Fear the Kansas City Chiefs!

One of the first rules of journalism is that one must be objective. Reporters in the press box aren’t supposed to jump up and down and cheer when the team they cover scores a touchdown or say….wins their first playoff game in over twenty years. When they write about the team they are supposed to do so with no bias. They are to objectively report on what transpired. Basically, fanaticism and journalism don’t mix.

Thankfully, I’m a blogger and not a journalist. So it is with a great amount of pleasure that I start this week’s post with this…..

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE CHIEFS WON A PLAYOFF GAME!!!!!!!!

YEAAAAAAHHHHH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!!

30-0 ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! THIRTY TO ZE-RO!!!!!!!!

BOOM!!!!!!

That’s right, I went full blown homer fan, all caps locks and excessive exclamation points and I loved every single key stroke. If you’re like me you’ve been waiting for that win for a VERY. LONG. TIME. I’m 38 years old so I remember the last Chiefs playoff win, but I didn’t appreciate it. I was a high school kid who watched and cheered for the Chiefs. I knew the players and had dominated many a Tecmo Bowl game with Christian Okoye, but was I the pacing the floor fanatic that I am now? No. Did I think it was possible that I’d have to wait over 20 years to see another playoff win? Not a chance.

The current KC players weren’t carrying the monkey of 20 years without a playoff win on their backs, we were carrying it on ours. Marcus Peters isn’t responsible for MULTIPLE 13-3 teams going one and done in the playoffs when he was a kid growing up in California. Same for Alex Smith and Justin Houston and every other member of the Kansas City Chiefs. They weren’t here for all those years of disappointment. The fans were. So while that win was just one step to be taken on a quest that leads to the Super Bowl for the players, it was more to us fans. The weight of those years of frustration and being let down by the team you live and die with is now gone.

I wrote last week that the 2015 season would not be a success without a playoff win. Well guess what?

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

I know that’s not how the players and coaches see it and I’m glad. I don’t want them to be content with just winning one game. They better be bound and determined to win them all, but as a fan I am now happy. A team that I wrote off for dead and screamed to change things up proved me wrong by reeling off ten straight games to end the regular season, made the playoffs, and then went on the road and curb stomped their opponent 30-0. Whatever happens from here is gravy for me.

Now, don’t misunderstand, I want the Chiefs to win next week so bad it will probably keep me up at night this week. I firmly believe that they can win against the Patriots (more on that in a minute). All I’m saying is that if the clock hits zero on Saturday and the Chiefs are on the losing end I won’t have that same sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. You know the one I’m talking about, that feeling that they got our hopes up again and let us down. The feeling that the Chiefs underachieved and didn’t live up to who we believed they were. The win streak, making the playoffs and smacking around the Texans took care of that this year and that alone is worthy of caps lock and exclamation points.

…..and that’s not even what I’m really here to talk about today!

Now that I’ve finished telling you that the Chiefs have completely met my expectations for this season with that playoff win I’m going to turn around and tell you that the rest of the AFC should fear the Kansas City Chiefs. This is a team that is capable of beating any of the remaining AFC teams and the defense especially is playing at an elite level. The Chiefs aren’t some “cute little story” that is going to go quietly into the night. The Chiefs, on the strength of their defense, are the new bully on the block and the AFC better be nervous.

Especially their opponent this week.

I’m not scared of the New England Patriots. I’m not scared of pretty boy Tom Brady or Darth Hoodie who will be roaming the opposing sideline on Saturday.

BRING

IT

ON

Look, I get it. They’re the defending Super Bowl champions. They’re at home. They’re quarterbacked by arguably the greatest quarterback in NFL history. They’re coached by arguably the greatest coach in NFL history. It’s for all those same reasons that I won’t be outraged if the Chiefs lose, but I’m not scared of them. Think back to the very first Patriots team that won the Super Bowl. That team was seen as a true team. A collection of 53 players all working together. That was a departure from the star lead teams that had walked away with the Lombardi Trophy previously. Fast forward to present day and I can make a pretty strong case that the Chiefs resemble that first Super Bowl winning team far more than the Patriots do. New England has become that star lead team that they set out to defeat. Once you get past the big four of Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, and Chandler Jones I would argue that spots 5-53 on the roster favor the Chiefs.

Before the season if you made a list of the top three players that the Chiefs could not afford to lose if they wanted to make the playoffs both Jamaal Charles and Justin Houston would have been on that list. Charles is on IR and Justin Houston has missed multiple games and yet here are the Chiefs. They haven’t let it slow them down. The next man up fills in and the team keeps rolling. The offensive line was one of the biggest concerns coming into the season. The one bright spot was the addition of Ben Grubbs but he’s been hurt and was less than hoped for even when he did play. Eric Fisher was moved out of the left tackle spot and then moved back. Donald Stephenson has had enough struggles that he lost both the right tackle and left tackle jobs and yet somehow the unit as a whole has found a way to come together and get the job done.

While the Chiefs offense can still be maddening at times the defense has been absolutely dominant. You can chop up the Texans game to Brian Hoyer being terrible if you like, but the fact is that Hoyer played pretty well in 2015…..except when he faced the Kansas City Chiefs. Since the start of their now eleven game winning streak the Chiefs are only allowing 11.6 points per game. That’s not just good, that’s fantastic.

“But Lyle, look at who they played! Shutting out Brian Hoyer doesn’t mean they can shut down Tom Brady!”

Shut him down? No, but contain him enough to win? Definitely. The injury decimated Patriots finished the season losing four of their final six games. Without several key players even the great Tom Brady struggled at times in the second half of the season. Look at Brady’s numbers in the first eight games compared to the final eight games.

Tom Brady’s first 8 games: 68.6% completions, 338.6 yards/game, 8.3 YPA, 22 TDs, 2 INTs

Tom Brady’s final 8 games: 59.8% completions, 257.6 yards/game, 7.0 YPA, 14 TDs, 5 INTs

Now, the Brady in the second half of the season is still a good quarterback but not someone that I fear is too much for the defense that I have watched in KC over the past few months. These are the combined stats of the opponents quarterbacks over KC’s eleven game win streak.

KC’s last 11 opponents: 55.1% completions, 215.6 yards/game, 5.8 YPA, 11 TDs, 22 INTs

That’s a defense that should worry any quarterback regardless of their pedigree. When you add edge rushers like Justin Houston, Tamba Hali, and Dee Ford AND physical freaks of nature up front like Dontari Poe, Allen Bailey, and Jaye Howard AND players like Derrick Johnson and Eric Berry roaming the middle of the field AND shut down corners like Marcus Peters and Sean Smith AND role players like Ron Parker and Husain Abdullah in the secondary you get a defense that simply has no real weaknesses.

Yes, the Patriots may be getting some players back from injury this week, but KC showed last week that they can game plan around star players. The Texans boasted two of the best players in all the NFL in DeAndre Hopkins and JJ Watt. Hopkins had 6 catches for 69 yards and no touchdowns and JJ Watt was credited to just one tackle assist. Yes, Watt was hurt later in the game, but early on it was clear that KC had masterfully game planned around the best defensive player in the league.

So bring on Brady. Bring on Gronk. Bring on Chandler Jones. Bring on Denver with noodle armed Peyton Manning. Bring on the Steelers with their decimated roster and mediocre defense. I’m not scared of a single team in the AFC. I’m good rolling with my beloved Kansas City Chiefs.

That may not be very objective. It may be biased. I may be a complete homer, but I’m okay with that. My team won a playoff game. In fact, I may even have to use caps lock and excessive exclamation points one more time before this post is over.

So as usual, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!