Fifth Down

We did the Seahawks yesterday and now it is the Patriots turn.

10. Heading West equals Winning.

Most of the time if one team is heading east and one is heading west, the team heading west wins. Seattle is basically heading south but maybe ever so slightly east. Advantage Patriots.

9. It’s the AFC’s turn.

Minus the back to back championships by the Chiefs, the last time either side won back to back championships was way back in 2018/2019 seasons. The Eagles won last year, thus the Patriots will win this year.

8. Drake Maye is due a good game.

Drake hasn’t been great in the playoff run, not that it has mattered. But he will have to play good in this one for them to have a shot and he is due to play good.

7. Patriots D is better than anyone thought.

They’ve played a weak schedule and so no one paid much attention but this is a really good defense.

6. They have Christian Gonzalez to deal with JSN

JSN is always open but Gonzalez might be the guy to break that trend.

5. 1 Seeds don’t win much.

The 1 seeds that have gotten to the big game, have not had a ton of success getting to the big game and if they do they seldom win it. The Seahawks were the 1 seed. The Patriots were the 2 seed…so…we know what that means.

4. Underdogs almost always cover and often win.

Being as big as a 4.5 point dog, isn’t as bad as it sounds. Underdogs do quite well in the big game of late.

3. They are well coached.

The Pats don’t make a ton of mistakes and seem to always be in the right places at the right times. And they have experienced coaches who have been in the big game in some fashion or another. That will come up big in the big game.

2. It will kick Belichick while he is down

He has had a rough go of it lately with his college team he is coaching being terrible, not making the hall of fame and the Pats winning a championship would be the icing on the terrible cake.

1. Because this season sucks and this would be the perfect sucky ending.

Chiefs were bad, Pat got hurt, all the other teams my family members cheer for lost, and even the NFC team I was hoping would win, the Rams, lost. The perfect explanation point on this season would be the stupid Patriots winning once again.

Today we focus on 10 reasons that Seattle will be Super Bowl Champs on Sunday. Tomorrow we will cover the Patriots. Let’s dive in.

10. They played a harder schedule than 32nd.

The Patriots had a very easy schedule to get here, then played playoff Justin Herbert behind a 3rd string offensive line, CJ Stroud who threw more passes to Patriots than Texans and Jarrett Stidham who hadn’t thrown a pass in 3 years. The Seahawks are more battle tested.

9. They win every other Super Bowl.

This is their 4th Super Bowl. They lost their first. They won their second and they lost their 3rd. So they are due to win this one.

8. They are the designated road team

The “road team” has a slight edge in the big game. So that should help the Seahawks.

7. They don’t have the MVP on their team.

I’m not saying Drake May will win the MVP. But he might. But no Seahawk is winning it, that’s for sure. And the MVP seldom wins the Super Bowl. Mahomes did it a few years ago and before that the last person to do it was Kurt Warner way back in 1999.

6. JSN is always open

It’s part scheme and part him being awesome but that dude is just open all the dang time.

5. Drake Maye has looked eh

While Maye was awesome during the regular season, he has been just okay in the post season. The defense has carried the day but they haven’t exactly played the best of offenses.

4. Seattle can score

Unlike the Patriots other 3 playoff opponents, Seattle can put up some points. I’m not saying the Patriots Defense isn’t good, but they are unlikely to shut them down like they did, say, the broncos with a back up QB in the middle of a snow storm.

3. Patriot fans don’t deserve a win

These obnoxious, arrogant people will only be that much more annoying if they win this. They’ve only had 2 or 3 bad years without making the playoffs. The rest of the world can’t handle them winning again so soon.

2. They simply have the better team

The Patriots are a very good team. I think they are the best team in the AFC. But Seattle is just better pretty much everywhere. They have the advantage at pretty much every position. In theory, the better team should win but that doesn’t always happen.

1. The final chapter of the Sam Darnold redemption story!

What a great ending it would be to the saga that has been Darnold’s career to hoist that trophy on Sunday night. After “seeing ghosts”, being dumped by the Jets, being dumped by the Panthers, being 3rd string in San Fran, and then finally balling out in Minnesota only to be thrown to the side after a couple of bad games…and now in 1 year in Seattle, he is in the big game. And with one more win he can complete one of the better NFL stories of the last 20 years.

I know a good majority of my readers are Chiefs fans like me and find themselves in different territory than we have experienced lately. In fact, this is my 4th season writing the blog and my first time writing about a non Chiefs super bowl. I don’t know a lot of people that are either Seahawks or Patriots fans, so this is a game where many of us are trying to decide to cheer for and maybe even a reason to care about this game. As always, I will be fair and unbiased and give you 10 reasons to cheer for each team. Let’s get started.

10 Reasons to cheer for the Seahawks

10. NFC team

As a Chiefs fan, if we can’t win it then no AFC team should win it.

9. Bobo!

They got a guy on their team with the funny last name of Bobo who on rare occasions catches passes and typically when he does, they are touchdowns.

8. A healthy Kenneth Walker

My son, Walker, loves Kenneth Walker and not just because of the name. Kenneth is quite good but has been a bit injury prone. But when he plays he has been awesome. And he is a free agent and so while you watch him play, you can dream of him playing on your team next year and then watch your team ultimately resign Kareem Hunt and Clyde Edwards Helaire instead.

7. Birds are fun

Who doesn’t like a good bird team, especially when it isn’t an eagle.

6. JSN is a baller

This kid is legit and easy to cheer for because he always open.

5. Defense is fun and they are good at defense

Really only the Rams have had much success against this D and that was the 2nd and 3rd time they played them.

4. Their Coach seems like a good dude

He took some odd criticism for talking about how he doesn’t work that much on Thursdays to spend more time with his family. That is a dumb thing to be criticized for, especially when you are the 1 seed and getting ready to play in the super bowl. But as a guy who likes family time, it makes him easy to cheer for.

3. Drew Lock…Super Bowl Champ?

Drew can join other Mizzou legend QB’s that win super bowls like Chase Daniel and Blaine Gabbert. None of which actually started the games but hey a ring is a ring. Brady Cook needs to stop messing around with the Jets and sign with a winner to be number 4 if Drew wins this year.

2. Sam Darnold story

Darnold was a bust, then a back up, the a back up to the back up, then had a great year and then that team didn’t want him and then he came to Seattle and now he is in the Super Bowl. And he doesn’t blame anyone else or anything. He’s an easy guy to cheer for.

1. They are not the Patriots

I don’t mind the Patriots, I never have. But their fans, including Kevin Wildes are all so arrogant and insufferable.

10 Reasons to Cheer for the Patriots

10. AFC Team

If the Chiefs can’t win it, might as well keep it on the AFC side of things.

9. Drake Maye seems nice

He seems like a good kid. Easy to cheer for.

8. Josh McDaniels winning another super bowl would be funny

I don’t know if there has ever been a better offensive coordinator that was just a complete disaster as a head coach, not once, but twice. Him winning this as OC again would be funny. And prove that sometimes we are just good at certain things and really bad at other things.

7. Stephon Diggs winning a Super Bowl is funny

After coming very close in Minnesota and Buffalo, he finally made it to the big game. All it took was a new team and Cardi B.

6. I like most of their players

Even though they can be hard to cheer for because they went so much in the past, this is pretty good group of guys that aren’t unlikable.

5. Mike Vrabel

Besides his overhyped hugging every player in the tunnel routine, Mike is pretty likeable too and a hell of a coach. I’m not sure what the Titans were thinking when they fired him.

4. Ironic punishment for the Chiefs haters

Oh, I’m so tired of the Chiefs. It’s always the Chiefs! I’m sick of them. They cheat. They pay the refs. It’s rigged! Anyone but them. What is your reward for all your hate? They team that won for a decade prior and probably actually did cheat is back. You’re welcome.

3. Maye a champion before the supposed big 3

When people talk about the best QBs in the league there are 4 guys that always get mentioned. Pat, Lamar, Allen and Burrow. Of course only Pat and Burrow have been to this game and only Pat has won 1…or 3. So Maye in year two winning before the other big 3…I can find that enjoyable for sure.

2. The Baby Bills

Their fans have been crying since the 13 second game and now everyone involved with this team is crying at every press conference and every interview. They are a hot mess and the Patriots winning yet another championship would be an hilarious ending to an embarrassing few weeks for the Bills.

1. It could be worse…but not much

I would rather the Patriots win than the following teams: Raiders, Eagles, Bengals, Cowboys and probably the Steelers. So yeah…it could be worse.

Final Verdict: Go Seahawks!

Tune in the rest of the week as I will post something every day leading up to the big game.

Well, I continued my streak of getting 50% of my predictions correctly. I got the Patriots right but I missed on Seattle which is fitting because I have been wrong about them pretty much all year. It was a fun couple of games and here are some of my takeaways from the big games.

