Kansas City blues

The KC Chiefs of the NFL were mighty hard to get a line on this year. Were they good? Mediocre? Overrated? A disaster waiting to happen?

They came out of the gate by putting a 15 point beatdown on the New England Patriots -- in Foxborough. Definitely an eye opener.

Then they reeled off four more wins in a row to get to 5-0. Yessirree, the Arrowhead version of the Big Red Machine was definitely on a roll.

Until the wheels fell off.

They would lose 6 of their next 7 games, to come thudding back to .500. Ouch.

Was head coach Andy Reid (formerly of the Phillie Eagles -- who look pretty good these days) in danger of getting fired? Maybe.

But the Chiefs recovered nicely, winning their last 4 regular season games, claiming the AFC West division title, and marched into the playoffs with a home game to start with. All was well in KC.

That very playoff game turned out to be against the Tennessee Titans, which the Chiefs were highly favored to win.

[Idle thought. If the Patriots can be called the Pats, the Jaguars the Jags, the Buccaneers the Bucs, etc., what should we shorten the Titans pet name to? Would anybody dare?]

And it sure started off well for the home crowd. KC was clobbering Tenn up and down the field, racing off to a 21-0 lead. The Titans were only able to put one measly field goal on the board towards the end of the first half. Oh yeah, Arrowhead, arguably the loudest stadium in the entire NFL, was rocking and rolling.

And then the same wheels mentioned above did a repeat act.

Not only would Tennessee rally in the second half, they would score 19 unanswered points while shutting out the Chiefs for the entire half.

Final score. Tennessee 22, Kansas City 21.

And just like that, the Chiefs have been eliminated. Outta here.

Which has to come back to the same Andy Reid.

Given the disaster, see fold, choke, whatever you want to call it, his team displayed in front of a national TV audience when all the marbles were on the line, against a club they were supposed to defeat easily -- it just might be that Andy Reid's head will be the next to roll in the annual NFL coaching purge carousel.

The ownership/front office of the KC Chiefs are likely not amused one little bit by how things played out. And the talking media heads will likely crucify the Chiefs in the next few days, adding the proverbial insult to injury. How do you blow a 21 point lead, at home, and get shut out in the second half against a team that was supposed to be inferior to yours in the first place?

Good luck with that press conference.

Yep, dear Andy just might wind up being the latest head coach "casualty" in the NFL.

Nice guy and all, but like they say -- it's the nature of the business.