The Chiefs are now 3-3 with the opportunity to take the division lead with a win on Monday Night Football vs. the Chargers.  The Chiefs offense didn't play great against Oakland, but the defense was amazing.  Derrick Johnson played one of the best games of his career, 13 tackles, 12 solo, he shut down the run.  I know McFadden got hurt early, and they were playing backup quarterbacks but the defense still had to stop them.  The Raiders are not a bad team.

Why can't the Matt Cassel haters stop!  He is not Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers but he is pretty good.  He wasn't good this week but he was half a yard away from a touchdown and one of his interceptions was a hail mary at the end of the half.  People only see the bad in him, last year he had 27 touchdowns to 7 interceptions and made the Pro Bowl.  He's not elite, but our quarterback position could be a lot worse, how bout the chiefs start Tyler Palko next week and see how important Cassel is. 

The Chiefs outlook isn't great for the rest of the season but at least they are winning.   Next year their is more hope, getting back Jamaal Charles and future Hall of Famer Eric Berry.  This is still a young team, and best is hopefully yet to come.

Can Peyton Manning win the MVP this year?  It's crazy how much he has meant to that team.  It is also crazy how bad the colts have drafted in the last 8 years, just google their draft picks.

Congrats to Sporting KC for winning the Eastern Conference and getting home field advantage.  I haven't made it to a game this year but I hear the stadium is just amazing.

After looking into potential free agent pitchers, the Royals are going to have a hard time finding much to help them.  They need to resign Bruce Chen in my opinion.  But why overpay for an average pitcher like Brad Penny if you are still a year away from competing.  Save your money in 2012 and then make a run in 2013 and beyond.

KU Basketball/NBA

KU Basketball

My view of KU basketball has changed a lot in the last couple of years.  I used to be a diehard, but now it's not the same.  I still root for them but I don't care about them all that much.  The biggest factor is all the negativity surrounding the program, here is a list of all of the stuff I could come up with in recent years.

Mario Little:  Arrested
Brady Morningstar:  DUI
Tyshawn Taylor:  Team Suspension, I heard it was ugly.
Morris Twins:  They were thugs, they got a bad reputation some of the time, but they played dirty too often.
The Saga of Selby:  Suspended by the NCAA after a long process where they really didn't find much, but still punished him.
Chalmers, Rush, Arthur:  All suspended for illegal drugs in the NBA Rush has been suspended 3 times.
Ben McLemore and Jamari Taylor: Ruled academically ineligible for this season, these freshman were expected to provide much needed depth, now walk-ons could get playing time.
Ticket Scandal:  More than 1 million dollars worth of basketball and football tickets were illegally sold in a five stretch.
Football Team Fight:  2 years ago a huge fight between the football and basketball teams rose.  Players were pushed down the stairs among other things, it showed the immaturity of the teams more than anything.

I know this type of stuff goes on everywhere but it seems worse here.  As a whole, people don't think of KU basketball as a dirty program but I think it might be heading that way.  Another thing that irritates me is the number of fair weather fans.  One thing I like about Royals fans is that they are true fans, it seems like everybody in the state claims to be KU basketball's biggest fan.

I really like Bill Self though, he is a great coach and appears to be a great guy as well.  He gets the most out of the talent he has.  He doesn't have a top recruiting class each year, and most years his teams do better than expected.  He has had some disappointments in the NCAA Tournament, but his National Championship makes up for that.  One stat people don't really realize, is that Bill Self has only been to one FInal Four in his career.  Hopefully Bill Self will clean up the program a little bit.  I don't blame him for all the stuff going on, he has to recruit players with question marks to be a successful coach.

Maybe my opinion will change, but right now I'm just not that big into KU Basketball, I probably won't write much about them this year.  I don't want to write about something I'm not informed about.  I don't want to be that person who goes on and on about things he doesn't know.  Most people reading this know more than me about KU basketball, so you guys won't learn much from my insight.

NBA

In the past 3 or 4 years I've became a pretty big NBA fan, especially an Oklahoma City Thunder fan.  I am also one of the six Miami Heat fans left west of the Mississippi.  I really feel they have done nothing wrong, yes they have been cocky, but cut them some slack.  The media constantly scrutinizes them, I feel bad for them, well as bad as you can feel for people making millions of dollars.  They made it to the NBA Finals mainly because of how clutch Lebron James was.  People don't remember that he carried the team to the Finals.  If you want to hate Michael Vick for what he did, be my guest, but Lebron isn't the devil ESPN has made him out to be.