The Best team from each conference are in the Super Bowl:

This doesn’t always happen but we got the best team from each side of the bracket. In fact, they were arguably the best two teams all year. There is an argument for the Broncos but both them and the Patriots played the two easiest schedules and while the Patriots sailed through most of it, the Broncos squeaked out wins. I think winning close games is a skill and a sign of a good football team but I think the Patriots are just a more balanced football team. Seattle has been good from beginning to end. And while I think the Rams have better talent at certain positions, the Seahawks have the better overall team and that showed on Sunday.

Not so special teams:

The Broncos missed a 54 yard FG towards the end of the first half and then had another FG tipped in the second half. They lost by 3 points. The Rams punt returner muffed two kicks, the second one was recovered by Seattle and then the Seahawks scored a td off of it. The Rams lost by 4 points. It takes everyone on your team to win a championship.

Stiddy was not so steady:

Stidham wasn’t terrible but he wasn’t good. He had a couple of good drives in the first half but then made a terrible decision to not just take a sack on a blown play on 3rd down and tried to I guess throw it near his running back. It went slightly backwards and the Patriots recovered leading to their only TD. After that play, the offense only gained 61 yards and he threw a game sealing interception.

Weather is fun:

I know some fans think games like these shouldn’t be determined in snow globes but I think that is part of the fun of football compared to other sports. Sometimes you aren’t just competing against the other team, you are also battling the weather. And the weather in Denver was nutty. It went from pretty nice here to snow everywhere real fast.

Sean Payton was not good:

Payton is a heck of a coach, don’t worry, he’ll tell you all about it. But this was not his finest hour. He lost a timeout challenging a difficult play to overturn due to the pile up on QB sneaks. He seemed to have no adjustment in the run game that was getting no traction against the Pats defensive front. They only ran 3 plays in the 3rd quarter which was just brutal. But his biggest mistake was in the second quarter when he should have kicked a FG on 4th and 1. I’m all for being aggressive if it makes sense but nothing about this makes sense. Both teams were struggling to move the ball. And there was impending weather that was going to make it that much harder to score. Your defense had only given up 1 first down at that point and points were going to be at a premium. And you haven’t been able to run the ball at all and you have a back up QB playing. So kick the FG go up 10-0 and put more pressure on the Patriots. But instead you had a run play called. You take a timeout to change the call but this also gives the defense a chance to regroup and think about all the things you might do. Then you run a simple roll out play that is easily stopped and momentum changes. Sometimes coaches are too smart for their own good and this is one of those times. Sean is now just 10-9 in the playoffs. He’s probably a hall of fame coach but it seems to me he is a much better regular season coach than he is a post season one.

Bo Nix was missed:

The main reason I picked the Patriots was simply because Bo wasn’t playing. I figured this would be a low scoring close game and it was. And sure enough the Broncos had a chance to tie the game or take the lead with a little over a minute to go. I’m not saying that if you insert Bo into that exact scenario they win the game, but there is a much better chance of it.

Road Warriors:

Credit to the Patriots for going a perfect 9-0 on the road this year. I don’t care who you are playing, that is impressive.

Avoid Bad Plays:
Mike Vrabel said this early on in his first year with the Pats. He coaches this and is correct that games are often lost instead of won and that was certainly true in this game. The Pats didn’t play great on offense but they didn’t turn the ball over and that was the difference in the game.

Sam Darnold Balled out:

I make fun of Sam a lot because he has had a rough go of it and been a bit of a choke artist. But I genuinely like the guy. He seems like a good egg with a good head on his shoulders. He was also the only reason I picked the Rams. And he proved me and many others wrong. He was excellent. He made a couple of turnover worthy throws that didn’t go against him but for the most part he was very solid. He was excellent on 3rd down which really was the difference in the game. If you would have told me he was going to out play Matt Stafford even though Stafford was going to play great, I would have thought you were joking. But that’s just what he did. So good for you, Sam.

Matt Stafford was awesome…mostly:

Stafford also balled out but unfortunately, he was 0-7 on 3rd and 4th down. And that was the difference in the game.

Rams offense as the key to the Seattle D:

Seattle’s defense has been excellent against pretty much everyone, except the Rams. McVay, Stafford and the gang somehow are able to move the ball up and down the field on them where other teams simply can’t. And credit to the Rams, they could have easily folded multiple times against Seattle but instead they rallied every time to keep the game competitive. It was just 3rd and 4th down that killed them.

JSN is good at sports:

I mean, sure they have Shaheed and Cooper Kupp and their tight ends are alright but JSN is that dude. He’s always open. I don’t know how or why. Even Tom Brady was like why aren’t they covering this guy. He just seems uncoverable at this point.

Seattle D is tough:

I understand that the Rams have some answers but that Seattle D is very good. They are everywhere and very talented. And they are good at every level. It will be interesting to see if the Patriots can compete against them like the Rams or if they look like most of the rest of the league looks against them.

Mike Macdonald has done a heck of a job:

He has done a great job building this team and making a decent team really, really good. He believed in Darnold when others including myself didn’t. And now he has his team in the Super Bowl. Just superb coaching by both him and Vrabel.

I might have a little something else later in the week but I’ll mostly be working on next week’s material because every Super Bowl week, I do a daily post to get you ready for the big game. So get ready for Super Bowl fun, analysis and predictions starting next Monday.

A team on the cusp of greatness now seems farther away than they have been in years. After yet another heart breaking loss, the Bills seem to have finally completely fallen apart. There was tears in the locker room, tears at the press conference and interviews and then a meltdown of a press conference. How did the Bills get here? Oh, I’ll tell you.

First of all, lets be honest, the Bills have been the lovable losers for years. After not doing much in the 70s or early 80s, the Bills rose from the ashes to become competitive. Lead by all time greats like Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Andre Reed, James Lofton, Bruce Smith, Cornelius Bennett and Darryl Talley they began to compete and make the playoffs. Then in the season of 1990 the broke through and made their first ever super bowl. They were competitive in that game and had a shot to win it at the end. But as we all know, that kick went wide right. That didn’t keep the Bills from being competitive but in some ways they were never the same. While they found ways to get to the Super Bowl the next 3 years, they could never quite get over the hump. In fact, it felt like each Super Bowl got worse than the last. For whatever reason, the Bills just couldn’t break through.

Fast forward to 2017 when Sean McDermott shows up. He takes a down on their luck team and makes them a playoff contender. Joined by Josh Allen they seem to improve every year. In the 2019 season they make the playoffs. In 2020, the make the AFC championship. The get beat soundly by the Chiefs but that’s okay, everything is moving in the right direction. Next year will be there year. Then 2021 came. They showed up to Arrowhead ready to play. Josh and Pat played arguably the best quarterbacked game I’ve ever seen. Josh led his team to the game winning score with just 13 seconds left. Unfortunately there was 13 seconds left. Pat, Tyreek and Travis worked their magic, Butker kicked the game tying field goal and then the Chiefs won the coin toss and drove down the field for the game winning td. This was the first of the whining to change the rules. With complaints from Bills Mafia and everyone else who was sick of the Chiefs, the rule was changed to both teams getting the ball.

The following year in 2022, they had the very scary Damar Hamlin injury. They just never recovered from that and despite winning the wild card game, got beat soundly by the Bengals at home. The next year, the Bills had a better record than the Chiefs. So KC would have to come to them in the divisional round. That will make the difference they thought. It did not. Josh had a chance to lead the team to take the lead with a td. He missed a couple of open receivers and so they had to settle for a fg and you guessed it, it went wide right.

In 2024, the Bills were good once again. Beat the Chiefs in the regular season again. In fact they were the only team to beat the Chiefs in the regular season besides when the Broncos beat the Chiefs back ups in week 18. The Bills headed to Arrowhead to compete and compete they did. But they once again fell short and the whining continued as all of Bills mafia is 100% sure they got the first down on one of their many failed tush pushes. This led to another rule change, breaking out the utterly useless virtual measurement.

And here we are in the 2025 season. Surely this is the year for the Bills. The Chiefs are out of the playoffs. This is their year. But they couldn’t even win their own division. Instead they go on the road and win in Wild Card Weekend. Then head to Denver and guess what, lose in some heartbreaking way. This time an interception that is obviously a catch if you look at it from one angle and not the other 4 angles that show that it is not a catch. Bills mafia is everyone whining about this play so I am sure there will be some rule change next year to try and help the Bills win.

The 1990s Bills kept hitting a wall and just could not break through and finally it was just too much. They began to miss the playoffs and eventually went back to NFL purgatory. I’m afraid the Josh Allen Bills may suffer the same fate. Perhaps the 13 second game is this version’s wide right. You can only suffer so many defeats and keep rolling out there with the same energy trying to win. It takes an emotional toll, one that has obviously boiled over.

Now lets be fair, I understand firing Sean McDermott. While a very good coach, he has obviously struggled in the playoffs. Especially being a defensive minded coach, his teams have given up a lot of points in these playoff games. So he certainly deserves some blame. He has also made some odd decisions including kicking it to the end zone so no time went off in the 13 second game. I think most Bills fans were fine with McDermott getting the boot. After all, his defenses have not been able to get stops at the end of these losses when they need them most.

