Chiefs: Playoff and Super Bowl Tidbits – Let’s begin with player’s Super Bowl Injury Status: Le’Veon Bell, Sammy Watkins, are ready to play football. Eric Fisher and Mitch Schwartz are out – Fisher with an achilles tendon injury and Schwartz with the back injury. Mitch hasn’t technically been ruled out yet, but Reid didn’t sound as if the situation was a positive one. We don’t have a report yet on the status of Willie Gay Jr. for the big game, but he was limited in practice yesterday. Both Sneed and Fenton will be ready to play, both with head. In his Injury Report. Reid said it looked good for both players. Also, Andrew Wylie will play at ROT, Mike Remmers at LOT. There you have it. It’s all good but our bookend OT’s are out. That hurts.
What Frank Clark Said
”So glad to get to do it again. Thought a lot about my dad tonight, thought about my family and how excited my father would have been that we got to do it again in Arrowhead Stadium. That’s what he would have liked the most about it.”
I am a large supporter of Clark Hunt. I went to the Titan’s game in 2016 at Arrowhead. It was frigid. If you recall this game, the Chiefs lost it on a FG made by Former Chiefs PK Ryan Succop. It was a 53-yard heartbreaker. As I entered Arrowhead, Clark Hunt was out front greeting fans. He asked me how long I had been a Chiefs fan and I explained since the beginning. He and I chatted a moment and he asked me the last time I had been at Arrowhead. I told him, 1978. It was a long time ago. I moved from KC to North Carolina as a corporate transition to the Technical System/370 world that year. I had bought a home at about 85th and Euclid for $20,000 and sold it 11 months later for $7k more. I built a home on a greenway in North Raleigh for more than 10 times the cost of that simple 3 bedroom ranch home in KC, it was just off the Paseo, upon which I maneuvered to my employer across from Hallmark Cards. I still loved the Chiefs through all my moves. Through all the awful seasons after 1972. After Lenny, we needed a franchise QB. Instead, in 83, we got Todd Blackledge. Heavens how time flies. I loved the Chiefs when I met Mr. Hunt. I love them still. In fact, I guess you can say that I am a frantic NFL Fanatic too.
That day versus Titan’s, the game started off at “0” degrees. The cold was relentless. I had to walk in place to keep my feet warm the whole game. It’s incredible to think about Clark Hunt being out front with no hat in an overcoat and gloves. He is, in my estimation, one tough cookie. He rose in my esteem about 75 notches that day, just because of that brief interlude.
How Andy Heck’s Offensive Line
Survives on A Shoestring
Let’s face it, we’re going into Super Bowl LV without our dependable book-end Offensive Tackles: Eric Fisher and Mitchell Schwartz. It is for this reason that the acquisitions made by GM Brett Veach become critical. Start with Lucas Niang in the 2020 draft and go from there. With neither Eric Fisher or Mitchell Schwartz being available in Tampa, suffering from an Achilles injury and a nagging back problem, and both are in their 30s, it is beyond time to draft another OT to consider replacing one or both. It could be that they’re able to play in 2021, but with the Achilles, Fisher is very likely to miss a whole season before getting back to the field. Mitch Schwartz who has been so dependable, week in and week out, missed most of the 2020 season.
And now for… the rest of the story.
Before this season, I would have been panicked to beat the band without these two stellar OTs. However, we’ve seen Mike Remmers turn in solid performances at ROT and now he is moved to LOT. We’ve also seen Andrew Wylie perform well at OT – probably better than he has done at OG — on the limited sample basis. Andy Reid and Andy Heck have utilized the players extremely well with injuries plaguing the front five nearly all season. Veach went out and acquired Mike Remmers due to the deficiency of experience at the OT tackle position – because the likely penciled in Swing Tackle, Lucas Niang, sat out the season due to the Covid-19 program. Niang will return to the Chiefs in 2021 and start his rookie contract.
I should point out that last season, Stefan Wisniewski was brought aboard for similar reasons. The Chiefs wanted to retain him, but Stefan wanted to return to home territory of Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, the Steelers were not as loyal to him as he was to them, but that’s how Brett Veach re-acquired Wisniewski. That is a solid move itself because Wiz is versatile and can play inside or outside.
