Part II Starts Now...

A few things happened today that I found interesting to note as our season has advanced to the half way point. A couple of things stood out to me as I finished watching the systematic destruction of the Chiefs and the subsequent failure to lose the entirety of our fourth quarter lead once again. Needless to say that the hear rate did climb into the lower three digit levels as the absorption of the padded point total reared its ugly head again. But, there were some positive signs during the second half of this game despite the 306 total yards we allowed T-Green and the Chefs to put up onto the home field scoreboard. Although it was nerve racking, it was not as dire as it may have seemed at the time.

I was very pleased with the flexibility of the offense. After Philadelphia put a little bit of an ass kicking onto our offensive line the week before, it appeared that the Chiefs were out to follow a similar game plan to attack up front and prevent Tomlinson from destroying them single handedly. They did achieve some level of success here, but it was less their ability to shut down the run, and more our defiance to just throw the darned thing to back them off a bit that dictated the first half of the game. I was slightly disturbed/ caught off guard to see that Brees was airing it out for most of the first quarter; twelve passes attempted in that quarter alone. I wanted to see the running game get going, just for the sake of my own psyche, personally determined that we could and would run the ball against everyone after last weeks performance on the ground. But, those involved with the decision making power obviously had no regard for my personal well being and just threw (literally) caution to the wind via the football. Gates got off to a great start, and managed to parlay that into a career game, 140+ yards receiving and three touchdowns. Far be it for me to second guess something, but, how can you not make some kind of adjustment here at some point? Don’t the Chiefs have a rather successful version of our guy on their side? Are they unaware of the effect a Pro-Bowl tight end can have on a game? Safe to say I was rather surprised to keep seeing number 85 catching the football with no one in red trying to stop him. I guess he really is that good.

Tomlinson is going to have to start to wonder if he is ever going to get free again. Sixty nine yards for him this Sunday, an obvious improvement over the combined performances of himself and the offensive line after last weeks total of seven. Their defense and our stubborn desire to heave the pig through the air led to this weeks rushing total. But fear not, if he can’t get it going on the ground, well, we will just let him throw it, again, and he will throw it and throw it well. He almost looked bored as he connected for his third touchdown pass of the year. Three more than our “Mr. Backup Superstar Trade Bait Quarterback”. Once again, it is going to be very difficult to generate the sympathy machine for me when speaking of the Quarterback who held out of his opportunity to be a starter in his rookie year. I wonder if he regrets his decision at all at this moment in time. If this was one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure Books” you read as a kid, do you think he is frantically flipping the pages back to the part where he makes his big decision, and upon finding out that he choose poorly, fell into a pit full of poisonous talking snakes that sang Spice Girls tunes to him before biting him in the eyes and killing his chances here. Do you think that he wants this to end a little differently? Yeah, I would too.

Lastly and sadly, Reche up and fumbled the ball again this week. As if it wasn’t a critical play when he coughed it up last week, he went ahead and did it again. Needless to say, he found a nice empty spot on the bench for the entirety of the game yesterday afternoon. Hang on to the pig kid. You gotta hang on.

Denver is still out in front. I hate having to say that. That really hurts to say, and to put down here in print so I can see it over and over. Jets first as the second half starts, and all sights need to be focused here. Denver will have to take care of itself for now…