If I still had the same bedtime I had growing up, I think I could have gone to bed untroubled at around 9:15 p.m. The score was 10-3, and the upstart Chiefs had the analysts making noise about the pass rush. The Chiefs played inspired, frenzied football for a half. Three different Chiefs sacked Tom Brady. Derrick Johnson flew down the line to strip a pass from Danny Woodhead's grasp literally at the goal line. And Thomas Jones showed that his legs are still capable of running.
Brady's line at one point midway through the second quarter was 3 of 9 for 26 yards and a lost fumble — probably closer to what was expected of Tyler Palko. But by the end of the third quarter, the score was 27-3, and the party line of Belichick's greatness and Brady hurting you if you give him time were dripping off the lips of John Gruden and Ron Jaworski.
It's a difficult thing to watch a team that is trying to win, that has a sense that they can compete. And knowing that reality in the form of the scoreboard is saying something different. Jaworski couldn't stop suggesting that the "Chiefs needed to finish drives." I was just happy to see them drive on the Patriots. And Jaws didn't see what Chiefs fans were seeing.
Last night, we witnessed the return of Todd Haley the gambler. An onside kick, Tyler Palko running out to the flat as a receiver in the Wildcat formation and a host of other unconventional plays. These are the things you do when you believe that you don't have the talent to beat the other team straight-up. This is the way you claw to a 10-6 record and a first-round playoff exit.
And it would seem that the football gods have not forgotten what they bequeathed upon the Chiefs last year. For on this night, the bounces decidedly went the Patriots' way courtesy of a pair of tipped passes that ended up in the hands of the New England Patriots' cornerback Kyle Arrington. One's luck can hold out only so long — the Chiefs have long been playing with house money (perhaps peaking with Rivers' end-of-game snap-fu) — and last night the home team won.
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Woodhead's stats seem pretty average to me, Burt. Though, I suspect, they were better than anyone on the Chiefs. Especially when they had ol' Shane Falco running the Tebow Offense in the 1st half: hand off left, hand off right, hand off...
Still, the 'pun' seems like a long way 'round the woodshed, as it were.
Danny Woodhead, running back for the Patriots, last night was 5 carries for 27 yards @ 5.4 yards per carry, also 2 receptions for 28 yards @ 14 yards per touch. Might be a word play, or a typo, dunno. Just throwing that out there.
Woodhead?
What - Pinocchio woke up with a stiffie yesterday and lent it to the Patriots?
Is the Pitch now sharing the same "editor" as the Star?
This is also what happens when you go from a last place schedule to a first place schedule. The NFL adjusts schedule strength and that's why you get this one hit wonders periodically (I'm looking at you, Detroit) like the Chiefs last year. And then it looks like they come crashing to the ground the next year when in reality it's just a result of getting an actual tough schedule.
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