses, who goes on to play a terrible game. Here's where Houston gets hurt:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/24mfion/5)
Then with 22 seconds left in the half, Phyllis burns the backup linebacker Moses for a TD to Woodhead. So KC goes to the half only up 14-10 instead of 14-3 or 14-6. Letting the Bolts score a TD with less than :30 in the half was a major fail by the defense.

7. San Diego deferred, so they got the ball to start the second half. We get Phyllis in 3rd and 10, and here's where the real secondary nightmare begins. Cooper gets burned -again- by Eddie Royal by over-playing the ball. Then watch Kendrick Lewis with his season long penchant for terrible angles on a play. Royal catches this ball on the 38 yard line with his back to the end zone. Lewis is trying to get over for the over the top coverage -of course, he's too slow- and he's at about the 33 yard line. Then watch his pursuit as Royal has to right himself. Lewis never lays a hand on him, and Royal makes it to the 18 before being tackled by Demps, who came over from the entire other side of the field. A couple of plays later, Mathews scores and Bolts go up by three. Here's the play:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/262lkd4/5)

6. OK, so, Chiefs fight back, get several defensive holding calls from San Diego's equally piss-poor secondary, and take the lead back on Charles' second rushing TD, go up 21 to 17. We stop Phyllis and force a punt. Parker is called for a block in the back which moves the ball back to our 12. Bowe drops a pass on first down. Butler knocks down a pass on 2nd down. On 3rd and 10, Smith tries to go back to Avery, throws into triple, almost quadruple coverage, and gets picked. Stupid pass, over thrown, gives momentum right back to the Bolts:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/rmjm11/5)
Couple of plays later, Woodhead scores his second TD, Bolts go back up by three 24-21. This on is on Alex Smith, a critical error, considering KC did not force a turnover all day. That one hurt and hurt real bad.

5. Chiefs come right back, drive the field for the Fasano TD, go up by four 28-24. Then in the back and forth, the two teams trade field goals. Just at eight minutes left in the game, Chiefs are up 31-27. They get Phyllis in a 3rd and 2 from his 40, Flowers loses the backup tight end and he and the rest of our defensive secondary let him ramble 60 yards for a TD, San Diego back up 34-31. NOBODY in our secondary could catch San Diego's backup tight end. Is Demps, Smith and Flowers really that slow as a group? What a choke job. Watch the play here:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/k4b6ab/5)

4. Alex Smith comes back to start our final drive on the 45 yard line. He works the ball downfield to San Diego's 16 yard line at the two minute warning. Smith throws the ball to McCluster who runs it down for a first down to the San Diego Five.. There's 1:32 left on the clock. What does Any Reid do? HE CALLS TIME OUT and stops the frickin' clock. WHY? The play clock was only down to :16 seconds. Run the damn ball with Charles, force San Diego to use their timeouts. But no, we stop the clock for them. Bowe scores on the next play, we leave Phyllis with 1:17 and two time outs. Phil Simms on the broadcast warns how absolutely stupid this is:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/i1a6hg/5)
This is a major fail on Andy Reid, and you can see why he made Eagles fans insane with his clock management. You run as much clock as you can, and if you don't score seven, you take the three and take your chances at home in overtime. This is just bad coaching, period.

3. Then, of course Phyllis marches the team right down the field aided by passes to Woodhead out of the backfield -Moses terrible in coverage-, then a PI on Berry. Berry kind of makes up for it by sacking Phyllis on the next play -our only sack of the day and first sack in the last three games. But then with :31 left on a 2nd and 15, Sean Smith and Demps shit the bed and let some ****ing guy with every vowel in his name catch the game winner behind them. Inexcusable.
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/2yywh80/5)
So, Phyllis abuses our rookie Cooper on rub off crossing routes all day. He abuses back up linebacker Moses who can't cover a back in the flat to save his second string ass. He doesn't get touched until the last minute of the game because we have no pass rush in the second half. Our so-called experienced defensive backs Flowers, Demps, Smith and Lewis, all collectively shit themselves the entire second half. San Diego hangs 41 on our defense, the most points they've scored in KC since Dan Fouts in 1986.

2. Special teams were bad today as well. Succop kicks off out of bounds ala Jon Baker to give Phyllis excellent field position. We gave up as many good kick returns as we got. And penalty after penalty after penalty on punt returns. Good things? Charles had 115 rushing and played his ass off. Bowe caught a clutch pass to get the lead, which should have stood up as the winner. Schwartz and Stephenson played as well, perhaps better, than Asamoah and Fisher. Watch them block on Charles' first TD run:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/v5g2ls/5)

1. So, what happens now? I guess we see how badly hurt Hali is. Denver is up big on New England, so looks like we'll be a wild card team.
The killing pass at the end totally silenced Arrowhead. I mean total silence. I hadn't heard anything like that since the DT 7 sack game where Kreig beat us on the last play of the game. With no pass rush, and with Phyllis exposing our defensive backs, and with Peyton already having one game's worth of film on our defense, it doesn't look good. We learned today that we can't win a shootout if our coaches can't manage clock. You know who the three quarterbacks are who have beaten KC the most in their careers? Elway, Fouts and Phyllis. That's a cold, hard, rip your heart out of your throat, hold it up, show it to you and laugh at you statistic. Wish I had more positive things to say tonight, but I'm still pissed. I'm a Long Suffering Chiefs Fan. Today is just another stripe on a well worn misery uniform.

Game Photos From the KC Star are here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/11/24/4647255/chargers-41-chiefs-38.html

Edit since last night: Thank you Tom Brady. Thank you Hoodie. Screw you, Peyton.

