Fifth Down

As Mizzou fans we suffer a lot of defeat so much so that I thought I would make up one list but ended up having to divide it into two, a football list and basketball list. Sorry Norfolk St. and Tyus Edney, you will have to wait your turn. I am also sure there were some terrible defeats before my time so keep in mind this is just in my lifetime. Without further ado, here we go.

10. 2008, Loss to ku to end the regular season:

2008 was supposed to be our year. Following arguably Mizzou greatest’s season, the Tigers started the season ranked in the top 4. But after two losses already all hopes of a national title had already ended. And so we were just trying to not lose to ku in order for the season not to be a complete disappointment. Spoiler alert, it was a complete disappointment. This was actually a great game, especially if you like offense. Neither team could stop the other one and the scoring was back and forth all game. Unfortunately, the jayhawks got the ball last. Todd Reesing threw a td with less than 30 seconds left to stupid Kerry Meier to take the lead 40-37. Mizzou didn’t have enough time to score. A close loss to our most hated rival to end the most disappointing season in Mizzou history…why isn’t this higher you might ask. Well this is actually the same day I became a father. My wife asked if we won and I said no and she said I’m so sorry and it was like it is all good, we just had a kid. She was impressed that I didn’t care about the game since we were having a baby. I am not sure what that says about my fandom but I am thinking it says it is maybe borderline unhealthy. Anyway, it is sort of the perfect way for a new little Mizzou fan to be born into the world, in utter disappointment. The Tigers still somehow made the Big 12 championship vs Oklahoma. For some reason they decided to talk a lot of crap before the game and then they lost by like 40.

9. Mizzou loses to Auburn in Overtime this year:

While this game doesn’t have a big impact on the overall Mizzou history, but it is such a classic Mizzou game it had to be included. The teams combined for 12 consecutive punts in the second half. As the game was coming to a conclusion, Mizzou drove down to kick the game winner. But Mevis who is one of the best kickers in school history missed a 26 yarder. Then Auburn got the ball in overtime and the Mizzou defense held to a fg attempt. The Auburn kicker missed but we were offsides so he got a second chance and made it. We got the ball and our running back made a great run all the way to the 1 yard line when he fumbled and the ball rolled out of the end zone for a touchback and we lost 17-14. If this game doesn’t epitomize Mizzou Football, I don’t know what does.

8. Weird Kentucky Losses

I am sort of cheating with this one. But it seems like every time we play Kentucky something weird happens. The two most prominent ones are this year and 2018. In 2018, Drew Lock was our quarterback and we were up 14-3 at halftime. We had 8 possessions in the 2nd half and had a solid 8 3 and outs. Our defense kept us in it. They even got a stop as time expired but got called for a questionable pass interference. They got the ball at the 2 with no time remaining for one last play and scored a touchdown giving the Wildcats the game 15-14. All we needed was 1 first down. Just 1 first down the entire second half and we would have won this game. But an offense featuring Drew Lock couldn’t get it done.

This year down 21-17 we forced a punt that would give us the ball back with a chance to win the game. Kentucky snapped the ball over the punter’s head. The ball went all the way to the goal line. The punter just grabbed it and one of our players tackled him as he tried kick it and it was called roughing the punter. Technically he was still in the tackle box even though he was 40 yards behind the line of the scrimmage. You can’t make this stuff up. Two brutal losses to Kentucky and I am sure there have been others and there will be more in the future.

7. 2010 Loss to Nebraska

We had just beat #1 Oklahoma with Game Day on hand in perhaps the biggest win in Mizzou history. We were in the National title hunt and we were heading to face hated Nebraska. I some how scored 3 tickets for the 50 yard line. My dad, brother and I met up and made the drive from Mid Missouri to Lincoln. Seats were great. Weather was great. The fans were, eh. Nebraska fans back then were a lot like Cardinals fans. They are “the best fans” in sports because they show up every year to watch their winning team perform. They are also snobby and wear entirely too much red. And this is coming from a Chiefs fan. Anyway, all was well until the game started and they basically knocked the crap out of Blaine Gabbert for 4 quarters. If you don’t remember Roy Helu Jr., let me remind you. He is the guy that ran for 307 yards on our defense. I am pretty sure Gabbert got a concussion and kept playing. In fact, I am pretty sure Gabbert still had a concussion the next week when he played awful against Texas Tech and we lost to them too. Anyway, it made a rough exit to the game. Nebraska was leaving the Big 12 and fans were like hey try to stay relevant and maybe we will play each other again sometime. Well guess what Nebraska…you suck too so neither of us are relevant. Take that Cornhuskers.

6. SEC Championship loss against Auburn

In just our second year in the SEC we won the East and made it to the big game. It was exciting and to make things even more exciting, we weren’t playing Alabama or LSU and so we might actually have a shot. It was a back and forth game full of offense and the 3rd quarter ended with us trailing by just 3 points, 45-42. Unfortunately, the 4th quarter was not good to us and we lost 59-42. We gave up 545 rushing yards. 545 yards!!! We actually had 534 yards of offense ourselves. But we could not stop Tre Mason. He had 304 yards himself. To add insult to injury, Mason said that we changed our defense and if they players had just stayed home, he would have had no where to run. Ouch. Auburn went on to lose the national championship to Florida State. It was great year but this game made it feel like it could have been so much more if we could have just at least occasionally stop the run.

5. Oklahoma State loss that ruined a would be great season

The year is 2008. We were 5-0 and ranked #3 in the nation. We had Heisman finalist Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin and Chase Coffman on offense and we were unstoppable. Until we weren’t. Hosting #17 Oklahoma State was the beginning of the end. Chase threw 3 interceptions and we couldn’t finish drives. While we were on offense, Mike Gundy wasn’t even paying attention to the game. He was drawing up plays for their next offensive possession. After all, he’s a man. He’s 40. Anyway it worked. We scored with like 5 minutes to go to pull within 5. But we never got the ball back. It was a tough loss. But it was also the beginning of the end. We got rolled by Texas the next week, lost to ku at the end of the year and got rolled by Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship. It was a disappointing beginning to what was supposed to be an awesome year.

4. South Carolina 2013, double overtime

This was a crazy game. We had just beat Georgia at Georgia and Florida at home. James Franklin got hurt so we were rolling with pre drug selling Maty Mauk. Things started off well. We were up 14-0 at the half and had one of our longest td’s in school history when one of my all time favorite Tigers, L’Damian Washington caught a 96 yard touchdown pass. We were up 17-0 going into the 4th quarter. Then the dreaded back up quarterback came in. We are historically bad against back up quarterbacks. Connor Shaw was hurt but came in anyway. He led them to 17 unanswered points which led to overtime. We scored quickly and easily. It was SC’s turn with the ball. It was 4th down and forever and Shaw was almost sacked before launching it to the corner of the end zone for a touchdown. In the second overtime we held them to a fg. Unfortunately, we couldn’t score a td and had to settle for a fg ourselves. Andrew Baggett kicked the 24 yarder off the left upright and we lost. This is literally the only blemish of the regular season. We could have been 12-0. Luckily we bounced back and won out and still made it to the championship game but it was rough way to lose…especially in that end zone.

3. Big 12 Championship 2007

This game was brutal. We had lost a close one to Oklahoma in Norman earlier in the year. I remember being in a bar in Colorado watching the game and there was this annoying Oklahoma girl talking crap through the whole game. I told her we would see them again and I was right. Unfortunately the outcome was worse. It was tied 14-14 at halftime but it felt like we had missed some opportunities. But we just couldn’t do anything in the second half. Their defense was one step ahead and they ran all over us to a 38-17 victory. We were #1 in the country but only scored one td and were held under 30 for the first time all year. Although not as depressing because it wasn’t a close loss as some of the others this one hurt because this was arguably our best team ever and the closest we have ever been to a national title game. It was a sad loss and one that hurts even more considering how disappointing the next year was. The second half of that game was the first non fun half of football all that year.

2. The Fifth Down:

While I am thankful for this event as it gave me a clever name for a blog, this loss was ridiculous. Again, you cannot make this stuff up and it couldn’t happen to anyone but us. On 1st and goal they spiked the ball to stop the clock. On second down they handed off to no one other than Eric Bienemy who did not score. At this point Colorado took it’s final timeout and this is where the problem began. The chain crew never flipped the down marker from 2nd to 3rd down. So now things get really confusing. They hand off to Bienemy again and he does not get in on what is actually 3rd down but marked as second down. Charles Johnson gets the team to the line and spikes the ball again on what is actually 4th down but marked as 3rd down. On the actual fifth down, Johnson keeps it himself. He appears to be stopped short of the goal line but the refs say he is in. Did you get all that? At this point the refs realize there is an issue. The officials huddle for like 20 minutes and then finally say the touchdown counts even though it happened on 5th down. Like I said, you can’t make this stuff up. Now if this happened today there would be challenge flags and replays and people yelling in the officials ear to correct the down marker. But this was 1990 and our nation was only borderline obsessed with football as opposed to completely obsessed like we are today. The officiating crew was suspended for one week. The Buffs ended up being co-national champions and we went on to continue to be a terrible program. So how is this not number 1 on the list? I mean the blog is named after it. Well I was only 11 years old. I didn’t really hate Colorado and I wasn’t obsessed with Mizzou football yet. But what if something just as bizarre could happen against a team you hate a few years later when you are all in on Mizzou?

The Flea Kicker:

I was a freshman in college and was in Columbia for some reason. I didn’t go to the game but watched it at I believe Apple Bee’s with some friends and family. We were playing #1 Nebraska who was 8-0. We weren’t good but we were good for us as we were 6-3 going into the game. We were competitive from beginning to end. We had not beaten Nebraska since 1978 and it was 1997. We were up 38-31 late in the game but couldn’t get a first down to seal it and were forced to punt. Nebraska got the ball back with just over a minute left. They drove down the field and were at the 12 yard line with 7 seconds left. Scott Frost, who was a terrible coach for Nebraska, but a pretty good qb for them threw a pass. He hit a kid named Shevin Wiggins in the chest but he dropped it. It was falling to the ground when it hit a Mizzou player’s foot and bounced back up. As Wiggins was being tackled the ground, he kicked the ball back up in the air and stupid Matt Davidson dove and caught the ball. This should have been called an illegal kick but instead the refs let it stand and the game went to overtime. In OT, they got the ball first and Frost ran it in. When it was our turn, on 4th and 7, Corby Jones got sacked by no other than Webb City grad, Grant Winstrom. Bad enough we lose on a game ending sack but it was by a kid who was from our state. Nebraska went on to win a co-national championship and I realized that this was just the life of a Mizzou fan. It’s what Mizzou does. We rip defeat from the jaws of victory.

