Chiefs: Hurt So Good
by Laddie Morse | January 22, 2019
Hurt so good
Come on baby make it hurt so good
Sometimes love don’t feel like it should
You make it, hurt so good
-John Mellencamp
What are those stages of grief again? Anger, denial, depression? Whatever.
I think I’m in the Charlie Brown stage of “Oh Good Grief” because Lucy has just pulled the ball off the tee when I tried to kick it and now I’m in traction. Tracition… paralysis… are those some of the stages of grief too? I don’t think so, but they should be. I’ll tell you this for sure… we are hurt most by the ones we love. That’s why the Chiefs: hurt so good.
Dee Ford Lining Up Offside
I don’t know how long the sting of this loss will last but I sure hope Dee Ford will not be remembered as the Bill Buckner of the Chiefs. Kevin Kietzman, on 810 radio, was going off today saying that if Dee Ford had not lined up offside then the Chiefs would be going to the Super Bowl. He was wanting to ignore all the other miscues by the Chiefs saying that although those miscues had happened, the Chiefs were still just 58 seconds away from going to the Super Bowl… if Dee Ford had not lined up in the neutral zone.
Andy Reid threw an interesting twist into this story by saying that the ref had his hand on his yellow flag and was poised to throw the flag even though that was the first time a Chiefs player had lined up in the neutral zone. He said coaches are in the habit of having the ref come over and warn the coach what his player was doing… so they could correct that error… but no ref had done that yet in the game. Here’s what Reid said:
“Normally, you’re warned, and the coach is warned if somebody is doing that before they throw it in a game of that magnitude. But they didn’t. He didn’t waste any time doing it. He didn’t wait until the interception to throw it. He had his hand on the flag right from the get-go.”
Another angle of Ford lining up in the neutral zone shows the offensive tackle lined up in the backfield just off the shoulder of the left guard. In fact, the tackle was lined up further into the backfield than the WR who was split out wide: an illegal formation. Did the refs call that? Nope.
DeeFord offsides same play Lt tackle Brown lines up in the backfield. Illegal formation!! #patriotspayoffworksagain @NFLOfficiating pic.twitter.com/OnjR5RwIlh
— Noah B (@nb193) January 22, 2019
Upon further inspection, you might notice that both the Pat’s guard and tackle are lined up deeper into the backfield than the WR. From a league-wide standpoint, you’d have to be much more disturbed about what happened at the end of the Saints-Rams contest. Clearly a flag should have been thrown on that play. Twice. If you’re an innocent bystander, watching your first NFL games this past weekend, you could say all four teams were so closely matched that any of them making the Super Bowl would have been good choices… and arguably, the Saints and Chiefs. Now that would have been a great game.
Reid Em and Weep
Sure, if Dee Ford lines up in the right spot, the Chiefs are getting ready for the Rams right now and our whole discourse is 180. In that case, Charvarius Ward is a hero, Reid is a genius and Patrick Mahomes is a God. Since he did line up out of place, we must examine why the Chiefs were put in a position to lose.
My wild realization about this game is: it was one of the worst playoff blowouts ever… but the Chiefs almost won it. There’s also a fatalistic view going around town which I don’t buy into. One that says: the Chiefs were eventually going to lose, no matter what. That’s just the negativism born out of the experience of old habits rearing their ugly head, and I won’t go there.
The AFC Championship was lost by the Chiefs because: Andy Reid made no changes to his game plan from the time the two teams first played in the 6th week of the season… and since then Bill Belichick made every change possible.
If the Kansas City Chiefs organization wants accountability, they need to take a good long hard look at that fact alone. Here’s how.
The Hunt For Red February
Chiefs fans want more than anything for their team to be playing in February… and win. To do that, will not only take winning a Lamar Hunt trophy in January, but it may take a tougher Hunt (Clark) at the helm. Sometimes your strength is your weakness. Clark Hunt is a nice guy. No one will question that. However, it raises the question as to whether or not he can be a tough boss and say the right things to his employees — in this case Andy Reid — and demand a change. Or else. On one hand it is unfathomable to me that coach Reid made no changes from the early Pats game, to this one. Is it unforgivable? No, but it’s nearly football treason. It’s like having a tire blowout on your car… then putting the same tire back on that vehicle unfixed and handing the keys over to your teenage daughter to drive. You just don’t do that. Ever.
So… can Clark Hunt ask the necessary but tough questions in a yearly review of his most important employee, Andy Reid, to make sure he doesn’t repeat the same mistakes he seems willing to repeat again and again in these situations. Here’s Reid after the game:
“So they blitzed about every down, played man coverage. They were able to get home a little bit on some of their games. So we made a few adjustments at halftime and came back, I probably should have done it earlier. That’s my responsibility so I’ll take that.”
“I probably should have done it earlier.” Are you kidding me? When your team is the number one scoring offense in the league and you’re throwing up a zero burger on the scoreboard throughout the first half… at what point do you have to realize… “I need to make a few adjustments?” Since Andy Reid appears incapable of changing his stripes… maybe his boss can help with a change of costume by threatening a change of scenery. I know that’s what helps most of your average everyday workforce employees.
I don’t want excuses, I want to see the change. Period. Don’t try and sweet talk the public anymore. We’re sick of it. Besides, we’re in the middle of the 35 stages of grief so don’t blow smoke up there. It’s closed for business.
BTW… Dee Ford says “I’d love to be back” and he also says he’d like to change the way things turned out by making a difference next year. See now Andy… that’s the kind of change and accountability I’m talking about.
Back From The Future
I’m not ready to talk about the future quite yet. I don’t want to hear statements about the greatness of Patrick Mahomes (yet) and that he’ll eventually lead the team to glory. I’m not ready to talk about what needs fixing on the defense and even whether or not Reid will eventually fire Bob Sutton. It’s all too soon for me. Besides, if the real problem doesn’t get fixed — that being Andy Reid’s huge non-preparation gaff — then none of these changes will help at all in the future.
Perhaps Andy Reid can believe he can just outrun his problems… but it won’t work. Many of his peers and coaching tree buddies thought he should have taken a year off after he was fired as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles but he didn’t. Why? Because… to hear them tell it now… “he was a head coach through and through and that’s all he knew how to be.” I’m suggesting, that’s not enough. Reid had gone through a year in which he lost one of his sons and was dealing with having two sons arrested within a 24 hour period. I get it… a very difficult time. However, coaching was likely a way to bury his head in the sand… a pattern he has now repeated in his on-field coaching experience, when emotions, and the stakes, were at their highest.
Do I believe that Andy Reid should quite coaching? No. Not at all, but I would like to see him step back away from the game for a month… re-evaluate his own life… then return with a fresh perspective. Unless he does that, I’m afraid there’s a high probability he’ll repeat the mistakes he’s already known to repeat. Just ask any Philly fan.
Oh, and Clark, you could help with getting that change started.
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