[big nasty kcnut]

Great job george but i have to be the optimist and i think we win next week.

[threebag]

Positivity big nasty kcnut

[1adam1238]

Great read as usual.

[Molitoth]

Great job george but i have to be the optimist and i think we win next week.

:LOL:

[SAUTO]

YAY OPTIMISM GOODNESS AND POSITIVITY AND THANK YOU GEORGE !!!
GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think this guy is thig
Posted via Mobile Device

[DJJasonp]

anyone who has ever played Madden.......knows you run the clock down to 1 second....then call the timeout. We essentially GAVE the chargers an extra 13-17 seconds by not letting the play clock run down to 1, before calling a timeout.

I dont mind getting a TD......cause you get it whenever you can get it.

But calling a timeout, under 2 minutes left to play and you have the ball, getting ready to tie or win the game, BEFORE the play clock is nearly extinguished - is ROOKIE coach type of mistake.

[lcarus]

Aside from the bad defense, crappy clock management, and injuries, we win this game if Demps catches a Rivers pass in the end zone or if Lewis intercepts Rivers pass at the start of their game winning drive. Sean Smith had one earlier that he could have easily intercepted as well. But honestly, the one that Lewis had was game clinching. Ball went up in the air and landed right in his hands. Unreal.

[cabletech94]

i hate phip rivers. with every part of my soul.

and i can't talk, as i was screaming all game, that is until that last play.

and mother effer it was cold today.

thanks for the top 10 gb. and the video is a nice touch.

[DJJasonp]

i hate phip rivers. with every part of my soul.

and i can't talk, as i was screaming all game, that is until that last play.

and mother effer it was cold today.

agreed. The crazy thing is.....I dont think I've ever known another NFL player who is a bigger douche on the field....and a pretty damn good guy off of it.

[Bugeater]

I think this guy is thig
Posted via Mobile Device
Goddamn I think you could be right.

[cabletech94]

agreed. The crazy thing is.....I dont think I've ever known another NFL player who is a bigger douche on the field....and a pretty damn good guy off of it.

i would have never guessed him to be a good guy. mind blown. i still hate him.

[Deberg_1990]

anyone who has ever played Madden.......knows you run the clock down to 1 second....then call the timeout. We essentially GAVE the chargers an extra 13-17 seconds by not letting the play clock run down to 1, before calling a timeout.



We have been doing this routinely all season. I've noticed early in the year when we had leads in the 2nd half, Smith was snapping the ball with 5 to 8 seconds left on the play clock. Very dumb.

[petegz28]

I guess the bright side is it took our 2 best pass rushers going down and 41 points with a last minute TD to beat us. Right???

[DJJasonp]

i would have never guessed him to be a good guy. mind blown. i still hate him.

dude does a sh*t ton of charity work in the community. Very religious, christian type of dude.

I absolutely HATE the guy on the field - but he's a pretty good dude off of it.

[Red Dawg]

Andy definitely fugged up be no way we hang it on him. 41 points is inexcusable in any game. We let them get a td right before the half and then win the game in the same manner. Defense sucked and that is it.

[Deberg_1990]

Andy definitely fugged up be no way we hang it on him. 41 points is inexcusable in any game. We let them get a td right before the half and then win the game in the same manner. Defense sucked and that is it.

It's absolutely on Reid and his staff. They didn't adjust to a zone defense knowing hey had no pass rush, and the clock could have been managed better. 100% loss on the staff. Every player has bad games or gives up plays. It's the managements job to put them in position to succeed. They failed at that today.

[MOhillbilly]

Being a fan of this club is such a mind fuck.

[JohnnyHammersticks]

4. Alex Smith comes back to start our final drive on the 45 yard line. He works the ball downfield to San Diego's 16 yard line at the two minute warning. Smith throws the ball to McCluster who runs it down for a first down to the San Diego Five.. There's 1:32 left on the clock. What does Any Reid do? HE CALLS TIME OUT and stops the frickin' clock. WHY? The play clock was only down to :16 seconds. Run the damn ball with Charles, force San Diego to use their timeouts. But no, we stop the clock for them. Bowe scores on the next play, we leave Phyllis with 1:17 and two time outs. Phil Simms on the broadcast warns how absolutely stupid this is:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/i1a6hg/5)
This is a major fail on Andy Reid, and you can see why he made Eagles fans insane with his clock management. You run as much clock as you can, and if you don't score seven, you take the three and take your chances at home in overtime. This is just bad coaching, period.

PRE-****ING-CISELY. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who somehow can't see this though. Say what you want about our depleted defense, but IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE COME DOWN TO THE DEFENSE IN REGULATION TIME. We had this game in our back pocket and bad clock management freaking blew it. Bad, bad coaching.

[gblowfish]

Hey, at least I was wrong about the Denver being up big on New England thing...

[Earthling]

PRE-****ING-CISELY. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who somehow can't see this though. Say what you want about our depleted defense, but IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE COME DOWN TO THE DEFENSE IN REGULATION TIME. We had this game in our back pocket and bad clock management freaking blew it. Bad, bad coaching.

This!! Totally.

[Iconic]

I think this guy is thig
Posted via Mobile Device

http://i.imgur.com/fd7KLL2.gif
OH MY GOD!

[big nasty kcnut]

ok i won't be positive but george does write a good list.

[ekf028]

YAY OPTIMISM GOODNESS AND POSITIVITY AND THANK YOU GEORGE !!!
GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shut it. Let us wallow in this defeat and enjoy a Donkey choke.

[Bugeater]

Not . I am Chris616
You're outed dude. Give it up.

[Bugeater]

Nope . Chris616 from Berkeley CA .
Berkeley eh? No wonder you're such a fucking loon.

