Chiefs: The Perfect Storm

By Shawn Sorter

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Shawn has been a Chiefs fan since 1988, the year Neil Smith was drafted by the Chiefs. He was a freshman in high school when K.C. drafted Derrick Thomas the following year and Shawn says, “The Tribe,” as that defense was sometimes called, was just so much fun to watch and where the Arrowhead mystique really started.” His father was a long time Chiefs fan and that’s where his love for the team was instilled. Shawn’s father fought cancer for 7 years and hoped to make opening day this season for the Browns game, and although in hospice, they were able to watch the first preseason game against the 49ers together, his father was asleep the entire time. However, according to Shawn, “I’m sure he was listening to parts of it.” Shawn’s father passed away the following Thursday. His father was known around Kansas City as “KCBob” on various message boards and in circles of Chiefs fans.

Shawn is a teacher in Nebraska currently and since leaving Kansas City to go to school at 17 he’s lived in: North Dakota, Michigan and Wisconsin, before moving to Nebraska. Shawn is the Athletic Director at a local school. When I asked him to consider writing for ArrowheadOne after we met on Twitter, Shawn said he thought it sounded fun. Shawn says, “Hopefully you find it fun as well.” 

Please help me welcome Shawn Sorter to ArrowheadOne. –Laddie Morse, Editor, and Chief

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So how did we get here? By “we” I mean, the Kansas City Chiefs and Chiefs Kingdom, so, how are we preparing for week one against the Cleveland Browns with 5 different offensive lineman? To answer that question let’s go back to February 7, 2021. The odds were stacked against the team that most of America believed was by far the best team in football.

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First: More Than Distractions

Imagine that a family member close to you dies, how effective will you be at your job in the coming days? Imagine if a family member commits a crime, one that harms others and will likely result in jail time, will your performance over the next period of time be impacted? If you are human the answer to those two questions is a resounding yes.

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Just days before the Super Bowl when Britt Reid made the decision to drive drunk Chiefs Kingdom got to see first hand the part that a distraction like this can play. At the time I wanted to dismiss it, almost believing that Andy Reid was some mythical character and that his love of football would overcome and he could set this aside and deal with it after the Chiefs hoist another Lombardi trophy, but that was naive. It may have been his worst job coaching yet based on a lack of adjustments, but who can blame him, and imagine his co-workers, coaches and players alike. 

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That team loves Coach Reid. I’m sure most came up to him asking how he was, asking if there was anything they could do, rather than the usual: let’s go get em coach. A 5-year old girl named Ariel still can’t speak or walk, so discussing football seems callus perhaps, but here we are.

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Note: there’s a Go-Fund-Me page for Ariel. Please give Freely.

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Second: Location Placation

Never before had a Super Bowl been played at the home stadium of a home team. It just so happened to be what the stars had lined up. The Chiefs had to travel during Covid to the East coast to play a team that got to wake up in their own beds on Super Bowl Sunday. Once again, knowing how great this Chiefs team was, I dismissed this. The Chiefs destroyed the Bucs earlier in the season and that game was not nearly as close as the final score indicated.

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Since that time I’ve often wondered if the NFL would ever put anything in place to ensure this didn’t happen again. The biggest game on the biggest stage should not have one team having home field advantage. Yet, if this coming season ends up being the Chiefs and Rams we will find ourselves in this position once again.

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Third: The Hurt Locker

The Chiefs played in the Super Bowl missing 5 offensive lineman. Prior to the season LDT and Lucas Niang opted out for Covid.  LDT was a likely starting guard, Niang was in line to be an excellent depth piece at guard or tackle. Kelechi Osemele who was likely signed as a direct result of LDT opting out, blew out both knees on one play. Not sure I’ve ever heard of something like that happening before, but are you really surprised if you followed this team to the end last year? Mitchell Schwartz who was an All Pro Right Tackle was hurt earlier in the season. Likely the biggest blow though was losing Pro Bowl left tackle Eric Fisher during the playoffs.

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We know Patrick Mahomes is the best we have ever seen, but he is just a human made of flesh and bone. This to me was the final blow. Patrick Mahomes’ record with Eric Fisher protecting his blindside was 40-and-6… without Fisher, there he was only 4-and-4. This allowed a solid Tampa front to only rush 4, dropping 7 back, and the rest as we know is history. Add to that Patrick’s mobility being way below normal with a very painful toe — which we now know was turf toe, requiring surgery — and yet still running for a total of 497 yards all over the field and you have the best player most people have ever seen reduced to being a mere mortal.

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Fourth: The Poor Play Buffet

Many of the Chiefs stars picked the same day to have their worst game of the season. A smorgasbord of sorry performances:

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• Kelce dropped a pass thrown right where it needs to be.
• Sammy Watkins had one catch.
• Hardman couldn’t run the correct route, with 2 receptions on 6 targets.
• Tommy Townsend, the new punter with the pretty hair, looked like he was in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, and scared to death. 
• Both Tyreek Hill and Darrel Williams had possible touchdown passes bounce off their face-masks.
• The play to Darrel Williams would have been the best throw in Super Bowl history had it been caught, with Patrick going totally horizontal to the ground and Williams 30 yards away.

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This is just a small taste, and sampling, of the poor play by a number of players who are normally reliable. If everyone brought their “A” game, even with the other things we are discussing, that game could have been very different.

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Fifth: Rough Ref Rift

I’m always amazed how this Andy Reid team is so humble, and so unwilling to make excuses. However, never in the many years I’ve been watching football have I seen a big game so poorly officiated. I’m not saying I have not seen bigger blown calls like, the forward progress one against Tennessee or the no call on the pass interference in the Saints/Vikings game, but just a consistent inability of the officials to do anything but give the Bucs and Brady whatever they wanted. Heck one of the officials reportedly even named her son after Brady.  I’m not interested in hashing out each poor call here, but never have I seen a national media both at halftime or in the days after be so openly critical of the officials. You just never see that. A game that could have easily been 1 score at halftime was not because of what could have been seen as a clear agenda to give the Bucs and Brady every advantage they could get. 

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11 calls on K.C. for 120 yards lost, versus 4 on the Bucs for 39 yards lost, may not seem like a huge discrepancy, but in the first half when the game was in doubt, it was way more lopsided and it seemed like there was no reason for the officials to aid the Bucs any longer down the stretch. At times it even looked like they wanted to pretend they had not helped decide this game. The altercation between Brady and Mathieu was just one such instance where it was clear the officials were not without bias.

[Stats from Pro Football reference]

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Losing the Battle but…

So, the storm is over and, We Can See Clearly Now, the silver lining. We may have lost the battle, but then actually helped ourselves in winning the war. It’s not all that different from the need to fire Bob Sutton that came after the last time a Brady interception was wiped away with an offside penalty on Dee Ford that would normally be ignored in that situation. Had we gone on to the Super Bowl that year perhaps the defense is not overhauled, and it’s likely we are not the team we are now. Adding Orlando Brown, Joe Thuney, Creed Humphrey, Trey Smith, and Lucas Niang as 5 new OL starters who not only look like they can protect Patrick, but also could be road graders to take the running game to new heights, seems like a nice consolation prize for losing a Super Bowl that in any other time and space would have belonged to Kansas City. It’s even possible that our 5 backup lineman this year, are stronger than the line that we trotted out in Super Bowl LV. Here’s to hoping for clear skies all season long. 

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What do you think?

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Shawn Sorter — ArrowheadOne

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