But how he got fired, that’s a whole other story. We will get to that in a minute. But first lets talk about Josh. I like Josh as a person and a player. I think he is great. He is a top 5 even a top 3 quarterback every year. The last 2 years I would say he has been better that Patrick. But the media obsession with Josh is getting out of control. Everyone acts and calls him Superman. Well the only way he would be Superman is if Superman never defeated the villain. Josh has never led the league in a passing statistic in any given year. Josh has never made a Super Bowl. Josh has never obviously won a super bowl. So why is he better than everyone? All the media pundits say the same thing. He just is. He has to carry his sad little team every year. This years sad little team included the #1 passing defense, the leagues leading rusher and a top 5 offensive line. People talk about him as this elite playoff quarterback. But most of his wins and stats came from the wild card weekend and the 13 second game. 6 of his 8 wins came in the first round, a round Pat and Tom Brady hardly ever played in. He is 2-4 in the divisional round and 0-2 in the Championship game. The 13 second game is not on him. But 2023 season, he had the ball with a chance to take the lead with a few minutes to go. Came up short. Last season, he had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead with a few minutes to go, and didn’t cross midfield. This year, had the ball with a chance to take an 8 or 9 point lead and he skipped a ball to Shakir that might have been a td. Settled for a fg. Then down 3, he did drive his team down the field, but missed Knox for what likely would have been the game winning touchdown. They settled for a fg. Then the Bills D did get a stop in overtime. Josh got the ball back and started to drive down the field before throwing a pass a little short to Brandin Cooks and the rest is history.

Josh was in tears after the game because unlike the rest of the world, he knew he blew the game. That is 3 years in a row that Superman could have came through but instead he was just Clark Kent. But I give Josh credit because he keeps rolling out there and having very good seasons and gives them a shot in the playoffs every year. You don’t win solely because of your quarterback but if you don’t have a good one, you aren’t making it very far. But I’m concerned that this thing may just be too much of a mess for him to do that anymore.

After the game, there were tears everywhere. And apparently those tears got Sean McDermott fired. The owner did a press conference which turned out to be a terrible idea. The owner basically admitted that he hadn’t planned on firing McDermott until he walked into the locker room and saw that all the players were sad. That seems like sound logic. I find it best to always make emotional decisions. Especially when they are big decisions. Then he decided to promote the GM who every Bills fan and sports pundit thinks is doing a terrible job at getting Josh enough help. Terry Pegula even defended the GM about one particular player, Keon Coleman. Pegula said the GM didn’t want to draft Keon and that the coaches pushed for that and Beane was just being a team player. So basically the only one who wants Keon just got fired. But hey, can’t wait to see you at OTA’s, Keon! Pegula then stated that the players gave everything they had. He also said that it was a catch and the only reason they came up short was because of a bad call. Speaking of bad calls, the refs missed an obvious hold in the end zone prior to that “bad call” which would have lost the Bills the game, and would have saved us all from the constant whining about the “catch” and the “bad PI calls” that shouldn’t have been called because it was a crucial moment. The first PI call was correct but kind of weak. But there was a roughing the passer call anyway, so what did they gain, like 5 or 10 extra yards? The second one would make a highlight reel of most obvious PI calls this season. But again, listen to the logic here. The Bills only lost because of a bad call but the coach is fired because he can’t get it done. Again, firing McDermott had to be on the board. But promoting the GM and only firing him because the players were sad, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

Now they are moving on from this disastrous press conference by interviewing other coaches on the staff, former coaches from the staff and Phillip Rivers. And no, I am not joking about that last one. I’m not one to throw shade at Phillip Rivers. I didn’t think he could come back and play quarterback but he sure did. I mean he didn’t win any games but he looked alright. What’s even funnier than the Bills interviewing him is all the normal reporter guys like Ian Rappaport acting like this is a normal thing. He was basically the offensive coordinator on his team the last several years he played they say. He knows a lot of people in the league. And he even coached some high school football. Of course so did I. Maybe I should send the Bills my resume. But honestly, I think this is a great move. No one knows having good regular seasons and then falling short in the playoffs like Phillip Rivers.

To make things more interesting, apparently Josh Allen is sitting in on all the interviews. I get wanting your QB to interact with potential coaches a little bit and even asking them what they think. But sitting in during interviews? That’s absurd. Can the owner and the GM who is now the president of everything or whatever, not make their own decisions. “Josh, we figure if you are going to keep losing in heartbreaking ways, it might as well be with someone you really like.” Not to mention, how does the rest of the team feel about it? Are they like, do I get a vote? Hell, maybe the prospective coaches could do an interview with each player. It could be like speed dating and each player could fill out little cards and whichever potential new coach gets the highest total score is the guy you hire. I wouldn’t put it past Beane and Pegula.

Look, maybe this all turns out okay for them. Maybe this change is just what they need and they will get over the hump and make a super bowl next year. But how it has and is being handled is ridiculous and silly. And to me it has disaster written all over. I’m not cheering for that though. I like the Bills. I like Josh Allen. The only thing I don’t like is everyone as the kids say “glazing” him all the time. We should take a step back before we join dummies like Colin Cowherd who said he was better than Elway and Marino and more talented than Patrick. Those guys have a combined 5 rings, 11 Super Bowl appearances and 4 MVPs. Not to mention they all also at some point led the league in a passing stat. But I hope he achieves statistical and team success. Like I said, I like the guy.

I don’t know where this thing is headed. Maybe it will be great. Maybe it will be a dumpster fire. My guess is something in between. But regardless, the journey is wildly entertaining…unless of course you are a Bills fan then this thing has already gone on 13 seconds too long.

Fandom is a funny thing. From when I first started watching football as a 5 year old in 1984 through 2017, I saw my favorite team make exactly one Conference Championship game. But from the 2018 season through last year, that same franchise made it 7 years in a row. I know many franchises have suffered worse fates than my Chiefs prior to the run but we certainly had our share of playoff heartbreaks, disappointing seasons, stretches of pure disaster and some hilariously bad and torturing moments. But when your team arrives…it is oh so sweet. I was able to live that life for the better part of a decade and hopefully the Chiefs will be back in the thick of things next year. But for this season, it is someone else’s turn. And lets take a moment and all be thankful it isn’t the Eagles. Lets take a moment and join Bills fans in feeling sorry for themselves, which they do best. I’m still working on my story on the Bills but don’t worry it is coming and every day they keep giving me new material. By Sunday night two teams will have punched their ticket to the Super Bowl and two fan bases will be ecstatic. Two other fan bases will be devastated and have to wake up on Monday morning and began to dream of next year being their year. So lets see who is going to win and who is going to whine. I went 3-3 in my Wild Card weekend picks. Last week during my favorite weekend of the year, I went 2-2. What does that mean for this weekend’s games? Absolutely nothing. But there is a chance that I continue my streak and go 1-1. My heart is for Broncos and Rams so based upon how this year has gone for me, you might want to put money on the Patriots and Seahawks. Only 2 more sleeps until we find out. Lets dive in.

The arrogant fan base vs the arrogant coach: Patriots @ Broncos

Since rejoining twitter a year or so ago, I have not tweeted once or even retweeted anything. Despite that, for some reason I have a few followers. Don’t look for me, there is no point. I literally don’t do anything on there besides follow an absurd amount of sports people. Obviously, I spend most of my time on the following section so that I can see any injury or other news updates from Adam Schefter, Ian Rappaport, Daniel Jerimiah, and Tom Pelissero all tell me the same thing in 4 consecutive tweets. But sometimes I flip over to the always entertaining “for you” section. Because I follow so many football type people it thinks I care what Jetsforlife4784 thinks about the overtime rules. Like the Jets would ever make it to overtime. Here is what I have discovered. All fan bases are basically the same. When things are good we are overly confident and obnoxious. When things are bad, we are overly dramatic and disparaging towards our team. The Patriots fans are arguably the exception. They are overly confident and obnoxious all the time. But when they are winning, its a whole other level. The Pats are obviously unbeatable and perfect in every way. I also watch a lot of First Things First. My wife watches it with me sometimes because she loves me and wants to spend time with me. “they never say anything good about the Broncos.” Is her statement most episodes. And she is right, they don’t. Kevin Wildes is on there and he seems like a great guy, but he is a Patriots fan. And he has been overly obnoxious of late. I guess it is probably how everyone who isn’t a Chiefs fan feels about Nick Wright. So perhaps I deserve it. But at least Nick will listen to arguments and then state why he thinks the Chiefs are better anyway. Wildes just takes any argument against his Patriots as utterly ridiculous and quite frankly epitomizes Patriot fans everywhere. Now mind you, I am know Patriot hater. I always respected and never really actively cheered for or against the Patriots besides the year they were trying to go undefeated, I did cheer for them then because that team was fun as hell to watch and the 72 Dolphins are stupid. But that doesn’t mean their fans aren’t ridiculous.

