Pop That Cork!
I know I have been M.I.A. for a couple of weeks but surely I am not the last line of defense against the moribund, woe-is-me, what-can-I-criticize-next style of fandom that seems to be so in vogue here at A.A and elsewhere throughout Chiefs Nation of late? Even if I am, then I am proud and happy to hold fast against of this tide of naysaying nabobs of negativity. They may think of themselves as Megafans but to me they are just Negafans. None of that for me, I will love and celebrate this team — especially so when we win.
We added to our winning steak against the Raiders in the Black Hole. Celebrate that!
We ended our seven game losing streak. Celebrate that!
Conner Barth. Celebrate that!
Of the four games we’ve played against division rivals, we so far have won two and come within one point of winning a third (on the road no less). We have a great opportunity to improve on that yet again this Sunday. In spite of things not otherwise going well, we are showing we can at least hold our own against, if not flat-out beat, our division rivals this season. I call it a sign of better things to come. Celebrate that!
Tyler Thigpen showed us he has what it takes to make critical plays and finish the job. His growth this season says to me he stands a very good chance of becoming the QB we’ve been missing and wanting. Celebrate that!
Tony Gonzalez is having one helluva, if not the best, season of his career. Celebrate that!
We have stud playmakers on offense. Celebrate that!
For perhaps the first time this season, the Chiefs showed us they could maintain their lead in a close game. Celebrate that!
Our rookie corners are playing about as well as any pair of veteran corners in the league. Celebrate that!
Our offensive line is improving, especially with the addition of Wade Smith. They are providing our offense with more opportunities to move the ball and score points. Celebrate that!
When turned loose, we see that DJ is the wild man, game-changer we all believed he could be. Celebrate that!
In spite of our record, I am becoming increasingly convinced that we may only be two or three players away from greatness. I propose those positions to be DE, LB, and OL. Between the draft, free agency, and a fat cap, we can get there a lot quicker than the Negafans would have us believe. Celebrate that!
How about it Addicts, any other fellow-traveling, voices in the wilderness out there?
Im aligning with Dr. Bests report from Carl I think that 2010 will be the year Im damn glad I stayed with my season tickets and take great encouragement from your article D2 right on the glass is half full.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:04 pmI feel better already!!!! I totally forgot just how much we suck.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:22 pmDJ movin to the middle at least gives us something new to keep our attention diverted from the poor angles our safety’s consistently take to the ball carrier. Even fancy 3-D technology can’t make them any less painful to watch this year. Just imagine the excitement of having “Any” DE flatten Sacintosh on the way into your living room. I think I’ll stick with Mitch and Len but thx anyway
December 4th, 2008 at 4:34 pmI feel like this column is directed at me.
I will celebrate Thigpen, but I’m not ready to crown him the starter for next year. I think we can do better. I will celebrate our win vs da Faiders, I will celebrate Tony G. I will celebrate our offensive studs and our rooks developing. I won’t celebrate Barth until he can make a FG over 43 yards.
I will absolutely not celebrate Harm. Period.
When victory was eminient Sunday the announcers stated that the win saved Herm’s job. That made me cringe. How they came up with this is astounding to me. We have a better team than Oakland. They have a superior secondary, kept Thigpen out of the endzone, and had it not ben for a stupid fake FG on their part, the game would have been a lot closer tacking on three and taking off seven points had they just kicked it. How Denver managed to beat themselves against Oakland is beyond me.
I have a lot more hope in our team than I did a few weeks ago, I will say that, but Herm has got to GO! We had Tampa Bay, a team that is rolling in the NFC, DEAD TO RIGHTS and blew a 21 point lead. We are going to break the sack-less record.
To get a win against Denver, we need to RUN RUN RUN the ball. LJ owns Denver and they know it, our young guys in the secondary need to step it up. I don’t care if we win another game all year if we beat Denver. If Herm beats Denver at Invesco, I will not mention another word about him getting fired all season even if he sneaks a gun into Arrowhead in his sweats and accidentally shoots himself in the thigh.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:35 pmeric i have some terribel news, Clark Hunt recently stated in an interview that because of team progress, Harms job security is safe for years.
I personally like Herm as a Person and as a motivater, but he is not a good coach, he could do some good as a GM though, he at least couldnt be as bad as King Carl.
