Sunday’s Denver game may decide the post season questions for both Denver and KC…
The two teams are fairly equal.
However the game being at Denver gives the Broncos an edge. More importantly is the poor play of Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith. As I’ve said, mentioned he has played with some issues that are not his fault. Things like no Jeremy Maclin and an offensive line that is average at best.
And without a running game – which has slowed down – Smith is not the same. With his age and injuries he’s on the trending downside of his career.
The Chiefs need defensive help as well. Marcus Peters and Dee Ford are badly needed back on the field, Justin Houston needs to show up and be of value the rest of the season.
A loss to Denver dropping KC to 7-4 would likely knock out any chance to win the division. Oakland is 8-2 now. A win keeps them in the hunt.
Right now the Chiefs are playing simply for a wild card.
Their remaining games are all going to be tough – the Raiders, Chargers there, Broncos here, Titans, Falcons – we could lose many of those the way our offense has played all season.
And remember, our defense has been bend don’t break; we rank near the bottom in every defensive category, except turnovers. Without our defense stealing the football, we’d have another three losses now.
So the Chiefs need to step it up on both sides of the ball to make the playoffs.
Right now a 10-6 record seems to be the best we can hope for without a major improvement from Alex Smith. Is it Tony Romo time next season? I think it should be. Trade for Tony, draft a quarterback if one is out there and hope he stays healthy.
Smith has taken the Chiefs as far as he can go.
He is a safe bet but fading. Alex just isn’t built for a championship run.
Look at the teams that are in the hunt for the Super Bowl – the Pats, Oakland, Seattle, Dallas, perhaps the Steelers – they all have outstanding quarterbacks.
This, if everyone around Smith is very good we can be a champion BS is clearly not true.
The franchise has lived with other teams quarterbacks since Day One.
No other franchise I know of has failed to draft a franchise quarterback in more than half a century. We need to start. Playing it safe has given Chiefs fans a couple post seasons after Len Dawson but only a few wins.
Usually they’re one and done.
College is coming to an end this season with Alabama clearly the top team. K-State will get a bowl game, but no biggie. MU has found an outstanding young quarterback and next season will make some noise. Hey Chiefs, let’s keep an eye on that kid! He’s got a gun.
My picks have been on fire the last few weeks. Lets see if I can keep it rolling.
COLLEGE PICKS
OHIO STATE +1 1/2 over MICH IN A TEASE WITH USC -11 OVER NOTRE DAME
PRO FOOTBALL
NEW ENGLAND – 1 OVER THE JETS IN A TEASE WITH SEATTLE EVEN OVER BUCS
GIANTS -1 OVER BROWNS IN A TEASE WITH NEW ENGLAND -1 OVER JETS
“Is it Tony Romo time next season? I think it should be. Trade for Tony, draft a quarterback if one is out there and hope he stays healthy.”
– that’s the rub CG… Romo can’t stay healthy anymore, even playing behind DAL great offensive line. He’s peanut brittle & an already old 36: he would be 37 1/2 by the time the 2017 regular season got underway.
Analogy, KC’s Len Dawson won a Championship age 34 in 1969, but was also injured that season, missing/failing to start half the games that year. Even earlier he started missing games (in fact, the last time he started all the Chiefs games in an season was 1967 at age 32.) More recent, Montana 1993-1994 was 37/38 and couldn’t take KC to the Superbowl.
Like remaking an classic film years later, they’re never as good as the original was, so why do they even bother: old, injury prone and/or ‘never were great QBs’ some other team always strangely appealed to the Chiefs as they tried taking an shortcut in order get to an Championship game (DeBerg, Krieg, Bono, Grbac, Green, Cassel and Moon.)
Resume’s considered, Romo isn’t even on par Smith: Romo’s never won anything of note with DALL: 2-4 post season career and he has never taken his team beyond the divisional round where he is 0-3. Comparison, Alex Smith is 2-0 divisional games & led his team a Conference Championship game, where they lost by just 3 points.