[Otter]

Thanks George!

I don't take things too seriously anymore and I'm only about half the time of Chiefs heartache you have under your belt. Of all the teams we could have lost o couldn't have picked much worse games to shit the bed come playoffs.

[Sorter]

And I LOVE MY CHIEFS!!!!

Idolatry.

[Deberg_1990]

Thanks George!

I don't take things too seriously anymore and I'm only about half the time of Chiefs heartache you have under your belt. Of all the teams we could have lost o couldn't have picked much worse games to shit the bed come playoffs.

Pretty much where I'm at now. Losses like this would have really depressed me when I was younger. I've learned to lower my expectations and I've found other enjoyments. still stings, but oh well, its just one game.
Posted via Mobile Device

[ThaVirus]

Good read, as usual.

To number 10, we really need to gear up for this game against Denver. With that loss tonight, and even going back to the Jacksonville game, those guys are looking very beatable.

Watching our game earlier, and the Den/NE game tonight, it's obvious that we can't run man defense all the time. The Pats seemed to be running a good mix but predominantly zone and they had GREAT success against Manning despite giving up a ton of rushing yards.

Sutton is going to need do something else- ANYTHING else. And we'll also need to pray that we get either Houston or maybe even Houston and Hali back while our offense puts up numbers like they did today.

[scho63]

10. A crucial core ingredient of a "Long Suffering Chiefs Fan" is knowing what it feels like to have an opposing quarterback reach down your throat, literally rip your heart out, hold your heart in front of your face and laugh at you while they dance off your field with a win. Today was one of those days. I've seen Elway do it, and Kreig do it, and Fouts do it, and Stabler do it, and Gannon do it, and Harbaugh do it, and Peyton do it, but I've never seen Phyllis do it like this before. This was the classic example of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
I never thought I would be as upset as watching Dave Krieg beat us after DT got his 7 sacks but I was horribly wrong in a big way today. Losing to Denver didn't really bother me at all but the loss today to that crybaby Philip Rivers and all his trash talking really had me boiling! I don't want to see another one of these and I certainly hope we don't get stuck in the last game of the year needing to beat them in san Diego.

9. It was a seriously cold day. That should have been an advantage for KC. Instead, Phyllis and the Bolts rack up almost 500 yards of total offense, including 387 yards passing.
We were once again chasing their receivers and running backs all over the field, mostly from behind and not very well either. It was hard to watch the yards keep piling up in big chunks. :shake:

8. Hali goes down on a freak play in the first minute of the second quarter. Inside the two minute warning, Houston is lined up covering Gates. Houston rolls around on the ground kicking his feet, comes off the field, never comes back. He's replaced by Moses, who goes on to play a terrible game.
Both injuries seemed minor at the time on TV and I was shocked they both remained out-not very good with only Poe and Jackson left out of the five of them. Let's hope they and DeVito can recover fully for Denver because if both of them are not able to play, we are in deep shit.

7. San Diego got the ball to start the second half. Phyllis is 3rd and 10. Cooper gets burned again Then watch Kendrick Lewis never lay a hand on him, Royal makes it to the 18 before being tackled by Demps.
Cooper regressed the entire game and looked shell shocked. How Kendrick Lewis is still in the lineup stuns me. He is HORRIBLE in man coverage.

6. OK, so, Chiefs fight back, On 3rd and 10, Smith tries to go back to Avery, throws into triple, almost quadruple coverage, and gets picked. Stupid pass, over thrown, gives momentum right back to the Bolts:
He tried going to the well once too often with Avery and the high pass was once again tipped by him, his favorite thing to do. Did Avery once play volleyball because he sets the ball so well.

5. Chiefs come right back, drive the field for the Fasano TD, go up by four 28-24. Flowers loses the backup tight end and he and the rest of our defensive secondary let him ramble 60 yards for a TD, San Diego back up 34-31. NOBODY in our secondary could catch San Diego's backup tight end. Is Demps, Smith and Flowers really that slow as a group? What a choke job.
I mentioned this a few points prior that these guys did nothing but chase the SD guys all over the field. It was so hard to watch. PICK, PASS, CATCH, RUN, PICK, PASS, CATCH, RUN,PICK, PASS, CATCH, RUN,PICK, PASS, CATCH, RUN,PICK, PASS, CATCH, RUN, OVER AND OVER ALL DAY LONG.

4. Alex Smith comes back to start our final drive, works the ball downfield to San Diego's 16 yard line, throws the ball to McCluster for a first down to the San Diego Five.. There's 1:32 left on the clock. What does Any Reid do? HE CALLS TIME OUT and stops the frickin' clock. WHY?
This is a major fail on Andy Reid, and you can see why he made Eagles fans insane with his clock management. This is just bad coaching, period.
I was flabbergasted when this happened and knew that with 1:22 and 2 timeouts left, Rivers has plenty of time to work his magic and he made Andy pay dearly for the butt slam on the sidelines.

