Josh Kingsley
I made my annual pilgrimage to Arrowhead this past weekend. The goal is to catch a game every season, and I am batting about .600 on the feat. Many of my college friends live in KC, and it’s close enough to link with my parents half the time too. It all just works out well. Typically, I let the season start, check the calendar, and pick the best match-up. This particular game materialized early. My buddy Anthony is a huge Titans fan, and Arrowhead was on his list. He has been there before…last year AFC Championship. We agreed solidarity in the fact both our teams lost to the Bengals in the playoffs, and moved on to planning this one.
Quick side note about Anthony. He is a Chicago guy. Sports spent most of the time in the background when he was growing up. A several years ago we pulled him into the OPL (great future story alert) series of fantasy leagues. This is a collective of college and various work friends over the past 10+ years, and we do baseball, football, hockey and basketball. Anthony won immediately and has multiple titles in multiple sports. So why is a Chicago kid a Titans fan? Well, he picked up Tannehill and won football his first season in the league. The Bears suck so he didn’t have a team. That drew him to the Titans, and they hooked him immediately. Tough teams are his jam and the Titans possess that in spades.
Assembling the Crew
We based at my buddy Jeff’s place for the weekend. This is the guy with the girls my daughter’s age and the pool in his back yard. Chris from the Austin trip, Drew from the SKC playoff and Matt “Billa” (new character alert) rounded the crew. Saturday was a hang out kind of day. The only real plans were to smoke some meat for fajitas and link up with Dan (more on that later). I made a run to Lawrence to drop my kids with my mom, and Jeff and Anthony made the shopping trip. The idea came up of pairing some tequila with fajitas. This prompted the tequila talk, and by that I mean we all told our bad night with tequila stories. We all have one, and it follows the same rough path:
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• It was a fun night out
• We decided to take some shots
• I had too many
• And I can no longer drink tequila
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The most common offender is Cuervo or some cheap stuff, and this story almost never involves good stuff. People don’t typically overdo it on Patron or actual quality tequila. I realized something past weekend: cheap tequila is straight up slander. Well made, craft, small batch tequila is an incredible spirit, and most people overlook it. Mostly because some rot gut concoction masquerading under the name tequila smeared it’s reputation through the…we’ll go with mud. It’s tragic.
That Kid Drop Off
I mentioned making a trip to drop the kids. My hectic schedule is a consistent theme, but sometimes I outdo myself. This is one of those times. Here is the list of events I am currently managing in a small window:
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11/3: head out for KC
11/6: CHIEFS game
11/7: back to Des Moines for a work dinner
11/8: industry conference
11/9: fly out of Chicago to Jamaica
11/14: fly to Orlando and wedding service dinner
11/15: wedding service conference
11/16: Disney and work dinner
11/17: full day work team meeting
11/19: head to Hays for Thanksgiving
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That is a 2 week period largely away from home. The kids’ teachers worked with us to allow remote school work for the 2 weeks. My parents took that task and have my kids until we head back to Hays for Thanksgiving. Times like this I am simply thankful for the support. And questioning my sanity.
Linking Up With Dan
Anthony, Chris and I dashed out Saturday night for a couple beers with Dan. I met Dan through a co-worker who noticed all the CHIEFS stuff on my wall during a Zoom call. Said co-worker’s husband went to school with Dan. Who is Dan? Short answer: he runs the scoreboard displays at Arrowhead. The long answer is here. Dan and I have traded texts since that interview, and it was great to finally meet in person.
That Arrowhead Awesomeness
I have been to Arrowhead many times, but always find myself in awe. The sheer size of the spectacle is impressive, and time away allows one to forget. Add the Indy trip to the grand reiteration: Arrowhead is the mecca of tailgate. For this one we loaded up a cooler of beer, chatted with the parking neighbors, and then took off walking. The longest stop was the Lot J tailgate, which is the party time stop of choice. They always have loud music, good food, and a healthy crowd. However, the highlight of my tailgate time was right before I walked in the door. I have a tendency to focus on a path and destination, and then block the rest out. It is certainly efficient, but I am sure I miss fun details from time to time. Something broke that focus this time.
