Kansas City Chiefs Laddie Morse

Chiefs Win Potato Sack Race, Lose Marbles

LadnerMorse November 8, 2017 No Comments

 

 

 

Alright, I’m sure everyone has seen it a million times, but here it is for the 1,000,001st time:

 

 

 

 

The Kansas City Chiefs may have won the Potato Sack Race on Sunday, but it appears they’ve lost their marbles. Well, not just the Chiefs, but many of their fans as well. What else do you call it when the team has duplicated the winning percentage they’ve built on since September of 2013 (.666) by going 6-3 to start the season… only to have a notable local radio host such as Soren Petro calling for the head coach’s head. Sure, there are times when I am not a fan of the way Andy Reid coaches — i.e., schemes or play calling — but he’s a proven regular season winner and until he loses another post season game early in the playoffs, then I see no reason to overreact like a grade-schooler who was cut in front of in the lunch line.

 

We may also have lost our perspective. The usually spot-on Terez Paylor said this week that, “Bob Sutton could probably stand to be a tick more creative and a tick more aggressive.” What? A “tick?” That’s less than a little, right?! Marbles on the floor I tell you… marbles on the lose… marbles at large….

 

 

While I understand the white hot scrutiny being levied against our boys in red by some, I also am reminded that this is just a game, a very entertaining one at that. One filled with many positives. For instance, take what Tyreek Hill has done this year:

 

 

 

 

49.29 Yards per TD? That’s unspeakably good. Another thing that fans should feel great about is… Twitter has given all it’s users 280 characters. Now look, even some people can turn that into a negative:

 

 

 

 

Listen, I want our Kansas City Chiefs to win another Super Bowl — in my lifetime — as much as the next guy. However, I also see the game of football as the most entertaining sport on the planet. Here’s a portion of a poem by Richard Katrovas, as seen from a participant’s eyes:

 

“American Football”

 
 …
Against the grain of what is beautiful
In sport, at least to my Yankee Doodle eyes.
Give me smashmouth football over soccer.
Give me concussions, shattered bones, ripped muscles,
Strategies of season-long attrition.
Give me huge men heaving their bountiful
Frames against each other with such grace that size
Seems incidental to the role of stalker
Of fleet backs and fleeter ends, men who bustle
Along the line of scrimmage on a mission.
…

 

31 teams will come away this season unsatisfied along with their fans. The Chiefs may indeed be one of those teams. A-g-a-i-n. However, this team is as good as any in recent memory… and yet we suffer. Who among us doesn’t want the make-up of a perfect team? A 1972 Miami Dolphins squad… was that perfect? They really weren’t. Their Hall of Fame QB, Bob Griese, was out for 9 games that year and the team played upon his “potential” return, while 38 year old backup QB, Earl Morrall, held down the fort. So, the Chiefs have a lot of wonderful players to be lauded… and enjoyed.

 

Who would have thought that 5th round pick, Tyreek Hill, last year, and this year’s 3rd round pick, Kareem Hunt, would both become such dynamic performers? And Hunt reminds us that life is bigger than the game itself:

 

 

 

 

The 17 week NFL football season is more like a mountain climb with many peaks and valleys. One of the reasons I enjoy Twitter is the play-by-play break downs which are shared there. Here, Chris Jones shows us why he’ll — one day — be a star in this league [as if he isn’t already].

 

 

 

 

This play — and ALMOST sack — reminds me of how a game can turn on just a few breaks. Here, Jones didn’t get the break he needed after making a great play.

 

Do I have any criticisms of this team? Yes, I do… and I’ll share those in the coming days. But, for now, let’s take a breather and admit that we would be thrilled if told, prior to the season, that we’d be 6-3 during the Bye Week. We’d also be thrilled that QB Alex Smith is one of the top QBs in the league this year.  We’d be thrilled to learn that Kareem Hunt has been mentioned as a possible Rookie of the Year.

 

Every now and then, I also get excited when I learn that the team has followed through where I — and many of my Chiefs compatriots — thought they should follow through. Waiving D.J. White may have been a painful evaluation for the front office (because they drafted him just last year), but it was the right move to make. And now we know that the Colts have added him to their roster. Good Luck with that. As is often the case when a player moves on, I like to say Goodbye in a proper way:

 

 

 

 

The only team in the league that I’m pretty confident would beat them in the playoffs are the Philadelphia Eagles. Yet, the Chiefs have already beaten them this season (without a star defensive player I might add). If that turns out to be the case — that the Eagles beat the Chiefs in the playoffs this year — it means the Chiefs are going to the Super Bowl, because Philly plays in the NFC. There are no other teams in the league right now who I think would “for sure” beat the Chiefs. Not even the Pittsburgh Steelers. The last two times the Chiefs played the Steelers they lost by 8 points combined (only a 4 point average margin of victory for Pittsburgh). 

 

The Kansas City Chiefs have seven more games to play this season. In reality, we only get 8 regular season games at Arrowhead and now there are only 4 regular season affairs — including tailgating — left for the local fans to enjoy. We have the whole offseason to rip the team a new one — or lose our marbles and disappear for months at a time as some fans may choose to do — so let’s find the roses amongst the thorns and attempt to savor these in-season moments. You know, once you open a bottle of wine… it’s only good, for just so long (just be glad it’s not that box-wine from Cleveland).

 

Also, congratulations to Eric Hosmer on winning his 4th Golden Glove award. Uh oh, now you’e worrying about where the Hoss will end up. Am I right?

 

 

 

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