On the flip side, I have never liked Sean Payton. I respect him as a coach as he is very good. But he has always been cocky and arrogant and boy does he love to hear himself talk. I’ve watched a lot of Broncos games since he became coach. My wife one day said, “every coach must hate these halftime talks.” I said, not your boy Sean Payton. They often have to cut away from him talking just to cover the actual game. No one likes Sean Payton more than Sean Payton. I also don’t think he has a ton to be arrogant about. I mean, he is a great coach but he isn’t one of the greatest. He is just 10-8 in the playoffs. He has one super bowl win and only that one appearance. He has several underachieving years under his belt and has a handful of losing seasons. But if there is one person who thinks he is one of the greatest, it’s Sean Payton. And he has the chance to do something that no other head coach has ever done, win the Super Bowl with two different teams. If that happens, you know we will never hear the end of it. Speaking of funny fandom, the Broncos fans have their own thing going on. After two years of all Broncos fans telling us how great Bo Nix is and how he is a top 10 or even top 5 quarterback in the league and we “Bolieve!” and thinking anyone questioning Bo is ridiculous, act like not having that same QB is no big deal. We have Stiddy they say, we will be fine. It’s an odd place to be to feel like it doesn’t matter if your top 5 quarterback plays or if it is a guy who hasn’t thrown a pass in a regular season game in 3 years plays. Either way, they are the same. They will win easily. My own sister in law epitomizes the randomness of fandom. Just a couple of weeks ago, she was complaining about how the Broncos weren’t playing well and weren’t winning in the way she wanted them to. Just last week, she suggested I had the Broncos ranked too high in my rankings at 3. This week, even though her team is missing their starting quarterback, she seems very confident that her Broncos will win.

The truth of the matter is, we all see things in our rose colored glasses. Or in this instance, Orange and Blue or Navy and Red glasses. Even all our national commentators on ESPN, NFL Network and Fox Sports 1 are biased. But luckily there is one man who can put his emotions and feelings aside. I’m the Sean Payton of random sports blogs and I am the best one out there. So lets take a look at the actual game.

The Patriots and Broncos played the 32nd and 31st easiest schedules this year. Which is pretty odd, but it also helped them win 14 games each. The Patriots won most of their games easily. The Broncos well…not so much. The Patriots have an MVP caliber quarterback. The Broncos have a guy who hasn’t played in 3 years. The Patriots just beat two elite defenses. They also beat two pretty bad offenses. The Broncos just beat who most think is the best quarterback in the league. Just ask ESPN. They love that guy. But it took overtime, a bizarre interception and a couple of pass interference calls to do so. Both teams have really good coaches. Neither is overly humble. One guy wants to make sure you see him hugging each player in the tunnel on the way to the locker room. The other guy is still talking to the halftime reporter about the Broncos strategy for the 4th quarter if they are down 3 with 7 minutes to go. I think these are two very good but imperfect teams. The Patriots defensive line has looked great the last two weeks but they will have a harder time against a very good Broncos O Line. While I value Bo Nix more than Broncos fans do apparently, I do think Stiddy will play well. Payton has a history of getting the most out of his back up quarterbacks. I think both teams are pretty evenly matched. The Broncos have just 1 loss at home and the Patriots are undefeated on the road. I’ll be cheering for the Broncos so my family and especially my wife stay happy. And so that Kevin Wildes will shut up on First Things First. But because I think these teams are pretty equal, I think Bo Nix will be missed and his lack of presence will be the difference in the game. Bo isn’t perfect and I’m not sure if he is a top 10 quarterback. But with the game on the line, he has proven to be a top 5 maybe even a top 3 quarterback and this year you could argue he is 1 of 1 in those scenarios. Broncos lose a heartbreaker even though Stiddy plays a great game he can’t quite bring them through in the end.

Patriots 27 Broncos 24

MVP vs Sam I Am: Rams @ Seahawks

In the second game we get two great teams that one could argue have been the best teams most of the year. The Rams have the championship pedigree. They have the coach, the quarterback and the weapons. Seattle has the defense, the home field advantage and some weapons of their own. Seattle annihilated what was left of the 49ers last week. Meanwhile, the Rams struggled again against the Bears after squeaking by the Panthers. The Rams have been in my eyes the best team all year. They are far from perfect but they have the coach and quarterback I believe in the most. I trust their offense more than any offense in the playoffs. Their defense is talented but it just hasn’t looked great the second half of the season but they did quite well against the Bears high powered offense.

On the other side, we have Sam Darnold. Sam I am is the mystery in all of this. I do not like turnovers Sam I Am. Would you like them in a dome? would you like them when playing at home? Would like them when things are fine? Would you like them playing from behind? Would you like them when your team is becoming toast? Would you like them when it matters most? Would you like them here or there? would you like them everywhere? Despite Sam’s best efforts the answer is yes. Especially against the Rams. In the first match up Sam turned the ball over a lot and they lost. In the second game, he turned over the ball a lot and they were way behind but came back with a punt return and a series of bizarre plays including the oddest 2 point conversion I have ever seen. Last week there wasn’t much pressure on Sam because the 49ers couldn’t do anything. But the Rams seem to have Sam’s number. And despite the Seahawks defense being elite, the Rams seemed to have their number too.

Seattle has the homefield, the better D and great coaches. Ultimately the thing I trust the most in this game is Stafford and the thing I trust the least in this game is Darnold. While it will be close, I think Darnold will make too many mistakes and the Rams advance.

Rams 31 Seahawks 24

And there you have it, Rams vs Patriots, mark it down. Or bet the opposite and make some money. We will see what happens on Sunday.

There are 4 teams left still playing. CJ Stroud is still throwing interceptions, the 49ers are still recovering from their beat down and Bills fans are still crying about penalties that were called so they don’t have to deal with the fact that their “superman” quarterback let them down. As someone who’s team has been down this path with whiny and excuse filled Bills fans, just let me say that it doesn’t get better and they don’t stop complaining. But I get it, if my team’s greatest accomplishment was losing 4 Super Bowls in a row, I’d complain too. I hope to write more about the Bills tomorrow after that disastrous press conference today. But for now, lets dive in and rank the 4 teams that are left.

4. Broncos

The Broncos are a very good team. They are number 4 because they just lost their starting quarterback and their defense hasn’t been the same since the bye week. They are still very good but they don’t look elite. Sure they got 5 turnovers but Josh Allen gave them a couple of those and that last turnover was barely a turnover at all, just ask Bills fans. Meanwhile, the offense has always been a little sporadic but Nix at the end of games has been so clutch that it covered up some of their offensive woes. Without Nix, I still think they have a shot. But I am not as comfortable with them because if it is close, Nix won’t be there to come through.

3. Patriots

The Patriots defense has been excellent in these playoffs. However, they played against playoff Herbert behind a mash unit on the offensive line. And then they played CJ Stroud who apparently hates his team having the ball. Offensively, they have struggled a bit. They have still made plays when they needed too, but Drake Maye is taking even more sacks in the playoffs than the regular season and has fumbled something like 6 times. He will need to protect the ball better against a very talented Broncos pass rush. I’m not sure who I am picking in the game yet but if the Pats are going to win, Drake will have to play better.

2. Rams

Speaking of playing better…the Rams have not looked great in either game. They have won two close ones both with game winning drives led by Stafford. I have always sort of liked the Rams since they left the dreaded St. Louis. But I have really liked them the last few years. I like Sean McVay and Stafford and they kept us from insufferable bengals fans winning a super bowl. Speaking of the Bengals, did you know that Zac Taylor is currently the second most tenured AFC coach after Andy Reid. And he really shouldn’t have that job. Crazy. Anyway, I think the Rams are really good but they are yet to show me and if they don’t show me this week, then they will lose by 20 because the Seahawks are playing well. But McVay does seem to have some answers for that tough Seattle defense. He will need them on Sunday.

1. Seahawks

The only team to win in a blow out over the weekend. They were excellent in all facets of the game from returning the opening kickoff, to offense and defense and coaching, they did it all very well. Sam Darnold didn’t have to do much which is always a good recipe for success. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, I think Darnold will have to make some plays on Sunday. It should be a fun battle and a chance for Darnold to silence the doubters.

Super Bowl Prediction that I think will happen: Rams over Patriots

The Rams have been my pick most of the year and the Patriots should not lose to a back up quarterback.

Super Bowl Match up that will actually happen: Seahawks over Broncos

After this weird and bizarre season, it would only be fitting for Sam Darnold to be dueling it out with Jarrett Stidham for all the world to see.

This is typically my favorite weekend of the year. Obviously it is a little less exciting because the Chiefs aren’t playing in it for the first time since 2017. But it should still be a fun weekend. Often, the Divisional games are the best games of the year. This was really true in the 2021 season when 3 games were won by a game winning field goal and the final game was the 13 second game. I won’t say anything more because I don’t want to trigger Bills fans. That was arguably the greatest NFL weekend ever. I doubt this weekend will top it but it should be four great games. Lets dive in.

