my reaction to the opening loss

These recaps aren't as much fun when you aren't there in person. I don't care what The Sports Guy or any other columnist writes, there is nothing like a legitimate NFL experience. Sadly, those are dwindling fast. By this time next year you'll be down to about 10 NFL experiences left that can rival the college game. Thank God we're one of them.

My quick thoughts on the loss before turning the focus to where it belongs: winning our first home game in 357 days ...

* I thought Todd Haley did a decent job in his debut. There were zero clock management issues (I didn't even object to the end of the first half strategory. No sense giving the Ravens the ball back with a spent defense on the field). I thought the offensive playcalling was fine. However, two things I want to bitch about the Coach for:

1. Sticking with Brodie Croyle. Todd, I don't know you. I intend to meet you Friday night at the Red Friday festivities, and I will tell you to your face, what I am telling you now in type. I don't give a shit what your issues with Tyler Thigpen are. I don't care if Tyler Thigpen slept with your wife. He is by far and away the better option than Brodie Croyle. Croyle had ONE legitimate drive today. ONE drive where he took us to the red zone for points. That's it. Our other scoring drives, we never crossed the 30, and he was given the ball at the 5 (and needed 3 plays and a penalty to score). Brodie Croyle is HORRID. Tyler Thigpen is at least mediocre.

I'm not saying Thigpen would have won today. My guess is Baltimore would have won 31-24 had Thigpen played the second half. But to keep playing Croyle to spite Gailey's love of Thigpen is utterly irresponsible. Contrary to what you might think, Todd, you aren't God's gift to football. Sticking with a sub-standard QB to prove a point is utterly retarded. Let's not do this again, ok?

2. Gutless football on 4th and less than a foot. Twice, Chiefs WR Mark Bradley failed to gain a 1st down on a 3rd down reception due to stupidity of not knowing where the chains were. Both times, I argued you go for it.

The first time, late in the first quarter, was 4th and less than a foot at our own 38ish yard line. A punt there, I'm hacked about. We're already down 10-0, the offense has done nothing, and you need a spark to get going. In hindsight, the punt was the right call, as we wound up blocking a punt for a touchdown in the aftermath.

The second time though, is utterly inexcusable piss poor coaching. 4th and less than 1, again around your own 40. I believe the score at this point was tied at 17. As I argued then, and as I will argue to your face, sir, when I meet you on Friday, to win games like this, you HAVE TO TAKE CALCULATED RISKS!

What more calculated risk is there than that? Its a fucking foot! Take a QB snap and fall forward! Hell, put Thigpen in for the fall forward if you're worried about Croyle's health.

I know the counter is "well, if we don't get it, they get great field position". Well what happened with the punt pal? Dusty C shanked it. Baltimore scored a couple plays later. You gained NOTHING by punting. You gained NOTHING by playing pussy ass conservative football. What you COULD have gained by having a pair and going for it, is confidence for the offense, another 2 minutes off the field for the defense, and the chance to seize the destiny in front of you.

As Sean Connery noted in "The Rock", "losers go home and whine. Winners f*ck the prom queen". Todd, buddy: winning coaches take advantage of the situation. Losing coaches punt. Today, you were a loser. I trust that will improve as time goes along; studying your body of work through the years, you don't strike me as Herm Jr.

* Brodie Croyle. Sweet Jesus. Awful. Absolutely awful. Again, if Cassel can't go Sunday against oakland, and Thigpen isn't the starter, then it damned well better be Gutierrez under center. Brodie Croyle should NEVER start another game in this league again. He is not NFL caliber. If there was any doubt about that before today, it should have been cleared up with today's piss poor effort under center.

* the defensive line looked really good. Consistently pushed the pocket back, consistently got pressure, consistently hit the running back. Until they were obviously gassed late in the 4th (another reason you don't punt on 4th and 1, save your defense for as long as you can), they did a tremendous job of keeping things in control.

* the linebackers though. Yikes. A disaster. DJ had his INT, and was generally where he needed to be, but everyone else, yikes. Demorrio had a couple nice tackles but you rarely heard his name called. Corey Mays was so overmatched covering Todd Heap that I felt embarrassed for Mr. Mays.