Kerouac agrees: draft an young QB (preferably higher than round 5; see Kevin Hogan 2016, already released by KC, odds being better using a high pick if not an guarantee. Alas, the 2017 draft QBs is weaker than this years class was so the cavity at QB for KC will likely linger another season beyond, at least. Foles? He ain’t the guy & if Bray was one would presume he’ have made a move by now, three years into that experiment.
If wish be optimistic, Ken Stabler was drafted by OAK in 1968 and couldn’t make the Raiders his first two years, playing semi-pro ball before making the team in 1970 and eventually becoming the full-time starter in 1973. Nod an old Humphrey Bogart film, these are “the desperate hours” (more so decades, Chiefs case), fandom grasping any possibility (like Romo); continuing add other team’s retreads will likely never get the result hoped for, KC.
Perhaps the ground-faulted Chargers will play spoiler for the AFC West?
Romo might be available for a song after the playoffs. Unless all the GMs are replaced with fantasy football players few are going to risk the do-re-mi on a qb one hit away from permanent disability.
You could feel the ghost of Jim Johnson when KC’s D was on the field. Andy’s best results were when he was the defensive coordinator.
Finally Andy’s two-minute drill worked.
Perhaps the ground-faulted Chargers will play spoiler for the AFC West?
“Romo might be available for a song after the playoffs. Unless all the GMs are replaced with fantasy football players few are going to risk the do-re-mi on a qb one hit away from permanent disability.”
– if only could count on that, them… alas, that attributed PT Barnum be second nature KC’s, namely the swiss, who, contrary to the norm of successful NFL teams, never fail amaze via ineptitude theirs, motto: “if there’s ‘no way’, we’ve a will!” We’ll bid two #1 draft choices and two 2nds just for folly, for we are the swiss, team/city football favor forgot!” And, unlike Curtis-Mathes, once builder ‘the most expensive television sets in America’, suckers susceptible paying fool’s gold for someone ‘darn well (not) worth it’, rest in peace January 11, 1970.
“You could feel the ghost of Jim Johnson when KC’s D was on the field. Andy’s best results were when he was the defensive coordinator. Finally Andy’s two-minute drill worked.”
– what worked tonight was that which did not: Broncos beat the swiss to a pulp, and won the game in regulation tonight. What they could not overcome was the officials, who erred again as has been there wont throughout 2016. Considering said and that the Broncos were only playing with 10 players on offense tonight, i.e. had no RT the entire game), the ‘World Champions’ did remarkably well as they torched the swiss pass defense for almost 400 yards passing. Final: Broncos 27 swiss 20 officials 10
Power Rankings AFC West:
1 Broncos remain tops, Raiders a close 2nd due only their inexperience (a virtual tie)
3 Chargers continue to make their play for post season
4 swiss continue to bring up the rear ( typecasting)
No way I would take a chance on Romo but he is not going to command a big payday.
As far as getting beat to a pulp I am reminded of a hs fight between Bill Maas and a Newtown Square “farm boy”.
Fight lasted about an hour including a break so the two could catch their breath. Maas took a beating but prevailed.
One-and-one in Super Bowl appearances will always trump 0-and-one with SD’s trip being rated one of the top ten worst Super Bowls.
If SD wins the AFC West it will be perhaps the biggest story since American riders went to England to road race the Grand Prix stars and those boys from the Motor Company held their own against the best equipment and riders with a cast-iron engine which had been thoroughly flogged by BSA and Triumph in the American series.
San Diego Chargers were the World Champions in 1963, when the NFL Bears were too scared to play them post season. Chargers had as much right to call themselves the World Champions as the NFL Bears that season, so SD is also 1-1 Championship Games; football existed long before the Superbowl came into being.
Scoreboard.
47 years and counting, mounting… January 11, 1970 was 17,124 days ago.