Does that mean the offensive line is operating on a shoestring budget? Yes it does, when you take into account the cost of the starting Offensive Tackles, somewhere near $20M per. The Chiefs made a solid move in acquiring free agent Guard Kelechi Osemele and he was playing top notch football until he was injured. Andrew Wylie and Austin Reiter are still “youngsters.” They will in all likelihood be part of the 2021 equation. When Kelechi was injured, the LOG became the exposed position, they still did not have Martinas Rankin back so things looked dour indeed. When Osemele was brought on board, it was essentially at the vet minimum of just over $1M. The Chiefs believed that they were set on their front side.
Then player after player fell to the wayside.
Keep in mind that starting ROG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif was the very first player to Opt out due to the Covid-19 outbreak. His decision was based on his medical training and he has spent his time supporting the public, especially the aged who are affected by the virus. So, along with Lucas Niang, LD-T, Osemele, Schwartz and now Fisher, the offensive line is down three of their starting five and if you include the fact that Niang was probably slotted to become the SW/T, it is down four of the starting six (The SW/T can be compared to the 6th man in the NBA with the 7th being the first Interior Offensive lineman into the game if a starter goes out).
In this latter case, the Chiefs try to insure player versatility on the interior, including having players who can play the center position.
At any rate, between Veach, Andy and Andy, the offensive line may not be a masterpiece, but it has performed well, on a shoestring budget even though it’s a group of players held together with duct tape and twine. In my view, the offensive line is the week link heading into Super Bowl and next season, but they have performed well thus far in the playoffs.
The Chiefs Super Bowl Defense
We don’t have to reach very high with superlatives to comment about the commendable job DC Steve Spagnuolo has done with the defense. It was ranked as a middle of the road outfit by PFF, but something happened on Sunday at Arrowhead and it was a force to contend with.
Spagnuolo knew that the Bills didn’t have a running game. The Bills rookie RB’s season was finished a couple of weeks before this contest. What was set up was a frustrating day for Josh Allen whose previous outing against a Chiefs team occurred on the 6th weekend of the season. That was Allen’s worsts game, to that point. In the AFC Championship game Allen was frustrated all game long. He ended up with 287 yards in the aerial game and was so upset that he threw the ball at Alex Okafor’s head after being sacked, late in the game. That ball, a friend and another writer for ArrowheadOne, Michael Travis Rose, offered: “Was his most accurate throw of the day.” If it had been a harder toss, it might have stuck in the facemask. That caused a series of penalties, far more by the Bills than the Chiefs, the result though, was offsetting. Allen lost his cool, as did several of the Bills players and a couple of Chiefs. Patrick Mahomes acted as the peacemaker in the succeeding plays. It showed tremendous poise on the part of the soon to be G.O.A.T..
The Chiefs Defense “turned it up a notch” at the tail end of the Browns Game. It was like flipping the proverbial switch (thank you Alan Haupt). Throughout the game against the highly touted Bills, the Chiefs pass rush affected Josh Allen. The Chiefs picked off passes, hit Allen on numerous occasions, had two, perhaps 3 more opportunities for interceptions and they were a general nuisance all the way round. If I were a Bills Mafia fan, I would take great heart, Allen had a terrible day, but he emerged as a contender and a top QB in the NFL in 2020. It appears to me that the Bills will be trying to one-up the Chiefs from this point on.
The G.O.A.T. Who Always Be: Len Dawson
Here I refuse to every make light of what Len Dawson did for the Fledgling team in the 60s. He will always remain in my heart as a great leader and the G.O.A.T. that ruled at the head of a stellar cast from 1963 onward. So tip of the hat to Lenny. I will never forget all the moments you gave us in your time which was when I became a “Chiefs” fanatic. He was, the symbol of the Chiefs from the start, along with so many men. I could make a list that would fill another four or five paragraphs.
Laddie Morse made a comment on the game Open Thread that: “Juan Thornhill is back!“
This was echoed in an article this morning by Seth Keysor in his piece from “Chiefs of the North” with the title: “Juan Thornhill film review: guess who’s back?” [subscription required]
I don’t think I am going out on a limb when I state that the Chiefs secondary will be extremely effective against the Buccaneers in the upcoming contest. L’Jarius Sneed is playing great football. He has only given up a single pass completion 20 yards deep this season.
Juan Thornhill has returned to form. We were all watching his return expecting immediate greatness, but it was obvious that he was still rounding into form as we watched him, lacking the closing speed he’d exhibited in 2019. Let me tell you that he is back to it with a vengeance. Tyrann Mathieu is the “Rover or Robber” as they say, Daniel Sorensen is making key plays and even Armani Watts has gotten into the picture. When Sneed took a hit to the helmet, Rashad Fenton stepped in and played top notch at CB garnering an INT by being in the right place at the right time. Bashaud Breeland had perhaps his best game as a Chief.