3. Then, of course Phyllis marches the team right down the field then with :31 left on a 2nd and 15, Sean Smith and Demps shit the bed and let some ****ing guy with every vowel in his name catch the game winner behind them. Inexcusable.
He doesn't get touched until the last minute of the game because we have no pass rush in the second half. Our so-called experienced defensive backs Flowers, Demps, Smith and Lewis, all collectively shit themselves the entire second half. San Diego hangs 41 on our defense, the most points they've scored in KC since Dan Fouts in 1986.
It is shaping up to be a VERY long day next week against Denver and unless Bob Sutton makes a drastic change and throws in some zone defenses to slow down the pick plays, we are going to be running all over again next week chasing down Denver's receivers. Doesn't bode well for us.....:shake:

2. Special teams were bad today-Succop kicks off out of bounds-We gave up many good kick returns and penalty after penalty after penalty on punt returns. Good things? Charles had 115 rushing and played his ass off. Bowe caught a clutch pass to get the lead, which should have stood up as the winner. Schwartz and Stephenson played as well, perhaps better, than Asamoah and Fisher.
The penalties on kick or punt returns were four in a row I believe. We kept starting our drives on the 16, the 12. the 8 and nothing very good until later in the game. These special teams guys shouldn't be so bad and Toub better kick some ass soon.
Charles had 115 yards with what seemed like little effort and it was his first time this year with 100 yards rushing. Bowe's catch was excellent and it should have been the winner.
Asamoah and Fisher were not missed! :LOL:

1. So, what happens now? I guess we see how badly hurt Hali is. Denver is up big on New England, so looks like we'll be a wild card team.
The killing pass at the end totally silenced Arrowhead. I mean total silence. I hadn't heard anything like that since the DT 7 sack game where Kreig beat us on the last play of the game. With no pass rush, and with Phyllis exposing our defensive backs, and with Peyton already having one game's worth of film on our defense, it doesn't look good. We learned today that we can't win a shootout if our coaches can't manage clock. You know who the three quarterbacks are who have beaten KC the most in their careers? Elway, Fouts and Phyllis. That's a cold, hard, rip your heart out of your throat, hold it up, show it to you and laugh at you statistic. Wish I had more positive things to say tonight, but I'm still pissed. I'm a Long Suffering Chiefs Fan. Today is just another stripe on a well worn misery uniform.

That's what I thought when I fell asleep only to hear Al Michaels say "Patriots take the lead at 28-24". It was like a great dream but only real!

The Krieg game I referenced earlier in the post as it was the last time I was so dejected and mad after a loss. It was brutal today and to hear a hand full of cackling and cheering San Diego fans in the bar was just salt into the wound-very painful


Well George, I am sorry you had to sit out in the cold like that only to watch our team deliver another epic heartbreak.

In early third quarter after a San Diego score, you and your wife were on TV. She was leaning up against the railing and your were lounging back in your seat and no smiles on either of your faces. I thought I saw Mr Doggity next to you as well.

Anyway, hard to be positive on what we saw today and with all the injuries suddenly mounting up, it looks like a real uphill climb for this team for the rest of the year.

Not sure what to expect next week but my expectations are low so I wont be so disappointed.

Thanks as always for a detailed and insightful review! :thumb:

[bevischief]

Great write up. But this making watching football painful.

[Mosbonian]

Pretty much where I'm at now. Losses like this would have really depressed me when I was younger. I've learned to lower my expectations and I've found other enjoyments. still stings, but oh well, its just one game.
Posted via Mobile Device

This for me too....but I have to chuckle a bit. After all these years of my daughter not really caring about sports, her senior year of HS she has suddenly become a rabid Chiefs fan like her Daddy.

During yesterdays game I was getting excited, angry, excited, angry and then finally when Rivers started driving SD down for the winning score I was resigned to the fact we were going to lose.

Like you, while the loss stung, I went on to other things like checking out the BCS standings and seeing where MU placed.

My daughter....she ranted and scowled over the fact that we lost the game, pouted and ranted some more.

Midway thru the evening my wife looked over at me and said...."she is her father's daughter".

[Bwana]

Now that top 10 took some serious time, I enjoyed it more than the game, well done.

[scho63]

One of the biggest few plays on that last drive were Danny Woodhead's juke on Sean Smith that gained another 15 yards and he got out of bounds.

Caught it for about a 8 yard gain, looks like he is going out of bounds, and Smith goes soft on trying to catch him and Woodhead jukes back inside and goes for another 12-15 yards.

They run the same play on the next snap and he gets another 12-14 yards and goes OB to stop the clock.

Those two plays took about 16-18 seconds and got about 35 yards-those hurt and gave SD momentum deep in our territory.

[Old Dog]

I'm normally very forthcoming with praise about your top ten lists George, but how could you leave out that on the "Salute to Service" day that they brought the U.S. flag out upside down?

[Buck]

Nice writeup. I usually don't read them because my team isn't involved. On your 1st point, Rivers led a 13 point comeback and scored 14 with about 1:30 left to beat KC by 1 point in 2008. That was the game that Bowe dropped the onside kick. So you have seen it before, but the Chiefs had nothing on the line in that game.

Also on your #5, our backup TE is the fastest guy on our offense. He is going to be a huge player for us in the future.

[MahiMike]

Nice post as always. I take exception to #6 - Alex' pick. Sure it could have been thrown better, but 1 pick vs. 38 points I'll take every time. This is what happens to teams that throw and score a lot. I'd take 2 picks vs. 38 points even.

Bottom line, our defense has been exposed and it's our offense that will have to bail us out now.

[Molitoth]

Also on your #5, our backup TE is the fastest guy on our offense. He is going to be a huge player for us in the future.

That guy is super fast. I was like WTF!

[The Franchise]

I just hope that when Hali and Houston come back that the offensive playcalling doesn't go back to what it was. They pretty much had to open it up once it became a shootout. Hopefully this gives them the confidence....that they can put up some points.

[mcaj22]

One of the biggest few plays on that last drive were Danny Woodhead's juke on Sean Smith that gained another 15 yards and he got out of bounds.

Caught it for about a 8 yard gain, looks like he is going out of bounds, and Smith goes soft on trying to catch him and Woodhead jukes back inside and goes for another 12-15 yards.

They run the same play on the next snap and he gets another 12-14 yards and goes OB to stop the clock.

