Chiefs Punch Us All in the Nether-Regions
Laddie Morse
Nearly 20 years ago now, my daughter Erin Rose got married. It was a glorious day. Except for one very unexpected thing. At the reception/dinner afterwards, a group of my son-in-law’s buddies were in their trickster-prankster mode and went around to many of the male guests and said: “Got Game?” and simultaneously punched them in the nether regions. When it came to me, I didn’t expect a thing and I found myself doubled over in pain not knowing what had hit me. That’s the point here, I totally didn’t expect the Chiefs to hit me in the nether regions unexpectedly, either. But they did.
I had predicted the Chiefs would beat the Colts 35-to-21, but I never expected this kind of pitiful performance on the Chiefs part either.
The final score was Colts 20 and the Chiefs 17. Not until now have I thought that maybe the Chiefs made the wrong decision in trading away WR Tyreek Hill. In fact, my thinking about which teams in the NFL were top tier and which teams weren’t needs to be re-evaluated as well. The first three weeks of this season is making me re-evaluate the Chiefs schedule too, which teams will be tough, and which will be tougher. While this loss moves the Chiefs to 2-and-1, the Chargers lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars to move to 1-2-1. In fact, the AFC West currently looks like a bottom dwelling division instead of one of the best in the NFL. Go figure.
The First Half
I’ve become so accustomed to the Chiefs falling behind early in the game, that I have come to acknowledge that they’ll –> come back and win, even if it’s late in the game. That didn’t happen this week and even though they were up by the score of 14-to-10 it also felt like they were losing… to a bad team. Even though the Colts were stopped by the Chiefs defense and forced to punt on a 3-and-out, a Skyy Moore fumble recovered by the Colts ended up in an Indy TD three plays later.
Not to worry. Right? Wrong, I should have been worrying, and Steve Spagnuolo and Andy Reid should have been re-thinking their game plans as well as the players they were putting on the field because the very next time the Colts punted, Skyy Moore chose not to field the ball and it rolled to the one yard line.
Three plays later, the Chiefs had to Punt out of their own end zone.
Special Teams were a disaster all day. Replacement kicker Matt Ammendola missed the Chiefs first point-after which made the score, Chiefs 6 and Indy 7 at the end of the first quarter.The Chiefs scored another TD including a two-point conversion and the Colts scored a FG to bring the score to 14-to-10 at halftime.
The Second Half
The Chiefs received the second half kick off and drove the length of the field, but had to settle for a field goal. Unfortunately, that was all the scoring the Chiefs would do the rest of the game. Now, that was unexpected. The Colts followed up the Chiefs FG with a FG of their own then had a 16-play drive. At one point, the Chiefs Defense had forced a three-and-out, but CJ Jones was flagged for taunting:
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That drive by the Colts finished in a TD leaving Patrick Mahomes with 24 seconds to go. No problem I thought. Except, there was one more punch to the nether regions: an INT, which essentially ended the game. So, I guess Mahomes doesn’t, “Got Game” … well, not that kind of game.
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Play Before Halftime Conversation
Here’s what the play before halftime led to: a heated conversation between OC Eric Bieniemy and QB Patrick Mahomes:
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HC Andy Reid said after the game that it “wasn’t” a heated conversation and that Mahomes just wanted to go for it, and Eric Bieniemy was done. Of course, that’s what Andy Reid says, as we know he’s not going to throw anyone under the buss by making a revealing remark about that conflict.
The viewpoint which may be forgotten is: with so little time left, even if they could get into FG position, do they really want to run their kicker (Matt Ammendola) out there and give away more momentum going into the half if he misses it (which seems likely)?
Play of the Game
The Colts Jelani Woods scored two TDs during this game but it was the second one that gave the Colts their margin of victory:
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Pivotal Point in the Game
When Chris Jones drew a personal foul call that sustained the Colts drive and kept the Chiefs defense on the field instead of exiting with a three-and-out…
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Player of the Game (Chiefs)
The Chiefs have to give a game ball (defensively) to Darius Harris. Harris had 13 tackles plus a tackle for a loss (TFL).
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Tweet of the Game
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Tweet of the Game (Runner Up)
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Quote of the Game
“Mahomes is 45-2 against teams
that score fewer than 26 points.
Both losses are to the Colts.”
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Song of the Game
Here’ the song that seems to capture the heart and soul of this game: “Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road” by Loudon Wainwright III
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Running Back the Running Back Picks
In the 2020 NFL Draft, the Kansas City Chiefs took RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire wit the 32nd pick in the draft. Nine picks later, the Indianapolis Colts selected RB Jonathan Taylor. In Sunday’s match, CEH had zero yards on 7 carries with 5 catches for 39 yards receiving. Taylor had 21 carries for 71 yards (3.4 YPC) and 20 receiving yards on 3 catches. Taylor is the bigger back and last year he was the RB of the year with 1,811 rushing yards. CEH had 119 yards rushing. Did Veach make a mistake? Maybe. Probably. It looks like it so far.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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