Only a few remain who remember when the Browns came into the NFL and dominated the supposedly superior established teams. The NFL undoubtedly had that in mind when the AFL came along. When the Browns came in after the All-American league folded happened in an era when pro football wasn’t really a thing in sports.
And using your metrics the Chiefs add their 62 AFL title and Dallas refused to play them in a win-or-go game.
But Super Bowl wins and quarterbacks are hardly the end-all for discussing greatness. The cherry on the chocolate fudge sundae at best.
SD is just one of many teams who have had great seasons but people discount them too much because they never won a Super Bowl.
Super Bowl wins determining who was the greatest falls in line with how the NFL abhors gambling but loves fantasy football betting sites.
Considering the NFL was founded with money from Al Capone..
Rating how successful teams have been based solely on Super Bowl wins discounts lots of great teams and quarterbacks who never won or appeared.
“using your metrics the Chiefs add their 62 AFL title and Dallas refused to play them in a win-or-go game.”
– true, and likewise, the Houston Oilers won two World Championships and the Buffalo Bills two, same. NFL bias (spelled ‘fear of a loss to an AFL team’) would never allow a match-up those first five seasons 1960-1965.
Similarly, MLB, 1904 GIANTS deserve credit for an additional World Championship due no game having been played vs the younger league’s team AL. MLB didn’t list a Champion in that instance, unlike NFL pre-creation of Superbowl, choosing self-anoint their own teams ‘World Champions’, with no acknowledgement any AFL Champions – ‘World Champions’, as such..
“Rating how successful teams have been based solely on Super Bowl wins discounts lots of great teams and quarterbacks who never won or appeared.”
– exactly so – such as the 1967 – 1969 Oakland Raiders – the best team(s) that never won any World Championship, educated opine Kerouac.
The uninitiated will plead ‘they never won’ as if one game can ever define greatness beyond one 60 minute segment a contest. The Raider teams were better than the Chiefs, Jets and/or Packers, Superbowl winners 1967-1969 despite outcomes not affirming, conventionally.
OAK’s three-year 37-4-1 mark was ridiculously great, better than the 32-7-3 LA Rams NFL who unlike OAK never got to any Superbowl. Those 32-7-3 same Baltimore Colts ‘lost’ in their only Superbowl to the Jets, 1968. Those teams that did win included Packers (mere 9-4-1 1967), NY Jets 11-3 in ’68 and only 29-12-1 ’67-’69 and the Chiefs who went only 11-3 in ’69 & but 32-10-0 1967-1969, compared to OAK’s 37-4-1. Raiders beat the Chiefs 4 straight games, including two straight 1969 and were 7-1 vs KC the previous 8, prompting Hank Stram to admiringly concede we beat one of the greatest teams in pro football – “maybe the greatest” following Chiefs asterisk marred 1969 Championship, one made possible due the one-year only wild card format, a blown official’s call on an Otis Taylor catch made out of bounds and an injury during the game OAK QB Daryle Lamonica, MVP that year, which led his missing much the 2nd half & still being injured even aft returning.
YESTERDAYS DENVER/CHIEFS GAME WAS AN NFL CLASSIC. BOTH TEAMS PLAYED WITH EVERYTHING THEY HAD, THE HARDEST HITTING NFL GAME OF THE YEAR AND THE BEST GAME OF THE SEASON…ESPN NEVE STOPPED TALKING ABOUT IT THIS AM. TYREEK HILL IS NOW AN NFL MEGA STAR…3 TD’S RUN, RETURN, RECEIVING, NOT SINCE 1965 AND GALE SAYERS. HE IS A SUPER STAR. ALEX SMITH PLAYED HIS HEART AND GUTTS OUT…ITS ‘HIS’ TEAM. I HAVE NOTHING BAD TO SAY ABOUT HIM. THIS GAME PUTS KC IN POST SEASON. IT MAKES THEM A FORCE. IT DEFINED THEM. AND THEY ARE NOW A CONTENDER. WIN OR LOSE THE AFC THEY HAVE MY RESPECT AND MANY OTHERS.