Those two plays took about 16-18 seconds and got about 35 yards-those hurt and gave SD momentum deep in our territory.


Sean Smith and (Dunta Robinson) for that matter are exactly who we thought they were. They shelled out coin for these two to IMPROVE the secondary and we might have gotten worse. I'm sorry when you pay 5 million for one guy to be inactive on gameday and 6 million for the other guy to get juked by Danny fucking Woodhead 1 on 1 and beat by 4th string Seji TwoTwoPoPoo in the back of the endzone there's no excuse. They have to win those matchups and that's why were are paying him that money.

If he got beat by Keenan Allen or Demaryious Thomas or someone of talented caliber that's one thing. But when you are getting beat by the Jon Baldwin, AJ Jenkins, scrub WRs of the NFL, that's just bad playing.

[BlackHelicopters]

Mind blown. Video was great. A ray of happiness on a day of sadness. Thanks George.

[KCUnited]

I just hope that when Hali and Houston come back that the offensive playcalling doesn't go back to what it was. They pretty much had to open it up once it became a shootout. Hopefully this gives them the confidence....that they can put up some points.

It seems like there has been a concerted effort to open this offense starting with the Denver game. Yesterday they started the game with a pass to Bowe up the sideline, then Smith takes a couple sacks holding the ball too long while looking down field. They had a long pass (by Chiefs standards) to McCluster on their 4th drive that ended in a 30 yard TD pass to Avery (only down 3-0 in the 1st). I think Reid's goal is to keep opening the offense as the season goes and guys get more comfortable. At least I hope that's the goal.

[KC_Lee]

Great job as always on the top 10 things.

[displacedinMN]

finally you get the sticky

[MahiMike]

It seems like there has been a concerted effort to open this offense starting with the Denver game. Yesterday they started the game with a pass to Bowe up the sideline, then Smith takes a couple sacks holding the ball too long while looking down field. They had a long pass (by Chiefs standards) to McCluster on their 4th drive that ended in a 30 yard TD pass to Avery (only down 3-0 in the 1st). I think Reid's goal is to keep opening the offense as the season goes and guys get more comfortable. At least I hope that's the goal.

I think you are right.

[Halfcan]

Sean Smith was a sack of dogshit all day- he dropped an INT that went right through his hands-could not cover ANYONE. I am not sure how we can start him this week except we have nobody else.

Cooper will continue to get pushed off on while he pays his rookie dues. Chargers did the illegal pick ala Cheatin Donks perfectly all day and was only called for it once-kinda-illegal man downfield?

I won't say much about Lewis- he is the worst saftey to ever wear Red.

I was SHOCKED Andy called the timeout- I knew we would lose no matter if we scored or not-it was the dumbest thing I have ever seen.

Alex continues to frustrate me. One minute he is putting perfect spirals into the numbers 30 yards down field- the next he is throwing 5 yards to a wide open JC and hitting his feet??? This lose was not on him though- he had his best game.

Sucks being a chiefs fan.

[mcaj22]

i just dont know how Sean Smith can get beat by Serji Aritutu like that

it boggles my mind. It's 1 on 1 on the outside, the guy was a 4th string sub coming in out of desperation, he's running a straight line to the back of the fucking endzone, how do you get burned.

[ct]

I'm normally very forthcoming with praise about your top ten lists George, but how could you leave out that on the "Salute to Service" day that they brought the U.S. flag out upside down?

I may get totally flamed for this, but I swear to you the chiefs absolutely suck balls the 2nd half after a honorary veterans/military halftime presentation. Seriously...suck...balls!!!

[2bikemike]

One of the biggest few plays on that last drive were Danny Woodhead's juke on Sean Smith that gained another 15 yards and he got out of bounds.

Caught it for about a 8 yard gain, looks like he is going out of bounds, and Smith goes soft on trying to catch him and Woodhead jukes back inside and goes for another 12-15 yards.

They run the same play on the next snap and he gets another 12-14 yards and goes OB to stop the clock.

Those two plays took about 16-18 seconds and got about 35 yards-those hurt and gave SD momentum deep in our territory.

Other than the freaking TD those 2 plays pissed me off the most. That little shit was wide open both plays.

[Old Dog]

I may get totally flamed for this, but I swear to you the chiefs absolutely suck balls the 2nd half after a honorary veterans/military halftime presentation. Seriously...suck...balls!!!

I don't know why you would get flamed, but I don't think that would have anything to do with the on-field performance.

I still find it hard to believe though that pregame they brought the U.S. flag out upside fucking down.....

[gblowfish]

I'm normally very forthcoming with praise about your top ten lists George, but how could you leave out that on the "Salute to Service" day that they brought the U.S. flag out upside down?

My seats are so low, I can never see the flag anyway. It's held above my eye level.

[The Franchise]

i just dont know how Sean Smith can get beat by Serji Aritutu like that

it boggles my mind. It's 1 on 1 on the outside, the guy was a 4th string sub coming in out of desperation, he's running a straight line to the back of the fucking endzone, how do you get burned.

While I agree that his play against the Chargers was severely disappointing and maddening....I'm not going to just write him off. The ENTIRE defense sucked dick once Hali and Houston were gone. This defense is predicated on pressuring the QB. I think Hali/Houston went down and Sutton didn't know what to do.

Shit happens.

[Brock]

i just dont know how Sean Smith can get beat by Serji Aritutu like that

it boggles my mind. It's 1 on 1 on the outside, the guy was a 4th string sub coming in out of desperation, he's running a straight line to the back of the fucking endzone, how do you get burned.

That was a perfectly thrown ball. Give credit where it's due. Smith was a fingertip away from deflecting it.

