MELLINGER: Dear Chiefs fans: C'mon, it's not that bad ...

[pugsnotdrugs19]

LINK: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/sp...223324950.html

ARTICLE:

Spoiler!

BY SAM MELLINGER
December 19th, 2018

This will be hard for some of you to understand. That’s not said negatively. Just factually. Because some of you came to follow the Chiefs because of Patrick Mahomes. Which is fine. Kansas City is not accustomed to rooting for trendy teams. These are strange times we live in.

But here’s a quick primer for those who started rooting for the Chiefs once they began playing a wizard at quarterback: Your new team is a habitual heartbreaker. The darkness in the stories you hear from your new brothers and sisters is real. They are not whining. They are speaking their truth.

And, you know, while we’re on the topic, here’s something for those of you who fell in love with this team long ago — you’ve never cheered for a team like this.

More specifically, you’ve never cheered for a quarterback like this.

You know that, of course. That’s been obvious since Week 17 of last year, if not earlier. But if last week’s loss shook your confidence, it’s worth pointing something out.

If this same Chiefs team — flaws and strengths, studs and duds — wore different uniforms and played in a different city, you would be jealous.

If this Chiefs team wore Colts uniforms, for instance, you would be terrified with all the scenarios of Mahomes driving a figurative knife through your metaphorical heart with a game-winning drive capped by a Tarkenton scramble with a sack-avoiding cartwheel and left-handed no-look pass threading four defenders.

This is, basically, what Kansas City has waited decades to see.

The Chiefs have the best quarterback in a league that’s never been more dominated by quarterbacks. They have the best offense in a league teaching fans who can’t remember the 2000 Baltimore Ravens that, actually, Offense Wins Championships.

These Chiefs have lost three games, by a total of seven points, each literally or essentially coming down to the final play. They are 3-2 against teams currently holding an AFC playoff spot, with two of those wins on the road.

The losses came against the New England Patriots, who have lost three of five, and the Los Angeles Chargers, who lost to the Chiefs at home and have led the Chiefs for just 4 of 7,200 seconds this season.

The Chiefs have flaws. Oh brother, they’ve got flaws. They have a defense fronted by Chris Jones and Dee Ford and Justin Houston with a solid group of cornerbacks and they’re still somehow terrible.

They have averaged 39.7 points in their losses. The defense scored or set up three touchdowns and the offense gave up two touchdowns in those losses, but still. If you can’t relax with 40 points, you can’t ever relax.

This team has problems keeping its quarterback clean, and has consistently amplified its problems tackling (worst among projected AFC playoff teams, according to Pro Football Focus) by being the NFL’s most penalized team.

So even without a playoff collapse presented in regular season form last week, you wouldn’t have to think too hard to come up with ugly scenarios.

But the AFC lacks a singularly dominant team. Usually, when that happens, the fallback logic is that the hottest team wins. Well, the Chiefs are well-positioned to be that team with a win this weekend in Seattle.

The Seahawks are a terrible matchup for the Chiefs, the league’s best rushing team against the worst rush defense. But they are also beatable, and a home underdog against the team so many here in Kansas City are freaking out about.

Win this weekend and no matter what the Chargers do the Chiefs can clinch another AFC West title and first-round bye with a win over the Raiders in week 17 (the NFL’s version of a layup).

Do all of that and they will be going into the playoffs with the league’s best quarterback and offense, and a defense that is at least getting healthier and presumably a little better with the return of safety Eric Berry.

That’s enough to fight with.

Look, the Chiefs might ruin your January. That is in play. Berry could be injured at any moment, a two-score lead disintegrated in 5 minutes, and a badly timed penalty or missed kick will stir up a lot of ghosts. The new fans will be quick learners on that. Welcome to the heartbreak, suckers.

But the longtime fans can learn something here. Meet in the middle. Open your eyes, and see a quarterback and team capable of scoring an average of 37.7 points against six projected playoff teams.

Unless you are old enough to remember 1969, this is the closest the team you root for has ever resembled the team you’ve wanted it to be.

If you’re giving up hope because of one loss in a year without a dominant team, well, nobody can fault you for protecting your heart. But they might also ask a simple question.

What are you waiting for?

[Sassy Squatch]

No. It's even worse. We have the MVP of the league playing QB and we STILL ****ing choke.

[FlaChief58]

No one is worried about the O. The other side of the ball has us scared shitless

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Flachief58

No one is worried about the O. The other side of the ball has us scared shitless

I'll keep bringing this up until I'm blue in the face.

We've been flat out bad on offense all year long when we have a commanding lead. We can blame that all on defense. But it takes an offense to stop moving to allow teams to catch up too. Our bad defense shouldn't distract from the fact that our offense routinely fails in the same exact situational circumstance over and over again. I think most logical people know why this is. But let's just say... Until we fix this, the offense isn't without blame.

[rabblerouser]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'll keep bringing this up until I'm blue in the face.