This was a hard list to create as there are so many others to chose from. But these are my top 10. What’s on your list that didn’t make it?

As we conclude the 2022 NFL season, I decided to reflect back with 5 final takeaways/reactions. Also, there is a prediction for every NFL team and an update on what fifth-down will be doing in the offseason. Enjoy!

The NFL has a New Rivalry:

The NFL has never been short of rivalries. But lately we have been a little limited on them. I’m not talking about division rivalries. Those will always exist. I am talking about two teams that don’t play twice a year but have a true rivalry. The criteria is simple. Two competitive teams that often play each other in competitive games including the playoffs and have a dislike for each other. Bonus points for when the fans of both teams dislike the team and fans of the other teams. I’m talking 49ers vs Giants in the late 80s early 90s. Cowboys vs 49ers of the 90s. Patriots vs Colts in the Brady vs Manning days. And so on and so forth. Now we have Chiefs vs Bengals. With the Chiefs victory, things are no longer one sided. Further, the Chiefs have championships and the Bengals don’t. These teams don’t particularly like each other and the fan bases hate the other team. This is good for the league in general and should be the game to kick off the 2023 season.

Expect Rule Changes in 2023:

Based upon popular opinion on social media, the rule most would like to see is the “let them play” rule when the Chiefs have the ball late in the game. This is a stupid thought process, thinking the refs shouldn’t call penalties late in the game. The latest complaint is the hold on Bradberry against JuJu. This was very controversial but mostly based upon the camera angles that Fox chose to show us. Mike Periera, Fox’s official analyst felt like it was an obvious hold because he had 12 camera shots and chose the one from the angle of the ref who threw the flag. For whatever reason, Fox never gave us this angle. But if you watch the inside the nfl mic’d up version you see the play very clearly. And it is very clearly a hold. So despite dumb fans request we will not get the “let them play” rule passed. However, the rule I think we will see changed is the rugby push the guy forward play the Eagles and other teams used throughout the season. Pretty much every team used this strategy at some point but the Eagles used it many times a game. They have the right guy to do it. I don’t care if it stays or goes but I expect it to go. The NFL doesn’t like things that are automatic. And this is pretty automatic as long as you are willing to stick your QB in the middle of the scrum. The other factor is this was illegal before. In 2006, they decided to change the rule and allow players to push other players forward. Over time, this has gotten more and more excessive to the point of what we see with the Eagles, where there is basically no way of stopping it. So expect to not see this at all next year. And expect the conspiracy theory people to say it is all a plot to help rig more championships for the Chiefs.

Last to First continues:

Almost every year, a team that finishes last wins their division the following year. In 2018 the Texans did it. In 2019 the 49ers did it. In 2020, Washington did it. In 2021, the Bengals did it and in 2022, the Jaguars did it. It might go back farther than that. That is the beauty of the NFL. You can turn around your franchise relatively quickly. This means that one of the following teams will win their division next year: Jets, Browns, Texans, Broncos, Commanders, Bears, Falcons, and Cardinals. See even when your team sucks, there is hope for next year.

If you are a free agent QB…run to the NFC:

Jalen Hurts proved he is the real deal in the Super Bowl. But beyond him there is a lot of question marks. With Brady retiring and Rodgers living in a dark room or whatever, there are a lot of unknowns. Is Geno Smith the second best QB in the NFC? Will the 49ers have a healthy QB to start the season? If I was Derek Carr or Aaron Rodgers or anyone else, sign me up for the NFC. In the AFC you are competing against Mahomes, Allen, Burrow and Lawrence who will all likely win their divisions. Then you add in Herbert, Lamar, Watson (if he can get back on track), and Tua (if he can stay on the field). You can go to the Jets or Raiders and try and compete with that. Or you can go to any of the 4 NFC South teams and win the division.

The Next Dynasty:

I agree with Patrick Mahomes that we are not a dynasty yet. But the key word is yet. Another championship within the next 2-3 years seals the deal. Back to back wins would definitely seal the deal. And we already have all the other things that come with dynasties. Franchise QB? Check. Historically great coach? check. Rabid and desperate fan base that has been waiting decades for a win? check. Other fan bases already hating your team? check. Conspiracy theories that you are cheating or things are rigged? check. We have it all. We don’t have the championships that the Patriots have but we have all the hate. So Chiefs fans, let’s embrace it. But lets try to be a little nicer to everyone then our east coast Patriot friends. After all, we are mid-westerners so lets at least pretend to be nice.

Predictions for every NFL Team:

AFC East:

Bills: The Bills win the east…again. And lose in the divisional round…again. But this time they do it without any of their players almost dying. So we will count this a victory.

Dolphins: Unfortunately, Tua gets yet another concussion derailing their season. But we finally get the answer that yes in fact Mike McDaniel’s is vaping on the sideline. Do you blame him?

Patriots: Bill O’Brien comes in as OC and improves the offense because he isn’t terrible at offense just terrible and running a team. Pats make the playoffs.

Jets: Surely they will have someone better than Zach Wilson play quarterback…right? Right?

AFC North:

Bengals: They win the division and are still real good and arrogant and annoying and I still hate them.

Ravens: The Ravens trade Lamar but still win 10 games.

Steelers: Tomlin goes yet another year without a losing record. Pickett improves and the Steelers improve with him.

Browns: Are still a disaster. Now they are just a more expensive disaster.

AFC South:

Jaguars: Beware the hair! Jags repeat as AFC South champs and make a run in the playoffs.

Titans: Titans go from being boring and good to just being boring.

Colts: Can’t possibly be worse than last year…right? right?

Texans: Texans show heart but still don’t have a good record and then they immediately fire their head coach for the 3rd year in a row.

AFC West:

Chiefs: They win the AFC West again and go to the AFC Championship game again. Not ready to say they win it all again but they have a great chance.

Chargers: They will be a media favorite to win the division and the whole thing. Then the season will start and they will win 10 games and lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Raiders: They trade for Aaron Rodgers giving up a ton of draft capital. Hey, Aaron said he wanted to go to a dark place and it doesn’t get darker than Vegas and the Raiders. He skips OTA’s but it doesn’t matter because all he does is throw to Davante Adams anyway. They finish with one more win than last year. Then Rodgers retires leaving the Raiders without a QB or draft picks. Raiders gonna raider.

Broncos: The Broncos under Sean Payton are no longer hot garbage. They are decent and even finally beat the Chiefs. Just kidding. They don’t beat the Chiefs but they are better.

NFC East:

Eagles: Spend most of the season complaining that they can no longer play Rugby. They still win the division.

Cowboys: Getting rid of their OC doesn’t help their offense because Dak is still their QB.

Giants: They resign Jones and Barkley. It doesn’t work out. Barkley gets hurt and Jones regresses back to old Jones form.

Commanders: EB shows up as OC and makes them more competitive on offense and Sam Howell is decent. They finish with a winning record.

NFC North:

Vikings: Brian Flores makes their defense better. Kirk Cousins is still the quarterback so they lose in the first round of the playoffs.

Packers: They trade Rodgers and immediately improve and make the playoffs and have a lot less distractions.

Lions: Dan Campbell is real excited and the team plays with a lot of passion. They finish 9-8 again and just miss the playoffs because they are the Lions.

Bears: They have lots of draft picks. It doesn’t matter. They are still terrible.

NFC South:

Bucs: Blaine Gabbert gets a chance to start and balls out. Just Kidding. They start Kyle Trask and are terrible.

Panthers: Frank Reich finds a way to win despite not having a great QB. He is used to it after coaching the Colts for several years. They win this crappy division.

Saints: Derek Carr joins the Saints…it helps a little. But not enough.

Falcons: The birds aren’t worse without Mariotta. They aren’t better either.

NFC West:

49ers: They start the year with Purdy and Lance competing for the starting job. But by week 3 they are both injured. Instead of signing other QBS that will ultimately just get injured, the 49ers decide to just run wild cat with McCaffrey and Deebo to get ready for the playoffs.

Seahawks: Seattle resigns both Geno and Drew Lock. Geno gets hurt and the Seahawks make the playoffs with Lock. Pointing out even further that the Broncos truly were a mess the last few years.

Rams: All their old players are healthy…for a little bit. They win more games than the past year but still have no depth so disappear the second half of the season.

Cardinals: John Gannon immediately regrets taking the job. It’s a dumpster fire year. After all, the Chiefs won more games in their stadium this season then they did.

Going forward, fifth-down will have two posts a week. We will have top 10 Tuesday. This will be a top 10 list of random sports things. For instance, next Tuesday you will get top 10 Mizzou losses of all time. Feel free to give suggestions for top 10 categories.

Secondly, Five for Friday will go on in a different form. Instead of 5 predictions it will be 5 reactions to the sports world the past week.

My main focus is always the NFL as that is what I follow most closely so look for special posts about free agency and the draft.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and I hope you will continue to do so.

How About those Chieeefs! What a great game. I’m so happy and so happy for the coaches and players of the Chiefs. Here are 13 reactions from last night’s game.

We broke all the trends, streaks, and superstitions

No one who has led the league in passing has ever won the super bowl…until Mahomes. No one who has won MVP has won the super bowl since 1999…until Mahomes. No one has won the Super Bowl when winning the coin toss in the last 9 games…until last night. The coach coaching against his own team doesn’t win often…but Andy Reid did. All those things are now done. We now will only hear about these things as stuff that Mahomes, Andy and the Chiefs ended.

MVPat

Mahomes is amazing. People will say Hurts out played him and that is fine. What I saw last night was a mature Pat. He didn’t force balls down the field. He took what was given to him. He moved around the pocket and ran when he needed to. He was willing to let his running backs and o-line carry a lot the load. And he led. He got the team back on track at halftime. He led on the sideline and he led on the field. Dude reinjured is high ankle sprain and was still running around out there. He ran 6 times for 44 yards. His stat line wasn’t amazing from a yardage standpoint with 182. But he was 21-27 with 3 touchdowns. He only had one incompletion in the second half and that was a throw away. He completed arguably the greatest quarterback season ever. He led the league in passing yards and touchdowns. He threw for over 5,000 yards. He set the all time record for total yards by a quarterback. He won MVP. He won the Super Bowl and he won Super Bowl MVP. 6 seasons in and 5 seasons as a starter, he is already a hall of famer. He is arguably a top 5 QB of all time. I am not sure he is human.