The Win/win or lose/lose game for Chiefs fans: Bills @ Broncos

Depending on how you look at this game, it is either a win either way for Chiefs fans because either a division foe falls or Josh Allen loses and Pat will continue to have super bowls over Josh. The other way to look at it is it being a loss either way because either Josh gets one step closer or a division rival hosts the AFC conference game. I’ll personally be cheering for the Broncos because it is the first game of the weekend and my wife will be much more fun the rest of the weekend while I watch the rest of the games. The Broncos have the more complete team and the Bills have Josh Allen, a great offensive line, the leading rusher and the number 1 pass defense. So they are no slouches. The Broncos won 12 one score games this year so they are very clutch. Bo is a bit sporadic in his play but seems to play better the tighter the game. The Bills run defense is awful and as I watched that Jags game, I kept thinking why is Trevor throwing so much when they are getting 7 yards a carry. The Broncos have a Super Bowl winning coach but overall, Payton hasn’t had much playoff success. He is just 9-9 in the playoffs and 1-4 in his last 5 games. If the Broncos can run the ball successfully and stick with the run, I think they have a great shot to win this thing. Their defense hasn’t been as great the last few weeks and their offense struggled the last 3 games. But perhaps the extra week off will help. Ultimately, I just think this might be Josh’s destiny playoffs. So I give the Bills the slight edge in this one but won’t be shocked if the Broncos win.

Bills 24 Broncos 20

Purdy good vs doubting Darnold: 49ers @ Seahawks

The Seahawks just beat the 49ers and held them to 3 points at the 49ers stadium a couple of weeks ago. Now they head to Seattle where the 49ers beat them last time. Darnold did not have 200 yards passing in either game. Sam has been pretty awful in games that matter but at least he didn’t make any mistakes in the last 49ers game. If he can play mistake free, then Seattle should win because the rest of the team is stacked. The 49ers are quickly running out of people but somehow just keep winning. Shanahan will likely have a better plan this time around and score more than 3 points. I sort of want to pick the 49ers but they just have so many injuries and this isn’t the collapsing eagles. Seattle has the better D, the better receivers, more depth at running back, better O-line and the massive benefit of home field advantage. The wild cards are the quarterbacks. Darnold has been bad in big moments. Purdy has been great. His only playoff losses are against the eagles when he got hurt the first drive and didn’t play the rest of the game and in overtime in the Super Bowl when he left the field with a 3 point lead in overtime. When Shanahan makes the playoffs, he has never not made it to the NFC championship. But I think all the trends break. Sam plays a good enough game and Seattle wins.

Seahawks 20 49ers 13

The Best D vs the MVP?: Texans @ Patriots

The Texans D is legit. A lot of teams like Seattle have great and well executed schemes. Teams like Denver have a great pass rush. The Texans basically just roll their 11 dudes out there and say our guys are better than your guys. And they aren’t wrong. The problem is the offense struggles. CJ Stroud has not been great really since his rookie year. He was pretty awful against the Steelers on Monday night. And he will be without Nico Collins their best offensive weapon. The key for them will be the ability to run the ball, keep Drake off the field and avoid any turnovers. On the other side of the things, the Patriots are ready to start their next dynasty. Just ask Patriot fans who think they have already arrived and can do no wrong. Sure the Texans D is good, but they have the next Tom Brady only this time he can run and the greatest offensive coordinator of all time in Josh McDaniels. They will tell you all about both. Vrabel has done a great job with this team and they don’t get phased by much. But they still haven’t played anyone in the Texans category of teams besides the Bills. I think Drake will do okay but this Texans D can be tormenting. Sometimes a Defense just puts their team on their back and dominates a playoff run. I think that might be what happens this year. Give me the Texans in the upset!

Texans 24 Patriots 17

The Old Guard vs the up and comers: Rams @ Bears

The Rams have been an established good team since Sean McVay took over. They won a Super Bowl once Matthew Stafford came over. Both have had great seasons. The Rams offense is very good. They can run the ball. They have Puka and Davante. They got like 7 tight ends that all look alike and can all block and get open and catch the ball. Their offensive line is solid. Their defense is talented but hasn’t played well. But they could turn it around at any time. Meanwhile the Bears tend to be just okay for most of games and then amazing in the 4th quarter. They too can run the ball and they have young talented dudes running around everywhere. The weak link is Caleb who plays good late, but struggles to play 4 good quarters. Their defense is also shaky and struggles to put 4 good quarters together. I’m not sure the Bears can play their come back style against these Rams. It is going to be cold, like real cold so that could help their chances. But in the end, I just think the Rams have too much. The Bears won’t get blown out and the future is bright, but I think Stafford and McVay have a good plan and McVay and Lafluer’s little brother get some revenge for Matt.

Rams 38 Bears 24

The Chiefs were 9-18 in the playoffs before Patrick Mahomes showed up. So I literally couldn’t have made this list prior to him because they didn’t have 10 wins. But even though we are missing from the playoffs this year, we have lots to celebrate the past 7 years in the post season. Pat is arguably the great Conference playoff Quarterback of all time. He is 14-2 in the AFC playoffs and never lost in regulation. And so today as we head to the divisional round, we celebrate what I think are the best 10 playoff games from the dynasty. Let’s dive in.

10. Chance for the 3 peat

The 2024 Chiefs were the opposite of the 2025 Chiefs by winning every single close game. They did it again in the AFC championship game against the Bills. While the offense struggled most of the year, they came alive and scored over 30 points for the first time all year. Andy called an exceptional game. Pat played amazing like always. And Spags dialed up the perfect blitz at the perfect time to force an errant throw from Josh Allen that Dalton Kincaid couldn’t quite catch. They iced the game on a 3rd down brilliant call where Pat hit Perine who made the catch and got the first down. And the Chiefs became the first team ever to win two in a row and make it to a 3rd Super Bowl. What happened after that? Well, we don’t need to talk about that.

9. The Angry Snowball game

In the 2023 season, the Chiefs struggled offensively mostly due to a lot of drops. After beating Miami in one of the coldest games in history, the Chiefs had to go on the road for the first time in Mahomes career in the playoffs. The game was a great game that went back and forth. Mahomes was excellent again, throwing dimes left and right including a perfect pass down the sideline to MVS and a couple of touchdowns to Travis Kelce. This game wouldn’t have been as close as it was if Hardman hadn’t fumbled near the goal line. Josh had a chance as he drove them down the field. But he missed a couple of open receivers which I am sure was someone else’s fault. And then Tyler Bass kicked it wide right. The Bills fans threw snow balls at the Chiefs players at the end of the game which the dodged with joy.

8. AFC Champs on the road

The next week we headed to Baltimore who was the Super Bowl favorites most of the year. We again came in with a great game plan. We moved the ball right down the field on consecutive drives to take the lead 14-7. On our 3rd drive we were moving again until Pacheco got stopped on 4th down. Butker hit a 52 yarder with 4 seconds in the half. Despite some good drives the Ravens had to settle for only a field goal. Sneed forced a fumble on Zay Flowers that McDuffie recovered in the end zone. Then later in the game Lamar threw an interception in the end zone. The Chiefs needed one first down to seal the game. Everyone including the announcers assumed we would run the ball to keep the clock moving. I coached my daughter’s basketball team that year and we were on our way to a game and I was listening on the radio. As we pulled into the parking lot the announcers let me know that the Chiefs did not run. But instead they threw a deep ball to MVS that he actually caught and the Chiefs were going back to the Super Bowl again!

7. Finally Hoist the Hunt Trophy

You know how much it sucks to have your deceased owner’s name on a trophy that you have never won in your lifetime as a fan? That was my life until January 19, 2020. The Chiefs were hosting the Titans who had beat the Patriots and the 1 seeded Ravens the two weeks prior. The Titans got off to an early 10-0 lead. But that was nothing for this Chiefs team. Tyreek caught a td and then he caught another one and the score was 17-14. The Chiefs were driving late in the first half when Patrick left the pocket and started to run towards the sideline, but after he made a defensive lineman miss, he cut back in to the field and ran all the way to the goal line where he was bumped around by a couple of defenders and fell into the end zone. We were up 21-17 and it was at this point I knew we were going to the super bowl. At the beginning of the 4th quarter, Damien Williams ran it from 3 yards out and then half way through the last quarter, Pat hit Sammy Watkins on a deep pass for a td to seal our victory. And for the first time we hoisted the Lamar Hunt Trophy.

6. Down 24-0…No problem

Not everyone understands the heartbreak that Chiefs fans have suffered in the playoffs. From missed kicks, to losing to team that didn’t score a touchdown, to terrible offensive PI calls, to a quarterback throwing a td to themselves off a deflected pass, to an interception being taken away because a guy lined up an inch offsides, you name it, it had gone wrong in the playoffs. Before Pat showed up we were 9-18 in the playoffs. I had seen exactly 1 playoff win between 1994 and 2018. So when we went down 24-0 against the Texans it seemed like this was going to be just another bad moment in Chiefs history. People were dropping passes. Tyreek dropped a punt that the Texans recovered. Everything was going wrong. But I believed because of Pat. I just felt like we needed one thing to go our way. With just under 11 minutes left to go in the half, Hardman had a big kick return. A few plays later, Pat threw a td to Damien Williams. On the Texans next drive they inexplicably decided to try a fake punt. Dirty Dan stopped it. The Chiefs went down and Travis Kelce caught a td. The Chiefs kicked off and Dirty Dan forced a fumble that the Chiefs recovered followed by another Kelce TD catch. The Chiefs got another stop and another Kelce TD. And in an 11 minute stretch it went from 24-0 to 28-24. The Chiefs would rattle off two more TDs before the Texans scored again. The Chiefs finished things off with another td and a fg to win 51-31. From 24-0 to 51-31 was quite the story.