Not sure how many times I have to say this to make a point — write about something you know about — you don’t know anything about sports.
HATER JACK AND LORD KNOW WHO YOU ARE OR WHY I INHERITED YOU OLD SON, LETS GET TO THE POINT, NOBODY IS ANY BETTER THAN ME IN PICKING GAMES…IN REAL LIFE 36-9 IN LAST 5 WEEKS…I PRODUCED 5 SPORTS MOVIES, MAYBE YOU HEARD CHAMPIONS FOREVER, ALI AND FOUR MORE…I DO SPORTS ON TV AND RADIO OFTEN ALL STATIONS…I DON’T KNOW ANYONE HERE WHO IS BETTER…I WAS ON WITH MASS, WHITLOCK, PETRO…ON AND ON YES KK SO PAL YOU ARE A CERTIFIED IDIOT TO SAY I DON’T ANYTHING ABOUT SPORTS…I SURE DO AND PSSSST WAY MORE THAN WHOEVER YOU ARE FAKE NAME HATER..OR IS IT JO JO? BYE.
CG, take a lesson from Cowboy Jack Clements rules for songwriting.
Experts are often wrong, experts never buy anything.
And remember when one chooses to put their ideas out there they had better be prepared for them to be misunderstood.
I’d say you probably have a good story about the NFL’s gambling stance in relation to fantasy football.
Aren’t opinions wonderful – everyone has one. Now to the facts:
“TYREEK HILL IS”
– a gimmick player, and they don’t last long (neither will he.) An overhype, he was also down at the 1 yard line to end the game, in regulation: blown call. A WR (so they call him) let alone a superstar doesn’t average less than’ 6 yards per catch, 9 – 52 – OUCH.
“ALEX SMITH”
– remains a nobody: gesundheit. A rookie QB for DEN outplayed him, throwing for 3x as many tds and almost 400 yards passing. This by a former 7th round draft choice vs a #1 overall pick in the NFL.
“THIS GAME PUTS KC IN”
– the same place it always does each season: hoping to reach post season, then if they should not knowing what to do whence get there… same bad time, same bad channel (with apologies to Batman and – Holy flypaper! – the Boy Wonder.)
“IT MAKES THEM A FORCE. IT DEFINED THEM. AND THEY ARE NOW A CONTENDER.”
– cue their swiss Brando end each & every annum gridiron: “I coulda been a contenda, I coulda been… somebody.”
“WIN OR LOSE THE AFC”
– lose… it’s a two-team race between the Broncos and Raiders, edge DEN, for best in the West…
“THEY HAVE MY RESPECT AND MANY OTHERS.”
– alas, no one outside KC is fooled: January 11, 1970; cheer up CG, there’s always ‘wait till next year!, part 2017, verse 48’ for the swiss
Kerouac will return with more game analysis and rapier wit later today!
K give them a break they won, great game huge win and maybe you are right they ain’t super bowl I’ll give you that…let them have their moment. K.
For you CG, not me or most folks outside KC – just prepare for the heartache to come for it surely will as it does every season.
The Broncos (with copious assist officials) gave that game away, that & as much attempting a (shouldn’t even have been needed) 62 yard fg attempt that left the swiss with a very easy short field fg. That DEN went for a near impossible fg their own indication of just how little respect they have for the swiss… alas, flukes do happen.
NO KUDOS TO THE SWISS, they didn’t ‘win’ the game, and, as those who say ‘they all count’, no in fact they don’t. All ‘wins’ are not equal, and being gifted a game will not help them come post season, should they even luck into said…am not convinced they’ll even get there.
Ask the Broncos if they “gifted” the Chiefs with the win. Better yet, ask Von Miller or Aqib Talib.