Just like we all expected, the Chiefs ran for more yards and Eagles threw for more yards

If I said one team threw for over 300 yards you would have likely guessed that team was the Chiefs. If I said one team ran for over 150 yards, you would have for sure have guessed the Eagles. But the opposite was the case. Both teams were very balanced from a play calling stand point, with the Chiefs passing on 27 plays and running on 26 plays. The Eagles threw 38 times and ran 32 times. Both numbers are a little off due to quarterback scrambles counting as runs but regardless fairly balanced by both teams. What was less expected was that the Chiefs would average over 6 yards a carry. Pacheco was the work horse with 15 carries for 76 yards. McKinnon didn’t get the ball a ton but had 4 carries for 34 yards. Meanwhile the Eagles only averaged 3.6 yards a carry. And it wasn’t the QB sneaks bringing down the average. If you take Hurts out of the equation, the 3 Eagle running backs had 17 carries for 45 yards or 2.6 yards a carry. Turns out the Chiefs run defense was a little underrated.

Hurts is that dude

Speaking of Hurts, he is real good. He was phenomenal last night. I expected the success with his feet and him to get a lot of quarterback sneaks. But he was amazing throwing the ball. He was fitting passes in some very tight windows and just played great from beginning to end. He made one mistake and it cost them greatly but he rallied back and played great afterwards. He is about to get paid a lot of money and deservingly so. He is legit.

Nick Bolton is also Legit

Bolton is amazing. The fact that he was not a pro bowler this year is ridiculous. He is everywhere on the field. If you want to know where the ball is, just find number 32. 9 tackles last night and a touchdown. That is the way he has played all year. He has been phenomenal and he was fantastic last night.

Eagles D got exposed

I am not saying they aren’t good but they also played a lot of bad quarterbacks. Against good quarterbacks they were average at best. They led the league in sacks and had zero last night. Credit the Chiefs offensive line some as they did a nice job. But again, this has more to do with Mahomes than the line. No offense to the guys in the trenches but the Eagles pressure rate was actually slightly higher than their season average. Before last night, the Eagles were getting sacks on 33% of their pressures. Last night, they struck out even with a higher pressure rate. The reason, Patrick Mahomes is real good at sports. He was elusive stepping up, back and around the pocket as needed. He escaped and ran for big yards. Also, the play calling by the Chiefs was incredible. I mean both Skyy Moore and Kadarius Toney were literally wide open on touchdowns. The run plays were creative and successful. The Eagles d is good, just not as good as advertised and not as good as the Chiefs offense.

That Field was a disaster

It’s the Super Bowl. You got to have a good field for the game. I don’t understand what happened but that field was a mess. The only good news is both teams were effected equally by it. So at least it was even. But the NFL has to do better in the future to make sure a disaster like this doesn’t happen again.

If you have a guy who can only stay healthy, save him for the 4th

There was much talk that Kadarius Toney was going to have a big impact on the game. However, through 3 quarters he had barely seen the field. My fear was that he would play early and get hurt because he always gets hurt. Maybe the Chiefs had the same fear because they barely used him. He was only actually out there for 5 offensive snaps. But boy did he have an impact. First, he ran a route that left him wide open for a touch down. Then after we forced a punt, he returned it for the longest punt in super bowl history. He made a great move early and then was so patient down the sideline allowing the blocks to line up. It was beautiful. Hopefully he can get in a work out program in the offseason that will keep him healthy. But regardless, this was another genius move of how to use him and get the most bang for your buck on a guy who you weren’t sure if he could play a lot of downs.

The play everyone is mad about

I got to admit, I didn’t love the flag being thrown either. It gave us an anti climatic ending to an otherwise great game. My wife was even confused that I wasn’t happier in the moment. One of the reasons I was bummed was because I knew this would be the topic today. But what made me feel better is the player who the penalty was on said he committed the foul. Bradberry said he held him and was hoping it wouldn’t get called. It’s a class act to admit it and he does grab him. It was minor and they had missed several similar calls earlier. But it was still a penalty and technically the right call. Some are claiming he didn’t hold him, which is an odd take since the player admitted he did. People are saying he said that to protect the league. That is a dumb idea. First of all, why would he care about the league’s image. That’s not his job. Secondly, you think in the locker room after the game, he is plotting to protect the league? Maybe he got asked a question and in the spur of the moment just answered it honestly. Another argument is that the NFL is scripted. This is dumb too. If it was scripted, wouldn’t you want the Eagles to get another chance with the ball? Wouldn’t that be a better script? The final argument is that they should just let them play at the end of the game. This argument is dumb as well. If players knew that then they would just pi or do whatever all the time. Also, any play at any time can have an impact on the game. In the first half, JuJu got held and they didn’t call it. Had they called it, the whole game could look different. The ref saw a hold, called the hold correctly and it cost the Eagles. It’s sort of a bummer of an ending but still the right call. Just like Dee Ford was offsides a few years back. Was I bummed they called it? Yes. Do they usually give a guy a warning first? Yes. Did I think they shouldn’t have called it? No. He was offsides. They got the call right. Just like Bradberry held and they got the call right. Regardless, the Eagles were up 10 and absolutely could not stop the Chiefs in the second half and that is why they lost.

We are the new Patriots but more likable

We always win. We are starting to get so called controversial calls going our way. Everyone is tired of us. Everyone hates us. Everyone is hoping we lose at every turn. This is how everyone felt about the Patriots. Well, almost everyone. I always respected the Patriots. I admire greatness. I don’t hate dynasties just for hating sake. I didn’t hate the Patriots before they were good so why should I hate them for becoming good? But I know that isn’t the norm so I get it. And it is fine, you can hate us. I’ll take your hate if it means we keep winning. But I will argue that we are more likable. Andy Reid is way more fun than Belichick. Pat is more fun to watch than Tom Brady, not better, just more fun. And he is good kid. He is humble. He compliments those who played before him. He always credits his teammates and coaches for his success. People calling him arrogant and other things are just being lazy and not really paying attention to what he is doing and saying. Anyway, as Chiefs fans we should enjoy the hate because it means we are winning a lot.

We aren’t going anywhere

I think we will actually be better next year. We are super young. Brett Veach has done an incredible job in the draft the last two years. Think of all the players drafted in the last two years that had an impact on last night’s game. Creed, Trey Smith, Pacheco, Skyy Moore, Bolton, McDuffie, Watson, Williams, Noah Gray, Cook, Karlaftis, and Chenal. That is 12 guys who played significant time in the biggest game of the year from the last two drafts. We have the best player in the game, the best tight end, arguably the best DT and the best coach in the league. We may not win it next year and we may end up losing more games but we will be very good next year and for years to come. Also there are a lot of good teams but there is a window before you have to pay your young quarterback that you have to take advantage of. The Bills didn’t and now the Eagles and Bengals missed their opportunities as well. It’s not that they can’t still win but it is much more difficult which is what makes this win all that more impressive. We won after paying our guy and we have a great young team that is going to be tough for a while. Its going to be a fun ride and I am going to enjoy every minute of it.

Henne thing is possible…in retirement

We must give a shout out to Chad Henne. He has probably helped Mahomes a lot more than we know. He was also crucial in helping us get to two super bowls. He stepped up big in two different playoff games when Pat got hurt. This year, he led the team on a 98 yard touchdown drive against the Jags. A few years ago he stepped up in the Browns game with a huge scramble and then a 4th and 1 throw to clinch the game. He will always have a special place in the hearts of Chiefs Kingdom. Enjoy retirement Chad and thanks for the memories.

This was a fun year

When we won in 2020, I was very emotionally invested in our success. It was a rough year and honestly I needed them to win. Every Sunday was sort of an escape from reality and they really came through for me. Then then last couple of years it became less fun. You felt like we were missing an opportunity every time we lost. This year, I entered the season committing to having fun again. If we lost a game, it wasn’t the end of the world. My expectations were higher than the national media but I wasn’t expecting a super bowl. I thought it was possible but I really just wanted to have fun watching. And this team made it easy. I love Tyreek and he helped make us great. But he was a little selfish as most top receivers are. They want the ball all the time. This was one of the most unselfish teams I have seen in a while. Each week it was different guys coming through. MVS played an incredible game in the AFC Championship and didn’t catch a pass in the Super Bowl. Guys like Watson and Moore would have games where they had 4 or 5 catches and others where you didn’t even know if they were playing. One of the best examples of unselfishness was McKinnon sliding at the 1 instead of scoring a td in the super bowl. I know they practice that but in the moment it has to be hard not to score a td in the biggest game of your career if you are able to. Pat handed off instead of throwing all the time. He had less than 200 yards passing because that is what was needed to win. it was a team effort all year round. And it is easy to cheer for Big Red. He deserved this win. I am really happy we won. But I am even happier that the coaches and players on this team won. I’m happy for them. And that is what made this year great.

Tune in on Friday for one prediction for every NFL team and a preview of what Fifth-Down will do now that the NFL season is over.

It is a bitter sweet day as this will be the last 5 for Friday until next season. I kicked off the blog with the very first ever 5 for Friday on November 18th. It has been a fun ride and am excited to start back up next September. Don’t worry the blog will live on with posts until then but predicting NFL games is one of my favorite things so I will miss it. But I am also very excited about this one since it is the Super Bowl and the Chiefs are playing…so let’s do this thing!

Here are 5 predictions for the Super Bowl:

1. Trent McDuffie gets an interception. I think McDuffie is going to be a really good player and he is already pretty solid. He is a great tackler and besides losing his footing occasionally, is usually in the right place at the right time. He has been so close on several almost interceptions but hasn’t pulled one in yet. Sunday is the day he gets his first one.
2. Both teams run at least 2 trick plays. The Super Bowl is where you pull out all the stops. Anything you have been saving you bust out in the big game. We have already seen the “philly special” and the “rose bowl right parade” from these two franchises. With two of the more creative offenses battling it out, I am guessing we will see more surprises on Sunday.
3. Patrick Mahomes will score on a QB sneak. As the Kelce brothers always say, the QB sneak works 92% of the time which is a made up statistic but sounds about right. We haven’t ran it with Pat since that dreadful day in Denver when a freak accident made Pat’s knee cap move to the side of his leg. But at some point you have to go back to it, right? Late in the 4th quarter with the ball at the 1, it is time do whatever it takes. Pat calls his own number and gets in because no one sees it coming.
4. AJ Brown scores on the longest td of the game. Brown is a matchup nightmare. He is tall like Tee Higgins but faster and stronger. Hurts throws a ball to him down the sideline that he jumps over one of our corners to get and then jogs into the end zone after the same defender falls down. It’s a 50 yard plus td.
5. Jerrick McKinnon has a day. McKinnon was on a tear the last 5 or 6 weeks of the season but has been relatively quiet in the post season. It has been the Pacheco show the last two games. But because of the rush of the Eagles they rely on McKinnon more to help block as well as sneak out of the back field for screens and dump offs. McKinnon totals over 150 yards as he stacks up 50 plus yards rushing and close to 100 yards receiving on the day.

Super Bowl 57: Chiefs vs Eagles in Arizona

No matter what happens, some trends have to get broken. Here are the list of trends that are stacked up for this game.