* and the secondary. I don't know who thought Maurice Leggett was a NFL caliber corner, but that person should be fired. Immediately. Maurice Leggett has as much business guarding a receiver as I do. And there's a damned good reason why I was always the last one picked in our post-Chiefs games football pickup games at Holy Trinity back in high school. Because I can't play man coverage. I fucking suck. Everyone knew, throw it at Steve, guaranteed touchdown. I suspect Joe Flacco was saying the same thing throwing it at Maurice Leggett today.

(yes, I just hauled out the classic old school football games at Holy Trinity. Don't tell me years of alcohol use have damaged the memory cells!)

* Succup looked solid. Every kick save one was solid, and it was a designed squibber. His field goal was beyond rock solid, 53 yards into a stiff right-to-left wind that split the uprights. Good stuff from Mr. Irrelevant.

* Very few penalties today. Two of them were purposeful delay-of-game penalties. The other few that were called, I can live with. The only "bad" penalty was the illegal contact that offset a holding call for a safety. But even that worked out -- instead of a safety, we blocked the punt for a touchdown.

* all in all, I was fine with today. It was exactly what I expected. A tough dogfight, that we just came up short in winning. Now comes the hard part.

I think Sunday defines the season. With a win over oakland, 3-4 at the bye is absolutely in focus, and 5-2 isn't as laughable as it seems (McNabb is hurt, we have a 50/50 shot of facing Kolb or Vick instead; the Redskins offense is even worse than our Brodie Croyle led effort, and if you split with the Giants and Cowboys, well ...). I still think 4-3 at the bye with a win Sunday.

But it all starts Sunday. Please, do NOT give up on this team after one tough loss. This isn't 2008, where we lost a heartbreaker on the road to a Super Bowl contender and came home to host oakland.

We went toe-to-toe with what is in my opinion the best team in the AFC (they're my Super Bowl pick) in their house, and for 57 minutes and 52 seconds played them to a draw. Without our starting QB. Without our starting CB. And with a rookie head coach / offensive coordinator, brand new defensive coordinator, and with 30 of our 53 roster spots being filled by guys not acquired by Carl and/or Herm. Huge turnover, brand new leadership ... and we still had the ball at the 2 minute warning with a shot to tie. In Baltimore.

I'll save the show up plea for the picks. But yeah, I am fired up for Sunday. Monty gets in Wednesday night to start getting the command center ready. The pre-party starts sometime Saturday after KU demolishes Duke in Lawrence. And the postgame party, well, let's hope this replays itself. From the Chiefs / donkeys recap last year:

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* Postgame, and yes I'm skipping a lot of the game but I want to really review it before recapping it in detail ... postgame, I just stand in my spot for a solid 30, 45 seconds. I literally was crying. Finally Russ patted me on the back and was like "the beer's colder at the bus!" Yes. Yes it was.

I darted off to the bano to, uuh, relieve myself, and to refill the water bottle (yes, incredibly enough, I did not purchase an adult beverage during the game. Emphasis on the word "purchase", trust me, I consumed some between the three flasks floating around the confluence of 131 / 132 ...) Anyways, after a couple minutes at the trough and the water fountain, I started the climb up the spiral ramp. And the Tomahawk Chop chants were just flying around. You could actually hear them still up at the bus 10 minutes later. Don't tell me this town doesn't love its team. Just give us a reason to hope, and we'll believe.

* I got to the bus, t-shirt draped John Thompson style, covered in sweat and bite marks from stress ... and there's Dusty. "We f*cking did it!" Nothing says "first win in 344 days" like a freaking man hug with the roommate.

* Damien was next. "Un f*cking believable!" Another man hug and high fives all around.

* Russ and Mona next. Although we'd shared many a hug, high five, and hit off the flask prior to the postgame reunion. It never gets old. The Chiefs winning. The postgame tailgate. None of it ever gets old. Win or lose ... oh yeah. We still booze!

* The traditional postgame hug with Jennifer up next.

* Then the moment it all sinks in, which as always results in me grabbing a Coors Light out of the cooler, walking over to the walkway, starting to high five randoms as they walk by ... and I just have to sit. With a massive, ain't leaving anytime soon, sh*t eating grin on my face.

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OK, so DJ may not be the roomie anymore ... but other than that, let's replay this scene come Sunday at 3:15ish. Ashley "take the shirt off" texts included. Let's win this game. Let's establish ourselves as a threat to win against anyone at home, just as we established today ourselves as a threat to beat anyone on the road. Let's get this done.

If only for my sanity ...