David Bell
I was thinking of trap games and if there were any on the Chiefs schedule for 2023? This came to my attention because someone called the game at the Vikings a “Trap Game” and I don’t think that game was a trap game. It is a game against a capable opponent that could go either way, yes. But… that is not a trap game. It is a game on the schedule against a capable team where the Chiefs play on the road, but a trap game? No.
I was discussing this with Laddie Morse on Friday as I drove on my way to Houston to visit my son Ian. He mentioned that a trap game is one where you are looking beyond the upcoming game to the next opponent, and I agree with that. Thinking back to the 2022 season, we both pointed to the game at Indianapolis last year. It was early in the season, Week Three. The game was one that the Chiefs should have won as the Colts finshed the season 4-and-12-and-1. However, we lost the game. It was a road game, but that was not the factor that made it a “Trap Game.” What do I think it was? The Chiefs were complacent believing that the game was a sure win and the players were looking at the game beyond when they would face a contender –> the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Imprecise Definition of a “Trap Game”
There is no set precise definition of what constitutes a “trap” game. A game in which a playoff contender faces a losing team, but one that still has some motivation for playing hard, and possesses some matchup advantages. It also encompasses the idea that on any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team.
Here is a link to an article about trap games called, “What is a Trap Game?” that claims:
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“A trap game is when a stronger opponent overlooks a weaker opponent and the weaker opponent overcomes adversity potentially winning the game. This especially happens when the stronger team is on their home turf with their fans behind their backs. They get too comfortable!”
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Is that enough? So, thinking of what I had read, I made the judgment that Sunday’s game, vs the Vikes was not a Trap Game, but was a game that the Chiefs could lose. Why? The game is one that the Vikings had to win or they might end their whole season early. The Vikings were a 13-game winner in 2022. They are currently 1-4, now that KC has beat them, and 3rd in the NFC North. However, falling to 1-4, looks pretty bad for an outlook the rest of the way.
The Vikings Competition
The Detroit Lions are streaking and a very good team. The Green Bay Packers are perennially at the top of the contender list. The Chicago Bears are not going to be a factor, but after the Vikings faced the Chiefs, they are to meet the Bears, followed by the 49ers. As I see it, the Vikings may have a “Trap Game” when they face the 1-4 Bears on 10/15. Why? They know that they are facing the 49ers the very next week, perhaps the best team in the NFC who are now 5-0 and tied with the with the Eagles, holding the exact same record in the NFC East. The Bears game is one that the Vikings could anticipate a win and be looking to the week beyond. That makes the Bears game one with the potential characteristics of a “Trap Game.”
Note: If you’re wondering, the Vikes Bye Week doesn’t come until Week 13 for them, and that’s pretty darn late.
The good thing about the 49ers game for the Vikings is that they are playing them at home. While the game against the Bears is at Soldier Field. The lowly Bears are a team they could overlook while anticipating the game against the 49ers. That is thus, a game characteristic of a “Trap Game.”
See my point? Overlooking a game in which expectations are that it is going to be a win while peeking at a more capable foe the following week. That was not mentioned at all in the “What Is a Trap Game?” article.
The Chiefs 2022 Trap Game
In 2022, the Chiefs played the Colts in week three, a team that they should have beat. It was a September game, early in the season and they lost 17-20. The following week — Week Four — they were facing a tough Tampa Bay Buccaneers Team (a team they had just lost to in the previous year’s Super Bowl). The Colts were not contenders is 2022, but the Bucs were. It appears to me that the Chiefs were looking down the road another week, taking the Colts for granted.
They did win the game at Tampa on the road, 41-31. Dropping the game to the Colts was a tough loss for the season. We all know how things turned out for KC last year, but the game against the Colts fits the construct of overlooking a less capable team and assuming that they would win while peeking at the schedule against a team viewed as a tougher opponent.
Patrick Mahomes observed about the loss at Indianapolis:
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“We have to find ways to get in the end zone, and that starts with me… It [comes down to] little things, and when you’re playing a team like that, you have to execute at a high level. We have to learn from it.”
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Chiefs Face The Broncos Twice and
Both Games Could be a “Trap Game”
The Chiefs players know that Minnesota is capable with a good QB. However, the Chiefs defense held the Vikings to my magic number of 20, plus, the Chiefs won on the road, which as I mentioned above, the Chiefs face the Broncos at home the week following that game, and do so on Thursday. It is possible that this particular game could be a “Trap Game” because the lowly Broncos are 1-4.
