Super Bowl LIII: By the Numbers

Let’s just get this out there first thing - last night’s Super Bowl was an incredibly boring snore of a game.

Even the most ardent of football fans might have turned to other forms of entertainment rather then watch last night’s snooze fest season finale of a football game (which is exactly what my father did). I hung in there, through every last second of a game that can only be compared to watching paint dry or grass grow. While I do believe that a Chiefs versus Saints or Chiefs versus Rams would have been better games, it has nothing to do with my dashing Super Bowl 53 to pieces. 

I’ve heard the arguments, that it was a defense heavy game, that this was an example of old school football. I will say that for the most part, I find that to be true. Both team’s had incredibly stingy defenses, giving up very few yards. Both quarterbacks spent a portion of the night on the ground (Rams QB Jared Goff being sacked 4 times). But it should not go unnoticed that neither offense got much going either. 

The Patriots came in boasting the “GOAT” QB in Tom Brady and his cast of characters like Julian Edelman, Rob “The Gronk” Gronkowski and running backs Rex Burkhead and Sony Michel. The Rams came in with one of the most explosive offenses in the league all season, unmatched by any except for the Saints (and…well… the Kansas City Chiefs). This offense gave us the deadly accurate Jared Goff as QB, Brandon Cooks as wide receiver and league MVP candidate Todd Gurly at running back. 

While I agree this was a defensive struggle, there is no reason why those two explosive offenses should only manage to put forth a measly 13-3 final score, which has gone down in history as the lowest scoring Super Bowl of all time.

Let’s examine these numbers. Shall we?

1.38 billion chicken wings were expected to be devoured during Super Bowl weekend.

12.5 million pizzas were expected to be consumed during the big day.

For me, I gorged myself on my wife’s chicken quesadillas, queso and guacamole.

Now let’s look at the game itself.

By the end of the first half, the score did not even include a touchdown and was a staggering 3 to nothing Pats. In this past season, the Chiefs played 36 halves of football and scored at least 16 or more points 23 times. In the first half, Rams punter Johnny Hecker had more “touches” (6) than running back Todd Gurly and wide receiver Brandon Cooks combined (5). The Rams ran no plays in the red zone all night and the Pats ran 1. The least amount of red zone plays ran in a Super Bowl by both teams combined was 5. 

Perhaps the most troubling stat for Rams fans to swallow is that 45% of Rams plays went for 0 yards or worse - negative yardage. This means that almost half the plays the Rams ran, were stopped dead in their tracks at best or forced backwards losing yards at worst. Just to rub some salt in that wound, the Rams are only the second team in Super Bowl history to not score a touchdown. That dubious honor belongs to the 1971 Dolphins in Super Bowl 6.

Jared Goff completed only 19 of 38 passes. 10 of those coming in the fourth with a too little too late comeback attempt.  He threw for 229 yards with no touchdowns, a key fourth quarter interception and got sacked 4 times. 

Let’s be honest Pats fans, the GOAT Tom Brady didn’t look much better, clocking in at 21-35 completions for 262 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception. Luckily for Tom Brady, running back Sony Michel had 90 yards rushing. Julian Edelman had 141 receiving yards and won himself Super Bowl 53 MVP in the process. 

After the game, I reluctantly rose to my feet, crossed the space in my man cave, and flipped my football sign that hangs on the wall from “GAME TIME” to “PRE-GAME” – how it will stay until August. 

Don’t fret.  Your BQB will be popping up periodically to discuss some basketball and of course Royals baseball and other sports-related discussions and debates. 

Your BQB ain’t going anywhere!

The Mish Mosh

On occasion, I will come home from work to find my wife peering into our open fridge, straightening up and declaring, “Its mish mosh for dinner honey.” Which means dinner will consist of a healthy spread of left overs and whatever is still in the fridge and while these may not be foods that are generally served together in the traditional sense. 

With so many post-season events going on consider this a heaping helping of mish mosh, so grab a fork, snap open a beverage and enjoy the delicious bits of football mish mash your BQB has for you.

Main Course: NFC Championship Game:

I hope you’re hungry for this one. 

It’s been a week since the Rams managed to edge out the Saints to become the 2019 NFC champs, but the excitement surrounding a controversial no-call of blatant defensive pass interference has not simmered down but has amplified over these last seven days. With 1 minute and 45 seconds to go, Saints QB Drew Brees threw a touchdown to a wide open receiver. The score would have won the Saints the NFC title, but a Rams’ defender committed blatant pass interference and no flag was in sight. The pass was knocked from the receiver’s hands and because of the tied score, the game would go into overtime where the Rams went on to win it on a 57 yard field goal.

In just 7 days, two lawsuits have been filed against Roger Goodell and the NFL. A petition has been circulating that reportedly has over 750,000 signatures to have the outcome of the Saints-Rams game changed or have the game replayed entirely. The NFL has come out in a statement saying that the NFC title game will not be delayed for multiple reasons, but the most valid reason being that it would be a costly delay of the Super Bowl. 

Let me say that I actually agree with the NFL on this decision. I think that were Goodell to overturn the call or the NFL to allow the game to be replayed, I believe he would be setting a precedent that he could never come back from. The flood gates would be open and Chiefs’ fans would demand a replay of their own title game and so many other fans of other games in the future. While I do think it was a blatant missed call that should have never occurred, I do believe that Goodell should do nothing.

He can't just overturn the outcome of the game because, regardless of the call, they did lose the game, and they had a chance to win it in overtime. However, if something had to be done, I think the fairest way to do that would be to call for a replay of the entire game with the new rules in place, bill it as "the NFC rematch" air it on the NFL network and get 75 million in ratings. 