[ciaomichael]

Talk about long-suffering fan. I remember when Daryl Lamonica ripped our heart out. Heck, I even remember when George Blanda ripped our heart out. Happens in the NFL.

But, there's still hope. In '69, it was lowly 3rd string QB, a guy named Mike Livingston, that brought us down the stretch to get into the playoffs. We had to go on the road and beat the defending Super Bowl champion Jets and then the mighty Raiders. With a rejuvenated defense and an offense that perfectly balanced the run with the pass, then went on to win Super Bowl IV.

[T-post Tom]

Love your takes. Good post as always. I originally agreed with you on the timeout and burning the clock. But after a little time, I understand the thought process. Our offense hasn't been trustworthy when it comes to red zone scoring. We were down around 23rd in the league for red zone scoring before this game. Reid wanted to make sure that the offense was settled & didn't screw it up. Defense HAD been our strongsuit prior to this game. Reid put his trust in the defense to stop the dolts with just over a minute left. I'm more more upset with the defensive players and with Sutton (for having our guys in press coverage on that last TD & an overall lack of making game time adjustments).

Thank you for the analysis. It's obvious that you've watched a lot of football and have good insight on the game.

[gblowfish]

Talk about long-suffering fan. I remember when Daryl Lamonica ripped our heart out. Heck, I even remember when George Blanda ripped our heart out. Happens in the NFL.

But, there's still hope. In '69, it was lowly 3rd string QB, a guy named Mike Livingston, that brought us down the stretch to get into the playoffs. We had to go on the road and beat the defending Super Bowl champion Jets and then the mighty Raiders. With a rejuvenated defense and an offense that perfectly balanced the run with the pass, then went on to win Super Bowl IV.

Yeah, well, that team had five HOFers on defense, a HOF QB and HOF field goal kicker. They had a bit more talent than this bunch... just sayin.

[ciaomichael]

Yeah, well, that team had five HOFers on defense, a HOF QB and HOF field goal kicker. They had a bit more talent than this bunch... just sayin.

True, but that's only in retrospect. At the time, it wasn't at all that clear. For example, Buck Buchanan was selected in the 19th round of the NFL draft (265 overall.) Jan Stenerud was a Norweigan ski jumper, for goodness sake. Being a Chiefs fan in 1969 was like being on a roller coaster, and only the slimmest thread of faith kept one holding on.

[gblowfish]

Both the Chiefs and Royals won their championships in years where they didn't have their best team. 71 Chiefs were probably the best team ever, as were the 1977 Royals.

[ThaVirus]

That was a perfectly thrown ball. Give credit where it's due. Smith was a fingertip away from deflecting it.

Yep. It appeared that Smith's finger did graze the ball. If only he had dove or something; that would have been an easy swat...

Football, man. It really is a game of ****ing inches.

[gblowfish]

Yeah, but how can you let a guy get BEHIND you like that, when you know they need a TD to win, and they have no timeouts left? You can't get beat off the line in that situation.

[Simply Red]

Goddamn I think you could be right.

no. Thig would have told me, as he historically has - while maneuvering a mult.

[cabletech94]

I don't know why you would get flamed, but I don't think that would have anything to do with the on-field performance.

I still find it hard to believe though that pregame they brought the U.S. flag out upside ****ing down.....

we saw this too. first thing i said was something along the lines of "do they know the flag is upside down"? i really just couldn't believe it. don't they practice these things a little bit?

[notorious]

I think Hali/Houston went down and Sutton didn't know what to do.

Shit happens.

This.

Gunther-esc.

[Easy 6]

Yeah gb, not much good to say about this game, lotsa fail going on.

The only thing that heartens me is how the O played, Axl chucked it deep with accuracy, the receivers made the catches, JC broke loose and the line replacements made a big difference... sure hope we carry that mindset into sunday.

[gblowfish]

True, but that's only in retrospect. At the time, it wasn't at all that clear. For example, Buck Buchanan was selected in the 19th round of the NFL draft (265 overall.) Jan Stenerud was a Norweigan ski jumper, for goodness sake. Being a Chiefs fan in 1969 was like being on a roller coaster, and only the slimmest thread of faith kept one holding on.

Buck Buchanan was drafted low in the NFL because at the time, the AFL and NFL were in draft wars. Chiefs had Lloyd Wells, their secret weapon scout, that had a pipeline into the small black colleges that were a gold mine of talent. Wells has sewed Buchanan up for KC, he wasn't going to sign with the NFL. Chiefs drafted Gale Sayers in 1965, but he decided to join the Bears in the NFL instead. A lot of NFL teams didn't even scout the small black colleges. Wells got KC Taylor, Buchanan, Lanier, Thomas and Kearney -all starters- from small southern black schools. Stenerud was a lucky find. Stram moved Curley Culp from offensive line to defensive line. Bobby Bell was a defensive end in college and a QB in high school. He was moved to outside linebacker. Chiefs were innovative in thinking outside of the box, as was Sid Gillman in San Diego. Very colorful, imaginative and bold football being played in the AFL in those days.

[ciaomichael]

Buck Buchanan was drafted low in the NFL because at the time, the AFL and NFL were in draft wars. Chiefs had Lloyd Wells, their secret weapon scout, that had a pipeline into the small black colleges that were a gold mine of talent. Wells has sewed Buchanan up for KC, he wasn't going to sign with the NFL. Chiefs drafted Gale Sayers in 1965, but he decided to join the Bears in the NFL instead. A lot of NFL teams didn't even scout the small black colleges. Wells got KC Taylor, Buchanan, Lanier, Thomas and Kearney -all starters- from small southern black schools. Stenerud was a lucky find. Stram moved Curley Culp from offensive line to defensive line. Bobby Bell was a defensive end in college and a QB in high school. He was moved to outside linebacker. Chiefs were innovative in thinking outside of the box, as was Sid Gillman in San Diego. Very colorful, imaginative and bold football being played in the AFL in those days.