Just outside the gate was a last pitch for 50/50 raffle. A guy in glasses and uniformed lady were pressing fans to join the fun and cause. I had no intention in buying tickets, but something clicked that made me look at them. This happened so perfectly as I focused on the guy, who I suddenly recognized. I walked up bought my tickets and asked a quiet how you been. My YouTube show started a couple years ago, and by sheer luck an early interview was with Christian Okoye. It was great to meet him in person and share a brief conversation. He is such a pleasant, cool guy, and I am glad I took the time to recognize him. About 100 passed by without a glance during this short interaction. If they only knew…
A Battle of Strengths
Newton’s third law of motion states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There also the old cliché about unstoppable forces meeting unmovable objects. That is my overall reaction to the game I watched last Sunday. The CHIEFS ran 91 plays in the role of unstoppable force. However, the Titans D was our very up to the task role of unmovable objects. The Titans front 4 is world class and dead set on preventing any semblance of a rushing attack. CHIEFS running backs combined for 14 (checks the box score), yes 14 rushing yards. Mahomes ran the ball 6 times for 63 yards, and threw the ball 68 times. Remember that time I compared Brady throwing 52 times to a Todd Helton at bat? I meant it at the time, but find this situation different.
What Did We Actually Watch?
I sum up this match-up as teams equal opposites. The CHIEFS biggest strength is passing the ball, and the Titans is running it. The Titans D builds from the line and are great stopping the run. As mentioned before they allowed 14 traditional rushing yards.
Mahomes got loose a few times, which were all important, but the running backs remained fully contained. Our CHIEFS D improves on the weekly, and played a strong second half in this one. Overall, we watched the exact game the Titans and Mike Vrabel wanted to play, which was a gritty street fight to the death. The Titans came armed with brass knuckles in the form of their D line, and knives in the form of their gashing running backs.
The problem for the Titans is that Patrick Mahomes brought a gun to the knife fight, and none of the witnesses at Arrowhead are talking.
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It is easy to find frustration with this game. Pick on members of the O-Line. Target the running backs and line for lack of true rushing attack. Lash out at Andy Reid for his offensive game plan. Rekindle the “Fire Spags” narrative for the first half.
Have at it all to your heart’s content. It should be clear by now that I am a CHIEFS optimist. Therefore, it should not surprise that I do not go this direction.
The Art of Making It Happen
Another cliché alert: this felt like a playoff game. It’s a cliché because it is the comment after every close game for 2.5 seasons running. The Kansas City CHIEFS have a target on their backs. Everyone wants to slay the dragon. All opposing fans are looking forward to the CHIEFS demise. Massive factions of the non-Nick Wright national media are licking their chops to stick a fork in the entire operation. My PSA:
Embrace the horror y’all, cause it ain’t happening.
I sat in Arrowhead last Sunday night and watched a good football game. The Tennessee Titans came to town motivated, locked, loaded, and they made their presence known. Our CHIEFS did something we have pined for as fans for the majority of my life: won a game like this. Patrick Mahomes did something we all swore we’d kill to see: put a team on his back and win a game.
Sunday’s effort wins just about every horror story of a game in the CHIEFS torrid playoff history. Do I wish we had a running game and Butker had his act together? Absolutely. Am I content living in the moment and enjoying a current #2 seed? 100%. Do I expect that to be a #1 by the end of the season? Yep!! What I really hope is that happens as a result of the impending dog fight of an AFC East, and not a Josh Allen UCL tear. The league is better with him in it.
Final Game Take
The potential Allen injury and Brady comment about the 50+ passes caused true reflection. I did mean everything when writing about Brady, and the load Mahomes took is somewhat concerning especially given the Allen situation. My hope is to never see another Mahomes 60+ throw game again, but I am glad to have seen this one from the stands. That performance was a Jordan flu game-esque poetry game. A dude on top of his game cementing his legacy as the Reaper. Death followed the Titans back to Nashville. They are a good team, and Denver is paying the price for all of this, this coming Sunday. Good luck Russ.
As for Reid and the pass heavy offense? It really is his brand at this point. Good, bad, right, wrong this is what we are: a passing team. Criticism is fair in this vein, but it doesn’t change reality. The CHIEFS are dying on the passing hill. Good thing we have Patrick Mahomes. I love the movie, “The Usual Suspects” where there is a scene towards the end and the final battle is being established. Gabriel Byrne as Dean Keaton instructs Kevin Spacey as Verbal Kent to stay off the boat. He further instructs Kent to find his girlfriend/lawyer, Edie. His final instruction is to “tell her I tried.” Reid tried to run the ball. It didn’t work. He resorted to what he knows: shooting the place up with his favorite weapon, Patrick Mahomes.
Media of the Week
I love “Weird Al” Yankovic. His new movie “Weird” is incredible. Watch it immediately.
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Happy Veterans Day
Veterans Day is tomorrow. I have more friends and family than I can count, so I will not list names at the risk of missing someone. All the best from me to the members of the military community. We are the land of the free because of the brave.
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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne and Arrowhead Kingdom
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