I put off typing this up for a couple days hoping that I'd calm down from the utterly crap-tacular play calling we witnessed Sunday. A conservative as hell gameplan that made Mike Solari look visionary and competent. Well, (president bush voice) Mission accomplished! And I mean that in the exact same lying manner our former leader said it ...
* The pre-party started Saturday night. Plenty of loyal fans, plus a couple raiders fans. Good times had by all. I ducked out at 9:30ish because I knew if I had to get up at 5:45, I couldn't stay up til 1am again.
* The bus rolled out about 6:40. Ditto the Command Center.
* We got to the complex about 7. The plan was to take advantage of the "early in" offer from the last couple years, pay an extra $25 at the service entrance and get in whenever the hell you want to. Unfortunately, the parking nazis struck early, you now have to buy the pre-pass early.
So let me just say, that is utterly ridiculous. You actually have fans who not only want to watch this abortion of a roster, we show up 5 hours before the damned kickoff to do so ... and you turn us away? (the who voice) Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss!
* Wayne! Our bowling league commish works for the Chiefs, he's in charge of Gate 6. It really is a small world after all.
(Bowling league starts October 7!)
* Channel 9 filmed us in the pre-party mode at the gate. Also at the Bus and the Command Center later on. You can go to kmbc.com in the video section and check it out.
* Once the gates opened, we wound up in the usual spot at the top of Lot G. The reason we wanted to move was because of the gigantic dumpster that's been relocated in front of us. But apparently the logistics folks in the group are convinced we can ram that thing out of the way next time. So we're staying.
* 8:52am text, Steve text to late-arrivals: "Its a smoker friendly tailgate next door". You could smell the good stuff. It was ... well, good stuff.
* The tailgating menu was pretty rock solid. raiders ribs. Pork loin. Smoked baked beans, smoked chicken. And the best item of all: Nancy's mushrooms.
* The flask is now 42 for 42 in passing Arrowhead security. :)
* There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that I love more about the home opener than the balloon launch. Nothing. Seeing the red and gold balloons launch ... good stuff.
* When I saw that some group named Fast Tyme was performing the anthem, I figured they were a rap or r&b group. Guess again. They're country apparently. And they were pretty solid.
* I continue to stand behind my belief that flyovers are the single biggest waste of taxpayer dollars known to man. Especially when they arrive 30 seconds after the friggin anthem is over.
* I'm not going to recap the game much, because quite honestly it was amongst the most boring 3 hours I've ever spent in that stadium. What hacked me off, I suppose, is different than most folks.
I wasn't upset that we failed to get the field goal before the half. OK, yeah, I wasn't happy, but that you don't blame on Haley. Savage was the checkdown, he was at best the 3rd option. Cassel was under pressure. He had a brain fart. It happens. In the first half, you don't crucify the guy over it.
What had me hacked, was that we threw deeper than 15 yards twice -- twice! -- all day. I get that the running game was working, with nearly 180 yards on the ground. Wonderful. What loosens up the running lanes best? A vertical passing attack!
We threw beyond 15 yards twice. One was a 3rd and forever bomb that Huff picked off on his own 4. Basically a punt. Nothing wrong with that. The other was the only touchdown we scored, a 29 yard perfectly thrown ball to D Bowe in my end zone.
To which I say, really? You expect to win in the NFL running the dink and dunk? I can name one team in the last 15 years that saw ANY success on the field running a dink and dunk passing offense. The 1999-mid 2003 oakland raiders. And they succeeded because they had the ultimate dink and dunk QB: a guy without a lot of arm strength, but with great mobility.
Matt Cassel is no dick gannon. He's got an arm. Let him use it!
Look it, I get that this season is about planning for 2010 and beyond, that anything accomplished in 2009 is gravy. I get that. If I didn't get it, I wouldn't have renewed my tickets. But goddammit, you HAVE to TRY to win! The Chiefs, once again, as they always did under Herm, played not to lose on Sunday. It was infuriating. It was pathetic. And its why Todd Haley is on my "it" list for the foreseeable future.
In 2001, when Vermeil came in and Saunders called the plays, they didn't reign in the offense. They lived with the mistakes. Because they knew that to come with anything less than your entire playbook, is admitting defeat off the bat. Sunday, the Chiefs waved the white flag of surrender before a snap was taken, by limiting Cassel's arm and passing patterns. If this happens again on Sunday, that'll be three straight games our head coach / offensive coordinator is basically ceding the game before a snap is played. If you aren't confident in your abilities to call a gameplan utilizing the entire playbook, you have no business calling plays in this league. None.
Sunday, there better be changes in the offensive gameplan. You don't win in this league by trying to keep it close and steal it at the end. You win in this league by pounding your opponent into submission from the moment you get off the bus.
* After the final snaps, I did the near unthinkable. I turned around, and congratulated the four raiders fans sitting behind me. Because other than Stacy and Jose, they're the first raiders fans I've ever sat by that exhibited class, legitimate football knowledge, and weren't on weekend furlough. They were actually pretty cool, all things considered. They're oakland STH's in section 201 at the black hole. They, like me, expressed utter shock that we never challenged oakland's secondary. They, like me, could not believe we played like we were the underdog and not the favorite.
And they, like me, agreed that a terrorist strike on fake mile high is not a national tragedy.
* After giving them some entertainment suggestions for their Sunday night stay (hopefully they paid a visit to everyone's favorite shack in a cornfield ...), it was off to the bus for some postgame boozing while waiting for traffic to die out. Everyone who had arrived on something other than the buses had already left, save for Will. Can't say I blame them. I wanted to storm out at halftime when it was obvious we weren't playing to win, but rather to not get embarrassed.
* Drive home was relatively uneventful. We could have used Mallory, that's for sure.
* So where do we go from here? We're 0-2 for the fourth straight season, and fifth time in six years. 0-2 teams simply don't rally to make much of their seasons. Only three NFL teams have ever rallied from 0-2 to win a Super Bowl: the 1993 Cowboys (who started 0-2 when Emmitt held out), the 2001 Patriots (who started some dude named Tom Brady in his first ever start in week 3), and the 2007 Giants (who pulled off the greatest upset in NFL history to beat the Patriots).
But every year, usually at least one team rallies from 0-2 to at least make the playoffs. Miami opened 0-2 last year and won the AFC East. The Giants in 2007. The Chiefs in 2006 rallied to steal a wildcard berth. The 2003 Eagles opened 0-2 and hosted the NFC Title Game. It can be done. It just isn't done all that often.
And at 0-3, the odds are even worse. Clearly, if anything is to come from 2009, we have to upset the Eagles on Sunday. We catch them at the right time. Likely no McNabb, likely no Westbrook.
In 2001, an awful, rebuilding Chiefs team hit the road at 0-2 and scored a shocking upset in Washington over the Redskins. Here's hoping the 2009 version can score another shocking upset on the road against a NFC East opponent ...
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