Week 10 - Chiefs 17 at Bills 13

Now that's football! A real slobber-knocker in cold, rainy weather. It took both guts and guile to get the W.

It's often hard to quantify what coaching does on game day to help win or lose. Occasionally blatant things like clock management or trick plays, sure, but play-by-play, throughout the course of a game coaching is less visible than player execution. A couple of plays in this game, however had the Kool-Aid man's autograph all over them. Most notably the two runs on which the Chiefs scored their two touchdowns. The play-action to Sherman and then pitch to Jamaal Charles on 4th and 1 that led to a 39 yard gallop into the end zone. And then the naked bootleg by Alex Smith, finished by the quarterback putting his head down and plowing through a safety at the goal line. The game was full of tough playing, and more than one cheap, dirty shot by the Bills. Tamba Hali got pissed off after being punched in the gut repeatedly. Alex Smith was speared after he gave himself up on a slide. Jamaal Charles was slammed about 2 yards out of bounds. Only the spearing was flagged. On the late hit, there was no flag for that, but the Chiefs were called for holding on that play. The officiating was pretty suspect, but there were a few that favored both teams.

Offense: Can I take back last week's accolades about the offensive line play? They were mauled by the front seven of Buffalo. Absolutely shredded. They gave up six sacks and ten pressures, three batted passed and one jump ball that could easily have been picked off. If not for Alex Smith's feet, it could have been a lot worse. The run blocking didn't fare much better most of the afternoon. Jamaal had three consecutive runs to begin the game that went for negative yardage. It took him five carries to get back to zero. The Bills, with their bye week and homefield, found a way to neutralize Charles and Kelce most of the day. Ultimately Charles did wind up with 118 total yards from scrimmage, but most of that came in the fourth quarter. I have been happy to see D. Bowe step up his game the last few weeks. He's becoming a guy you can go to in traffic to pick up a tough first down. With his size, that's what you'd hope he could do. Now if they can only find a consistent flier who can actually catch a ball, to put on the other side, we'd have something. Still no WR TD's, but TD's were hard to come by in this one. One of the Chiefs' best weapons the last several games has been the three-tight-end formation. Unfortunately, with Harris suffering a broken foot in practice, that was scrapped this week. It's the kind of formation that would have been nice to have against such an aggressive defense. And would be nice to have next week against a similarly nasty Seattle defense. The big take away for me is just how tough Jamaal Charles and Alex Smith are, when they need to be.

Defense: They didn't get the big sacks (only one), and they did give up a few big plays. But they made the big plays when they needed them. No one in upstate New York had a bigger day than Ron Parker. He's a cornerback who has played strong safety most of this season, due to the injury to Eric Berry, but he was back in his natural habitat yesterday. Bob Sutton broke from his usual alignment, to have Parker lineup against rookie phenom, Sammy Watkins, regardless of which side of the field he was on. As a result, despite 10 targets, including three in or near the end zone, Watkins finished the day with 4 catches for 27 yards and no scores. But Parker's biggest play came when he tomahawked the ball out of Bryce Brown's hand, saving a sure touchdown, and giving the ball back to the Chiefs on a touchback. That TD would have put the Bills up 17-3 midway through the third quarter. The Chiefs D was particularly nasty in the red zone. The Bills had four drives that made it inside KC's 20, and only had 6 points on two chip-shot field goals to show for it.

Specials: Special teams had a mixed bag. DeAnthony Thomas had one nice kickoff return for 38 yards, but he was awful on punt returns - fielding balls he should have let go, and letting balls go he should have fair caught. Colquitt had a punt that should have died on the one, but the coverage team blew it. On the other hand, Wilson and Sherman teamed up to strip Leodis McKelvin on a punt return, setting up the go-ahead TD two plays later. Santos made his only field goal, but his kick offs are still way too short, giving up 84 yards in kickoff returns.

Throw Him A Bone: Who else but Ron Parker. He was playing out of his mind - 8 tackles, three passes deflected, a forced fumble that saved a touchdown, and a near interception on fourth down from the KC 15, that killed the Bills' last real threat to win.

Doggity Dog: The entire O-line was brutal, but I'm giving the newspaper on the muzzle to DeAnthony Thomas, who consistently misplayed punts, pinning the Chiefs deep. In a hostile environment on the road, in a low-scoring defensive battle, those yards matter.

Next up: The world champion Seattle Seahawks (that's still hard to say) bring their limping, but still dangerous game to Arrowhead at noon on Sunday.

Tailgating Recipe:
Time to think about Thanksgiving week tailgating. This one comes from my good friend Marc "Mr. Cheezwhiz" Chechik. A fantastic musician from St. Louis. Check out his band Melody Den. Their CD makes a great stocking stuffer.

Chechik Cranberries.

Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup water

The juice and zest of one orange and one lemon

2 bags fresh cranberries

1 cinnamon stick

Directions: 

Rinse cranberries with cold water. In a medium saucepan, add sugar, water, lemon juice and orange juice. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and add cranberries, cinnamon stick and zest. Return to a boil and then reduce heat to medium low. Cook until cranberries start to burst, about 10 - 15 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Pour sauce into a serving bowl and chill in the refrigerator. Remove cinnamon stick before serving.

Serve chilled.