5. Super Bowl Champs…again

2022 was a great season. Many expected a down year because we traded Tyreek. But I told my brother we were going to win it. We would start and finish the year in Arizona. Without Tyreek, Pat had one of the greatest seasons of any QB ever. He was dominant throughout and was excellent in the playoffs as always. But they were facing a tough Eagles team and their stupid tush push. The Eagles scored first and the Chiefs immediately answered. But the offense couldn’t do much after that. Fortunately, Jalen Hurts made a mistake and fumbled and Nick Bolton returned it for a touchdown. But still, the Chiefs were down 24-14 at the half. The Chiefs came out of the half and drove right down the field. Pacheco ran it in for a TD. The Eagles kicked a field goal on their next possession. The Chiefs drove the field again and ran a play called corn dog and Kadarius Toney caught a TD. Then the Chiefs got a stop. Toney caught the punt made a few moves and then crossed the field and ran down the right sideline. He was tackled short of the goal line. The Chiefs basically ran the same play on the opposite side even though people lined up on the wrong side of things, Skyy Moore just ran the route on the wrong side and Pat threw the TD. The Eagles would answer with a TD of their own and a 2 PT conversion to tie the game. But Pat and his bad ankle would not be denied. He ran for a big gain getting them in FG position. Then their was a holding call were Bradbury grabbed JuJu’s jersey. That allowed the Chiefs to basically run out the clock especially when McKinnon slid down in bounds at 1 yard line. The Chiefs made the FG and iced the game. And the Chiefs were Super Bowl champs for a second time in my life time.

4. Burrowhead

By the time the AFC championship game rolled around in the 2022 season, Mahomes had pretty much done everything. He had won a Super Bowl, MVP, Super Bowl MVP and was about to win another MVP. The one thing he hadn’t done was beat Joe Burrow. For whatever reason in 3 match ups, he and the Chiefs were 0-3. They lost all 3 games by a field goal. So after the Bengals beat the Bills at Buffalo, Mike Hilton said that they would see you at Burrowhead. The Bengals talked a lot of smack. They smoked cigars after their victory over the Bills in the divisional round. Even their mayor got involved and said that they needed a paternity test because there was proof that Burrow was Mahomes father. Just wild stuff. To make matters worse, Mahomes got injured the week before and had a high ankle sprain that keeps the average man out of commission for a few weeks. But Pat is no average man. You can imagine that Chiefs fans such as myself really wanted to win this one. Things did not go perfect though. Pat led the team down the field the first two drives but Toney dropped a td and they had to settle for 3 field goals. The Bengals got a field goal next but then the Chiefs finally found the end zone on a 4th down TD throw to Kelce. Toney got hurt. Hardman got hurt. JuJu got hurt. We were rolling out there with MVS, Skyy Moore and Marcus Kemp of all people for most of the second half. The Bengals got a fg at the end of the half and scored a td on their first possession of the second half and all of the sudden it was 13-13. Pat took over and drove the Chiefs down the field. He threw a td to MVS on an incredible throw. The D got a stop and the Chiefs were driving down the field again but Pat had a weird fumble that the Bengals recovered. The Bengals scored a td to tie it 20 to 20 early in the 4th. Both teams struggled to move the ball for a bit but the Bengals had it and they got a massive 3rd down conversion. I was so mad that I got up and hit our table. I was sure that Burrow was going to drive down the field and beat us again. But then on the next 3rd down, Chris Jones got a sack. Skyy Moore of all people had a big punt return. Mahomes scrambled for a big first down and got hit late and Butker made the game winner. I was as happy as I had been since the first Super Bowl victory and I like a lot of Chiefs fans wanted to win this game more than we wanted to win another Super Bowl. During the post game interview with Mahomes, Trav came over and interrupted and spoke for all of us when he said “Burrowhead my ass! This is Mahomes house!” We haven’t lost to Burrow or the Bengals since. In fact they haven’t made the playoffs since then.

3. 13 Seconds

This was maybe the greatest playoff game I have ever watched. It was back and forth from the beginning. The Bills got on the board first with a short rushing TD. Pat drove them down and ran for an 8 yard td himself. In the second quarter Pat and Josh both had a TD pass and it was 14-14 at the half. Butker made a FG to get the scoring started in the 3rd. Hardman had a long TD run but Butker missed the extra point. Josh threw a second TD to Gabe Davis and the Butker kicked another FG and it was 26-21 with less than 2 minutes to go. Then the real fun began. Gabe Davis caught his 3rd td on a 4th and 13 with 1:54 left. They got a 2 pt conversion to go up 3. Tyreek caught a deep slant route made some people miss and gave the peace sign and he ran into the end zone. If my memory serves me correctly he got some Pom poms from a cheer leader or someone in the crowd or something and started dancing around and Pat had to drag him back to the sideline. There was 1:02 left in the game. Josh Allen drove down the field and threw a TD to you guessed it, Gabe Davis for his 4th TD in the game. 13 seconds left. Down 3 points. This game should be over. The Bills kick it to the end zone despite Tony Romo telling them not to. Pat hits Tyreek for a sizable gain and Hill falls down and they call timeout. Then Trav faked like he was going out and then cutting in and making the catch for a big gain. Butker makes a long kick of 49 yards and we head to over time. The Chiefs win the coin toss. They drive down the field and Pat throws the game winner to Kelce. It’s arguably the greatest QB dual in playoff history. Pat was 33 of 44 with 378 yards passing and 3 TDs and ran for another 69 yards and a TD.

2. Back to Back

The 2023 season was an up and down roller coaster. After the offense was dominant in 2022, it struggled in 2023. A lot of it had to do with a league leading amount of drops. On the flip side the defense was very, very good. The best of the dynasty era. After the season ended, the team really found their footing and won 3 playoff games to land in a rematch with the 49ers. The Chiefs never start strong in Super Bowls and this was no different. It was 10-3 at the half. Then the Chiefs got the ball and Pat threw an interception on the first drive of the half. But eventually the move the ball a little and Butker kicked the longest FG in Super Bowl history. Then the Defense stepped up and got a stop. Unfortunately the offense didn’t do anything. They punted and special teams came through as the punt barely touched the returner and the Chiefs recovered. Pat quickly hit MVS for the TD and the Chiefs took their first lead. The 49ers answered with a td of their own. Butker hit a FG to tie it. Then the 49ers moved down the field with a chance to run out the clock. On a 3rd down, Spags sent McDuffie on a blitz, he deflected the ball and forced a FG. The Chiefs got the ball back and with a minute and 53 seconds Pat lead them down the field including a big pass play to Kelce. Butker kicked another FG and to overtime we go. The 49ers won the toss and decided to take the ball first for some reason. They drove down the field, and on a 3rd down, Chris Jones got pressure and forced a bad throw. 49ers kick a field goal. Pat leads them down the field with a key option run on a 4th down and another big scramble. As time is expiring Pat hits Mecole and we are back to back champs, and the dynasty is solidified. I run around in celebration. And it was extra special because my sister who doesn’t care about football was there along with my in laws and once we started playing well I forced everyone to stay in their same seats. I was sitting by my mother in law when Pat hit Hardman and I’ll never forget that moment. I bet you remember where you were too.

1. The First One

40 years. I waited my whole life for this game. It was actually 50 years from when the Chiefs last went to the Super Bowl. It was so exciting to be a part of the game. Right before the game started, My brother and I and another friend were all texting. And someone asked for my prediction to which I replied 31-20 Chiefs. The game got off to an okay start and the Chiefs found themselves up 10-3 early in the second quarter. The 49ers would tie it up for a 10-10 halftime score. The 3rd quarter was rough. Pat threw a pick, the 49ers scored 10 points and things looked bleak. Pat threw another pick in the 4th quarter and things looked even worse. But hey, this team had been down 24-0 in the divisional round. They were down 10-0 in the AFC championship game. So they were used to being down double digit points. With just a little over 7 minutes to go, the Chiefs faced a long 3rd down. While they reviewed a play, Pat asked EB if they had time to run wasp. EB relayed it to Andy and Andy said to run it. During this same time, my daughter who was 7 years old at the time hopped up into my wife’s lap. My son sat next to me. The whole family on the couch with the game on the line. Pat got the snap and backed way up. Tyreek looked like he was running a post and then sprinted on the corner route. Pat launched it but because Tyreek is so fast he had to wait on it but he caught it and it was a huge play and a first down. Pat threw a pass to Kelce, there was PI. Ball to the 1. Pat fakes the run and throws a TD to Kelce. Defense gets the 3 and out. The whole time my wife refuses to let my daughter go. Everyone sits in the same spots like somehow we impacted the game. Pat hits Sammy down the sideline for a big play. Pat hits Williams for the TD for the lead with just under 3 minutes to go. In a matter of roughly 4 minutes of game clock, the game went from 20-10 to 24-20. 49ers move the ball a little but Jimmy G over throws Emmanuel Sanders. On 4th down, Frank Clark gets the sack. Williams has a big run for a td to put the nail in the coffin. Fuller gets an interception, we run out the clock and we win! I run around my house yelling in joy like a little kid. The whole family goes nuts even my Broncos loving wife. And I bet you remember where you were, who you were with and how you reacted too as fans in KC and everywhere rejoiced. And the Chiefs became the first team to over come double digit leads in every playoff game. Pat was MVP of the game and of the whole dang city for life. And Andy finally got his ring. I waited my whole life but it was worth the wait. And the final score was 31-20…just like I called before the game.

