Jags? Browns? Seth Rogen? Nope -- Chiefs have no one to blame but themselves
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- We could blame the Jacksonville Jaguars, of course, but what would be the point? Scooby Doo isn't going to man up and turn into Lassie overnight. They are what they are, and they are not there to help when you fall into the well, Shaggy.
We could blame J.J. Watt. Or Connor Shaw. Or Joe Flacco. Or Seth Rogen. Or, hell, all of the above. And it still wouldn't matter. This wasn't about the finger, baby. It was all on the thumb.
Tennessee. Oakland.
That simple.
Or, if you want simpler, just Tennessee -- specifically, Titans 26, Chiefs 10, Week 1 at Arrowhead Stadium. You could frame that bad boy and hang it in the Louvre, and it still wouldn't make a lick of sense.
"It's just a couple of games that got us," Chiefs offensive lineman Donald Stephenson said Sunday afternoon, after 2014 was done and dusted following a 19-7 victory over the San Diego Chargers.
They won.
Then they lost.
At 2:15 p.m., the Andy Gang sat in the final AFC playoff seat. Jacksonville was winning in Houston, Cleveland was winning in Baltimore, Philip Rivers was cold and in pain, and everything was unicorns, rainbows, apple pies and puppies.
At 2:30, the Chiefs had their noses pressed to the window again.
LET’S GO, CHIEFS: Check out these photos of fans and the excitement around Chiefs football.
At 4:30, the party was over: Nine wins, seven losses and a dozen what-ifs.
"I think it's hard not to (wonder)," Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said after his charges missed the postseason by a game. "Although during some of those games, when we let those opportunities get away from us, you had the thought in the back of your mind (of), 'Wow, those could come back to bite us.' And at the end of the day, it sure did, and it's disappointing."
This wasn't about the Chargers. Not really. It was more about the Titans. And the Raiders. Or San Francisco by the bay. Or Arizona in the desert.
Team Andy was 3-4 after Nov. 15. They were 3-5 in games decided by eight points or fewer. Great teams wobble occasionally. Even good teams ebb and flow. The 2014 Chiefs were a roller coaster.
"It was up and down," linebacker Joe Mays observed. "We didn't start out like we wanted to, and we had our runs here and there. But at the end of the day, we weren't able to get that ultimate goal, and that's to make the playoffs and win the Super Bowl. So (there's) work to be done."
The Chiefs humiliated Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, out-toughed the defending Super Bowl champions and swept Rivers' Chargers.
They also gave up acres of yardage to the Raiders and Titans, and curled into a fetal position whenever Peyton Manning walked into the building.
The truth is in the middle there. Somewhere.
It's a question of perspective -- namely, yours. Was this a good roster that underachieved after a commendable start? Or a flawed bunch that sort of landed where the law of averages figured they might? Inside linebacker Derrick Johnson was lost for the season after essentially a half; defensive end Mike DeVito suffered the same fate a short while later. Eric Berry struggled to see the field, then was diagnosed with lymphoma. Three good players, two of them Pro Bowlers, and all of them large presences, on field and off.
And yet the Chiefs soldiered on. Or tried to.
Lookin' good! Flip through our photo album of Chiefs cheerleaders.
"We noticed," Stephenson said. "The way we answered questions, we'd say, 'Yeah, we can't use that as an excuse,' and blah blah, but we noticed that stuff. Sometimes it did hurt us this year."
Sunday hurt, too.
"Of course," tackle Ryan Harris said. "Of course. Any time you have players like Tamba Hali, (Justin) Houston, Jamaal Charles, Alex Smith, you've got a great team. Not just a good team -- a great team. And I think we showed that in spurts throughout the season, and had (we) got one more win, I tihnk you'd have seen a good run in the playoffs."
Or a swift January punch to the kidneys. And we've seen plenty of that already.