Denver faced the 1-3 Jets and lost 21-to-31. The Chiefs have already faced the Jets, who gave them all they could handle. I have not seen the Broncos play in a game yet that I viewed it as being that well played.
It very well could be that the Chiefs face a 1-4 Broncos team in two weeks and then that game is also a “Trap Game.”
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Why the Broncos Game At Home Could Be a Trap Game
The Chiefs could face the lowly Broncos this Thursday evening in what I can see as a potential “Trap Game” because the following week the Chiefs face a good LA Chargers team at Home. That game has the potential for the Chiefs to look down the road at a far more capable opponent. I suppose at this juncture, that after the Chargers game, the Chiefs go on the road to mile high, and play the Broncos for the second time in 2023. That game on the road could also be a trap game because the following week the Chiefs will travel to Germany to face the very capable Miami Dolphins.
After playing the Dolphins, the Chiefs have a Bye Week. That comes at a good time to heal up and finish out the season. Before they travel to Germany, I have predicted the Chiefs will be 7-1. DL Charles Omenihu will have returned to the fold after week 6 (and tomorrow’s game v the Broncos is the last game Omenihu will miss) and the defense continues to play well.
As noted above, the Chiefs D prevailed over the Vikings and held them to my magic number of 20.
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John Madden’s Raiders
When the Raiders faced the Chiefs in the post-season, the game may have become a trap game for John Madden’s Raiders. After all, they had beaten the Chiefs twice and were the most highly touted team of the AFL, but the Chiefs won that hard-fought AFL Championship game by a score of 17-7. The Chiefs went on to play the Vikings in the last game of the AFL… before the merger. Bud Grant was one of the winningest Head Coaches in the NFL and the Vikings were highly favored, but the Chiefs Defense literally overpowered the mighty Vikings and capped that by physically capping Joe Kapp’s career. He would play 2 more ineffective seasons before ending his career (for other teams than the Vikings, by the way).
The betting odds saw Minnesota very highly favored. Keep in mind that most of the NFL fans believed that the AFL was inferior to the NFL, even after Joe Namath proved them wrong in 1968. At the same time, Len Dawson’s name was mixed in with rumors that he was involved with organized gambling and organized crime figures in Kansas City. That was an incentive for him and the Chiefs at the same time. Kansas City whipped the Vikings 23-7 and one of the most memorable plays of Otis Taylor’s career (0:25).
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In the 4th Quarter, the Chiefs were leading the Vikings 16-7. The game was close enough that the Vikings still saw daylight, and then Otis Taylor scored the last TD for any AFL team. Taylor caught a pass in the flats, broke a tackle, and ran down the sideline, stiff-arming a defender for the score that wrapped up what we now know as Super Bowl IV.
This AFL victory was the 2nd win by the inferior AFL in the Championship Games between the AFL and the NFL (before it was called the Super Bowl). Recall, that the Chiefs lost to the Green Bay Packers of Vince Lombardi in the first playoff between the two leagues followed by the Raiders losing to the Packers again the following year. Then, in 1969, the Jets faced the powerful Baltimore Colts and Joe Namath guaranteed a victory for the Jets then made it happen. One year later, Len Dawson led the Chiefs to the win in 1970 which closed the door on the old AFL as the leagues merged in 1970.
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The Big ‘OTE’ Aside
The above example from 1970, brings me to another aside and the travesty that Otis Taylor is not in the NFL HoF.
In some manner and form, I wish the leagues had not joined. I miss the battles for draft picks which were highly entertaining themselves. Otis Taylor’s name figures prominently in the stories about the competition for draft picks between the two leagues. Taylor was coveted by the Dallas Cowboys who attempted to hide him away from the AFL recruiters and scouts.
This brings into play, Lloyd Wells, the first Black NFL Scout (who scouted for the Chiefs) who poached him. Wells figured in scouting of small black colleges to find players for the Chiefs and later sat in with Mohammed Ali’s corner, also an important history. That story about Wells and Otis Taylor is a great one too! I wrote a piece 4 years ago here at ArrowheadOne called, “Chiefs: Revisiting a Sad Day in Houston – Lloyd Wells Passes” and you can follow the link to read it.
You can also watch a a video of the 4th Super Bowl, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2UfHvXdmHQ
I think it is a travesty that Otis Taylor is not in the NFL HoF. Vincent Turner covered Taylor in a podcast, here (10:16):
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Let’s hope that the loss in 2022 in Indianapolis was a hard lesson learned, that it is applied by the Mahomes led Chiefs for any future potential “Trap Games” of 2023 and seasons beyond.
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David Bell — ArrowheadOne
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