Ten Things About Today's Game

[gblowfish]

Ten Things About Today's Game:

10. The weather was just about perfect today. Cool, but not too cool, sunny, not too windy. Just a wonderful KC October Sunday. Too bad there were other more enjoyable things to do today in KC like a NASCAR race, or the Renfest, or the American Royal BBQ, or about a million other outdoor activities less depressing than this crapfest. I'd estimate the actual crowd at maybe mid-50's. Lots of empty seats in the gold and top red section again today. When the weather turns in December, it will get more bare up there. Lots of Giants fans, but we're going to see lots of visitors in Arrowhead from now on. Arrowhead is no longer a place to fear if you're the visitor.

9. We knew during pre-season that the first half of the season would be rough. And after the piss poor showing last week at Philly, there wasn't much hope things would be much better this week against the Giants. I can't remember the last time I thought a game was over after the very first play. When Charles gave up the ball inside the 20 literally on the first play, I thought, "Game Over." And I was right.

8. The defense really didn't wilt until that terrible call on the helmet to helmet on Page. They gave up an easy TD on the very next play, and never built the same momentum after that. During the fourth quarter the Giants were just trying to run the ball with Jacobs and get the hell outta KC with a win, so the garbage time stops on D and garbage time stats on offense really didn't matter at the end. At one point Cassel was 1 for 6 passing for 4 yards.

7. I had the feeling the whole game that this was like a school yard fight between a fourth grader and a seventh grader. The Giants pretty much smacked the Chiefs around at will. Whenever the Chiefs got a stop or a turnover, the Giants would calmly march the ball down the field. I believe they scored on four of their first eight possessions. For the most part Manning had all day to throw (although he left the game after basically kicking himself). Cassel rarely had time for more than a three step drop. Our O-Line has to be the worst in NFL history. Last year, or D-Line was the worst with ten sacks for the season. Now it seems like our O-Line gives up five or six sacks a game. Today we were just woeful on offense. During the broadcast I heard Dawson say in the first half the Chiefs had four total yards of offense on second down. Four yards....on second down in the first half. At one point the Chiefs were 1 out of their last 17 third down conversion opportunities. We are clearly the easiest team in the NFL to stop on third down. That speaks volumes.

6. Cassel reminds me of my all time least favorite Chiefs QB, Ms. Bill Kenney. This chick was the queen of the five yard pass on third and nine. How many times today did he complete a pass short of the sticks on third down? At least four or five times. That crap makes me insane. On third down, EVERYBODY runs past the sticks. If you get sacked, so what? You have to punt whether you come up ten yards short or two yards short. Just unacceptable, and a clear sign of a cowardly approach on offense.

5. What happened to Mark Bradley? He was walking around on the sideline the whole second half without his helmet. He must have hurt something, but it wasn't clear how he was injured. Did I miss something? Our tight ends suck. We really miss Tony G. That tall guy Pope: On the incomplete pass to him in the end zone, why not just throw him a jump ball over the D-Back? Hell, the guy is like 6'8". He should be able to pull down an alley-oop over a 6'-1" corner no sweat. Or use him to block field goal attempts.

4. Haley was taking a lot of heat on the sideline from the crowd today. Clearly, the natives are restless. I thought the onside kick to start the second half was a bonehead play, trying to make up for the lost fumble to start the game. It just resulted in giving the Giants excellent field position to start both halves. Haley just doesn't have any weapons. He keeps trying to run Phoenix's offense without the horses to pull it off. I think he's in way over his head. I can't think of much positive to say about the offense. It certainly has not shown any improvement in any phase.

3. Speaking of horses, it was cool to see Warpaint the horse back at Arrowhead. I don't know who the chick is that rides him, but she is totally stacked. Bouncy Bouncy Horsey Horsey!! Too bad Warpaint didn't lay a big road apple on the 50 after this mess today.

2. Speaking of road apples, whoever the back judge was today must have bet his condo on the Giants in Vegas. He made two horrific calls today. The big one was the helmet to helmet hit on Page (which was total crap) and he called offensive pass interference on another call in the third quarter that was another mystery call. After the call on Page the fans were on him big, and he was over on the sidelines talking to the TV timer guys (the guys who figure out when they come back from commercial) and he was laughing it up. Pissed me off to see a ref make a game changing BS call like that, then laugh about it. Can't help but make me think the NFL wants to make sure a big market team like NY gets every break. Haley also had to challenge a spot play on fourth down where the ball was clearly marked a yard short. If we don't challenge, the refs give the ball back to the Giants. Seemed like we couldn't buy a break today, and we didn't get any calls until the game was out of hand.

1. During the third quarter, stadium security forcibly escorted out four or five Giant fans who were mixing it up with some Chiefs fans behind the goalposts in the west end zone. Geez, image what dicks they'd be if they were LOSING. If you think New Yorkers are obnoxious, wait till next week when half the stadium is Cowboy fans. Shudder the thought...

I'm down, but this is not unexpected. It's going to be another rough year. My wife pointed out to me on the way in today that she thought we were in for a long day. Check out the back of today's ticket stub. It says it all: