I am writing this column on Monday, October 11. It is the afternoon and I have noticed three things today: 1) the sun came up, then immediately went behind clouds… but it is up there, 2) I had work waiting where I left it late last week, and 3) the majority of the sports world is skewering the Chiefs for the season.
The other thing I noticed is the sports world is taking it easy, compared to most Chiefs fans. There is a palpable combination of rage, despair and indignation regarding the team. I don’t view any of it as right or wrong because I understand it all. We as fans rooting for the red laundry — credit Jerry Seinfeld for that reference — and the people who wear it, experience things differently.
Here’s how I have done my day.
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Step Back to Sunday Night
I have to set the scene for today be starting on Sunday night. By now everyone should realize that I will probably not just get to the point — so this slight, relevant detour should be expected — but I spent the day in the Chicago area at a wedding show. One of the many places I spend my time is the wedding and event space. I have been in this world mainly as a DJ for almost 19 years, and it is my true 10,000 hour skill (credit Malcom Gladwell for that reference). The point of the wedding show is to meet as many engaged couples as possible and pitch how I can help make their day awesome. I love wedding shows and am in a good mood after days like that.
The only real snags to the day was my technology grading out as a “B”… which happens, and that I had two injured players on my highest priority fantasy team. My fantasy may actually work out since I put up 150 with 7 players, and we worked through the tech as always. The drive home was fine until it wasn’t and the I-94 turned into a parking lot. This made getting to my watch party impossible since I didn’t get home until 7:15 CDT.
In other news my wife had picked up some Coors Light, so this was shaping into a perfect game to watch at home.
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Game On
I expected a win, and went as far as to pick one in this weekly video I am doing.
However, I also expected a highly motivated Buffalo team to come to Arrowhead looking for blood. I have to also mention that I went to the waiver wires in all of my fantasy leagues — I have 5 since you asked, hehe — looking to pick up E. Sanders and D. Knox, so I expected the Bills to put up yards. Seeing the Chiefs secondary get torched on long plays is nothing new, so that wasn’t surprising either. What I did not expect was to see Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill have their worst NFL games, and I certainly did not expect to hear HC Andy Reid say: I did not expect the bad performance… and… I didn’t see this coming.
I watched this one to the final whistle. My belief is that you don’t leave live games early, especially big ones, as you just never know. I am a bit more relaxed when it comes to watching on TV. My main reason for not turning off the game on Sunday night was believing the Chiefs had a legitimate chance to win until about 5 minutes were left in the game, when the Bills went up 38-20. Keep in mind, that earlier in that exact series, we had an INT erased by a roughing the passer call. The D was bad, but they did get 4 stops and should have had that as a 5th.
While we are at it, the Offense should not have turned the ball over 4 times… but here we are. The Chiefs are 2-3, they are last in the AFC West, and 11th in the AFC overall. The home field tie breakers are gone against the Ravens, Bills and at the moment, the Chargers as well. We have a hill to climb y’all, and at 29.4% of the way through the season, we are correct to start drawing conclusions. I will draw mine, soon.
My Day
I promised to talk about my day, so here we go. It started like normal when I got up, checked the work email, and got the kids around for school. I then did what many do to get going and took a shower. Here is my first note I will throw out: I LOVE artisan, cold process soap. I cannot pinpoint when this became a thing for me, but it was sometime in the past year or so. It is definitely a Covid development, but not directly related. The main attribute I will make is noticing the Dr. Squatch ads on social media. I clicked on one, which meant I got them all the time. It was only a matter of time before I finally said “screw it, I’m buying a $10 bar of soap.” I did the only sensible thing and went on Amazon taking the value option 3 pack.
My bathroom smelled like pine tar for about a week then went on to the next scent I picked. The problem I found was the bar lasted about a week, which made this potential habit quite expensive. My wife strongly urged me to look at alternatives, which I did. I went through some other Amazon options, which are not as enjoyable.
Renaissance Faire Revelations
Fast forward to the late part of summer when I attended the Ren Faire in Bristol, WI. I have not spent a ton of time at a Ren Faire, but I do know fun when I see it. The Faire in Bristol is a blast and I highly recommend it if you’re in the area. The reason I bring this up is it is where I found my new favorite soap. It comes from Cream City Soap of Wauwatosa, WI, which is a Milwaukee area suburb. Milwaukee is known as the cream city for the cream colored bricks featured in the architecture. The cream bricks are so notable that the Milwaukee Bucks added cream to their color pallet. Do yourself a favor and check out this soap.
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The last thing I will say about cold process soap is that I am surprised the movie Fight Club did not start this earlier. That was a big part of the movie and I would have been all in.
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Chiefs Reflections
As I mentioned above there are multiple ways to view the current situation for the team. In my mind, the Chiefs sit in one of these situations:
- Crisis – a team in the midst of a total collapse and lucky to get 4-7 wins, or
- Mediocrity – a middling and mediocre team destined for 7-10 wins, or
- Imminent Rebound – top flight team, finding footing, destined for 11+ wins
I classify myself as a sports optimist, and will ruin the surprise –> that I believe in option 3. However, for the sake of being thorough, I’ll go through the reasons to believe in each:
The Case for Crisis
I have to admit the argument here is compelling. The defense looks horrible, and that is probably a weak superlative to use. The interior line is getting zero pressure, and the edge rush is non-existent. The LB corps are not plugging any running lanes or covering, well, anyone, and the secondary is not providing any coverage. The SNF announcing duo of Al Michaels and Chris Collinsworth took time to point out the Bills D-backs doing a ton of grabbing WRs past the line of scrimmage and hoping no one notices. Plus, that it resembles the Chiefs D-backs. Sorenson got burned again, as is tradition, on the long Dawson Knox TD. Snead, not to be outdone, got burned in spectacular fashion by Emmanuel Sanders.
The worse situation is the offense looking lost. Our Chiefs do not have a running game, and CEH being out with an MCL sprain is not going to make this better. Opposing teams have the defensive formula to beat the Chiefs which is pretty clear at this point: allow for the run knowing they won’t take it, get pressure with a front 4 to allow the secondary to get in place, and bracket Hill or Kelce. This requires the non-Kelce/Hill receivers or RBs to win the games. The problem is, the Chiefs did not ever get around to finding any other weapons that pose a real threat.
he worst part is that the Chiefs leaders looked, off. Mahomes looked reckless and out of sorts. He didn’t seem enthralled with his pocket or choices he has down the field. Mathieu looked generally distraught with his teammates. The play that grabbed my attention most was the long TD to TE Dawson Knox over Safety Daniel Sorenson.
During the replay you could see Mathieu get this disgusted look on his face pretty much as soon as Allen’s eyes went up and arm cocked back. That look told me what he really thinks of his unit. Scary.
The last one was Coach Reid talking about being shocked at how badly the game went. If that was a real comment we have insanely huge problems.
To hit the low end of wins described above would be a massive stain on the Chiefs organization. Winning less than 5 games for our 2012 team made sense. We had the Pioli-Crennel thing coupled with a bad roster. Losing 10+ games with this roster would be simply unacceptable. The best comparison to this level of bad that I can recall, is the Packers disastrously bad 4-and-12 2005 season. Not a read for the faint of heart.
The Case for Mediocrity
I will be very clear about something: for me, this is the worst possible scenario. Bottoming out for a season is just that: a lost season. wasting a second of Patrick Mahomes is a sin, so a lost season would be worthy of worse fates. However, that would also include picking at the top of every draft round, so there is some sort of silver lining. An 8-9 win team leaves the illusion that certain things are okay and a refresh is more in order than a full on rebuild. This is not a good place to be. If you are going to be bad, it is best to buckle up and fly the plane into the mountain.
The Case for an Imminent Rebound
I truly believe we will look back on this season fondly. We are 5 games into the 2021 season and have losses to the teams ranked 1st, 5th, and 7th in the Power Rankings going into week 6.
It is also prudent to add that the 3 losses are to teams that are not only good, but also very snake bitten by Mahomes and the Chiefs in recent seasons. These games were personal for the opposition and just another game for the Chiefs. That mentality obviously needs to change. The Chiefs need to start playing for their playoff lives very week starting this Sunday in Washington. I don’t believe we are quite there yet, but we are getting close. Best to get in that mode now.
I am going to take a moment to defend the Defense as well. There was a solid amount of “just get us 3 stops a game” rhetoric from fans. By my count the D got 4.5 (1/punt, .5/FG – baby steps) stops vs the Bills, which should have been good enough for at bare minimum to place K.C. in a position to win… and it really should have happened.
Two second half back breaking INT killed the winning chance and the fumbled snap was mayo flavored icing on this sardine and jelly bean cake. The D probably cannot be “fixed”… but it can be prodded into aggression, and the second half last night showed that. The Chiefs D did not throw a pick 6 – Tyreek Hill did –> 100% his fault.
What the Defense did do was hold the Bills Offense to a single TD and 3 punts in the second half. What in the holy “H” more do we seriously want or need or expect from them?
Last point I will make here is the TD drive was almost an INT, but was negated by a roughing the passer call that even Allen would not have flagged. No, the Defense is not good, but they are not to blame for the loss to the Bills.
The offense was to blame. Patrick said the right things in the press conference and so did Andy Reid. These guys do not take embarrassment lightly and will correct things starting this Sunday. The D will get healthy and Juan Thornhill will play (I’m pretty sure). Mina Kimes is one of the best sports personalities on TV, and she says the Chiefs will rebound. I’m with her.
I pick the Chiefs to make the playoffs where I will pick them to win every game. My plan is to do so until they win the Super Bowl… or get officially eliminated trying.
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Josh Kingsley — ArrowheadOne
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