Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs may not be doing a lot of winning on the field but they did score a couple of wins today off of it.

The 2013 NFL Hall of Fame finalists were announced today and there are two former Chiefs in the mix.

First, the greatest NFL guard of all-time, Will Shields is once again a finalist. He joins ten other players from last year’s vote that were not inducted. It was pretty much a tragedy that Shields wasn’t a first-ballot hall of famer but they voting committee has a chance to make up for their error this year.

One of the two senior nominees is former Chiefs and Oilers NT Curley Culp. Culp will be voted on separately for a maximum class of seven. Dave Robinson is the other senior nominee.

After Shields, the other 14 finalists are Guard Larry Allen, tackle Jonathan Ogden, defensive tackle Warren Sapp, defensive end Michael Strahan, running back Jerome Bettis, wide receivers Tim Brown, Cris Carter and Andre Reed, defensive end Charles Haley, linebacker Kevin Greene, cornerback Aeneas Williams, Bill Parcells, Ed DeBartolo, Jr and former Browns/Ravens owner Art Modell.

Shields, Welbourn, Waters, Roaf and Wiegmann. Those were the days.

Willie Roaf and Will Shielfs have been named semi-finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s 2012 class.

Roaf and Shields join 24 other semi-finalists. The group was cut down from 105 names.

The Chiefs traded for Roaf in 2006 after the T spent nine years playing for the New Orleans Saints. Roaf played for the Chiefs for four years and helped lead one of best offensive lines of all-time. He made the Pro Bowl all four years in Kansas City. Roaf was elected to 11 Pro Bowls over the course of his amazing career.

More after the jump.
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The Power of Red?

My immediate thought that evening as my Tigers humiliated the Huskers was that this phrase was a misnomer. This was further confirmed on Sunday with the complete and utter humiliation of the Chiefs.

OH MY the mighty have fallen!!!! Teams like the Raiders now invade Arrowhead and run roughshod over the Chiefs. A Mizzou team which had never really even been competitive in Lincoln over the decades rolls into Nebraska and pummels the Huskers. How does this happen?

It all goes back to Will Shields. Yes, Will Shields. You see, Nebraska lacks its usual dominating line, led by the likes of Shields, Dave Remmington, etc. All much in the same way the Chiefs lack quality lineman like Shields, Willie Roaf, John Alt, Tim Grunhardt, etc. Whether you like it or not, it all starts up front. Why can Larry Johnson rip off 200 yards one week and run for a paltry seven the next? Poor line play. Why are our QB’s terrified in the pocket, especially gun-shy Damon Huard? Poor protection by the line.

To further emphasize this point look at the game Saturday. Chase Daniel had time to make and eat a sandwich, while Derrick Washington had gaping holes in amassing his 139 yards on 14 carries. On the other hand, Joe Ganz was forced to roll out to buy time, while the Husker backs only totaled only 79 yards on 35 carries. The end result, well, we all saw the scoreboard. Unfortunately, we can’t really evaluate any QB accurately with such miserable line play. It’s no surprise that Damon and LJ can’t get it going back there, because even Dan Marino and Jim Brown couldn’t make it happen behind this patchwork line.

Lost in the afterglow of these disasters were two coaches with markedly different responses. Bo Pelini‘s response was “Its my fault–I DIDN’T DO A GOOD ENOUGH JOB IN COACHING.” Herm Edward’s response was “I can’t explain it–I will have to look at the film.”

Such is the state of the Power of Red.