Team who wins the coin toss is 0-9 in the last 9 games.

Team in dark jerseys are 20-36 in the big game.

Andy Reid has never lost when these two teams play.

The MVP of the league hasn’t won the Super Bowl since 1999.

The Passing leader has never won the Super Bowl.

And I am sure there are others. At the end of the day, the best part of this game is we have two teams that are really good and probably the best two teams all season. The Eagles, including playoffs, are 16-1 this season with Hurts as the starter. The Chiefs have gone 32 straight games with either winning or losing by 4 or less. I can say for certain that that Eagles have not played anybody as good as the Chiefs. And the Chiefs only play close games so I think we are in for a treat. Also, I know that a lot of people are tired of the Chiefs but once they start playing, they are enjoyable for all to watch. The Eagles are also fun to watch. So we have two mostly likable teams playing which isn’t always the case. I think this will be great back and forth game and here is how I see it going down.

It has been a back and forth game and early in the 4th, the Eagles score a td to tie it up 24-24. The Chiefs go on a long drive that ends with the Mahomes QB sneak mentioned above with about 7 minutes to go to take the lead 31-24. On the ensuing Eagles drive, on 3rd down, Chris Jones bats down a pass to force an Eagles punt with just under 6 left on the clock. Andy Reid actually lets the Chiefs run the ball and they eat up around 4 minutes off the clock. Right after the 2 minute warning, Butker hits a 47 yarder to push the lead to 10. After the Eagles get a couple of first downs, they face a 4th and long. Frank Clark gets the game sealing sack to move to second all time in post season sacks. The Chiefs take a knee and Big Red gets a Gatorade bath.

Final: Chiefs 34 Eagles 24

MVP: Patrick freaking Mahomes

The only thing Pat really hasn’t done is played a great 4 quarters of football in the Super Bowl. That changes on Sunday. He throws for over 300 yards and 3 touchdowns and adds on the rushing td and 30 other yards on the ground. He completes arguably the greatest QB season ever, leading the league in passing yards, breaking the all time record of most combined yards, winning MVP, winning the Super Bowl and winning Super Bowl MVP, something no one else has ever done. On Monday, Nick Wright says he is a God among men. Skip Bayless says he played alright and was the second best QB in the game. Colin Cowherd splits the difference and says you can’t argue anymore, Mahomes is the best quarterback in the league.

We will see if I am right come Sunday! Go Chiefs!

Yesterday we gave you 10 reasons why the Eagles will win. Today we flip the script and tell you the top 10 reasons the Chiefs will win.

10. Andy Reid doesn’t lose to either of these teams.

When Andy was with the Eagles, he went 3-0 against the Chiefs. Now that he is with the Chiefs, he has gone 3-0 against the Eagles. He simply can’t lose when these teams play each other.

9. The Chiefs are wearing White.

The team that wears white is 36-20 in the big game. Oddly, the Chiefs haven’t worn white since Super Bowl I which we didn’t win but we don’t need to talk about that.

8. Andy Reid wins every other super bowl.

This is just logic right here. He is 1-2 in the big game but won the middle one, meaning obviously he is due to win this one. It’s in the bag.

7. I’ll be drinking Kansas City beer…with my sister…who is also from Kansas City…who I just drank Kansas City beer with a few weeks ago…in Kansas City.

Although, my sis and I are from KC originally we both live in Colorado now. She lives in the mountains and I live in the burbs. One of my favorite beer companies is Boulevard Brewing Company but it is pretty difficult to find out here. MLK weekend, Ruth (my sister) and I drove across Kansas to hang with my parents and our brother. After the parents left we hit up the Blvd. Brewing Co facilities and had some delicious drinks. I picked up some beer to take home. I’ve only had a couple and have been saving them for the big game. Little does Ruth know, one of the ones I bought because I know it is her go to drink. There will be some KC Pils in the fridge when you arrive, sis. Anyway…KC Beer in foreign territory means a KC victory.

6. Is Hurts hurt?

There has been a lot of talk about Pat and his ankle. But very rarely is anyone mentioning Hurts and his injured shoulder. Sure it hasn’t stopped him from running and the last couple of weeks rest should help. But is he completely healthy. I’m not so sure. He hasn’t looked the same since coming back. If he doesn’t have his A game, the Eagles could be in trouble.

5. I told my brother we were going to win it before the season started.

I’d prove it with the actual text message but my bro and I text almost daily and that was a long time ago and I don’t have time to scroll that much. There is probably an easy way to find it but I am not that tech savvy. Anyway, we were talking about losing Tyreek and having so many young guys, and we might not be as good, etc., etc. And I said I think they might just win the thing. I thought Pat would be more focused and driven and that Andy and Pat were out to prove they don’t need Tyreek. And boy did they prove it. I think the last couple of years Pat got bored and would just sort of chuck it towards Tyreek instead of going through his reads. Without Tyreek, Pat had to work harder. And it worked. Here we are.

4. The Chiefs are listening

Some teams pretend to block out the noise. The Chiefs embrace it. They heard the world when people said they wouldn’t win the division and might not even make the playoffs. They heard when everyone said Burrow and the Bengals were better and now they are hearing how good the Eagles defense is and how good Hurts and all the weapons are and that the Eagles have the best offensive line. Most of the talking heads are picking the Eagles. Most of the bets are going towards the Eagles. The Eagles are favored in Vegas. The Chiefs hear it all. When the Chiefs are listening they are at their best.

3. Mahomes to Kelce connection

Did you know that Kelce is pretty much second in every post season receiving category? He is only behind Jerry Rice the greatest receiver of all time. The Mahomes to Kelce connection is one of the greatest ever. It’s like they are in each other’s heads. I don’t know if I have ever seen anything like it. The best example of this was in the playoff game against the Texans a few years back. NFL films caught this dialogue of the two of them on the sideline discussing a big pass play that happened on the last drive.

Kelce: How did you know to throw it there?

Mahomes: I knew that was where you were going to go.

Kelce: How did you know that? I didn’t even know I was going to go that way until after you threw it!

Mahomes: Well that is the way I wanted you to go. So I threw it there.

And then they both laughed. This is their relationship. It is special. It is once in a lifetime special. It will make a difference on Sunday.

2. Speaking of Mahomes…He’s real good.

Mahomes is amazing. People try to find ways to criticize him but lets be honest, he is incredible. In 5 years as a starter he has won 80% of his games (64-16). He has thrown for over 5,000 yards twice. He is 27-3 in the division. He has never lost a road division game. He is about to win his second MVP. He has never not hosted the AFC Championship game. He hasn’t lost a playoff game in regulation. He has gone to to 3 super bowls. He is 10-3 in the post season. He set the record for most total yards in a season…the year after losing Tyreek. And while everyone who hates him will say he is cocky and arrogant he is actually pretty humble. He is always talking about the team and how great Andy is and how he can’t do anything without the guys up front, etc. Also, as opposed to Kevin McCallister of the Bengals, he has a respect of the history of the game and honors those who came before him. He talks about how great Brady, Manning and others are and even calls both Tom and Peyton for advice. Not to mention he is tough. Dude plays through everything. My foot sort of hurts so I haven’t gone on a walk in a month. Pat has a high ankle sprain and just plays through. During the opening night ceremony, he was talking about how it takes a team and how they don’t worry about proving everyone else wrong but instead try to prove themselves right. As a team they go out and believe in themselves and try to live up to the standard they have for one another. Danielle was watching with me and said, “That right there is why he is so good. Well, that and genetics. I am pretty sure genetics has a pretty big role.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

1.We started in Arizona and we will finish in Arizona

When the schedule came out and I saw that we started in Arizona and that the Super Bowl was in Arizona…I thought that would be pretty dang cool to finish where we started. Also, after back to back years of a team getting to play the Super Bowl on their home field, we knew it wouldn’t be a 3rd because no way were the Cardinals making it. Many were skeptical. But in the first game we put on a show. Will it be another offensive display by Pat and the gang? Will we win our last game of the year at the same stadium that we won our first game of the year? We find out in a few days. But it would be a fitting end to a wonderful season.

While there are 10 good reasons for both teams to win, it will apparently all be decided with the coin toss. The last 9 teams that have won the coin toss have lost the game. I guess tails does fail sometimes.

Tune in tomorrow for the 5 for Friday which will include 5 bold predictions for the game followed by my final pick of the season.

I think this is going to be a great game between two great teams. I’ll give you my prediction on Friday but here are 10 reasons the Eagles can win on Sunday.

10. Big Brothers Beat Little Brothers

I know from experience. My Grandpa used to always tell my older brother, Justin, to not pick on me too much because eventually I would grow bigger than him and kick his butt because that is what happened to him and his older brother. Well, I am still waiting. Maybe when I am 83 and Justin is 90 he will have shrunk down to my size but he currently has 5 to 6 inches on me. Sure I beat him in a few things. I was first to get married. I was first to move out of Missouri. I was first to stop tight rolling my jeans. (He hung on to that trend a little too long). But when it came to sports I always lost. Granted he was 6 and half years older than me and half a foot taller but you’d think I’d eventually beat him in something. Anyway, the Kelce bros are playing and the older brother usually wins so this gives the Eagles an advantage. Ironically, Travis and the Chiefs are 3-0 against him. That means the older brother is definitely due.

9. Beards are better than mustaches

I have seemed to notice that their is a mustache trend right now. I think this is based upon younger men not being able to grow a beard so they are trying to make the mustache cool. Hey, I get it, I did the same thing in 7th grade. But spoiler alert…it’s still not cool. And it is borderline creepy. I remember talking to my friend Dave when I was in college about mustaches. I was like some guys can pull them off. He said no they can’t. I said what about this guy or that guy (names being withheld to protect the guilty mustache owners). Nope and nope he said. He said it always looks creepy. I can’t say I disagree. Now I will say, if anyone can rock the mustache it is big red and I am not going to tell him he can’t. But Sirianni is rocking the full beard which is the far superior facial hair look, so advantage Eagles. Although Sirianni does have sort of the Matthew Fox from lost look that appears more like he just forgot to shave this week as opposed to having a full beard but it still counts.

8. The guy who has won MVP hasn’t won the Super Bowl since 1999.

Mahomes is likely to win his second MVP. In the last twenty plus years, no MVP winner has won the Super Bowl. A lot of them haven’t even made it to the big game and when they do they are 0-9. Not great odds for Pat. The last guy to win MVP and a Super Bowl was former grocery stocker, Kurt Warner.

7. Jalen Hurts is 14-1 as a starter this year

With Hurts under center, the Eagles have been near unstoppable. Hurts has been excellent as a double threat guy and has made this team very hard to beat as long as he is starting.

