Laddie Morse
Dignity – “Worthy of honor and respect.” These 2021 Kansas City Chiefs may have just lost mine, respect that is. I don’t appear to be alone in that assessment either:
Not being able to invoke the Spirit is one thing, but when you’ve lost the “thoughts” of Chiefs fans, Clark Hunt should be listening. There are far too many other great options for sports fans these days. Take a look at Josh Kingsley’s piece called: “My Love-Hate Relationship With Soccer and Expectations.“
Turnovers: The Not So Silent Killer
The Chiefs lead the league in turnovers. This season has already produced a record no one would want on his resume. Patrick Mahomes has thrown eleven (11) INTs over the past two (2) seasons combined. However, he’s already thrown ten (10) INTs this year. The team has fumbled the ball nine (9) times this year, but five (5) of those have been fumbles by Patrick Mahomes. If you’re not already asking the question: what’s wrong with Patrick Mahomes? You should be.
Daniel Sorensen
There has to be some reason why Safety Daniel Sorensen is even on the team — or any team in the NFL — much less on the field. Daniel Harms of RGR Football says, “If it was me, I’d release Sorensen tomorrow.” Then he repeats himself. Of course, Harms has felt that way for more than a year now and I have been on the same wavelength as him, for the same amount of time. So, back to the original question: what’s the reason Sorensen is on the team or on the field at all?
A Dreary Theory: Heavy “Petting”
I’m reminded of my first two disastrous years of college education, well… just after that actually, when I figured out that most professors would stop calling on me if I sat up front and “always” raised my hand when he asked questions. You could call it, the teacher’s pet syndrome, but the prof would stop calling on me and would ask other students his questions, because he thought I knew a lot. A similar reality must be in play — because honestly, I can’t think of another legitimate reason these guys are on the team — with both Daniel Sorensen and Ben Niemann, in the positional classrooms at Arrowhead, because Niemann had more snaps than Nick Bolton in this game and Sorensen had any snaps, period.
It’s amazing — in a sad way — that Sorensen could do so much damage on so few snaps. Here, Shannon Sharpe explains why Sorensen should not be on the field:
While I think Sorensen should not be on the team, some fans are calling for him to retire on his own. However, when was the last time you walked away from $1.21M in salary? Sorensen would be owed over half that amount if they cut him today.
They say there are two sides to every coin, so, the flip side here is that the Chiefs defense has been getting better. In the Chiefs first five (5) games, the defense gave up points like crazy allowing: 29, 36, 30, 30, and 38 points for a total of 163. That averages out to 32.6 points per game. In their past three games, they’ve only given up: 13, 27, and 17 for a total of 57. That averages out to 19 points per game.
Yes, the WFT offense was held to 13 points and the New York Giants offense was held to just 17 points, and while those teams are not thought to have the best offenses in the league, they are NFL caliber none the less. The question is: which defense shows up vs the Packers this weekend: the one who allowed 32.6 points per game or the one that has held teams to under 20 points per game?
Andy Reid
A least Andy Reid knows that things are not sunny in Pleasant Valley right now.
What I’m growing weary of is the players are now spewing and re-spewing coach-speak. When I hear QB Patrick Mahomes say, “I’ve got to do better” week in and week out, it comes off as disingenuous. Sooner or later, he has to actually do better, and since most Chiefs fans have seen him “do better” in years past, they buy into it. I’m not so sure.
Look at these tweets dated 9 months apart:
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Repeated excuses as to why you lose, become authenticated confirmations, when you make the same dad-blamed mistakes over and over and over again. However, to just state repeatedly, “I’ve got to do better,” doesn’t tell us anything. Does he really think we don’t already know that?!
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GOAT to goat
It’s amazing how quickly Patrick Mahomes performances have gone from the elite of the elite, to “I’m the reason we’re not winning.” Prior to this season, Mahomes was being called the next GOAT and that Tom Brady should move over and concede, even after the Super Bowl loss. Now, Brady looks like the best is even better than ever and Mahomes is giving us repeated reasons as to why he’s lost, when he’s the primary reason why they’re losing half their games in 2021. Plus, you can’t possibly blame the guys surrounding him either.
Gotta Be Better, Execute Better…
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Some pundits have it right on the nose:
2012 All Over Again?
No. When you have low expectations for a team, like in 2012, there’s no reason to think they’d make a realistic run in the playoffs. That’s not this year’s team. When you come into the season, having hosted the past three AFC Championship Games (the Lamar Hunt trophy game, no less), then you have high expectations for a team that now looks like they’re going nowhere and going nowhere fast.
It’s been suggested that a Win is a Win, but in this case, barely beating the lowly 2-and-5 New York Giants on your own Home field, is worse than pathetic. Especially when it’s followed up by statements from the Chiefs head coach like: “Let’s keep going. I mean, they don’t give these things away and I think that’s important for everybody to understand. That other team, they’re coming after you, and you’re going to get their best shot….” What I’m wondering is, if the Chiefs are giving it their best shot?
Andy Reid is supposed to be the coach who takes advantage of his players skills better than any other coach, but this season is not a golden example of that:
- Jerick McKinnon, who has 4.41 speed and can catch the ball out of the backfield, has had 6 catches on 11 targets.
- Josh Gordon, who was signed by K.C. in September has had 60 snaps in the past month with one (1) reception.
- Mecole Hardman is having a better year, but at 4.4 receptions per game doesn’t reach the WR#2 level. Not when Tyreek Hill has 8.0 per game and he hasn’t averaged less than Hardman since his rookie year (3.8).
- TE draftee Noah Gray has averaged 13.25 snaps per game with two (2) receptions.
- Orlando Brown can be beat on Mahomes deep drops by most every speed rusher in the NFL. So, why can’t Reid get Mahomes to stop taking such deep drops? Especially when we’ve been hearing that they’ve working on that for months.
Reid deserves credit for giving RB Derrick Gore a shot, but no one can figure out why he took Gore out when he was obviously having success. We’re nearly half way through the 2021 season and Mr. All World TE Travis Kelce, who has 590 receiving yards this year, only had four (4) receptions for 27 yards vs the Giants. Why?
Who does the responsibility fall upon when you have such a bad four year history with penalties? Reid’s response? “We’ve got to be more disciplined.” Oh, really? Now, who is it that teaches discipline? Does that effect the total output of the offense? Geoff Schwartz has an answer, but you won’t like it:
Appearances Can Be Deceiving
While the Chiefs supposedly dominated in the trenches, you have to ask: why was this game so close that the Chiefs couldn’t secure a win until late in the fourth quarter?
The Athletic’s Nate Taylor wrote: “The Chiefs’ 20-17 victory over the Giants felt more like relief than encouragement.” It’s hard to feel any “encouragement” at all after a “win” like this. Yes, Nick Bolton was stellar again with 11 tackles. Yes, Tyreek Hill had 94 yards receiving on 12 receptions and one (1) TD. Yes, RB Derrick Gore had 48 rushing yards and a 4.4 yard per carry average. Beyond all that, it’s super tough to find the positives.
Andy Reid said it best: “Everything is not beautiful right now….” He could have just said, things look ugly right now. Then again, things always look ugly when the way you’re winning garners zero respect.
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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