Wild Card weekend lived up to the Wild name. We had 4 incredible games in the first four games. Then a dud of a game which wasn’t shocking since it was a playoff game that involved the Chargers. And then last night the Texans Defense outscored the Steelers and almost outscored the Texans offense. It was a good weekend for Mahomes and the Chiefs. The Eagles lost, so the Chiefs remain the last team and the only team in the last 20 years to repeat. Herbert lost so we can definitely not make any more comparisons with Pat and him. Josh Allen won and looks like he may be destined to win it all which also helps Pat because it will appear that he was to only thing stopping “the greatest player” in the league and if you ask Colin Cowherd right now, all time. Also, a lot of people are saying the playoffs are fine or even great without the Chiefs in them. But when the Chiefs make the playoffs, they rarely play in this round anyway. During the Mahomes era, the Chiefs have more Super Bowl wins with 3 than wild card round games, 2. Tune in on Thursday when I drop the top 10 playoff games of the dynasty. But for now lets talk about the 8 teams that are still in it ranking them from 8 to 1. For the record, I think all these teams have strengths and weaknesses and are all fairly equal and I wouldn’t be surprised if any of them make the playoffs.

8. Bears

Give credit where credit is due, it was one amazing comeback. But at the same time, the Packers just didn’t do anything offensively the second half besides one drive. Caleb made some great throws but he also only completed half of his passes and missed a lot of open throws. The Bears have a great group of young offensive weapons. And even know I don’t really like him, Ben Johnson is a very good play caller. But Caleb’s inconsistency and the Bears sometimes struggling defense will hinder their ability going forward.

7. 49ers

Just an incredible win against the Eagles especially after losing Kittle. Shanahan is a great coach and arguably deserves to be coach of the year for getting to this point with so many injuries. Robert Saleh also deserves a lot of credit for taking a banged up and very young defense and making them competitive. Ranking them 7th isn’t a slight for what they have accomplished. I just think they are too injured to rank them higher. But I will not be surprised at all if they win on Saturday night.

6. Texans

That defense is ridiculous and seems to stop everyone and looked extra elite on Monday night. That’s a Super Bowl winning defense. The problem is their offense is not great. CJ Stroud has not been great this year and was extra bad on Monday with 3 turnovers. The defense covers up a lot but their offense will have to perform better if they want to make a run.

5. Patriots

The Patriots had the easiest win besides the Texans this weekend and the offense didn’t play well. This is a team that can definitely make the Super Bowl. But I also think they are still young and figuring things out. They struggled against a good Chargers defense and now face an even better Texans D. Their pass rush had a good game against a terrible Chargers O line but it won’t be that easy the rest of the way.

4. Bills

They have the best player left in the post season and the league leading rusher and the offensive line is top notch. The pass defense is very good and they have the guy who can make plays when it matters most. But their receivers aren’t the best and their run defense is awful. If Josh has a bad day, they will lose, I’m just not sure he is going to have a bad day.

3. Broncos

It feels like it has been a month since they’ve played a good game. But they still have the elements a team that get it done. Their defense isn’t quite as good as the Texans but is still excellent. But their offense is better and Sean Payton should have them ready to roll with a week off. They also are very good at winning close games and most of these playoff games have been close. Bo Nix has been up and down overall but seems to play his best in the most stressful situations. If that trend continues it could be enough to get to the Super Bowl.

2. Rams

The Rams didn’t play great and they put up 34 points. Their defense has been up and down. But it comes back to having the coach and quarterback I trust the most. Like all of the teams, they could lose this week or win the whole thing. But I’m going to keep riding with the Rams until they lose.

1. Seahawks

Same story as last week, their defense is great. Their offense is very good. They have the best home field advantage in the playoffs. Mike Macdonald is a heck of a coach. Sam Darnold makes me nervous but everything else is great.

My ever changing Super Bowl Prediction: Rams over Bills…but who the heck knows.

It’s Wild Card Weekend! Typically the divisional weekend is my favorite weekend because it is the 8 best teams and the games are usually great. But I am extra excited for Wild Card week this time because I have no idea who the best 8 teams are. It should be a great weekend of games of unpredictable results. However, it does make it tougher to actually predict the games. But I’ll give it a try anyway.

Revenge of the Rams: Rams @ Panthers

The Rams were rolling until they went to the Panthers and things sort of got off track. Stafford uncharacteristically turned the ball over a bunch and a couple of players got injured. With all that, the Panthers still barely won. But the Rams really haven’t been the same since. They are just 3-2 since the loss and have had some bumpy games along the way. Davante Adams I believe got banged up in that game and then injured worse a couple of games later which I think. On the other side of things, the Panthers broke their streak of winning every other week by losing back to back games and finishing 8-9 but still managing to win the awful NFC South due to tie breakers. The Panthers have their moments but overall they are not a great football team. Bryce Young is wildly inconsistent game to game and sometimes play to play. He is probably their biggest weakness. The Rams on the other hand don’t have a lot of weaknesses on paper but just haven’t looked great. I think this is a good game for them to bounce back and get their swagger back as well. Stafford plays at an MVP level, Davante is back and catches a touchdown and the defense returns to form. The Rams get up early, don’t turn the ball over and never look back.

Rams 31 Panthers 17

All you need is Love: Packers @ Bears

These two teams have already played two classic games this year. The first ended with a Caleb interception. The second ended with an onside kick, a back up QB fumbling and then a Caleb TD. Jordan Love left the second game early but he will be back for this one. Will he make the difference and lead Green Bay to victory? Only one 7 seed has ever beat the 2 seed and guess who it was? The Packers when they defeated the Cowboys a couple of years ago. The Packers seem fired to avenge their loss after Love got knocked out last time. But they have also lost 4 in a row, although they sat their starters in the last game. The Bears have lost 2 in a row as well. While the Bears defense may not be great, they may get some help with some high winds that could slow down the deep ball from the Packers. However, Josh Jacobs is finally healthy and so that should help their run game. Ben Johnson and the Bears are talking about playing football for the next 5 weeks which goes against the more standard take one game at a time philosophy. I’m nervous about the Packers ability to stop the run, but as I have made clear over the season, I still don’t believe in the Bears. Give me the Packers as the only 7 seed to win a playoff game…twice.

Packers 27 Bears 20

The Hero vs the Hair: Bills @ Jags

Everybody…and I mean, everybody…loves Josh Allen. When they win and he plays okay he is just doing what the team needs him to do. When the win and he plays well, he is superman and the greatest player on the earth. When they lose, it’s because Josh Allen needs more help. Because apparently having the leading rusher, the number 1 pass defense and a great offensive line isn’t helpful. I like Josh but he gets a pass more than any Quarterback that hasn’t won anything ever. Speaking of not winning things, Josh has never won a road game. As the playoffs were approaching, people started to say with Pat and Lamar and Burrow out of the playoffs, there are no excuses for Josh. But then this week hit, and now it is “well the Jags have the better team”. Anyway, I’m sort of over the Josh Allen can do no wrong narrative if you hadn’t noticed. The Bills basically have the same team they had last year. Meanwhile the Jags have done a complete 180 and have been awesome the second half of the season. They have won 8 in a row. They beat 5 playoff teams and also beat the Chiefs and the Colts before their downfalls. They can run the ball. They can defend the run. And Trevor is playing at an elite level. Their weakness is pass defense so in theory Josh should be able to ball out against them. If he doesn’t I’m sure it is just because he needs receiving help. Putting my snarky comments aside, I do think the Jags are the better team. And they are at home and they feel disrespected being underdogs at home. Give me the hair and the Jags for the win.

Jags 31 Bills 27

The Injured vs the Dysfunctional: 49ers @ Eagles

The 49ers have really overachieved this year. They have battled a lot of injuries throughout the year. On the defensive side they lost their two best players for the season. They are young and exploitable on defense and would be even more so if they weren’t so well coached. On the offensive side they are healthish but Trent Williams is banged up and Ricky Pearsall either won’t play on Sunday or will get hurt again in the 1st quarter. On the other side, the Eagles have underachieved. Despite having a stacked team, the offense has been disappointing and sometimes disappears for halves of football. However, unlike the Chiefs the Eagles made some key trades at the deadline that really helped their defense which is now very stout. Nick Siriani is an idiot but that works in Philly were their fan base is mostly idiots as well. The 49ers have the better coaches. The Eagles have the better players. Hurts usually plays his best ball in the playoffs. I think the 49ers are just over matched and I have this bad feeling that the Eagles are going to pull their crap together and make a run. They have a chance to repeat and literally no one is even talking about it because they have been such a mess all year. But that mess still won enough games to be the 3 seed and host at least one playoff game. Unfortunately, give me the Eagles in this one.