The story wasn't bad. Nor was it especially good. Mostly, it was kind of ... odd. The Chiefs didn't allow a 300-yard passer in any single game. The four rushing touchdowns surrendered all year is a new single-season team record. Kicker Cairo Santos tied Ryan Succop's single-season team rookie mark for field-goal makes (25).
And, yet, all that was joined by this ugly footnote: No wide receiver caught a touchdown all season. Think about that for a minute.
Although Dwayne Bowe was close. Again. And something funky happened that turned his touchdown into a score for somebody else. Again. Against the Jets, a Bowe-directed slant wound up deflected and landed in the lap of tight end Anthony Fasano; against the Chargers, Bowe took an 11-yard pass almost -- almost -- to the end zone, only to have Jahleel Addae pop it loose just before the ball broke the plane. Tight end Travis Kelce recovered it in the back of the end zone to preserve the score and a 9-0 lead. The Chiefs are believed to be the first team in modern NFL history, and certainly since 1978, when the season expanded from 14 to 16 games, to go through an entire regular season without one touchdown catch from a designated wide receiver.
"Close, but no cigar, that's what they say," said Bowe, who caught three balls on the day for 30 yards. "The good about it, somebody scored on that play. I'm proud of Travis Kelce for being in the right spot at the right time. Just got to keep the wheels turning."
Mike Evans of the Buccaneers has been in the league for fewer than nine months. He managed to snag 12 touchdown passes all by himself.
But we digress.
Because the big dog Sunday was Justin Houston, who's a topic all to himself, and will be until the ink is dry on whatever happens next. Big No. 50 needed two sacks to tie Chiefs legend Derrick Thomas for the club's single-season takedown record of 20, and three to pass No. 58.
He got four.
And might've had five, had he not dropped into coverage during the final Rivers heave of the contest.
"Earlier in the day, we sat in the hot tub together," safety Ron Parker recalled with a grin, "and he was just in there joking around, just talking like, 'I'm going to get three sacks today.'
"And he went out there and (did) it. He's one of those rare guys with the raw talent, man, where if he says he's going to do something like that before the game, he just goes out there and does it."
He's also out of contract, and therefore due for a massive raise after a $1.598 million cap number in 2014. In the locker room after the game, general manager John Dorsey was seen giving his best defender a big ol' hug, but business is business: Unless a long-term deal can be worked out before early March, the franchise tag probably isn't far behind, and perhaps discord over whether Houston should be designated as a defensive end (which means more money) instead of as a linebacker.
Regardless, the bidding probably starts at at least $12 million, cap-wise, in 2015. And that's when the calculators and the Maalox come out.
"I haven't even thought about that," said Houston, who finished just a half-sack short of Michael Strahan's single-season NFL mark of 22 1/2 takedowns. "I'm still heartbroken about not going to the playoffs; that's what I set my goals on. Individual records, it will mean something when I'm done playing. But it's a team game. There's nothing more important than putting that ring on your finger -- that's what I play this game for. I guess in the next couple of weeks it'll hit me, but right now I'm still disappointed that we're not playing next week."
And, as the man said, there's work still to be done. After Year 2 of the Reid Era, the receiving corps and offensive line somehow look worse than they did after Year 1. Bowe (2015 cap number: $14 million; '16 number: $13 million) is likely either to be restructured or shown the door; ditto the likes of Fasano or Chase Daniel -- the latter of whom was, like his team, spectacular one instant, and pedestrian the next in an emergency Sunday start (16 for 27, 157 passing yards). Hell, even Johnson or DeVito might wind up in that boat. Center Rodney Hudson's contract is up, and you even wonder about the future of Berry ('15 cap hit: $8.36 million), cancer and all, given the forthcoming financial constraints.
"Hopefully, we can bring everybody back," Stephenson said. "But it's the NFL. It never happens that way. Some guys are going to be gone, and that's just the way it is."
When the merry-go-round stops, who stays? Who goes? There'll be all the time in the world to think on that, of course. Too much damn time. Players come and players go, but one NFL truth remains universal: If you need the Jags to do something for you, you were better off doing it yourself in the first place.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