Yeah, AFL was much more open to hiring black players in general. And much more innovative in all aspects of the game, not to mention promotion. I think Bobby Bell could have played any position on the field and been successful. Actually, it was Al Davis (though I thought he was evil at the time) that was the last holdout for trying to keep the AFL together because he thought the AFL had caught up with the NFL and would actually surpass them. He was probably right!

And the players were so personable back then. They would go out and meet with fans like their job depended on it (and, in a way, it did.) I'll never forget meeting Mike Garrett at a Firestone tire store when I was a youngster. He just sat there and chatted with my dad and I like we were his next door neighbors.

[GloryDayz]

It's simple, there's no reason the Star shouldn't be paying you for a past-game review of the game...

Yeah, you're that good!

Awesome!

[Ace Gunner]

oh gawd that Houston injury looks bad.

thx for the read -- well done sir

[Buehler445]

It's simple, there's no reason the Star shouldn't be paying you for a past-game review of the game...

Yeah, you're that good!

Awesome!

He's better than most anything the start puts out.

[Demonpenz]

10. A crucial core ingredient of a "Long Suffering Chiefs Fan" is knowing what it feels like to have an opposing quarterback reach down your throat, literally rip your heart out, hold your heart in front of your face and laugh at you while they dance off your field with a win. Today was one of those days. I've seen Elway do it, and Kreig do it, and Fouts do it, and Stabler do it, and Gannon do it, and Harbaugh do it, and Peyton do it, but I've never seen Phyllis do it like this before. This was the classic example of defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. In my forty plus years of going to Chiefs games, there's been lots of days where I sat in toe numbing cold weather and endured the Chiefs sucking and losing. This one will be remembered for a long time. You can't blame this one on the offense. If you would have been told beforehand that the Chiefs would rack up 38 points, and that all those points would come from the Alex Smith led offense, with no points from a defensive or special teams play, you would think that would be plenty to cushion to win going away. Problem is, today was an old fashioned AFC West Shootout. This team is not built to get into an old fashioned AFC West shootout. The weakest part of the defense, the defensive secondary, was horribly exposed by an experienced, sling it everywhere and anywhere QB. We left him too much time to win a shootout. He shot, we lost. But he never should have had enough time to pull it off. More on that later.

9. It was a seriously cold day. Not as cold as the Kicker Who Shall Not Be Mentioned Game or the Herm Sucks Against Miami New Years game, but pretty damn cold. That should have been an advantage for KC. Instead, Phyllis and the Bolts rack up almost 500 yards of total offense, including 387 yards passing. How? By throwing check down passes to his running backs, rub off pick play slant patterns and an occasional down field heave to poorly covered wide outs. I swear to Jesus, our DBs look like they've never seen a slant pattern in their lives. Again, more on that in painful detail later. First I want to talk about injuries, and how they didn't beat us, but they sure as hell didn't help.

8. Hali goes down on a freak play in the first minute of the second quarter. He takes an outside rush on Fluker, plants on his right foot, and just falls down. There was no violent collision, no dog pile, no cheap shot. He just fell down. At this point in the game it's 7-3 KC. Hali is replaced by Zombo, who goes on to play a decent game. You can see Hali's injury here:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/20ihwnq/5)
Inside the two minute warning, Houston is lined up covering Gates. Woodhead takes a carry through the line, Houston beats Gates' block, and reaches out with his right arm to try to get a hold of Woodhead. As his right arm is out reaching, Berry comes in on run support and smashes Houston's outstretched arm when he plows into Woodhead. Houston rolls around on the ground kicking his feet, comes off the field, never comes back. He's replaced by Moses, who goes on to play a terrible game. Here's where Houston gets hurt:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/24mfion/5)
Then with 22 seconds left in the half, Phyllis burns the backup linebacker Moses for a TD to Woodhead. So KC goes to the half only up 14-10 instead of 14-3 or 14-6. Letting the Bolts score a TD with less than :30 in the half was a major fail by the defense.

7. San Diego deferred, so they got the ball to start the second half. We get Phyllis in 3rd and 10, and here's where the real secondary nightmare begins. Cooper gets burned -again- by Eddie Royal by over-playing the ball. Then watch Kendrick Lewis with his season long penchant for terrible angles on a play. Royal catches this ball on the 38 yard line with his back to the end zone. Lewis is trying to get over for the over the top coverage -of course, he's too slow- and he's at about the 33 yard line. Then watch his pursuit as Royal has to right himself. Lewis never lays a hand on him, and Royal makes it to the 18 before being tackled by Demps, who came over from the entire other side of the field. A couple of plays later, Mathews scores and Bolts go up by three. Here's the play:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/262lkd4/5)

6. OK, so, Chiefs fight back, get several defensive holding calls from San Diego's equally piss-poor secondary, and take the lead back on Charles' second rushing TD, go up 21 to 17. We stop Phyllis and force a punt. Parker is called for a block in the back which moves the ball back to our 12. Bowe drops a pass on first down. Butler knocks down a pass on 2nd down. On 3rd and 10, Smith tries to go back to Avery, throws into triple, almost quadruple coverage, and gets picked. Stupid pass, over thrown, gives momentum right back to the Bolts:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/rmjm11/5)
Couple of plays later, Woodhead scores his second TD, Bolts go back up by three 24-21. This on is on Alex Smith, a critical error, considering KC did not force a turnover all day. That one hurt and hurt real bad.