We've been flat out bad on offense all year long when we have a commanding lead. We can blame that all on defense. But it takes an offense to stop moving to allow teams to catch up too. Our bad defense shouldn't distract from the fact that our offense routinely fails in the same exact situational circumstance over and over again. I think most logical people know why this is. But let's just say... Until we fix this, the offense isn't without blame.

Yup.

Full Reidtard, baby.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by rabblerouser

Yup.

Full Reidtard, baby.

So you would feel better if we had a different coach and only scored 28 pts a game on average instead of 37?

Dumbass.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

So you would feel better if we had a different coach and only scored 28 pts a game on average instead of 37?

Dumbass.

Well that depends on if that coach could put together a solid defense.
Posted via Mobile Device

[RunKC]

This franchise doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. 50 years of failure and countless blown playoff games by this regime alone and our last game looked like the same script we’ve seen since 2013.

Win a playoff game against a real QB and fans will start to believe.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'll keep bringing this up until I'm blue in the face.

We've been flat out bad on offense all year long when we have a commanding lead. We can blame that all on defense. But it takes an offense to stop moving to allow teams to catch up too. Our bad defense shouldn't distract from the fact that our offense routinely fails in the same exact situational circumstance over and over again. I think most logical people know why this is. But let's just say... Until we fix this, the offense isn't without blame.

And you continue to be wrong.

The other team gets paid to play too and you aren't going to have an offense be firing on all cylinders every down.

This team is built around the offense, so they should be held to a standard. But saying they need to be perfect every series is just dumb.

[Marcellus]

Originally Posted by O.city

And you continue to be wrong.

The other team gets paid to play too and you aren't going to have an offense be firing on all cylinders every down.

This team is built around the offense, so they should be held to a standard. But saying they need to be perfect every series is just dumb.

37 points a game and people are saying the offense is having issues.

[FloridaMan88]

Originally Posted by Marcellus

37 points a game and people are saying the offense is having issues.

The offense going three and out on the key drive at the end of the game, allowing the Chargers to get the ball back and score the game winning TD/2 point conversion was an issue.

You are the drooling dumbshit who defends the likes of Orlando Scandrick so it is no surprise you can't see that.

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by O.city

And you continue to be wrong.

The other team gets paid to play too and you aren't going to have an offense be firing on all cylinders every down.

This team is built around the offense, so they should be held to a standard. But saying they need to be perfect every series is just dumb.

It isn't expecting our offense to run on all cylinders. It's that our offense consistently and repeatedly completely stalls when we're up by more than 1 score. SD/Pitt - blew a huge first half lead. Denver, Arizona, Jacksonville, San Fran - really, really, really bad second half offense in each of those games. Even the SD game, nothing burns me more than 3 and outs when protecting leads. We had 1 TD drive sandwiched between 2 crucial 3 and outs.

You can make your own theories about why this is. But clearly there is a pattern. Can you look at the Den, AZ, Jacksonville, SF games and tell me with a straight face that our offense was anything short of terrible in the 4th quarter of those games?

[O.city]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

It isn't expecting our offense to run on all cylinders. It's that our offense consistently and repeatedly completely stalls when we're up by more than 1 score. SD/Pitt - blew a huge first half lead. Denver, Arizona, Jacksonville, San Fran - really, really, really bad second half offense in each of those games. Even the SD game, nothing burns me more than 3 and outs when protecting leads. We had 1 TD drive sandwiched between 2 crucial 3 and outs.

You can make your own theories about why this is. But clearly there is a pattern. Can you look at the Den, AZ, Jacksonville, SF games and tell me with a straight face that our offense was anything short of terrible in the 4th quarter of those games?

So they should be scoring 45 per game? Blowing everyone out by what, 4 scores?

That's essentially what youre saying here, no?

That happens, well never in the NFL, but maybe it should have happened here?

[Iconic]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'll keep bringing this up until I'm blue in the face.

We've been flat out bad on offense all year long when we have a commanding lead. We can blame that all on defense. But it takes an offense to stop moving to allow teams to catch up too. Our bad defense shouldn't distract from the fact that our offense routinely fails in the same exact situational circumstance over and over again. I think most logical people know why this is. But let's just say... Until we fix this, the offense isn't without blame.

I don't agree entirely but there is a pattern of us stalling in our four minute offense at the end of games. That is the most common variable in all our losses outside of the obvious defensive collapses. We just have a problem chewing out the clock and closing out a game.

It's also worth noting one of our longest drives of the year was in the Chargers game, around 7 minutes, and it would have stalled as well if it wasn't for about 6 different penalties helping us along the way.

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by chiefzilla1501

I'll keep bringing this up until I'm blue in the face.

We've been flat out bad on offense all year long when we have a commanding lead. We can blame that all on defense. But it takes an offense to stop moving to allow teams to catch up too. Our bad defense shouldn't distract from the fact that our offense routinely fails in the same exact situational circumstance over and over again. I think most logical people know why this is. But let's just say... Until we fix this, the offense isn't without blame.

Is Andy one of those reeruns that can't perform or make his unit perform unless his back is against the wall? Because that's dumb. REAL ****ing dumb.