After several questionable calls which encouraged the Donkeys to victory, the officals attempted to nudge Denver that way again.  When I watched the DVR'ed game on Sunday evening, I didn't really notice it.  And when I skimmed through it again last night, I fast-forwarded right through it because I knew the outcome.

The play to which I am referring is the pass from Cutler to Stokely on the 4 yard line with 2:26 remaining in the game.  The pass was ruled incomplete.

And that is donkey#@%$...

He securely caught the ball away from his body with both hands, grasped t tightly and then as he began turning towards the endzone, began tucking the ball into the normal carrying position.  At this point, Pollard came in and punched the ball out...it is not as if Stokely were tentatively holding onto the ball and a hit from Pollard jarred it loose.

So did Stokely "make a football move"?  Two officials initially thought so...the two close referees that Stokely was facing ruled it a fumble which the Chiefs recovered.  The back judge, who was behind Stokely then came in and signaled 'no catch' (remember, he was the one who saw red and a big 49 where the ball was supposed to be).

Even if one could question the subjective term "football move", he got two feet down, a fact that went unnoticed by Dan "I can't see over my moustache" Dierdorf.  It was pretty freakin' ovious.  Stokely caught the ball with both hands out in front of him and hopped a little right when he caught it.  Then his right foot comes down (1) , he starts turning, his left foot comes down (2) , he turns some more, and then just before his right foot touches again (3), Pollard hit the ball with his left hand.

My complaints

1 - Had the play occured 30 seconds later it would have been ruled a fumble.

2 - The two referees who had the best view ruled it a fumble.  Why not go with them and let DEN challenge it if they want to?

3 - I am not sure if you can challenge an incomplete pass ruling.  But if you can, why the hell did we not challenge that call?

Okay, I'm done ranting...and curse you DVR with your frame by frame slow mo!

I don't know if it is the wisdom we gained by being a week older, or that coupled with another loss to another bad team, but almost everyone here seems much calmer after the loss to the Falcons than we were last Monday after losing to the Raiders.  Maybe we were a little deluded after playing the Patriots so closely in Week One.  Now reality has set in, and for the most part, we all appear to have accepted the fact that the Chiefs are a rather poor football team at this time.  (Certainly, the volume of flaming has diminished greatly when comparing today to last week). So, fellow AP posters, let's keep the discussions respectful and productive, and let's all get ready for the Donkeys! 

Chiefs 24 - Donkeys 21

(hey, even when being level-headed and rational, Kool-Aid still tastes delicious, right?)

Over at Warpaint Illustrated C.E. Wendler crafted a clever article in the style of our favorite Hutt, Jabba Whitlock.  Here is a taste...

I mentioned Gunther Cunningham earlier, but here’s the real kicker – Gunther may have Brady’s number, too. The last time Cunningham ran into Brady, it was no contest. Somehow, Gunther came up with a defensive gameplan that made Brady look like Jake Plummer. And this was in 2005, when the Chiefs were still giving up huge gobs of points every other week.

Seriously, you remember that day. Gunther put a defense that included Eric Hicks, Eric Warfield, Kendrell Bell, Lional Dalton and Sammy Knight on the field against your offense. They hit Brady, confused him, and he threw four interceptions. Greg Wesley, who’s sitting on his couch combing his dreadlocks right about now, somehow snagged three of them.

And you can read it in it's hilarious entirety here.

Brandon Carr appears to be adjusting to the NFL much more quickly than I had expected for a guy coming from Division II - now I know Grand Valley State is consistently among the top D-II teams, and that Carr might have ended up at UM or MSU instead, but I still thought he would take a season of playing nickel to get used to covering NFL caliber receivers, something he didn't have to do week in week out in college.  I have been really impressed with the young guy.  That INT in the endzone was a thing of beauty.   And then, yesterday in practice

CB Brandon Carr won a jump ball with WR Dewayne Bowe for the third INT.

Bowe is certainly no slouch in the jump ball department - he won several of those against very good CB's last season, so this, i think, is good news for us, and less than good news for Surtain.  However, Surtain can still benefit us greatly playing nickel-back 9the position, not the ass-hat band =) ) in a zone defense...he is smart and can hang back and maybe grab a few picks playing the zone in the middle of the field.

Before anyone freaks out, let me say this "Hell no."  But another rebuilding franchise has decided to go with the veteran who doesn't fit their long term plans

Out in the desert, the Cardinals are going to go with veteran Kurt Warner over youngster Matt Leinart, who had an especially bad performance against the Raiders, hitting only four of 12 p asses for 24 yards and three interceptions.

