The Frankish Reich

I paid nothing for eggs since there weren't any available. Geez, it's almost as if the price and availability of eggs aren't dictated by our Chief Soviet Economist!

What really surprised me was how unprepared we were to deal with KC's passing down pressure from everywhere. The common "wisdom" was that all-out pressure on Josh would just allow Josh to make big plays with his legs or escaping pressure and making big plays down field. Instead it disrupted the passing game, and KC's secondary was able to cover our receivers one-on-one. The big Hollins catch? No separation, just Hollins making a play on a ball Allen put in a perfect spot. What I have to conclude is that other than Shakir as a slot guy, our receivers still kind of suck, and Spags knew it and took advantage of it.

Agree. 1. We were extremely lucky on the OL. No significant injuries all year. It's a really good starting unit, and Anderson is a beast as a 6th lineman. 2. The defense is really thin now. Benford is the only real keeper in the secondary. I'm not sure we had any business being the 11th rated scoring defense while trotting out guys like Hamlin, Rapp, even Rasul Douglas every week. Bernard's injury seemed to take away a lot of his effectiveness, and we just didn't find the LB or DL help we really needed. I'm high on Milano for next year - he won't be the same disrupter he was in his prime, but I think he makes a strong comeback next season. 3. I loved the Cooper acquisition. I don't know if he's wearing down or if we just didn't create the right schemes for him. Whatever it is, I really expected more of an impact.

Benford has turned into a fantastic player, and I'm legitimately worried for him after those back-to-back concussions. He looked completely dazed as they carted him off.

And it's also the difference between trusting your blitzing CB to get there and disrupt the play vs. being afraid that they won't.

Every team has those quality control and video analysts who track tendencies, etc. Ernie Adams on Belichick's Pats got famous for that. Question on the tush push: what percentage of times they used it did Allen veer to the left? I'm guessing it was 100%. And it took all year for someone - the Chiefs, the best organization today in the NFL - to figure it out and finally stop it. I'm sure they're ready for the Philly version too.

Bingo. Nothing to do but keep chugging along, hoping that someday you may be Drew Brees and the Saints, consistently competitive, and maybe one time sneaking by Brady's Pats and Manning's Colts.

At this point, it's really just a question of getting past KC. Baltimore is a similar really good team with a similar future HOF QB. And no Super Bowl appearances. In a world without Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler and Karl Malone are sporting multiple championship rings.

Elway got two at (I think) age 36-37. Steve Young got his at 33. And of course Manning got his second one at 38.

Mahomes barely runs at all in the regular season. When he does in the playoffs, it adds that extra dimension. Defenses don't gameplan for it because he doesn't do it in the regular season. I hate to agree with JJ Watt, but I think he summed it up: some teams have the bad luck to peak during someone else's dynasty. Brady and the Pats, now Mahomes and the Chiefs.

SVPG also had unusually short arms for a C-G. Short arms, the new market inefficiency Beane will exploit!

As would every GM, including Beane. Coleman may turn out to be a very good WR. Worthy has already played a huge role in getting his team to another SB.

Our defense is, objectively, mediocre. Elite players: none. Excellent players: Rousseau. Better than average players: Oliver, Benford. Average: Bernard, Johnson. Below average: everyone else, particularly interior DL. Abysmal: all our safeties. Milano may still get healthy and move back up the scale, but that wasn't this year. McD and Babich should get credit for patching together a defense that was statistically quite good despite a dearth of talent.

I guess I don't get that either. Gilliam was the primary pusher on a couple, Ty Johnson on at least one fail. Meanwhile Anderson is over there flanked to Josh's right side instead of pushing ....

It's more the lack of talent on our D. I believe McD and Babich have gotten a lot more than we had any right to expect out of a defense that just doesn't have a great amount of talent. Above-average players: Rousseau, Oliver, Benford (when healthy). We get pissed when we don't get Pro Bowl selections. You know why we don't? Because we don't have many stand-out players on D!

Problem there was that Spags had the huevos to bring the big corner blitz. And of course we never thought he'd do something like that. Fortune favors the bold ...

"not enough to overturn" should be irrelevant when 2 refs on the field come to opposite conclusions.

No. You fire McDermott and see what the next guy brings. Stick with the program (the process? haha) even when it gets frustrating.

Not quite a Mark Andrews. It was a weird floater of a pass from Allen, not a play/ball delivered exactly as it was drawn up. Still, he should've snagged it, but hardly a routine catch.

Yeah, he looked awful after that hit. A career jeopardizing decision. I hope he's all right, but that was Tua-like.

Tends to be a good day to go skiing here in Colorado. Sounds like a better way to spend a Sunday.

We quietly got better. They loudly got better. Although I don't understand why Coop was so underused.

Even if he's a decent player who may get better - and who may ultimately have a better career than Worthy - he simply isn't a game changer. Worthy was today. That kind of speed just opens up things that aren't there for us. I still don't get that trade.

Chiefs were almost 100% healthy. We weren't. That's the biggest difference. And getting the bye probably had a lot to do with it. That's why they play the regular season.

The contested Worthy/Bishop catch call was, to me, pretty clearly wrong. But they would've had the ball at the 30 or so and the way we were playing D probably would've scored. But still: wrong. The spot? Really, that's a total guess since no one could see exactly where the ball was and replay didn't help. I can't blame anyone for that.