6. They have the better overall roster

Top to bottom, the Eagles have the better squad. They have better receivers. They have better running backs. They probably have a better O line and definitely have better tackles. They have a better defensive front. They have the better secondary. Some would argue their linebackers are better. Basically the Chiefs win at QB and TE. And Hurts and Goedert are no slouches at their positions.

5. Mahomes led the league in passing

You think that would be a good thing for the Chiefs, right? Did you know that no one that has led the league in passing yards has ever won the Super Bowl? Well, now you do. Mahomes greatness may lead to his demise. So just like winning the MVP, this could come back to haunt him.

4. Head Coaches going against their former teams are 1-4

Only Jon Gruden got the win against his former team, the Raiders after inheriting an incredible roster that just couldn’t get over the hump in Tampa. He beat his old team the Raiders that he couldn’t quite get to the big game. Everyone else has lost these match ups. As we all know, Big Red will be going against his former team. Can he break the trend?

3. Andy Reid forgets to run the ball

This has been less of an issue this year, but we all know Andy hates to run. Sometimes in these bigger games he abandons it all together. And with Pat at QB, I don’t blame him. But with this pass rush, the Chiefs need to be more balanced. If they go full pass mode, it could be a problem.

2. Carl freaking Cheffers

The Chiefs have actually won a lot of games when he is the ref, but man have they been stressful. I am no conspiracy guy, nor do I think the league is rigged. But I do think Cheffers and his squad love to throw flags on the Chiefs. We tend to get a bunch of them. I am guessing the Chiefs will have to over come a lot of holding calls on our tackles going up against great edge rushers and our defensive backs going up against great receivers. Neither match up bodes well with Cheffers running the show.

1. The Eagles are birds, playing in a bird stadium

Arizona is home to the Cardinals where the game is being played. What team is most like the Cardinals…well the Eagles of course. So they will be more at home with all the bird logo floating around. It will be like playing at home which will give the Eagles a flying chance (see what I did there?).

Tune in tomorrow to see the top 10 reasons why the Chiefs will win on Sunday.

I have watched a lot of Super Bowls in my life. Yesterday, I did my 10 least favorite. Today, we get my 10 favorites.

10. Super Bowl XLIII: Steelers 27 Cardinals 23

I am no Steelers fan but this was a great game. This is the only time the Cards have made the big game. Towards the end of the half, the Cards were down 10-7 and driving. They got all the way to the goal line when James Harrison intercepted Kurt Warner and ran it back 100 yards for a touchdown in one of the more incredible super bowl plays of all time. Down 20-7 going into the 4th, the Cards scored 16 unanswered to take the lead with 2 and half minutes to go. Big Ben drove the Steelers down the field and Santonio Holmes made an amazing catch for the win. Holmes won MVP and then we never heard from him again.

9. XLVII Ravens 34 49ers 31

This game had it all. Two great teams. Lots of points scored. Two brothers coaching against each other. Electrical issues that made the lights go out. You name it, this game had it. It was all Ravens early on led by Joe Flacco and his one good season that led him to become super rich. But then the blackout hit. Maybe Jim Harbaugh unplugged something because after the blackout the 49ers team was a different team and came storming back. They were down 34-29 late in the game and drove all the way to the 7 yard line only to be denied. The Ravens won and big bro beat little bro. Flacco got paid and then was average for another decade or so.

8. Super Bowl: 49ers 20 Bengals 16

This was the game I realized how awesome football is. I sort of liked Boomer Esiason because he was left handed like me. They had some other entertaining players like Icky Woods who did the Icky shuffle when he scored. But they were going up against greatness. Down 16-13 with 3 minutes to go, the 49ers had the ball on their own 8 yard line. Joe Montana had the famous line as he looked into the crowd and said, “hey there’s John Candy.” He then led the team down for the winning drive with a touchdown pass to John Taylor. I remember watching and thinking this is awesome. football is awesome!

7. Super Bowl L: Broncos 24 Panthers 10

I don’t like the Broncos. I never really liked Peyton Manning as a player. This wasn’t a super entertaining game. So why is it on the list? Well, as you know, my wife is a diehard Broncos fan. First of all, I respect her fandom. She is super loyal win or lose and it has been a lot of losing lately. We were watching the game and she kept getting closer to closer to the tv. By the end she was sitting right in front of the tv on the ground, hitting the floor in excitement. She was super happy and even though I am no Broncos fan, it makes the list because I like my wife being happy. On a side note, that Broncos defense was exceptional.

6. Super Bowl XXXVI: Patriots 20 Rams 17

The Patriots were underdogs to the Rams as the Patriots snuck into the playoffs behind the leadership of some guy named Tom Brady. The greatest show on turf was very popular and everyone was cheering for them. So I of course cheered against them because that is how I roll. Plus the Rams were from St. Louis, and if I have not made it clear before, the only thing I like about St. Louis is the zoo. It was a battle right from the start. Belichick had an incredible defensive game plan and slowed down the Rams explosive offense. Brady did enough and drove them down the field in a tie game. Adam Vinatieri made the game winner and a legend was born. Also Tom Brady became the full time starter from there and had a pretty good career, himself.

5. Super Bowl XXXVIII: Patriots 32 Panthers 29

Look there is a lot of Tom Brady on these lists because the dude made a lot of super bowls. I mean he has played in roughly 25% of the super bowls I watched so of course he is going to be on the list some. Anyway, this game got off to a slow start with a scoreless 1st quarter. Things picked up in the second quarter with both teams scoring twice and the Patriots up 14-10 at halftime. The 3rd quarter was scoreless as well but ended with the Patriots driving. The Pats quickly scored to take a 21-10 lead. Then things got real interesting. Jake Delhomme who is now residing in the “where are they now” files, played the quarter of his life. They went down and scored but missed the 2 pointer but cut the lead to 21-16. The Patriots drove down to the red zone but then Tom Brady threw a pick. On 3rd and 15, Delhomme hit Mushin Muhammad for an 85 yard touchdown. The Panthers took the lead 22-21. Brady answered by throwing a touchdown to a linebacker named Mike Vrabel, you might have heard of him. They scored the 2 pt conversion and took a 29-22 lead. Carolina again answered and scored the tying td with just over a minute left. Unfortunately for the Panthers, their kicker kicked the kick off out of bounds giving Brady the ball at the 40. He drove down and much like last time, Vinatieri kicked the game winner.

4. Super Bowl XXV: Giants 20 Bills 19

This game kicked off with Whitney Houston belting out the Star Spangled Banner in an emotional time as we were in the middle of the gulf war. The Bills arriving in the first of four straight super bowls were heavy favorites because of their high scoring offense. They had put up 51 in their conference championship win over the Raiders. Meanwhile, the Giants were without Phil Simms and some dude named Jeff Hostetler had led them to victory over the 49ers without scoring a td. The main thing I remember about Hostetler was that awesome mustache. It was a game of contradictory styles. The Bills had fast no huddle drives. Meanwhile, the Giants tried to eat up as much clock as possible. The Giants also had some guy named Bill Belichick as their defensive coordinator. The Giants ate up a ton of clock on every possession. They limited the Bills to only 19 points. The Giants had a 9 and half minute drive in the 3rd quarter. Then after the Bills scored in a minute and half to take a 19-17 lead, they ate up another 7 and half minutes and Matt Bahr kicked a 21 yard field goal. The Bills had enough time to answer. They drove down and set up a 47 yarder. I remember the specific distance because my brother set a high school record at our school from this exact distance that season. A little different scenario here…not that the Platte County football field didn’t have it’s challenges at the time. Anyway, poor Scott Norwood hit it wide right and the Bills lost. This would be and still is the closest the Bills have ever gotten to winning the Super Bowl. As Donald Trump would say, “Sad.”

3. Super Bowl LI: Patriots 34 Falcons 28

This is the only Super Bowl to go to over time, so it has to be included. It was a game of two halves with the Falcons dominating the first half and leading 21-3. My wife was super excited because Lady Gaga was doing the halftime show. I am sure she was wearing some pieces of meat or something weird. The Falcons continued to dominate as they scored again to take a 28-3 lead. At the time it seemed like the game was over, instead of creating a meme that we now see constantly. Brady led them down for their first td but then they missed the extra point and were down 28-9. The Patriots then kicked a fg, scored a td and got a 2 pt conversion to pull within 8. Down 28-20, the got the ball back with 3 minutes to go. Brady started to move them down the field. Edelman made some crazy catch and the Patriots eventually scored and got the 2 pointer and the game went to OT. The Pats won the coin toss and drove down and scored. I don’t remember any outrage about over time rules. I guess that only happens if the Chiefs win in OT. Anyway, this was the largest lead ever given up in the Super Bowl. Matt Ryan is good at giving up leads as he proved this year as well.

2. Super Bowl LII: Eagles 41 Patriots 33

I know, I know another Tom Brady super bowl. But like I said, he is in 25% of the super bowls I have watched. Also, besides the super bowl against the Chiefs, they have all been very close. This was no different. Just like we all expected, Nick Foles outdueled Tom in this high scoring fun game. This game got off to a fast start and didn’t slow down. The Eagles jumped out early to a 15-3 lead. But the Pats came back and it was quickly 15-12. Then the Eagles ran the Philly special where tight end Trey Burton threw a td pass to Nick Foles. It was 22-12 at halftime. The Patriots had been behind before, including the year before when they were down 25 late in the 3rd quarter. But Foles would not be denied. He answered every Patriots td with one of their own. Down 33-32, He led them on back to back scoring drives to take the lead 41-33 with a minute left. Usually that is enough time for Brady but this one wasn’t meant to be. The Eagles won and Brady lost for the first time in the big game against someone other than the Giants. Also, this is when my daughter conveniently became an Eagles fan. She will be rocking her Eagles t-shirt on Sunday. We will be baking cookies on Saturday and decorating them in Eagles and Chiefs colors. Hey, at least she is excited to watch the game for a change. She did tell me I wasn’t allowed to use bad words or hit the table again. I told her, I save all my bad words and punching things just for the Bengals.