The Chiefs Secondary has demonstrated that Spag’s defense sets can be spoken of as a defensive group that has the “pinache”. Chiefs Kingdom put out a tweet about the pass defense prowess on Tuesday in a tweet that spells trouble for the Bruce Arian’s led Jaguars. And Bruce mentioned that the Chiefs offense was fearsome in a presser… This little Chart explains a lot about why the Chiefs defense is better than PFF’s rating. It is my view that Tom Brady is in for a very tough day. As Arians observed about the KC offense, the Buc’s are playing against a formidable challenge against an offense which features the combination of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill, indicating he was not excited by the challenge.” I would suggest that the Chiefs Secondary play isn’t something he feels confident about either.
About the Chiefs Defense
It is not the easiest play and responsibility set that could be implemented and it requires trust in the process. The players have to trust that the defensive sets will work, that if a zone implementation is called, that the handoffs occur at the right place and time. The Chiefs secondary excels at press man coverage and they implement run hybrids off of this as well, disguising responsibilities and utilizing the ability to read the offense, for players to be playmakers. That is what we are seeing on the field. We might see a safety in the box, a corner drop to safety or see Mathieu take on the most obvious target of the opposing QB. Mathieu, Ward, Sneed and Fenton have played extremely well in stepping up and supporting the run defense.
Something Happened to the Linebackers
Laddie Morse recently wrote: “Must admit when I’m wrong… and Anthony Hitchens is ballin’ out so… somebody needs to put a sock in it, and that someone is me.” I concur, Hitchens is playing really well right now.
A lot of insult has been hurled at Frank Clark. It is misplaced in my view but Clark came away with 2 sacks. He sets a defensive tone and he set’s the edge – Hard. Chris Jones was fit as a fiddle out of the middle and the rest of the defense more than did their jobs. True, the 9 garbage time points were given up, but that was when the Chiefs went into a Prevent Defense to limit big gains, so who am I to offer a critique about that.
Chiefs Offense
Before the contest, I felt the Chiefs would score at least 31. I predicted 31-17. This performance was one of the best of the season for the KC highly potent offense, then they scored 38. If anything is to stop them it appears to be their own miscues. WR Tyreek Hill had 172 yards receiving and TE Travis Kelce had 118 yards with 2 TDs.
The run game was stymied by the Bills, but it didn’t matter. Play after play saw Patrick Mahomes deliver punches to the Bills defense with a superb aerial attack.
In fact, two of the miscues I might mention are passes that you’d expect to be caught by Hill and Kelce both. It almost seems laughable as we think about the AFC Championship game in retrospect.
Overall Impression
The Kansas City Chiefs came to play football and won the Lamar Hunt Trophy handily, certainly more lopsided than the final score. It now seems odd that 2019 was the first time the Chiefs had acquired the trophy. Sunday they retained it. In 2018, a fluke hand in the wrong dirt cost them a Super Bowl appearance. I think back to that moment when Charvarius Ward made the interception only to have it called off because Dee Ford line up with his knuckles in the turf – in the Neutral Zone. I firmly believe that that single game started the momentum which see’s us to the big game for the second year in a row. Go Chiefs!
All roads came through the town adorned in Red across the way. Yeah. I still call it a town though it does not resemble the Kansas City that I recall from having spent so much of my life there. The preceding night to the AFC Championship, I wrote my brother that the rest of the night would be one of little sleep for the off-campus frantic fanatic. There was no reason to fret and toss and turn. Patrick Mahomes had the game in hand and I was my usual self. Frantic with worry that we wouldn’t do it again. After all, I have had more than 50 years of wanting to see the Kansas City Chiefs get back to the Super Bowl. I recognize other fans as having waited the same number of years and they are more aged than I. The Football gods finally peaked out of the clouds and gave us this second opportunity. KC won’t fade. They will win their second Super Bowl in a row. I am confident of that but I also know that the night before the game, I will still fret and worry and toss and turn.
A Final Word
The Chiefs rolled out a top performance versus the Bills and will roll into Tampa on the upside surge. Chiefs win their second Super Bowl in a row: Chiefs 37, Bucs 20 (max).
David Bell – ArrowheadOne
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