CG, to speculate what is going to happen and attempt to “predict” that ultimate outcome/standings in the NFL is fool’s gold. Besides that, it forces one to “root for their projection” so they can’t be accused of being so wrong. Enjoy the games! Each and every week, enjoy the games!
Just about the time you try and say the “Chiefs are this” or the “Chiefs are that”, they win in one of the all-time fun games to watch in Denver. Tell me that wasn’t seriously fun to watch last night!
5 games left, including home games with both Denver & Oakland. Chiefs already beat BOTH teams on the road. Logic tells me that beating them at home isn’t impossible.
The entire AFC West plays each other these last five weeks. Oakland still has to go to Denver.
It’s quite apparent that nobody on this site, commenters or columnists, can predict outcomes of games worth a doodilly-damn.
Enjoy the ride, CG. This aggravating, frustrating, maddening, skating-on-thin-ice Chiefs team is pretty fun to watch.
GOOD POINTS I’ve had a huge year in picks, as of late for sure…but nobody can pick winners every time or every week, nobody…Chiefs had their moment I’ll give them that…Alex is brave, its his team, no he’s not great and never was or will be…but hey they believe in him so lets see what happens next.
After extensive research and fact finding that rivals Hearne’s efforts on the crowd estimates at the Plaza Lighting ceremony….
CG 2015 winning percentage – 28%
CG quote on October 16, 2016. “Yes last year was a poor one.”
CG 2014 winning percentage – 23%
CG quote on December 15, 2014. “Well I did have some crap calls on games this season.”
Kerouac: right on Trump, right on the fraudroyals, and right on the swiss – for 47 years since… 1970 (man I hate being right all the time.)
Is there anyone more mercurial in his sports takes than CG?
I see I picked every game but one…Seahawks to we went 2-1 for the weekend on the scoreboard…very good…tough picks…nice…thanks ‘Guy Who’ for your continued good wishes.
Wasn’t speaking to your picks…just your sports takes. You know, who sucks and who doesn’t. One week they do, the next week they are Super Bowl contenders. You have to admit you waffle back and forth quite a bit.
Its not waffling its THINGS CHANGE like the political race Trump/Clinton…always changing…in the NFL one injury can take you from contender to ‘done’…right…so judging it week to week is not for fans…I’d love to see KC win it all…I think Tyreek Hill will put Chiefs on the map big time…he is a super star, we haven’t had one since Derrick Thomas and this guy can do much more…
WHERE IS JO JO/HARLEY…kinda miss him…huh?
He’ll never show his face (ass) here again. Someone really needs to out him.
‘Guy’ I see your point…hey he attacked me at no end for no reason and even caused me a couple issues with females who read the posts…yet I kinda feel sorry for JOJO/Harley…I know he loved writing on this blog…if only he could not be so damn mean and just comment. It’s ok to say I don’t agree with Glazer…but all the hate and put downs, many untrue, are what’s wrong…same thing he did with Wilson..none of the writers here attack any locals at all unless those people who comment are just off the chain…
Hey I know I make mistakes, we all do..picking games is so tough even experts online with CBS don’t hit .500 the spreads make it so hard…so of course there are good weeks and bad ones…I do it for fun…sometimes those picks don’t reflect any of my bets…in real life you should only pick a couple games a week to bet on…too many picks spells doom in Vegas..usually..things change with injury, trends and so many other issues..fans always pick their team…and hate to see issues…I’m a Chief’s fan but they have issues…being 8-3 with all the problems is a great spot for this team today…if Alex can be cut loose a bit, the O line improves, Houston continues to be a killer, D Ford gets back, Maclin comes back, then hey the Chiefs could contend in post season…I have said it before the Chiefs have as much talent on both sides of the ball or more than any NFL TEAM, they do..problem…we know quarterback play and O line…we need that rushing game back to at least decent…the line needs to give Smith a few seconds to throw and so on…it could happen…Dallas is clearly the best NFL team today, but an injury or bad luck could stop their super bowl run.