Chiefs: Finally, a Team Persona!

Chiefs: Finally a Team Persona! – Chiefs fans, pundits and analysts, struggled during Thursday’s game to keep a game face on. We had labored all week, and perhaps three, trying to figure out what was wrong with the Chiefs. Finally we came, and saw, and believed, because of a an injury to the “Maestro”… and the team responded. We saw all the ways different players could rise and play the game and how it melded and welded one to another in a different way than they had come together and talked the talk. This game showed the players on defense, that they could play for one another and find that mystical thing we often call team identity: or team persona.

We had not seen that, ever in the Steve Spagnuolo era as a Chief.

But Spagnuolo appeared to get in sync with the players and then, the players got in sync with him. He had seen them play and understood how each man could fit and that is the defense that he brought to the table for Thursday Night’s game versus the Broncos.

It took time. Many thought six games. I thought four but the moment it arrive, you could see it and feel it at the same time.

Then there was a tightening cinch and the result was amazing, but I don’t think that the defense players are or were the problem at all, what I think was the problem was this is all new and a different defense. When you get down to the base defense switching up and out the 34. But that’s not even why it takes so long. It takes time to buy in… to go all out… and figure it out… along with the players, that is part of it.

That is what changed: Team Persona.

When Pat Mahomes went down to injury, then they didn’t get soft: they got tougher. All it took was something to bind them, like a cowboy cinching up the saddle and the horse breathing in and filling it’s lungs. A simple knee to the belly, the air is released and two more notches in the cinch are taken and fastened up. That is how they mounted up and rode the Broncos with a will and a mastery.

They played like the … ah… the old Pittsburgh Steelers always played… like the old bad guys out west that wear silver and black… and like the Chiefs back in the days with Buck and Willie. It was a good thing to see.

But you could see it. Gang tackling, total hustle, total commitment to winning a game when their man at the helm was no longer able to play. Suddenly the Broncos had nowhere to go. Nowhere to run.

All of players bought in. They finally got it. Now it’s up to them to keep it but the defense gave the team part of the team “Identity” to go along with the other side of the ball that had been heroes for a year and 6 games. Until then it wasn’t possible. Until then, they had doubts, and until all the players were in place, you couldn’t say much positive.

Finally they arrived o the same page but, the defense players led the locker room Cheer: “How About them Chiefs!”

We were forgetting the change, all the new players, a new coaching staff and I was waiting for the players to gel. It appears that is took steps by leaps and bounds. We began to assign blame and panic.

Things changed Thursday night.

I am not saying that they do as well as a top ten defense but, they will move up the board now. I suggested in earlier pieces that they would make it to the top fifteen, and now they might. Because they now know that a load can be placed on their collective should and they will bear up.

But now it’s Monday.

Pat Mahomes is sitting out to clear up the contusions from his dislocated kneecap and we have Matt Moore as the QB but have a move yet to find a #2 QB for him. Now we have a “mini” bye from having played on Thursday. Ten days to heal up and rest and then get ready to go.

In what would have been a super game to watch playing Green Bay with their both homeboy Aaron Rodgers playing on the same field with Patrick Mahomes in 6 days… that is not to be however. Pat Mahomes has been immediately ruled out for Sunday, the 27th. This does not mean, however, that the Chiefs will automatically lose. I believe they will take the field with purpose and get after it from the outset. A couple of players will return from the injured list.

Next Sunday, it will be the Chiefs and Packers. They will take the gloves off and go ten rounds. The Chiefs, sans Mahomes, is how it goes down but as on any given Sunday, the two clubs face off, missing key players and work to get a game in the book as a win.

Obviously KC’s a Miracle Light

Obviously the Packers will sport Rodgers but they are missing two receivers and Jones whas two starts and he has two 100 yard games back to back. Their defense has come together just fine they say, thank you very much.

So, if the Packers know they have the tools with their own maestro leading them them, they too will play with a passion. But they too are missing key pieces: 2 wideouts and a couple of running backs. Aaron has had a tough time finding receivers running proper routes and he was under pressure last week when they played Detroit and had to come from behind and win their game in the last moments. They have had a running back step up from the support players. For two weeks in a row Aaron Jones has had two 100 yard plus games and a young Wide Receiver, Allen Lazard who was not even on the depth chart, came through for Rodgers in the waning moments on that last drive.

The Chiefs defense will have to step up again Sunday. When that day arrives it will test their mettle and challenge them because the Packers a good team. and they too are working to build a team Persona.

Spagnuolo’s Warriors, the Chiefs Defenders need to step up and play football well against a top level team. It’s up to them to meet the challenge.

Get it Done Chiefs. After all, they say it will be three+ weeks recovery time for your quarterback. The Chiefs schedule will be: the Pack, the Vikings, the Titans, the Chargers, and then the Bye. I don’t want to lose games. I don’t want to miss the playoffs.

David Bell — ArrowheadOne

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