And we thought Croyle looked bad in some pre-season games?   Leinart was picked 75 slots higher than Croyle in 2006, and I can't believe the Cardinals are not starting him...how in the hell do they expect their #10 overall pick to get any better holding the clipboard for Kurt Warner?  I don't get it, but I am sure glad we aren't doing the same thing, and we don't have a young Top Ten draft pick QB.

In last night's pre-season game, which of the 8 draft picks which saw playing time impressed you guys the most?  I am having a hard time deciding.

Brad Cottam appears to have put to rest questions of his receiving ability - I missed a bit of the game, but I didn't see him drop a pass that headed his way.  He is a huge upgrade over Jason Dunn in that category.  Having two pass-catching threats covered by LB's in 2-TE sets will be very helpful for our quick passing game.

Jamaal Charles looked good running the ball, and showed some nice moves to gain yards after making the catch.

Of course, Will Franklin's catch on 3rd and 14 was impressive.

I was less happy with our defensive draft picks - I thought Flowers and Carr gave a little too much cushion in the Cover 2, though I understand they didn't want Hester to get behind them in their first ever NFL game.  I did see Morgan make a few plays in run support, and he made a nice tackle on the RB on a safety blitz around the left side of our line.

What do you guys think?

I am not old enough to remember this ( a few of you may be) but Jonathan Rand has a great article about a pre-season game between the Chiefs and Bears on 23 August 1967.  He writes

For Chiefs fans who are gray around the temples, tonight’s game against the Bears in Chicago should bring back memories of one of the most important pre-season games ever played. Actually, it may have been the only important pre-season game ever played.

The game was the first game the Chiefs played after the NFL-AFL merger (also the first game after we were creamed in Super Bowl I), and the Bears came into Municipal Stadium looking to again prove that former AFL teams were no match for the NFL teams.  They were led by Halas, who vehemently opposed the merger, even going as far as to offer teams to Hunt and Ryan.  We played our starters the whole game and beat the Bears 66-24.  I thought it was a well-written article, a great look back at history, and another reminder of how indebted we Chiefs fans and the whole sport of American Football are to the great Lamar Hunt.

Check it out at the mothership

From the mothership...

A Little Bit of History Repeating:
An adept Tar Heel and Connor Barth fan reminded us that: K Connor Barth kicked against KR Devin Hester when Barth was at UNC and Hester was at the University of Miami. It was October 30, 2004, a historic game for University of North Carolina in Kenan Stadium. Barth’s directional kickoffs held Hester to no significant returns, and the true freshman won the game for UNC, beating Miami (Top 5 ranked team) when he booted a 42-yard field goal with three seconds left on the clock. The kick made the inside spread of Sports Illustrated the next week.
-A Huge Connor Barth and UNC Fan

I hope Barth can still aim those kickoffs...I would be a shame if he lost the battle with Novak because Hester embarrassed us tomorrow night.

The kind mothership also posted a link so you could watch Barth win it

I know some of you are not fans of Bob Gretz due to his "Carl Peterson is the greatest GM in the NFL" Syndrome ;) but I thought he handled this Raiders fan very well

AL DAVIS says:

Bob, How will these KC fans feel when the Chiefs are 0-2 going to Atlanta? How will these KC fans feel when the Chiefs are 0-12 going to Denver on Pearl Harbor day?

They will probably feel the same way the Raiders fans will feel after they leave Arrowhead 0-2 on the season. I love a little give-and-take between fans, but how could a Raiders fan talk any trash after the way his team has played the last few years

Jonathan Rand over at the mothership had an interesting article about coaching in which he made this statement -

Any team in the league would be a lot more successful with the worst coaches and best players than with the best coaches and worst players.

I disagree, and here is why.  A few years ago the Patriots suffered a ridiculous string of injuries, something like 27 starters had missed 3 or more games over the course of the season (of course, not all at the same time).  Notice that this means that some back-ups became starters, and then were injured - something like our RB situation last season.   And yet they were still successful with a LOT of 2nd and 3rd string guys on the field (I can't remember exactly which season it was, so I don't know if they won the Super Bowl that year, but they won their division.)  Contrast this with the Raiders, who in the five years since losing the Super Bowl, have made the acquisition of talented players a priority - and we all know how that has turned out <chuckles>  Obviously, the Patriots had some great players, even when s bunch of back-ups were forced to play, but I have to believe some of their success is due to fantastic coaching of moderately talented players.  What does everybody think?