Kansas City Chiefs are a wonderful frustration
You add those five things to a great day surrounded by friends or family and maybe some good food (and drink) and it’s tempting to just say “Good night Chiefs fans, tonight was awesome and I’m going to leave it at that and get some sleep!” While I am going to keep this pretty short and I am extremely happy with everything I listed above I feel like its my duty to mention a couple other things.
Here’s the deal, while the overall take away from this game is a huge positive there is still a lingering fear and frustration that I can’t shake. Like the stench of last week’s awful loss still hasn’t quite disappeared. The Chiefs jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter just like they did last week and then spent the next two quarters refusing to put a team they were clearly outplaying away (also, just like last week). Now, to their credit, they did put Denver away in glorious fashion with that Poe jump pass (and a couple of field goals before that), but once again it felt like it shouldn’t have needed to come to that.
I know, I know, I’m complaining about a 23 point win on Christmas against an arch rival that is also the defending Super Bowl champion. It’s like I’m Ebenezer Scrooge but I slept through the three ghosts’ visits and am still “Bah Humbugging” as the final minutes of Christmas day tick away. Maybe all the years of heartbreak are catching up to me, but I spent most of this game which the Chiefs led by double digits for almost the entire night worrying that they were going to find a way to mess it up.
The Chiefs are 11-4 and have one of the best records in all of the NFL and I still found myself spending more time during this fantastic win stressing about if they were going to mess it up than I did enjoying everything they were doing well. Is this a “me problem”? Am I the only one that was agonizing about them not slamming the door shut on this game much earlier? Am I becoming an old an jaded Chiefs fan that can’t just sit back and enjoy a quality win in a big game? I don’t want to be that guy!
I’d like to think that I’m not. I still see myself as an optimist and a bit of a homer fan with just enough realism to keep me grounded. I just REALLY want this team to live up to its full potential. I genuinely believe that this team has enough talent, even after all the injuries, to win the Super Bowl this season (or at least give it a good run). The problem is I only see flashes of that team here and there. They looked like world beaters in the first quarter and then suddenly it was back to the same frustrations as last week for two quarters. I want the world beater team for the ENTIRE GAME. If the Chiefs can do that I think they can play with anybody.