1. Super Bowl LIV: Chiefs 31 49ers 20

Oh the joys of winning. I had sort of a crappy year going into this season so I was more emotionally invested in this team than normal which says a lot. We had lost in OT to the Pats the year before. At one point Mahomes knee cap was on the side of his leg. They had a bunch of new guys on D and it took them a while to come together. They battled through it all and finished on a nice winning streak. They got to the playoffs and quickly went down 24-0 against the Texans. Then they miraculously came storming back in one of the weirdest halves of football ever and were up 28-24. They went on to win 51-31. The next week the Titans came to town and again were down by double digits. Mahomes had one of his greatest runs ever down the sideline and then cut back in and rumbled into the end zone. This is win I knew we were going to the first Super Bowl of my life time. The big game was more of the same. Down 20-10 mid 4th quarter things were not looking good. Mahomes had not played well. He had just thrown short to Hill and the play was being reviewed and was overturned. While they were reviewing, he said the famous line, do we have time to run wasp. They did, barely. Mahomes heaved it down the field to an open Tyreek. A few plays later he would hit Kelce for a td to pull within 3. The D got a stop and Mahomes led them down again. This time a big pass to Sammy Watkins followed by a td pass to Damien Williams. Then the D got another stop. Before Wasp Savannah had hopped into Danielle’s lap and she wouldn’t let her go because at that point everything started going the Chiefs way. We handed off to Williams and he broke it for a big td win that sealed the deal. It ended with an interception by Kendall Fuller and the rest is history. I ran around my house yelling. My whole family, even Danielle was cheering. It was a special moment. Right before the game started my brother asked me what my prediction was. I said 31-20 Chiefs. With 7 and half minutes to go, that seemed very unlikely. But 7 and half minutes later, the dream had become reality. I know this won’t go down as one of the greatest super bowls of all time but it will be the one I always remember the most because of the win and the special time with my family. And isn’t that what sports are all about? The memories with people you care about? And also…the winning.

Tune in tomorrow for 10 reasons the Eagles will win the Super Bowl. Followed by 10 reasons the Chiefs will win the Super Bowl on Thursday and a special Super Bowl Edition of 5 for Friday.

I’ve watched a lot of Super Bowls in my 43 years of life. Here are the 10 I enjoyed the least.

10. Super Bowl XX: Bears 46 Patriots 10

This is the first Super Bowl I remember watching. I was 6 years old. The Chiefs were not good back then so you sort of found other teams to cheer for too. My older brother was a big Bears fan so I of course cheered against them. The Championship games were Rams @ Bears and Patriots @ Dolphins. I was cheering for the Rams and Eric Dickerson because he wore goggles and I thought it was cool and I was of course cheering against the Bears. I also cheered for the Dolphins because Dan Marino was good and I liked Dolphins. I went 0-2. The Dolphins were the one team to beat the Bears all year so that might have been a good game. But instead the Patriots got rolled. Also, the Bears made a super bowl shuffle video well before making it to the super bowl. That is top notch arrogance. Anyway, the game was boring and they didn’t even let Walter Payton score a td. Instead they handed it off to the Fridge. My brother was happy so I wasn’t.

9. Super Bowl XLVIII: Seahawks 43 Broncos 8

You might be surprised to see a beat down of the Broncos on the list but remember I am married to a Broncos fan and happy wife, happy life. This game was rough from the start and never got better. The very first play was a snap too early with the ball going into the end zone for a safety. It was all downhill after that. Danielle tried to have a good attitude about it but this was a rough one. And honestly, it was just a bad game all together. Unless you were a Seahawks fan or really hated the Broncos this was not an entertaining game.

8. Super Bowl XXVII Cowboys 52 Bills 17

The Cowboys were young, loud and annoying. They are still those things but back then they were good. The Bills were back again for their 3rd straight super bowl. I was feeling sorry for the Bills at this point. And I have never liked the Cowboys. The Bills had a lot of players I liked, Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, Bruce Smith, etc. They were easy to cheer for. But unfortunately there wasn’t much to cheer for because this was a beat down. The best thing that happened for the Bills was when Don Beebe ran down Leon Lett who had recovered a fumble and was about to score but instead Beebe knocked the ball out of his hand it rolled through the end zone. When that is your best play, it is a rough game.

7. Super Bowl XXX Cowboys 27 Steelers 17

Nothing is worse than two teams you don’t like playing in the super bowl. And that is what this was. I was sort of cheering for the Steelers because they were the underdogs and Bill Cowher seemed like a good guy who had never won the big one. Well, he didn’t win this one either. Some guy named Larry Brown won MVP for being in the right place at the right time and getting a couple of interceptions.

6. Super Bowl XLII Giants 17 Patriots 14

You might be surprised to see this on the worst list since it was a great game. Also, most of you probably hate the Patriots so I am sure you were happy they lost. But there is one reason this game is on here. The 72 Dolphins. I hate the 72 Dolphins. They went undefeated when the season was 14 games long and there were like 16 teams. But yet they are the only team to not lose a game. They go so far as to celebrate together whenever the last undefeated team loses. What a lame tradition to celebrate other people’s defeat just so your stupid record remains. Most teams and players are happy for those who come after but not these jackasses. Anyway, the Patriots were so close to pulling off the perfect season but fell just short because somehow Eli Manning avoided a sack and some dude caught a ball on his helmet. If the Patriots would have won they would have not only become the second team to go undefeated but also would have won 2 more games. And they wouldn’t have thrown a party when other teams lost because no one would want to hang out with Belichick.

5. Super Bowl XXIX 49ers 49 Chargers 26

I was always team Montana so I was never a Steve Young fan. He was real good though and so was this team. Jerry Rice, Ricky Waters and others led an explosive offense. And the defense even had Deion. The Chargers on the other hand were not good. Stan Humphries was playing quarterback for goodness sakes. This is one of those games you knew was going to be a blowout and it was. It was never close and I am not sure how the Chargers even scored 26 points. You sort of have to feel sorry for the Chargers as this is the only Super Bowl they have ever been too. But don’t worry, they will be lots of people’s preseason favorites for next year.

4. Super Bowl XXXV Ravens 34 Giants 7

The Giants knocked out the NFC team I cheered for at the time, the Vikings but I didn’t really like the Ravens either. This was another boring beat down. The Ravens had Trent Dilfer behind center who quite possibly could be the worst quarterback ever to win a super bowl. But that defense was real good. Anyway, this game was not fun in anyway. I am pretty sure Ray Lewis either shot a guy before or after this game (allegedly) but because he is Ray Lewis everyone just ignored it.

3. Super Bowl XXXIII Broncos 34 Falcons 19

This was pre marriage and I hated the Broncos. They had knocked us out of the playoffs the year before. The Falcons had beat the 15-1 Vikings (the first 15-1 team not to make the super bowl). Stupid Gary Anderson picked the worst possible time to miss his first kick of the season. That Vikings team was so much fun and it could have been a great game. Instead, it was pretty much over from the start. So I had to watch the team that always beats my favorite team beat the team who just beat my second favorite team. Horse face got his second ring. The only good news is he retired after that.

2. Super Bowl LII Patriots 13 Rams 3

Zzzzzzzzzzzz….boring. Yes, you are reading that score right. After one of the best AFC Championship games ever we got this snooze fest. The Chiefs were so close to making the super bowl and they had already played the rams in a 54-51 thriller. But instead, the Pats beat the Chiefs and the Saints got hosed on quite possibly the worst no call in sports history against the Rams. Any combination of games could have been good but instead we got this dud. I somehow watched the whole thing even though hardly anything happened.

1. Super Bowl LV: Bucs 31 Chiefs 9

It is always exciting when your team makes the Super Bowl…right up to the point they get rolled. Apparently the Bucs talked to the refs before the game and said that our defensive backs were real grabby. Carl Cheffers and his team dropped a solid 11 penalties against us. I mean our guys were grabby but they had been grabby all year so it is hard to change now. I was worried going into the game because we had like 3 guys on the offensive line playing different positions then they usually played. It did not go well. To make matters worse, both Tyreek and Darrell Williams dropped touchdowns and Pat spent most of the game running for his life while dealing with turf toe. The Bucs were the better team and deserved to win but even the halftime show commentators were like the refs are controlling the game. Let’s hope it is a different story on Sunday when Cheffers and the gang call the game.

Tune in tomorrow for my top 10 favorite Super Bowls.

Kelce Post game and Parade Speeches:

No matter who wins, we all win because regardless of the outcome, a Kelce is going to win. Travis is always ready to grab the mic especially when they are trying to interview Pat. Which leads to my favorite Meme ever which combines two of my favorite things, the Chiefs and the Muppets.

Jason is just as good on the mic and even came out in a costume for the parade and gave one of the most epic super bowl parade speeches of all time. So no matter what happens we will be in good hands with a Kelce speech.

Awkwardly watching the halftime show with your kids:

You remember a few years ago when the Chiefs won the Super Bowl and J-Lo and Shakira did the halftime show? They weren’t wearing much clothing and it was all sexual and Shakira I believe even had a rope for some reason. You don’t remember that? Yeah, me neither…anyway…

Well I am guessing Rhianna will probably not be wearing a lot of clothes either, and will be singing about inappropriate things. I’ll be taking in the game with my 10 year old daughter, 14 year old son, wife and sister. So I am sure that won’t be awkward at all. Hopefully Timberlake doesn’t show up to “accidentally” create a wardrobe malfunction.

The only way this half time show can be saved is if Shy Ronnie shows up.

Drinking Game material:

I am not personally a drinking game guy or recommending it. But if that is your thing, boy are you in luck because there is so much material to use. Here are some suggestions of when you could take a drink if you were going to play.

• Every time they show Donna Kelce.
• Every time they mention the first time 2 black quarterbacks have started the super bowl.
• Every time they mention Pat’s ankle.
• Every time they show Pat walk and zoom in on his legs.
• Take a drink every Chiefs possession until Kadarius Toney gets hurt. Don’t worry it won’t be a lot.
• Every time they mention Andy Reid coached the Eagles.
• Every time they mention Nick Sirianni coached for the Chiefs.
• Every time they show the rocky statue.
• Every time they mention cheeseburgers and Andy Reid in the same sentence.
• Every time they bring up that Travis and Jason are brothers.
• Every time AJ Brown gets emotional.
• Every time a Chiefs fan complains online about Referee Carl Cheffers.(Actually don’t do this one, you won’t remember the game at all)
• Every time someone at the party brings up conspiracies and says it is all rigged.
• Every time they mention Tyreek Hill.
• Every time Andrew Wylie does something dumb.
• Every time a Kelce Bro dances.
• Every time they show Pat getting frustrated that the next play isn’t coming in fast enough.
• Every time they show a side by side of Andy coaching in Philadelphia and coaching in KC.
• Every time the Eagles run a QB sneak.
• Stop drinking if the Chiefs run a QB sneak. You have had to much and what you are seeing isn’t really happening.
• Take a drink every time the Chiefs have the ball on 3rd and 1 to prepare for the disappointment.
• Every time they talk about Mahomes and Kelce’s connection.
• Every time they mention that Tom Brady retired.

That’s just off the top of my head. Again, not recommending just saying…lots of material.