December 4th, 2008 at 5:43 pm*Terrible
December 4th, 2008 at 5:43 pmLook at Docs article guys, we are getting another qb, Carl is retiring, and Herm is on to motivate and train the youth then will have to justify his job 2010.
December 4th, 2008 at 5:45 pmI agree with most of this, but I think celebrating Barth, D.J. and Wade might be premature, as could be anointing Thiggy Smalls.
I’m with Crane, too. There will be no celebrating Harm from Arrowhead Adam.
December 4th, 2008 at 5:55 pmWPI posted a tidbit the other day that I found rather encouraging. Over the last 6 games, i.e., since the start of the modern Thigpen era (I’ll give him a mulligan against Atlanta), our offense ranks 7th best in the NFL. Do we have the wins to show for it? Certainly not, mainly because our defense hasn’t been stopping anybody past the first half. Still, considering how bad this offense was last season and still was the beginning of this season how can you not like that? Especially given the long-standing knock that Herm and Chan prefer to play conservatively. This offense of late has been anything but conservative. Exciting to watch in fact. Somebody deserves a little credit for that in my opinion. My guess is that Herm and Chan hate losing as much as anybody and if they find a formula that produces yardage and points, they’re probably smart enough and adaptable enough to recognize and stick with what works, labels be damned.
Crane – I wasn’t trying to single anybody out in particular – methinks you doth protest too much!
December 4th, 2008 at 5:56 pmIf there’s one coach I would single out for the guillotine, it would have to be Prieffer. Year after year, his coverage and return units consistently kill it for the rest of the team. Field position is too big a deal for that to go ignored indefinitely. No excuse.
December 4th, 2008 at 6:00 pmAdam, unless Barth is missing game-winning chip shots, I’ll celebrate him. Or perhaps you would prefer to give Lin Elliot another go at the job? *shudder*
December 4th, 2008 at 6:08 pmI feel this article is directed at me sir. I can assure you I shall be posting a response as soon as the CIA guy parked down the street leaves.
December 4th, 2008 at 6:40 pmI don’t thrive on negativity. I believe that just critisizing without offering a solution is just destructive for destructions sake. So to find a silver lining while the storm clouds boil is admirable. However, the tinting may be a bit strong on your spectacles DD.
Much of what you said has validity to a point. But had it not been for an insipid call having the all time points leader for the Raiders (kicking) trying to run the ball, the outcome of this game could have been completely different. SO may I point out that we didn’t strip that ball. We didn’t have immediate, intense pressure up the middle causing the ball to come loose. We didn’t do anything of substance to put ourselves in a position to have the ball become ours. It was a complete fluke of fate and the funny, pointy ball bounce that allowed our man to find the ball practically in his lap and nobody between him and the end zone.
We won a game against a team that is in the bottom of the league (like us). A team with no rudder or captain. A team with who lost thier coach mid-season (like the Lions). A team who has lost enough games through the last few years to consistantly get top five draft picks and still screw that up.
I am cheering the win*. I believe that win will help the cornucopia of young players we currently have on board. A taste of the “W column” can be very motivational. But my personal bliss is tempered by the realization that we could have easily lost this game as well. We fought hard for the win, because we had to fight hard to win against a cellar dwelling team. For me, that is what stings.
Yes many things were good that day, but they had to be for us to win. Our only decent drive of the day came late in the last quarter. (A good time to have a decent drive) We are getting better at not shooting ourselves in the foot (hooray?!?). Tony G was being his indispensable self. But ultimately we were a bad play, one missed goof, one errant call away from defeat.
So celebrate the win and understand that improving to mediocraty is a dubious improvement.
December 4th, 2008 at 8:24 pmI like the post Double D…But, I am with them, it is too soon to celebrate these things…Especially since the win was against Oakland….I think this week will tell us alot…
December 4th, 2008 at 8:37 pmI say celebrate baby, the battles are all we got, the war is over for this year.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:14 pmYou’re right Randy, the war is over. It was over before the season started. Our team has been dismantled to the point that we find joy in our second win coming well over halfway through the season.
Being that we do not run the team, we are resigned to abiding things as they are and hoping for a better next year. I now understand what is is to be a Lions fan.
December 4th, 2008 at 10:02 pmI completely agree, Double D. There are quite a few good things to celebrate about this team (of course, I don’t look past the negatives, it’s just nice for me to avoid focusing on them all of the time).