But the game did go into an overtime period, in which the Saints had the ball at the top of the overtime period (which is more then we can say for the Chiefs) and still didn't manage to win the game.

They had a chance to right the wrong and couldn't get it done.

The Possible Second Helping: The Possible Saints/Chiefs Game

I heard a very interesting notion, that while Super Bowl 53 is being played, either the Chiefs travel to New Orleans, or the Saints to Kansas City, and we will have our own “Super Bowl” and probably get more viewers than the real Super Bowl.

Side Dish – Transfer Portal

While the transfer portal sounds like a way that head coaches can contact college football players from other dimensions, it has actually made what I believe to be a vast improvement upon the college football landscape. This is probably over simplifying it, but the rule basically states as long as you have played no more than 4 games, or you are a grad student, you are free to transfer to a different college. Since the rule was announced, there has been a flurry of players entering the transfer portal, most notably Alabama QB Jalen Herts to Oklahoma and Georgia QB Justin Fields to Ohio State. This rule allows for players of their caliber, who just might have been out played, to go to another school in need of a QB and giving them option of playing football instead of riding the bench for possibly the remainder of their college football career. So, if you have ever wondered what the Oklahoma Sooners would look like with an Alabama QB, or The Ohio State with the Georgia QB, the transfer portal has given you the chance to find out. Who knows, perhaps Oklahoma will face Alabama again in the playoffs, with the Alabama product taking the snaps for OU against his former team and coach.

Dinner Role: The Latest Dual Athlete

I have been closely following the path of former Oklahoma QB and this year’s Heisman winner Kyler Murray and where his future path might lead him. For months now, we were all under the impression that he would play QB at Oklahoma for one season, then, after having been selected by the Oakland A’s in the MLB draft, he would head out to Oakland to play pro baseball. So you can imagine my surprise when Murray declared for the NFL draft. The A’s are still adamant that he will report to Spring Training, but soon he will have to make a choice between the two sports, for there has been dual athletes in the past (Bo Jackson being my personal favorite) but it is important to note that none of those athletes were quarterbacks.

Dessert: The Pro Bowl

While in the past I may have referred to the Pro Bowl as a “glorified pillow fight”, I do think it deserves mentioning. The offensive MVP award was given to none other than Kansas City Chiefs’ QB Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes led a scoring drive to start the game and then another scoring drive two series later (that touchdown run in by Chiefs’ fullback Anthony “The Sausage” Sherman). Mahomes took the AFC to a 14-0 lead over the NFC and the Pro Bowl wrapped up with the AFC trampling the NFC 26-7, but frankly, the game was not as close as the final score made it look.

Stay tuned football fans. The Super Bowl is in 6 days and just because my Chiefs will not be in it, doesn’t mean your BQB won’t cover it. I will be sitting in my cave, football food at the ready, TV tuned to the big game and wearing my Chiefs shirt.

AFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: We Will Be Back

“It’s going to hurt, embrace it, it’s supposed to hurt.”

These were Patrick Mahomes’ words following last night’s heartbreaking loss. 

And football fans, it does hurt. So let’s embrace it together and look at the incredible season that got us this far.

Yes we lost in the AFC Championship game, one win away from a Super Bowl, but for the first time in 25 years, we were in the AFC Championship game, one win away from a Super Bowl – and that certainly is something.

When I moved to Kansas City, in my first two seasons as a Chiefs’ fan, I witnessed the team have 11-5 and 10-6 records and lose both years in the first round of the playoffs. But this is not either of those seasons. This is not losing to the Steelers when they scored nothing but field goals while we scored touchdowns. This is not blowing a half time lead of 21-3 and losing 22-21 to the Titans sustaining multiple injuries. No doubt, this loss stings more than those other two, but remember, we were in a position to have this loss because of an absolutely stellar season. 

When Patriots running back Rex Burkhead ran the ball in for that final heartbreaking touchdown, it was the end of a game where the Chiefs had managed to tie with one of the best teams in the history of sports. It was at the end of a night where a team lead by a 23 year old quarterback in his first full year as a starter almost knocked off one of the greatest coaches and one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game. 

As it stands, the 2018-2019 season is over. Blame the officiating, blame the off sides penalty on Dee Ford, blame the NFL overtime rules (another blog on that later), but in the end we should be thanking the Chiefs for gifting us with the best season this franchise and this city has seen in years. 

We started off by rolling a divisional opponent on their home turf in the first week, and exorcised our demons against the Steelers the next week. We had an offense that broke different records every week. We began the season, with a young quarterback who had only played in one full game in the NFL. His ingenuity and talent made him a complete wizard with plays, performing left handed passes, no-look passes and defying even our wildest expectations with each and every game. This same quarterback would throw for over 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns in the regular season, and will almost certainly win league MVP. 

We had a defensive end in Chris Jones, who broke NFL records by logging a sack in 11 consecutive games. We won our division for the third year in a row, by completely dismantling one of our most hated foes in the Oakland Raiders which then took us to the playoffs. We won our first playoff game in 25 years by stifling and outscoring one of the best offenses and one of the most polished quarterbacks in football. 

The season would end in a heartbreaking loss, just as the other 29 teams in the league, but what separates us from those teams is that we made it that far, on the back of another worldly quarterback, an explosive offense and the red brick wall of a defense. This might be the end of the Kansas City Chiefs 2018 season, but it is just the beginning of the Kansas City Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes and many other fan favorites.

To close out the 2018 season Chiefs fans, I leave you with these simple but meaningful words from our quarterback Patrick Mahomes II, “We will be back.”

And back with a vengeance, I might add.

Stay tuned football fans, for more from your BQB. The season may be over but we still have a lot of ground to cover. From draft picks to training camps, to the birth of my second child to pre-season and everything in between.