5. Chiefs come right back, drive the field for the Fasano TD, go up by four 28-24. Then in the back and forth, the two teams trade field goals. Just at eight minutes left in the game, Chiefs are up 31-27. They get Phyllis in a 3rd and 2 from his 40, Flowers loses the backup tight end and he and the rest of our defensive secondary let him ramble 60 yards for a TD, San Diego back up 34-31. NOBODY in our secondary could catch San Diego's backup tight end. Is Demps, Smith and Flowers really that slow as a group? What a choke job. Watch the play here:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/k4b6ab/5)

4. Alex Smith comes back to start our final drive on the 45 yard line. He works the ball downfield to San Diego's 16 yard line at the two minute warning. Smith throws the ball to McCluster who runs it down for a first down to the San Diego Five.. There's 1:32 left on the clock. What does Any Reid do? HE CALLS TIME OUT and stops the frickin' clock. WHY? The play clock was only down to :16 seconds. Run the damn ball with Charles, force San Diego to use their timeouts. But no, we stop the clock for them. Bowe scores on the next play, we leave Phyllis with 1:17 and two time outs. Phil Simms on the broadcast warns how absolutely stupid this is:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/i1a6hg/5)
This is a major fail on Andy Reid, and you can see why he made Eagles fans insane with his clock management. You run as much clock as you can, and if you don't score seven, you take the three and take your chances at home in overtime. This is just bad coaching, period.

3. Then, of course Phyllis marches the team right down the field aided by passes to Woodhead out of the backfield -Moses terrible in coverage-, then a PI on Berry. Berry kind of makes up for it by sacking Phyllis on the next play -our only sack of the day and first sack in the last three games. But then with :31 left on a 2nd and 15, Sean Smith and Demps shit the bed and let some ****ing guy with every vowel in his name catch the game winner behind them. Inexcusable.
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/2yywh80/5)
So, Phyllis abuses our rookie Cooper on rub off crossing routes all day. He abuses back up linebacker Moses who can't cover a back in the flat to save his second string ass. He doesn't get touched until the last minute of the game because we have no pass rush in the second half. Our so-called experienced defensive backs Flowers, Demps, Smith and Lewis, all collectively shit themselves the entire second half. San Diego hangs 41 on our defense, the most points they've scored in KC since Dan Fouts in 1986.

2. Special teams were bad today as well. Succop kicks off out of bounds ala Jon Baker to give Phyllis excellent field position. We gave up as many good kick returns as we got. And penalty after penalty after penalty on punt returns. Good things? Charles had 115 rushing and played his ass off. Bowe caught a clutch pass to get the lead, which should have stood up as the winner. Schwartz and Stephenson played as well, perhaps better, than Asamoah and Fisher. Watch them block on Charles' first TD run:
View My Video (http://tinypic.com/r/v5g2ls/5)

1. So, what happens now? I guess we see how badly hurt Hali is. Denver is up big on New England, so looks like we'll be a wild card team.
The killing pass at the end totally silenced Arrowhead. I mean total silence. I hadn't heard anything like that since the DT 7 sack game where Kreig beat us on the last play of the game. With no pass rush, and with Phyllis exposing our defensive backs, and with Peyton already having one game's worth of film on our defense, it doesn't look good. We learned today that we can't win a shootout if our coaches can't manage clock. You know who the three quarterbacks are who have beaten KC the most in their careers? Elway, Fouts and Phyllis. That's a cold, hard, rip your heart out of your throat, hold it up, show it to you and laugh at you statistic. Wish I had more positive things to say tonight, but I'm still pissed. I'm a Long Suffering Chiefs Fan. Today is just another stripe on a well worn misery uniform.

Game Photos From the KC Star are here:
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/11/24/4647255/chargers-41-chiefs-38.html

Edit since last night: Thank you Tom Brady. Thank you Hoodie. Screw you, Peyton.

this

[GloryDayz]

He's better than most anything the start puts out.

By far!! THAT'S why they should pay him for these kinds of write-ups. Then again, this might be why they're having circulation issues.... I'm sure there are others, but their content is of concern to say the least..

[GloryDayz]

I'll go as far as this.... God forbid, but should Andy fall ill, I'd be OK with NOT going the Jack DelRio route and give George a chance...

I'd step up but I'd turn the D into a pack of killers who headhunt then taunt the officials after they toss the official's flag into the stands. Prolly not a good thing!

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Yeah, well, that team had five HOFers on defense, a HOF QB and HOF field goal kicker. They had a bit more talent than this bunch... just sayin.

I shit you not, there were people fitting Derrick Johnson for a HOF ring during the game thread.

[Baby Lee]

The 30-10 spanking at the hands of McMahon's Vikings, and certainly the game which shall not be named where Chuckie and a final kickoff OOB to cost us the playoffs against the Raiders, pretty much inured me of heartache from regular season losses, even spankings.

But this shit puts a #1 seed -v- a #5 seed on a razor's edge, where it absolutely should not be.

Certainly drives up the stakes for Sunday.

Ironically, one of my best friend's wife's favorite player is Manning and has been since Tennessee. She's one of the few wives who comes to the SB party every year to actually watch the game [she's come in TN, Indy AND Denver jersey's]. And her anniversary gift this year is a trip to KC to see her Peytie-pie live. She knows I'm here in Big Derrty rooting against her with all my heart, but no hard feelings.

[gblowfish]

Thank you all for the kind words. One of these days, I may end up needing a job. Maybe I could write for the local penny shopper? I wrote radio commercials for about five years back in the early 1980's. Something indoors where I can sit down all day please.