By the end of the 2nd drive of the game I was a lot less worried about this game than I was before it started. Outside of the Maclin injury KC had everything going for it for this game. They had an 11 game win streak, playing a team with a lot of questions with injuries, who had lost 4 of its last 6 games, no running attack, and has looked horrible the last month and a half of the season. One team hot as a fire cracker, the other cold as ice. Even on the road you had to like their chances. You didn't have to be a hater to pick KC this week.
Well lets get started, and because we won lets start with all the negative stuff in honor of all the game day thread crazies.
3. The running game or lack of it. Now I know that we didn't run the ball and it was mostly by design. It is just that some time over the next 2 games, we are going to need more of a running game than we've show the last 2 months, including last night. and when we DO finally make the run game part of the offense it will need to be more than just marching out there with 2 TE's and run the ball straight up the middle. I have a good feeling about Stephan Jackson.
8. Man, Malcom Brown is having a VERY good rookie year that is going mostly unnoticed. He is making far more of an impact as a rookie than Wilfolk and Warren did, in fact only Richard Seymour had a more important rookie year. Yet he rarely gets any mention from the media, or us for that matter.\
9. Patrick Chung is the freakin man. I remember hearing before the game that the Pats were holding TE's to the 2nd lowest yards per game of any team in the league ( I think ironically KC was #1) Well Travis Kelce came into the game off a 146 yd game vs Houston, and was held to just 26 yd on 6 catches. Baby Gronk was made to keep his diapers on, and Chung was a big part of it. The guy has been huge all year. He should have gotten more all pro talk. I guess he's still paying for the bad year with Philly and his last year with the Pats in his first go around. Whatever he and the Pats are doing this time around is working because he's been very good for the last 2 seasons.
Some general observations
10. Alex Smith's stats will seen as pretty average, and there will be more talk about the fact, "you can never win with Alex Smith". But the fact is that the ONLY reason KC was as close as they were was because of Smith. Some of his escapes, runs and throws in this game were remarkable. Its not like a lot of those 3rd down conversions were to wide open guys. A lot of those throw had to be perfect to be completed. He was clutch all game. I'm not sure you'd call him "elite", but the fact is there are about 20-25 teams in the league that would be better off having Alex Smith as their QB.
11. By and large I thought the refs did a good job of staying out of the way in this game. My biggest fear was that after they missed the PI in the end zone, they'd call a mickey mouse PI against us. They didn't. The call against Ryan was overt PI and had to be called. These guys did a much better job controlling the game without a ton of flags. Much better than the Packer/Az crew.
12. Denver or Pittsburgh? Well, I know it would be nice to be home, but I think the easiest road back to the Superbowl is through Peyton Manning. I watched our pass rush frustrated by the need to keep Smith in the pocket and not necessarily on his back. That won't be a factor against Manning. They would FINALLY get a chance to tee off and go after someone they KNOW will be there, when the get there. The Denver Defense is very good, but now I'm convinced that this offense is good enough to move the ball even against them. They didn't have much of a problem with it without Edelman in the last meeting until Gronk went down and the officials decided to play a role in deciding the game....and the muffed punt.
I just think they'd be an easier fit that Pittsburgh with a healthier Rothlessburger, and ABrown back playing along with the rest of their receiving corps. I know that playing at home would help. I know that the Steeler defense isn't nearly as good as the Denver D. But a great QB can always keep their team in a game and Pittsburgh is the only team with a great QB
13. That being said, it is much easier to run this kind of fast paced spread passing offense when you are at home and communications aren't an issue. They proved in Buffalo that that it CAN be done, but it is a lot harder.
14. Those who might be worried the league might suspend DA for his hit, shouldn't. If they suspended him, they'd have to also suspend Larry Fitzgerald for doing essentially the same thing in the Packer game, and we KNOW that isn't going to happen
15. How spoiled are we? How unreasonable have our expectations become? Well I couldn't help think about this when Devin McCourty came to the podium in the post game show. This is Devin's 6th straight time in the playoffs. It's his 5th straight AFCCG, including 2 superbowl appearances. Meanwhile his twin brother has been in the league a year longer and has never played in a single playoff game. That is why McCourty made a special point to point out how HARD it is to get to this point, and why they don't take it for granted...and shouldn't.