Eagles 30 49ers 20

The team that never wins anything vs everyone’s least favorite dynasty: Chargers @ Patriots

The Chargers limp into the playoffs with back ups to the back ups playing offensive tackle. Not ideal for a playoff team. The Chargers don’t win important games anyway much less when they are dealing with injuries. But they do have some good things going for them. Their defense is playing very well. They are able to run the ball effectively and despite having an injured hand, Herbert is playing well. On the other side, the Patriots are back to their winning ways after a few losing seasons. I never minded the Patriots dynasty because I appreciate greatness. But this fan base is a little out of control. They act like it is impossible for them to lose and they are already the greatest team in the league again. They played the easiest schedule in the league. They beat exactly one team with a winning record. They are 2-2 against playoff teams. I think they are a really good team but it’s not like they are unbeatable or unstoppable. One of their weaknesses is pass rush which is good news for the Chargers. They also aren’t great at running the ball. They are fine but not great. I think this game will be close. But in the end I just don’t trust Herbert and the Chargers to actually win a meaningful game. Especially on the road. The Pats win a close one and their fan base assumes they will never lose again for the end of time.

Pats 24 Chargers 20

Houston, we don’t have a problem: Texans @ Steelers

The Texans have won 9 straight games. They have arguably the best defense in the league. The Steelers needed a missed field goal to even get into the playoffs. Rodgers has played well but doesn’t do well when pressured. And guess what, the Texans pressure a lot. The Steel curtain defense has been more of a paper curtain this year. The Texans offense is far from elite but they do enough to win games. It will be cold but that shouldn’t effect the Texans much. They aren’t your typical warm weather team. They run the ball, they play D and their QB went to Ohio State so he can handle the weather. Rodgers does have the playoff experience but he hasn’t been awesome in the playoffs for a long time. Tomlin has a winning record every year but hasn’t won a playoff game in a long time either. Yes, the Steelers are at home. Yes, they have a hall of fame QB and a hall of fame coach. But I am not overthinking this one. The Texans bother Rodgers all night and get the win.

Texans 26 Steelers 17

Instead of being bitter about the Chiefs not making the playoffs in a decade, I decided we should celebrate the team that has given us more in the last 7 years than in the rest of the franchise’s history all together. So here is my all Dynasty team.

Offensive Line: LT Eric Fisher, LG Joe Thuney, C Creed Humphrey, RG Trey Smith, RT Mitchell Schwartz

This was fairly easy. Schwartz was the arguably the best right tackle in football until his injury in 2020. He was the best player on the line during the beginning of the dynasty for 2018-2020. Trey Smith was an incredible get in the 6th round and has been solid his whole time with the Chiefs minus injury issues this year. Thuney is one of the best guards in the league and moved out to tackle multiple times as needed. Creed is probably the best center in the game. Fisher is the only non great player on the line but he was pretty good and clearly better than any other left tackle during the dynasty…not that is saying a lot.

Tight End: Travis Kelce

Trav is that dude. He had 7 consecutive seasons of 1,000 yards and has accrued over 13k yards in his career. He is first in receptions in playoff history and only second to Jerry Rice in TDs and yards. He was the only reliable offensive weapon during the whole dynasty.

Wide Receiver: Tyreek Hill, Sammy Watkins and MVS

Tyreek was the easy one as he was so explosive and could change the game in seconds. He is one of the best at catching contested catches especially for his size. As the saying goes, “Tyreek down there somewhere.” The other two spots were tougher. Lots of pretty good but not great receivers. I gave the nod to Sammy because his main issue was injuries. When he was on the field he was awesome. And he helped Pat get settled in the first year. He had the game sealing td catch to send us to our first super bowl in 50 years and a huge catch down the sideline against Richard Sherman to help us win the Super Bowl. MVS might be an odd choice to some but since no one else is great, I went with the guy who came up big when it mattered. In our 2022 run when we finally beat the Bengals, we basically ran out of receivers but MVS came up with multiple big catches including a TD. In 2023, he had a rough year, but in the playoffs, caught a key pass down the sideline against the Bills, the game sealing catch against the Ravens and a td in the Super Bowl. Not too shabby.

Running Back: Damien Williams, Isaiah Pacheco

Woof. The running back room has been thin basically the whole dynasty. Once Kareem was let go, Damien Williams stepped in. He was solid in 2019 and came up with some big runs and catches. He had 100 yards rushing and 2 tds in the Super Bowl and arguably could have been the MVP. I know Pacheco sucks now, but he was solid in 2022 and we really leaned on him in 2023 helping us win back to back Super Bowls.

Quarter Back: Patrick Mahomes

I mean what can I say that I haven’t already said. Bottom line, he’s the difference maker. Reid was always a good coach and the Chiefs were a good team off and on throughout my life time. Pat made both great. 17-4 in the playoffs. Never lost an AFC playoff game in regulation. 2 MVPs, 3 Super Bowl MVPs and 7 straight AFC championship games and 5 Super Bowls in 6 years.

DE: Frank Clark, George Karliftas

Clark was just okay during the regular season but was huge come playoff team. He was a good leader to the D line as well trying to help the young guys including Karliftas. George isn’t awesome but he was solid and good against the run as well as rushing the passer. This year he sucked, but we don’t need to talk about that.

DT: Chris Jones, Derrick Nnadi (by default)

Jones is the one constant and the leader of the defense. He was awesome throughout the 7 year run and had the biggest sack in the biggest moment when he took down Joe Burrow and saved us from losing to those idiots once again. Nnadi is the other DT, because well, you have to have 2 and he started pretty much every year of the dynasty.

LB: Nick Bolton, Dru Tranquill, Leo Chenal

Linebacker was a weakness of the team until these guys showed up. Bolton is just a machine against the run and always around the ball. Dru was a solid addition and instrumental at helping us win back to back Super Bowls. He is solid in coverage and a good blitzer. Leo is a jack of all trades and made huge play after huge play on defense and special teams.

Nickle Corner: Trent McDuffie

McDuffie is awesome in the slot. He’s great in coverage as long as he isn’t covering a 6’4 guy. And he is great at blitzing as well. He made several big plays blitzing as well as in coverage.

CB: L’ Jarius Sneed, Charvarius Ward

Sneed was also awesome at coverage and blitzing. He was a great tackler and could really do it all. The 2023 run may have been his biggest impact when he completely shut down Tyreek and had a td saving play forcing the fumble of Zay Flowers at the goal line against the Ravens. Ward was the best corner from the first half of the run. He was great in coverage and solid against the run. We got him for basically nothing, turned him into a star and then he got paid by the 49ers and we beat him in the Super Bowl.

Safety: Justin Reid, Tyrann Mathieu

You can’t have the dynasty team without the Honey Badger. He wasn’t great his final year but you saw how much he was missed in the 13 second game. He is just a great dude with a redemptive story and everyone in Chiefs kingdom loves him. Reid took his spot and was solid for 3 years leading the secondary and helping us reach 3 super bowls in 3 years. Reid is a little bit bigger and a little bit better tackler and at blitzing. But both were awesome and made big contributions to our success.

K: Harrison Butker

Butker had a couple rough stretches during the regular seasons but overall was great and got even better in the playoffs. He had multiple game tying and game winning kicks including the game winners against the hated Bengals and in the Super Bowl against the Eagles. He had a bunch during the regular seasons as well. Basically if you weren’t up by more than 3, we were going to win or tie the game.

P: Tommy Townsend

I’m not sure when Townsend took over for Colquitt but Tommy has the better leg and I find him less annoying so I went with him.

KR/PR: Mecole Hardman

Lots of choices here, but I felt like Hardman had to be on the team. Sure other guys had big plays like Toney and Skyy Moore but Hardman was on pretty much all our winning teams. He would sometimes leave, get cut by another team and then come back. But he had some big plays and was always dangerous with the ball in his hands. Plus he sort of bookends the dynasty with his amazing kick return that kicked off our comeback against the Texans in our first Super Bowl run and then caught the game winning td in our last Super Bowl Victory.

Special Teams player: Dirty Dan Sorenson

Dirty Dan! You can’t have a dynasty without the worse coverage safety I have seen in my lifetime. Despite giving up many big plays and having only slightly more athletic ability than I have, Dan was always in the right place at the right time with big sacks, tackles and interceptions. And he was a key part of our special teams unit coming up with several huge plays throughout the first half of the dynasty including stopping a fake punt and causing a fumble on a kickoff against the Texans.

So there you have it. My all dynasty team. Who did I leave off that should have been on there?