Commercials, Food…Commercials about Food:

Even if you hate football, you got to like the Super Bowl. First of all, there are funny commercials that entertain the non football fans. They aren’t what the used to be (what happened to the Bud Bowl?) but they are still pretty good. Plus you got all the delicious food. We are doing a Taco/nacho/dip theme this year. I convinced my wife to make her amazing guacamole (not sure why she stopped making it to begin with but it needs a comeback). My sis is bring homemade salsa and we will have plenty of other snacks too. Plus desserts and drinks…the whole nine yards. Everyone goes out for this game. The food is always great even when the game isn’t. Remember Rams vs Patriots a few years ago…woof. But I remember the food being good.

Watching Pat Mahomes do Pat Mahomes things:

Look not everyone likes the Chiefs or likes Pat. I get it. Some will argue he isn’t the best in the league and that is fine. They are wrong, but it is fine. But deep down, everyone sort of likes Pat. I mean dude does things no one else does. Even when we got blown out by the Bucs there were some throws you were like…did that just happen? He threw an incompletion while basically being parallel to the ground and it might be the most talked about play from that game. He will do something at some point in the game that you will want to watch over and over again to see how he did it. And he is tough as nails. Plays through everything. I have no idea who will win the game but I know it will be fun because Pat is playing.

Look out next week for a couple of special blogs followed by predictions on Friday. It’s the last week of the football season so Fifth Down is going to go all out!

Wow…what a game. What an emotional roller coaster. I went 1 for 2 with my picks but I am happy with which one I got right. Here are 10 reactions from the weekend, my rankings of the teams left and one reason for hope for the losers.

1. It’s real hard to win in the league without a quarterback. Look, the Eagles are good and they might have won anyway but when your 3rd string quarterback gets hurt on the first drive and your 4th string quarterback gets concussed it is really hard to win a conference championship. I personally would have went wild cat as opposed to rolling Purdy out there to handoff in random ways. Earlier in the year I said Kyle Shanahan can win with anyone at quarterback but apparently he does need that person to at least be able to throw the ball.
2. Eagles have a really solid team. They don’t have any glaring issues. AJ Brown has been one of the best offseason pick ups. Devonte Smith has been excellent. They have a great stable of running backs. Hurts is obviously talented and their defense is solid at every level. They haven’t played the toughest of schedules but they have proven they are for real.
3. Things were chippy from beginning to end. The Eagles and 49ers got into it before the game started because Jimmy Ward walked through the Eagles as they were warming up and AJ Brown took offense. Then towards the end of the game some players wouldn’t stop wrestling over a ball even though the refs blew the whistle 47 times (I counted). Then Trent Williams tossed an Eagle guy to the ground like a rag doll. Then an Eagle threw a punch. This was literally the most exciting thing that happened in the game because the 49ers didn’t have a guy who could throw a 5 yard slant.
4. Redemption game. First of all, we finally beat the Bengals after 3 straight losses. But the way we did it was amazing. Skyy Moore dropped 3 punts earlier in the year, but due to multiple injuries he had to return punts again. He not only handled all the punts but had a great return to set up the final score. MVS had been quiet all year to the fact that many thought he wasn’t good and was a bad pick up. He was amazing all game. The same rookie corners that got toasted earlier in the year by multiple teams both had picks. The D-Line that couldn’t get Burrow the first 3 games sacked him 5 times. And Butker who had struggled all year, hits the game winner from 45 yards. It was all wonderful.
5. Who Dey got excuses. There are literally bad calls every game. But all the talk after every close game that the NFL is rigged is ridiculous. There were bad calls and missed calls on both sides. The Bengals fans and people who are tired of the Chiefs are blaming the refs and saying it is rigged over and over again. To be fair, there were Chiefs fans doing the same thing last year but lets take a look at some of the so called controversial calls. First there is the play that happened but didn’t happen. They started the game clock when they shouldn’t have. It was loud and so no one heard the whistle or saw the guy running in. They had to replay the down and if we had thrown a 40 yard completion the same would be true. This is just basic rules. It looked bad and was confusing. But it was the right call. Also, we punted like 3 plays later so it had little to no impact on the game. So called roughing the passer calls that should have been on Joe Burrow. Most of the time he got hit, he had just released the ball. There was one where it was clearly gone and Frank Clark gave him a little bump with the arm and Burrow flopped. He probably gets that call in week 3. He is not getting it in a conference championship game. Intentional grounding on Burrow. I mean, it was pretty much intentional grounding. It was at his linemen’s feet, not the running back. I sort of hate this rule in general because when you spike the ball to stop the clock…shouldn’t that be intentional grounding? But based upon what is normally called, it was a legit call. People are comparing it to a later call when Mahomes threw to Kelce and it hit the ground far in front of him but Mahomes got hit in the arm leading to the ball coming out short. Burrow didn’t get hit while throwing. Block in the back during the last punt return. This is the closest one in my opinion. Darius Harris does make contact but he holds up and pulls his hands back. It was borderline and could have gone either way. Holding by Orlando Brown on Mahomes last scramble. Brown’s hands are inside and by the letter of the NFL law isn’t holding. If the refs called holding everytime someone grabbed a little bit of jersey, it is all the game would be. Here is a great article detailing why it wasn’t holding. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/chiefs-bengals-holding-penalty-patrick-mahomes-scramble/cy0lh6ltloanuskgnpc8kuiy All that to be said…stop crying and take your L. You, your city and your players all talked smack all week and you lost. Deal with it.
6. Cockiest, mouthiest team that has never won anything. That’s the Bengals. As JuJu said early in the week the Bengals have always been a “rah, rah” team. Which is a nice way of saying they talk a lot of trash. But they never win anything. They have 10 playoff victories ever. They are 0-3 in Super Bowls. And even this team that is really good, hasn’t really won anything. And then the Mayor even got involved in one of the dumbest and most cringe worthy video/moments I have seen stating they wanted Burrow to take a paternity test to see if he was Mahomes daddy. As you all know, that did not go over well.
7. Chris Jones was a monster. Dude was so dominant all game. After never getting a post season sack, he had 10 hurries, 5 QB hits and 2 sacks. And some tackles for loss. Dude was a game wrecker.
8. Mahomes is a legend. All week long we heard from players about how much a high ankle sprain hurts and how much you can’t play on it or at a minimum won’t be the same. But that is how it goes for regular humans. Pat is not human. Mahomes has already done this before. He played through turf toe. He also had his knee cap on the side of his leg and was back and playing 3 weeks later. Dude is not normal. He wasn’t perfect but he was awesome. Because of all the injuries, he is out there throwing completions to Marcus Kemp for goodness sakes. He is the best quarterback in the league. Everyone but Skip Bayless agrees.
9. Mike “burrowhead” Hilton had a rough day. I am not saying they were picking on him…but they were picking on him. Mahomes was 8-9 when targeting him and should have been 9-9 if Toney would have caught that touchdown on the first drive. When targeting MVS against him, he was 5-5 with a td. Hilton is a good player but would be wise to keep his mouth shut before next year.
10. They won for themselves, they won for Arrowhead, they won for Kansas City. Every Chiefs fan I know was emotionally invested in this game as much as any game probably since the first super bowl against the 49ers. We all wanted to win before all the smack talk but after that, we really wanted to win. In a lot of ways this was our Super Bowl. I mean, sure I want to win next week but this is the game that really mattered. We all wanted this win. And our Chiefs came through like champs. When the game ended, I wasn’t even really thinking about the Super Bowl. All I could think was “Suck it Cincy!”

Rankings of who is left:

1A. Eagles: They have a better overall roster. Better skill guys. Better defensive guys. Probably better overall O-Line. But…

1B. Chiefs: We have Mahomes

Hope for teams that lost:

49ers: Great season. Great future. I mean come on, what are the chances that 4 quarterbacks get hurt for you next year? Don’t answer that.

Bengals: You don’t deserve hope

Keep your eye out for the 5 for 5 later today or this weekend.

Here are 5 predictions followed by my picks for Championship Weekend.

1. Robbie Gould misses a kick. Gould has been super clutch in the playoffs and has literally never missed a kick. Every time they roll him out there, the announcers mention this. This of course is the ultimate jinx for any player and the odds are that he will miss one at some point. This week might as well be it.
2. We will hear about how if the Bengals beat the Chiefs then Joe Burrow is better than Mahomes 87,000 times before the game starts. Look Burrow is amazing and the Bengals have our number. But part of the reason they have our number is because he is handing off to Joe Mixon and throwing to Chase, Higgins and Boyd. As Marcus Spears on ESPN said the other day, if Mahomes was throwing to those 3 guys he would throw for 7,000 yards. To make matters worse, if the Chiefs do lose, we will have to hear about this all off season long.
3. Chris Jones will get a sack. One of the odder stats is that Chris Jones has never recorded a post season sack. Now he has impacted games in different ways including batted balls and forcing the quarterback into other people’s arms. The Bengals created a whole plan to stop him last time we played and it worked. But their line is beat up and our D line has gotten better so I think Jones gets Burrow to the ground at some point.
4. Jalen Hurts scores multiple times in multiple ways. The 49ers defense is great but Hurts is a different sort of player. I believe he throws two touchdowns and runs it in for two touchdowns.
5. Butker kicks every kickoff into the endzone. Our defense actually played pretty well last week. They only really gave up one long td drive. However their first td came on a short field after a big return. They almost scored again when Butker had to make a td saving tackle. Then the same returner fumbled at the 4 other wise the Jags would have had another td on a short field. To make matters worse, we released one of our best special teams guys and the Bengals picked him up. There is no reason to mess around with this. Kick it out of the end zone every time and make them go 75 yards. There is no reason to kick it short just to try to make them go 80 yards instead, especially when the result could be that they only have to go 30 or 40 yards.

It should be an amazing weekend of games. The only result that would surprise me is a blowout in either game. These are clearly the 4 best teams which should lead to 2 great games. I am cheering for a Kelce bowl in the Super Bowl but we will see what happens. Anyway, here are my picks for this week.

Purdy vs the Birdie: 49ers @ Eagles

Both of these games should be exceptional. I am not putting a lot of weight into the Eagles beat down of the Giants. I never thought the Giants were that good and they beat a Vikings team that finds ways to lose. They only thing that really stood out is Hurts is pretty healthy which is a really good thing for the Eagles. I do put more weight in the 49ers small margin of victory against the Cowboys. Purdy was pressured often and didn’t handle it great. But he made enough plays to get the job done. He will have to make a lot more plays to win this one. Both coaches are solid and these are two of the better rosters in the league. Both teams are loaded with weapons and it will be whichever QB can get the hands into those weapons most efficiently that will win. I think the one difference is Hurts mobility. The 49ers must pressure yet contain him. The 49ers o-line also must limit pressure from a team that sacks the quarterback more than any other. I think this may be a little more high scoring than a lot of people think. I think both teams will get some turnovers and some short fields. The Eagles were the best team for the first half of the year. The 49ers have been the best team for the second half of the year. I have gone back and forth on this one but if all things are equal, I usually go with the home team. But I like Kyle Shanahan’s experience in this one. After missing a kick earlier in the game, Gould hits the game winner as time expires.

