I know I'm proud of it. No, losing isn’t fun. It sucks. But we’re playing with house money at this point. And one thing is for certain: Our defense is legit.
KC’s offense is remarkable. You’ve got a genius HC and offensive play caller in Reid. You’ve got a generational talent in Mahomes. You’ve got serious weapons in Kelce and Hill. It’s a team that has shown consistently throughout the season they can score from anywhere on the field at any point. The Chiefs are a special team. I didn’t entirely rule out an upset, because any given Sunday and all that, but I didn’t think it was likely. What I wanted to see was Tua go toe to toe with Mahomes, throw a couple TDs, and keep it interesting and lively.
Our defense came out balling. Two interceptions on tipped passes. X with an absolutely filthy pick. Two big sacks in the first half. A fumble recovery. Some good defensive stops in the 4th. KC was bound to put up points, but our defense continued to be opportunistic, take the football away, and put our offense in a position to put points on the board.
Tua wasn’t perfect, but he was good. He looked sharp early, faded a bit in the middle of the game, then came back strong. He threw a lot of good passes. Converted some big third downs. Threw some absolute strikes. He shows serious flashes and can clearly sling it. If Jason Sanders makes that first field goal attempt and DVP comes down with the TD pass in the end zone—which, in my opinion, was perfectly thrown—the game has an entirely different feel going into half time.
The reality is the talent level at the offensive skill positions is bad. Like, really, really bad. If it wasn’t clear already, it should be by now: we need to overhaul the WR and RB groups this offseason. Yes, we have a lot of injuries. Already lost PW. We lose DVP. We lose Grant. We don’t have Gaskin, Breida or Ahmed. We can’t run the football. Our receivers can’t get separation. Even when Tua threads it into tight windows, our receivers can’t catch. To make matters worse, we lose MG. We’ve got some nice complimentary pieces, but we’re missing elite talent at WR and RB.
But instead of rolling over when KC pulled away, our team showed real heart. You think an Adam Gase coached team would have climbed back into this one? Not a chance. Our boys continued to grind. They fought and crawled their way back into this thing. Tua put together two strong scoring drives. We were a couple missteps away—some rookie mistakes from Tua, drop from DVP, missed field goal by our money kicker, etc.—from potentially beating the defending Super Bowl champs.
Here’s the good news: This team is way ahead of schedule. We’re 8-5 and in the playoff hunt. This is year two of a new era where we gutted our roster to build everything up from the ground. We’ve got a legit HC. Our team is young, hungry, well-coached and trending in the right direction. Our defense is stout and opportunistic. We’ve got two first round picks and two second round picks this offseason. The future is bright. And if we can win 2 of our last 3 games, we’ll finish out at 10-6 and have a good shot at the playoffs this year.
The sky isn’t falling. Trust the process. Trust Coach Flo.
KC’s offense is remarkable. You’ve got a genius HC and offensive play caller in Reid. You’ve got a generational talent in Mahomes. You’ve got serious weapons in Kelce and Hill. It’s a team that has shown consistently throughout the season they can score from anywhere on the field at any point. The Chiefs are a special team. I didn’t entirely rule out an upset, because any given Sunday and all that, but I didn’t think it was likely. What I wanted to see was Tua go toe to toe with Mahomes, throw a couple TDs, and keep it interesting and lively.
Our defense came out balling. Two interceptions on tipped passes. X with an absolutely filthy pick. Two big sacks in the first half. A fumble recovery. Some good defensive stops in the 4th. KC was bound to put up points, but our defense continued to be opportunistic, take the football away, and put our offense in a position to put points on the board.
Tua wasn’t perfect, but he was good. He looked sharp early, faded a bit in the middle of the game, then came back strong. He threw a lot of good passes. Converted some big third downs. Threw some absolute strikes. He shows serious flashes and can clearly sling it. If Jason Sanders makes that first field goal attempt and DVP comes down with the TD pass in the end zone—which, in my opinion, was perfectly thrown—the game has an entirely different feel going into half time.
The reality is the talent level at the offensive skill positions is bad. Like, really, really bad. If it wasn’t clear already, it should be by now: we need to overhaul the WR and RB groups this offseason. Yes, we have a lot of injuries. Already lost PW. We lose DVP. We lose Grant. We don’t have Gaskin, Breida or Ahmed. We can’t run the football. Our receivers can’t get separation. Even when Tua threads it into tight windows, our receivers can’t catch. To make matters worse, we lose MG. We’ve got some nice complimentary pieces, but we’re missing elite talent at WR and RB.
But instead of rolling over when KC pulled away, our team showed real heart. You think an Adam Gase coached team would have climbed back into this one? Not a chance. Our boys continued to grind. They fought and crawled their way back into this thing. Tua put together two strong scoring drives. We were a couple missteps away—some rookie mistakes from Tua, drop from DVP, missed field goal by our money kicker, etc.—from potentially beating the defending Super Bowl champs.
Here’s the good news: This team is way ahead of schedule. We’re 8-5 and in the playoff hunt. This is year two of a new era where we gutted our roster to build everything up from the ground. We’ve got a legit HC. Our team is young, hungry, well-coached and trending in the right direction. Our defense is stout and opportunistic. We’ve got two first round picks and two second round picks this offseason. The future is bright. And if we can win 2 of our last 3 games, we’ll finish out at 10-6 and have a good shot at the playoffs this year.
The sky isn’t falling. Trust the process. Trust Coach Flo.