Also, I’m more than willing to celebrate Connor Barth. He’s hit from 45 yards out (and if I remember right, the kick had plenty of distance on it), and he’s shown he can make the makeable kicks – unlike Rayner, Medlock and Novak. I would like to see him make a big pressure kick, and possibly a bad-weather kick, but he’s already obviously better than the last few kickers we’ve had (possibly barring John Carney).
December 5th, 2008 at 2:49 amI sat at the home raiders game last year. WE couldnt complete a pass, we couldnt make a field goal, we couldnt run the ball we could do NOTHING. I see a huge difference.
December 5th, 2008 at 7:25 amI don’t believe we won because the Raiders handed one to us. Take away Thiggy’s pick and we win this one pretty convincingly.
December 5th, 2008 at 9:50 amDD,
Good post. I am, however, getting tired of the constant Herm bashing from supposedly informed poeple who seem to constantly miss the injury list and the fact we have scored MORE points in the last five games than some teams have scored all season long (okay maybe an exageration, but I might be close!). Is Herm the best coach in the NFL? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Is Herm the worst coach in the NFL? If your answer to this is yes, then you obviously are hating for hates sake or due to incompetence I am not sure which. Herm has had the same problem this year he had with the Jets. Injuries, injuries, injuries. We started the season with guys nicked and not 100% healthy, LJ can’t keep his ass on the field because his father apparently taught him the WRONG way to treat women and some of the guys that looked a little promising this year have looked absolutely abismal. So is that Herm’s fault? I guess to some the play of individual is the coaches fault because they should be able to see if they can play or not. But if they look good in practice, how can you blame the coach for them not making tackles in games or totally missing blocks during a game. That is the individual players fault NOT the damn coaches. Do I think Herm should be fired? Maybe. But would you people be calling for Bellichek or Cowher if they were the coaches of this exact same team? Of course not. They have won super bowls. Of course some of you pundits are likely going to comment back that if we had either of those coaches, we wouldn’t be 2-10, we would be 10-2, BS, but we are all entitled to our opinions.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:53 amAs for Thigpen being the future QB of this team…..honestly unless we sign a Matt Cassel (We won’t spend the money I am sure!), JP Losman (Not sure he is the answer either, but better than Quinn Gray.) or some other free agent that a team lets go out of stupidity, we really don’t have another option. Brokie should be a capable 2 or 3. Huard needs to retire. As for drafting a QB….unless we can get Colt McCoy, who is not going into the draft, we should hold off until next years draft. We have a kid in Thiggy that can manage a game good enough to wait one more year and hope that we have to trade up to get McCoy, the kid from OU or MU. I would prefer we use our first 3-4 picks on the LB, OL and DL. Those are the needs we despereately need the most, NOT QB. Okay, I am now prepared for you to take your shots. Have fun with it! I know I am!!!
December 5th, 2008 at 12:21 pmThe only other way I see us getting a QB in this years draft is if we trade the now off-field-troublesome RB LJ and Tony in a package deal for 3-4 more picks, one should be a HIGH round one and the other 2-3 should be 2nd, 4th and 5th rounders for those two. I personally would rather NOT trade Tony as he has been our only guaranteed receiving threat all year. I love D-Bowe, but he has not put up the numbers from last year. Mostly due to the QB shuffle I imagine. Thiggy needs to look his way more than TG’s since they are now looking for that throw every game now.
December 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pmDbowe not putting up good numbers? Are you nuts? For the team he is on he has fantastic numbers and is a 70+ % started WR in fantasy, he’s on pace to break last years numbers.
Herm is the worst head coach in the league barring the Raiders interim coach. He took a good product and made it worse, the Lions were bad before Marinelli and the Rams look ten times better with Haslett than they did with Linehan, so please…don’t give Harm that much credit. He doesn’t know how to manage the clock, keep a lead, etc. Watch his reaction to winning on inside the NFL on Showtime, its laughable.
December 5th, 2008 at 9:25 pmWe have a good base with Bowe, Charles, Dorsey, Albert, DJ if we can get him straightened out. Never get excited about a qb that doesnt win for you and Thiggy doesnt Im not sold on him, we need another talented qb but I definitely want to keep him on board. I think 2009 will be decent year 2010 has promise..
December 5th, 2008 at 10:04 pm