It's All Gravy

This Saturday the KC Chiefs will play the Indianapolis Colts in the first NFL playoff game of the season. I am usually nervously excited about such games for my beloved Chiefs. Not this year. This year, it is all gravy. They aren't supposed to be in this game. I figured my hope for postseason play faded a month ago when I watched them blow a game in Cleveland. However, the mediocrity that dominates the NFL today worked in their favor. They won their last two games and watched as several other teams lost in astounding ways to pave their path to Indy.

When the last weekend of the regular season began, I thought I'd watch the Chiefs last game against Jacksonville and that would be that. A mediocre 9-7 season with no playoffs was the best I expected. There was simply no way that Cincinnati, Houston and Denver would lose at home to Pittsburgh, New England and San Francisco respectively. Oh sure, I could easily see the first two, but never the 3rd. It was reported in the KC Star that if you had placed a $10 four-game parley bet in Vegas for KC, Pittsburgh, New England and San Francisco to win that the return would have been $7000. That would have been a nice bet, but I haven't seen anyone reporting that someone was foolish enough to do it. Thus the results on Sunday didn't depress anyone in Vegas owning a sportsbook and it has sent all Chiefs fans into the land of all gain, no pain.

Playoff games for my favorite teams in any sport are usually severely distracting. I read too much on it. Think too much on it. I dream about it. I don't expect any dreams this week. I just want to enjoy whatever is offered up on Saturday. Oh, I'll still scream at the TV when they make bad plays or the refs miss a call. I'll be exceedingly happy about a victory. Victory would be some small revenge for Indy dumping the Chiefs twice in the playoffs in the past 12 years. But since they are 9-7 and it took a minor miracle to get here, I am experiencing odd elation without fear of failure. How can anything be seen as failure now? It would take a humiliating defeat that included career-threatening injuries to Larry Johnson and Tony Gonzalez to make Saturday a horrible experience.

Let's turn to the overall NFL playoffs. Who is going to the 41st Super Bowl? The NFC is just plain bad and I'll go with the hot team, the Philadelphia Eagles. Why? Why not? The conference stinks and the team with the hot streak is as likely as any of the other 5. I'll root for the Saints because they have stunk so long and watch to see if Brian Griese could add to the minor miracle list by becoming the QB savior for the Bears, but let's face the truth. Like the AFC teams from 1985 thru 1997, the NFC is playing to see who finishes second.

I see 3 teams as possible Super Bowl contenders in the AFC and it is not an original list. They are San Diego, Baltimore and New England. New England knows how to do this, but I think they probably have let too much talent go on offense. Brady needs receivers and he won't get them in January. That leaves the Chargers and the Ravens. The Ravens won the Super Bowl six years ago with all defense and virtually no offense. The defense is not as good as that one, but the offense is better. They can win it all, but San Diego is the most complete team in the NFL and the AFC Championship game will be in San Diego unless something odd happens. San Diego is above average to excellent in every part of the game. The defense is not as strong as Baltimore's, but is still very good. The offense is much better as long as LaDanien Tomlinson is healthy and QB Rivers keeps his cool. The special teams are also quite good. There excellence is reflected in a 14-2 record. Such a record usually makes a team the clear Super Bowl favorite. The only reason you do not hear over and over again that the Chargers are the clear favorite is the head coach...Marty Schottenheimer.

To this point in his career, Marty Schottenheimer is known for failure in the playoffs. In fact he is know for spectacular failure. As the head coach of the Browns his loses to the Broncos in AFC Championship games have nicknames..."The Drive" and "The Fumble." In KC, he also lost the AFC Championship game to Buffalo and despite lots of regular season wins, failed to win any playoff games after 1994. But Marty has never had a team this good. I know his KC teams best and they were all about defense and running the ball, but had no runner at the top of his game to match Tomlinson. He will be the MVP this year. Marty would talk a lot about getting "chunks of yardage" in KC, but never had to talent to do it. Now he has and he is letting the offense take many more chances. He has done this without sacrificing defense. The Charger defense is fast and likes to hit people. That's a good combination in football. Marty has the team, but few will believe in his chances until he leads a team to the Super Bowl. Marty is a new version of John Madden with the Raiders. Madden coached a very good Raider team (a fact I can only acknowledge now 20+ years later because I hate the Raiders), but his teams were known for "not winning the big one." They lost to very good teams, including the 1969 Chiefs, but that wasn't what was noticed. Until Madden's Raiders won Super Bowl 11, he was just like Marty. Like Madden, Marty would face a weaker team if the Chargers do make the Super Bowl.

Therefore, I hereby officially pick the San Diego Chargers to defeat any of the poor NFC slobs who show up on Feb. 4th in Miami. I'll even root for them. Marty was a big part of turning the Chiefs franchise around and I'll always have a soft spot for him for that. Plus, the Chargers are an AFL team and among the Chiefs division rivals do rank as the "least hated." I' would love to see the Chiefs take them on one more time. The two regular season games were good as they each took one game and the Chiefs defense seemed to get into Rivers' head both times. Besides, I like gravy, but don't get it very often. I'd love to have it for a second playoff weekend.