The Eye in the Middle of a Football Storm
On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs suffered through some stormy weather, even though it was a beautiful day for football at Arrowhead. The Chiefs honored the Veterans of the Armed Forces by wearing the names of some of those who gave their full measure. Also, Warpaint the Horse was resurrected for this day. But all of that that was the calm before the storm.
The Storm
The Chiefs storm came in the form of injured players. They suffered initially because of the prior losses of starting QB Alex Smith, starting LT Parker Ehinger, starting RB Spencer Ware, RB Jamaal Charles, DB D.J. White and by the end of the game Jeremy Maclin had left the field and starting RT Mitchell Swartz had an ankle injury and starting ILB Derrick Johnson was fighting another hamstring pull.
More Storms
From the beginning, the Jacksonville Jaguars ran the ball with ease and frequency gaining 205 yards rushing for the game. The normally dependable ILB Derrick Johnson, who is the Chiefs all-time leading tackler, missed one tackle after another. We can’t place all the blame on DJ because the rest of the defense was more than a “major disturbance.” It consistently made the Jags 26th ranked running attack look like Super Bowl Champions. Fortunately for the Chiefs, Jags QB Blake Bortles was in the midst of his own brain-farted-storminess and missed one long pass upon long pass with his receivers missing sometimes by inches.
Cloudy With a Chance of Meat Heads
Meanwhile, on the other side of the cyclone, was the offensive, offensive QB, Nick Foles who was drowning in the pool of his own piss-poor performance, pardon my french “locker room talk.” Wait, the Chiefs have a great running game. Right? Not on this day. I doubt that 62 yards rushing on 22 carries and 2.8 yards per carry will get Jamaal Charles real giddy. Instead, I have these images of JC and Spencer Ware sitting at home staring out a window on a stormy day in a Dr. Seuss book awaiting some magical cat to appear and make everything alright. Only, it tain’t gonna happen and it certainly didn’t on Sunday. Charcandrick West had two timely runs. That’s it. Was it enough? Scarely-barely. But not enough to be comfortably or consistently entertained by. Relieved, yes, entertained? Nope. You don’t get respect… for being circumspect in football.
I say the following with tongue firmly implanted in cheek (maybe)… but I was not completely thrilled to see Albert Wilson score a TD (we’re so sorry, Uncle Albert…) because it may prolong what is hopefully his inevitable release. Although, it was the winning TD… so how can you complain? Do I sound confused? You got my head spinning right round.
The Eye of the Storm
The reason the Chiefs won this game was simple… turnovers. While some will want to convince you that one win is as good another, some games will give you pause to consider that if what happened in this game ever happens again… and we all know it will be against a better team than the Jacksonville Jaguaren’ts… then losing is an assurity.
The Eye of the Storm
Ramik Wilson was a breath of fresh air in a hurricane of spinning garbage. His timely hits and flying to the ball was reminiscent of another ILB I recall playing for the Chiefs… oh wait, he still does, he just didn’t show up on Sunday. Neither did a number of other players but Ramik Wilson did. Kudos to Ramik.
The I of the Storm
Marcus Peters. As Jason Seibel has pointed out, Peters should be in the running for defensive player of the year. He had a huge fumble recovery and promptly kicked it into the stands which no refs caught but may still be fined for… but that’s the kind of thing that I think brings certain games to memory when thinking back over the games years from now. I loved it!
The Eye of the Storm
Dee Ford. Talking about defensive player of the year… I’m kidding of course… but… he’s turned on the juice and some kinda light has gone on in his head. He is not only bringing consistent pressure from the blind side, he is wearing his man down late in games and it makes me salivate with anticipation while waiting for the 4th quarter of games to roll around so I can watch Dee eat em up.
The Storm Sinning Out of Control (you read that right)
Travis Kelce. Travis Kelce. Wow. Yes, we’ve seen some horrible officiating and I get that he is a passionate guy, but the way Kelce handled himself hurt his team and that’s the bottom line. We’ve seen worse calls and the players involved did nothing. That’s how you play the game. Accept the call, move on. But no. Kelce has to have his temper tantrum. He needs to apologize… and he did.
I apologize to everyone that had to witness my actions on the field today… it was unprofessional and unsportsmanlike…
— Travis Kelce (@tkelce) November 6, 2016
The Storm that Keeps on Giving
The officiating was horrendous. While I am unhappy with Travis Kelce for placing his teammates in a situation that took all the key play-makers off the field (Alex, JC, Spencer, Jeremy were already gone due to injuries)… and he can’t handle a non-call at the back of the end zone. What I didn’t understand about the refs call was that, after Kelce was thrown out of the game, at that very moment when he turned to walk off the field, no less that three Jacksonville Jags taunted him and one even followed him as he walked away laughing and jabbing and jeering but did the Refs do anything about that? Not a dang thing!
This game was filled with other bad calls but it’s now become an overriding theme of NFL games… and if they’re wondering why fans are not watching the games this year, they need to look no further than the incredibly bad refereeing going on right in front of their faces.
To another point about the bad calls is… the refs are being asked to call a game based on some bad rules. Almost every time a ref throws a flag, I’m wondering why they threw the flag. And the announcers are worse. Showing a freeze frame of the Jacksonville running back with his hand supposedly holding the ball over the goal line is just plain bad TV. By doing a freeze-frame, there is no way of telling if the ball that was still moving in his hand or moving past his hand, was moving because it was fumbled prior to that time. Bad booth call. Bad editing management call. Just… bad all the way around. I, for one, was not entertained.
What owners don’t seem to understand it that what is bad during a game… is bad for the game. Bad referees and bad TV commentators, bad booth management, can all ruin a broadcast and if they do… owners should be thinking about what the implications are for the game in the long run. In the group of Chiefs fans I was sitting with, one gentleman commented that the poor TV ratings were the silent majority finally speaking up and saying, “We’re not gonna to take it anymore.”
If the owners treat it idly, like it’s just a tempest in a teacup, they may never see the real storm coming before it has washed away the game they “think” they are protecting.
What do you think Chiefs fans? Were you entertained by Sunday’s game or were you wondering if there was anything we could count on from one minute to the next… like me?
