Have you ever achieved an outcome you desired through a process you hated? Losing those 10 pounds you put on during the holidays by borderline starving yourself and doing brutal cardio workouts in January? Sorry if that scenario creates any pre-stress for you, the reader, but it was the one metaphor I kept coming back to when thinking about the Chiefs 23-20 season-saving win over the Colts on Sunday.
Yes, the Chiefs won. They even beat a team who sat near the top of the AFC and, for the most part, was completely healthy. The Chiefs reminded fans of the thrill of a last second victory in a playoff atmosphere in front of a raucous home crowd at Arrowhead Stadium on a Sunday afternoon. The end of the game and the outcome were beautiful reminders of what could be. The first three quarters, however, were still a reminder of what has been in the immediate past. Those memories feel more like trauma than they do fond recollections.
To harp on the negative after a season-saving win over an AFC contender would be foolish, but this is not the weekly well rationalized thought piece. I'm here to overreact, and overreact I will. The end here certainly justifies the means, but I couldn't help but feel like the Grinch throughout most of the first three quarters of this game. Replace Whoville with Arrowhead Stadium and the Grinch's howl of "the noise, the Noise, the NOISE" with me lamenting "the flags, the Flags, the FLAGS!" So many opportunities that the Chiefs offense and special teams took to shoot themselves in the foot were negated by a defense that in the second half did their best 2000 Baltimore Ravens impersonation. For that, I am thankful - which is fitting this time of year.
Let's take a look at a few aspects of yesterday's nail-biting win that we should certainly feel a bit rantish about.
AI should replace NFL officials before stealing any other human jobs
I don't know if there is an overacrching agenda with AI. Leave that to the CEOs of the companies themselves and the federal government, surely nothing can go wrong with tech billionaires and government officials meeting behind closed doors, right? The only thing that could come from that is the betterment of life for the American people.
If they do, however, have a pecking order of human jobs that they intend to replace first outside of VOIP answering services and fast food drive thru kiosks, they should start with working to replace the referees that the NFL currently has employed.
This isn't a cry for fair treatment of the Chiefs. This is an indictment on the quality of the officiating across the league this year. Each and every Sunday you can scroll X and find numerous fan bases asking the same general question - what was that call? The Chiefs fell victim to this on their first scoring drive on Sunday, a touchdown that was called back due to a facemask penalty. Gene Steratore, who was a highly regarded NFL official for 15 years, commented in the booth that the infraction was in fact not an infraction at all, and could be reviewed and overturned by the officials in New York, but not challenged on the field by the coaches.
What did New York do? Well, nothing. The officials on the field saw it wrong, the eyes in the sky didn't even look at it, and the Chiefs settled for a field goal. There were other calls - like the roughing the passer call that the Chiefs benefitted from on the Colts' Grover Stewart - that went in Kansas City's favor. But we're looking at 38 penalties called on the Chiefs and their opponents in the last 2 games, 20 in the loss to the Broncos (10 for each team) and 18 in the win over the Colts (Kansas City 7, Indianapolis 11). People do not pay for their tickets or their streaming services to watch the officials. NFL - fix it.
Kareem Hunt and Rashee Rice saved the Chiefs
The Chiefs needed their offensive stars to come up big against the Colts, and Rice and Hunt delivered in massive ways, respectively. At one point in yesterday's game I tweeted that Arrowhead Stadium was the player of the game at one point, but Kareem Hunt ripped that title out of the raucous crowd's hands down the stretch.
Many had clamored for Kansas City to commit to the running game coming into this week, and it would appear that Andy Reid and Matt Nagy were present in the comment section of Chiefs fan discourse. Hunt toted the rock 30 times for 104 yards and a score on the day, and while there wasn't mcuh explosion there, the grind of his imposing running style continually beat the Colts defense to a pulp.
Rice was equally as clutch, particularly in the second half. Time after time Mahomes found his favorite target in the receiving corps for back-breaking first downs when the Chiefs needed them the most. Rice was hampered by an apparent tight hamstring, but it did not prevent him from helping Kansas City ice the game.
The Chiefs defense did exactly what they intended to do, even if it didn't look like it at times
It must feel impossible to do your job as well as you possibly can and yet still face criticism in the moment from a fanbase. The Chiefs defense player nearly perfect, particularly in the second half when they allowed just 6 points and forced the Colts into 4 consecutive 3 and out's in the fourth quarter and overtime. But why the hell is Tyler Warren open every play?!
Because the Chiefs sold out on not letting the Colts kill them the way they've killed everyone else this year, with Jonathan Taylor. Taylor was limited to 61 yards on 18 total touches, his lowest output of the season. Steve Spagnuolo also did what everyone hoped he would do going into this game - he hammered Daniel Jones with different blitz looks so often and so effectively that by the end of the game Jones' brain had turned into mush.
The complaints about the Chiefs defense being bad against play action this season are valid, but you have to look at how they get to those situations. The Chiefs have now put a cap on Jonathan Taylor, Derrick Henry, Ashton Jeanty, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Saquon Barkley this season. No one else in the league has been able to do that to names like that on a consistent basis. Spags knows how to take away your best weapon, and he did it again on Sunday against the league's best rushing attack.
Patrick Mahomes needs to slow down, but he's finding his inner dog
Time and time again on Sunday, for those watching at home, Tony Romo shared something with the viewing audience that Chiefs fans had noticed for a couple of weeks now. Patrick Mahomes was rushing. He was frantically working through his progressions, being impatient in the pocket, and generally looked a little off compared to the MVP caliber player we've seen even earlier this season. He has not looked like himself.
There have been several factors that have played into that at different times in the season, but yesterday - for three quarters anyway - seemed like it might all be on 15. The OL was, for the most part, in tact. All the receiving options were fresh on the buffet line. Andy and Nagy were calling designed run plays consistently. So what was wrong with Patrick Mahomes?
Well, whatever it was evaporated in the fourth quarter and overtime, and for the first time this season the Chiefs did what the Chiefs have traditionally done - they bled out the clock, put their boot on an opponent's neck, and won a game in the 11th hour. That was vintage. That was refreshing, it was what Patick Mahomes has made a career out of during his meteoric ascent in the NFL record books.
Mahomes getting back into a groove, finding Rashee Rice on third and long plays and eating the clock to win a must-win contest against one of the AFC's best was exactly what Chiefs Kingdom needed on Sunday. We all collectively had the Grinch heart thing happen, where our hearts and souls grew 3 sizes, in a non-medically concerning way. While there were still head scratching moments from Sunday's game, it felt like the Chiefs finally got their groove back on Sunday. If they in fact did, the rest of the AFC should be on high alert down the stretch.