49ers 30 Eagles 28

The team I hate vs the the team I love: Bengals @ Chiefs

And so it comes to this. All my logic says to pick the stupid Bengals. Here are just some of the reasons.

They are 3-0 against the Chiefs in the last 13 months.

They have a better roster than the Chiefs.

A road favorite is 9-0 in Championship games (they were only road favorites for a day so I don’t know if this counts)

The Chiefs are awful against the spread, 7-11 overall and 1-7-1 at home.

The Bengals D has always given a healthy Mahomes fits.

Joe Burrow has played his best football against the Chiefs.

There has been 37 touchdowns outside of the pocket in the last 5 post seasons, Mahomes has 15 of them. His lack of mobility is an issue.

Everyone is picking the Bengals.

We can’t sack Joe Burrow for some reason.

Our corners are all basically rookies and their receivers are really good.

We gave up over 7 yards on the ground last week against the Jaguars.

The Bengals are super cocky and talk a lot of smack but always back it up.

You put all that together and you have to pick the Bengals right? Well, there is always one other factor that I look at when I am making picks and specifically when I pick the Chiefs and that is my gut. My gut isn’t always right but it is pretty good when it comes to the Chiefs. For instance, I felt good about the 2019 season and even predicted we would win it all and even got the score right in the Super Bowl. I didn’t feel great in the second super bowl due to our o line being a mess and Tampa having a good pass rush. My concern obviously became truth. Most recently, my gut told me that Henne was going to lead us on a 98 yard touchdown drive. So what is my gut saying about this one?

Well it has been battling my logic all week, despite all signs pointing towards the Bengals. Part of the reason is we have been so close all 3 times. We lost all 3 games by 3 points. We led in the 4th quarter in all 3 games. These games were so close and really we gave two of the games away by playing awful in the second half and could argue all 3 if you count Kelce’s fumble when we were clearly driving again. The Bengals have given us a little extra motivation with all their talk and calling Arrowhead, Burrowhead. The Bengals actually do respect us, unlike how they feel about most teams. But even when they are respectful, they sort of aren’t. Joe Burrow earlier in the week said “They are still the team to beat, and we’re coming for them.” Thanks, I guess.

I think the team wants this win as bad as any win since the first super bowl. They will be motivated and focused. Mahomes is different than he was in years past. He doesn’t have to run around as much. Joe Thuney wasn’t playing last time we played them. We didn’t have Toney or Hardman last time we played them. We will have Toney for sure, and maybe Hardman and maybe Fortson and maybe CEH. It seems like all hands are going to be on deck and everyone seems laser focused.

Every great one has a team they struggled against. Manning had the Patriots. Jordan had the Pistons. Brady had the Giants in the Super Bowl. John Elway couldn’t win the Super Bowl. Steve Young couldn’t get to the Super Bowl. LeBron had the rest of the league so he went to Miami to create a super team. You know they all had struggles, something to overcome. Mahomes has the Bengals.

I think Pat will start off looking healthy and play great but will aggravate the ankle at some point. He will play through in a Willis Reed sort of way. He will make the winning play and will get carried off the field by his teammates. We will talk about this like the Jordan Flu game which really should probably be called the Jordan “hung over” game.

My brain is telling me Bengals but my gut says “how about those Chiefs!” We finally beat these guys and the universe is right again.

Chiefs 31 Bengals 28

Well, as I predicted, the games were not as exciting this week as last year. Which isn’t really a surprise because last year was epic and perhaps the greatest weekend of football of all time. The Chiefs were rolling until Mahomes got hurt and still took care of business. A late field goal made it seem closer than it was. The Eagles demolished the Giants. The Bengals were dominant against the Bills and the Cowboys choked away any chance of victory like only they can. I was 4 for 4 with my picks so I have that going for me…which is nice. Here are reactions from last week.

1. Hennething is possible! With Mahomes hurt, our defense forced a punt which landed near our goal line. I texted my friend Dave and said, Time for Henne to lead us on a 99 yard drive. I was way off because the ball landed on the 2 so it was only a 98 yard drive. And I wasn’t joking. I had full confidence that Henne would do just that. Why? Well first of all, we relied on the run game which we are actually quite good at when we want to be. Secondly, I knew everyone would focus more and do everything just right because they knew they had to. When Pat is in, everyone seems to relax a bit because they know Pat’s got it. And finally, everyone loves Henne and plays hard for him. Now could he have done this for the rest of the game…not likely. He only threw for 23 yards and he was helped by a 15 yard penalty and a 39 yard run by Pacheco but it sure was fun. And for a drive or two, Henne is solid.
2. What happened to the Bills? At the beginning of the year, the Bills looked like the best team in the league. But over time it seems like they just wore down. They had a lot of injuries on the defensive side of the ball. But it also seems like Josh Allen has regressed and isn’t nearly as good as he was last year. He is reckless at times and even though they have 2 or 3 good running backs they refuse to run the ball consistently. Maybe the Damar Hamlin situation wore on them too but they just didn’t look like a good football team the last few weeks. Honestly, it seems like they get real excited to beat the Chiefs and after that it is all down hill.
3. Worst last play of the game ever. The Cowboys got the ball down by a touchdown with around 3 minutes left. They quickly went 3 and out and punted back to the 49ers which I wouldn’t have done. The 49ers are really good at running the ball which serves them well in their ability to run out the clock. The Cowboys did eventually get it back but with around 40 seconds and no timeouts. Then their tight end, Dalton Schultz made two terrible plays. The first was when he nonchalantly didn’t drag his second foot and was out of bounds for an incompletion. The second was when he caught it but didn’t go forward before going out of bounds and so the clock didn’t stop. The Cowboys should have spiked it at this point but instead they ran a play that didn’t work. Why teams do this so often is beyond me. There is so much time wasted lately in close games at the end. Anyway, this led them to run a play where all their linemen were lined up outside and Ezekiel Elliot would snap the ball to Dak. Elliot got flattened immediately after the snap and might still be on the ground and then instead of throwing outside to where potentially the O line could block for someone Dak threw it to a guy that was all by himself besides the defender who tackled him before his feet even touched the ground. It was one of the weirdest and worst plays I have seen in a while. On a side note, did anyone notice how quickly John Lynch got down to the field? I have never moved that fast in my life. Even my son, Walker was like, “how did he get down there so fast?”
4. Bengals are the loudest, most arrogant team since the 90’s Cowboys. These teams have some similarities. Both are full of young talented, flamboyant players who like to talk a lot. They are confident, cocky and not shy about it. To be fair they do back it up. And I am sure if you aren’t a Chiefs fan, you are probably cheering for them this weekend. But as a Chiefs fan I find them extremely annoying. Also, if you think you are so good, why are you always playing the disrespect card all the time. Why do you need this sort of motivation? Also, some of the things you claim are disrespectful aren’t anything out of the normal. For instance…
5. Ticket issues. Mixon and Chase said it was disrespectful that the league was selling tickets to Atlanta. Joe Burrow was asked after the game and said “better get your refunds.” Well, Joe, you know who already got refunds? All the Bengals fans who bought tickets in case the Jaguars beat the Chiefs. That’s right, literally every team who could possibly host the next round sales tickets before the games happen. The only teams that weren’t doing that were the Jags and the Giants because there was no way they could host the Championship round. The reason they were selling tickets in Atlanta was because that was one of the potential options of where the game could be. Of course CBS knows this but instead of pointing out the facts they played along and even asked Joe Burrow the dumb question. And all the studio guys talked about it like it was a big deal. This proves my theory once again that all media sucks and is more about creating drama then reporting truth. The Bengals are literally selling Super Bowl packages on their website now. This is the dumbest non story that is somehow a story that I have seen for a while.
6. Bonus reaction…Did you see the size of the mountain lion that Derek Wolfe killed? Apparently there was a mountain lion harassing a small mountain town here in Colorado. It had killed some dogs and was hiding under people’s porches, etc. I am not here to argue that it was right or wrong for them to kill the Mountain Lion. But I am here to argue that it is the biggest mountain lion I have ever seen. Derek Wolfe is a very large man and the picture is insane. You can check it out here: https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/former-broncos-derek-wolfe-kills-large-mountain-lion-in-colorado
7. Final Reaction: The 4 best teams are left. I don’t think you can argue anything else. These should be great games on Sunday. They will be battles. All 4 teams have great teams that are battle tested and are full of grit and determination. I don’t see any of these teams being drastically better than the other. This should lead to great games on Sunday and a great Super Bowl.

Rankings of most likely to go to the Super Bowl:

1. Bengals: They looked like the real deal. I hate them but they are very talented. They have beaten the Chiefs 3 times in a row and always make all the right plays. Burrow who is already really good, plays even better against us. Their defensive schemes slow down and at times even stop Mahomes when he has two good legs. They are arrogant and awful. But they are also awfully good. And now they are road favorites. Road favorites in Conference Championship games are 9-0. They have a better roster and with Mahomes hurt, they are the safest bet to make it to the big game.
2. Eagles: The Eagles were dominant against the Giants while the 49ers struggled to eek out a victory over the Cowboys. That doesn’t mean a whole lot but I give the Eagles the edge for a couple of reasons. First they are at home. That is a long trip from San Fran. Secondly, Hurts is better than Purdy. Purdy is good QB but he struggled when he was pressured on Sunday. The Eagles lead the league in sacks. So slight edge in the rankings to the birds.
3. 49ers: They have arguably the best roster in the league. They have one great running back and one good one, two excellent receivers and a great tight end. Did you see that crazy catch by Kittle? They are well coached and have the best defense. Can Purdy handle the pressure and win on the road? We will see.
4. Chiefs: Well, you can’t argue that I am biased. Look, I love our team and think we have really overachieved. Our young players are playing better and if anyone can win this game it is Pat and Andy. But we don’t match up well against the Bengals. We are 0-3 against the Burrow led Bengals and Pat has an injury that at best is going to limit him. 5 AFC Championships in a row is impressive but I also think we might be a year away. Which is a funny thing to say, but might just be true. We shall find out on Sunday.

Hope for the Losers:

Jaguars: You should legit be hopeful. You overachieved this year and got to the playoffs a year ahead of schedule. Lots of young talent and a coach who knows how to win. You are the team in the AFC South now.

Giants: Ouch…that was a rough one but hey, no NFC East division winner has repeated since 2004. So you have a shot next year.

Bills: Next year is our year! Also, at least you got your butt kicked and didn’t lose in some crushing way like last year.

Cowboys: You choked in the second round instead of the first round. Good job.