I really want to hear your feedback, especially on this article since you probably disagree, if you disagree let me know why, I have an open mind.  Thanks for reading.

Everything Under the Sun

Chiefs!!!

Calling all Matt Cassel haters... Anybody left?  Nobody?  I swear two weeks ago all of KC was here.  He showed a lot this week, getting down by 17 points twice against the Colts and fighting back.  He was 21-29 for 257 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Jackie Battle also played great filling in a void at running back.  He ran hard, something I haven't seen all year, even when Charles was healthy.  The defense struggled at first but stiffened up in the second half especially against the run.

Dwayne Bowe and Steve Breaston also had great games catching 2 touchdowns a piece, Bowe made a spectacular catch on a ball he was interfered on, for a touchdown.  The team played hard again for Todd Haley and the effect Haley has had on Bowe has been amazing.  Bowe finally gets it, he catches the ball, blocks, and appears to be a good teammate.  The Chiefs have a bye next week and then go to Oakland, followed by a Monday Night game at home vs. the Chargers, on Halloween.

Conference Realignment

Does anybody remember who started this musical chairs of conferences... Missouri.  Last year Missouri reached out to the Big 10 and thought they had an invite only to find out they didn't.  I feel all three teams who left the Big 12 fit in where they are now, Colorado, Nebraska, and Texas A&M.  Missouri really doesn't.  They don't bring that much to the table, they have had recent success but have averaged 4 losses a year, in the last 3 years, far from great.  This year is not helping them either I don't know if the SEC will want them.  I think they will be shooting for a bowl berth in the SEC instead of a conference title.  I really don't know about Missouri's basketball program, in the short term they will have success, but recruiting top players to play basketball in the SEC will be tough, unless they are willing to pay the big money like Kentucky.

It looks like with the addition of TCU, the Big 12 will stay together, good news for KU.  People are just looking at this from a football perspective, other sports matter too.  You can't have all the small, non revenue sports like rowing, soccer, women's basketball traveling to Rutgers and Pittsburgh, for conference matches.  KU needs the conference to hold together.

I Love Seeing Yankees Lose

200 million dollars can buy a lot of things but as the Yankees found out it cannot buy starting pitching.  The Yankees pulled out all the stops in Game 5 vs. the Tigers, pitching C.C. Sabathia in relief, and lost.  They only have one good starting pitcher, Sabathia.  A.J. Burnett has been a huge bust, Phillip Hughes hasn't lived up to expectation.  I'm sure they will sign one if not two big name pitchers this offseason though.  The biggest difference with the Yankees and Royals is that the Royals are able to sign one good pitcher every 3 or 4 years. The Yankees can sign one every year and if it doesn't pan out, it doesn't effect them long term, with the budget they have.

KU Football

This is a historically bad defense, some blame needs to go to Turner Gill but the players aren't there.  They don't really even deserved to be mentioned but since I'm in a good mood, I gave them a sentence

One Last Thing

Special teams are not 1/3 of the game!  Some games they have a big impact, but as a whole they are more like 10 percent of the game.  In the Chiefs vs. Colts game today, there were only two key plays on special teams.  If special teams were 1/3 the game you would see kickers and returners being selected in the first round.

Keep giving me your feedback, I appreciate you reading.

Chiefs

This is what I wanted from Todd Haley, and this is why I supported him last year.  He set the tone of the team and they played hard.  Matt Cassel had a good game, and got the fans off his back for at least a week.  I don't know why there is so much hate for him, he played really well last year, the Chiefs only gave up a second round pick for him and Mike Vrabel.  The Chiefs run game is really bad, Thomas Jones' illustrious career is over, that was the one negative I got from the game.

Positives

TYSON JACKSON!  He only made one tackle but disrupted many of Adrian Peterson's runs.  If he can be average, that would be a huge upgrade to what he has been.
Steve Breaston has become a part of the offense catching 4 passes for 91 yards, first-round pick Jonathan Baldwin is still on the bench nobody really knows why.
Donald Washington, who is filling in for my beloved Eric Berry at safety, did a good job and is starting to learn the ropes.
Ryan Succop was 5 for 5 on field making 2 over 50 yards.  He has struggled early this year missing a field goal in every game and might of been replaced if this had continued.
Javier Arenas is averaging 20 yards on punt returns this year and had four key returns against this week, he has been key for field position this year.
Derrick Johnson is a really good linebacker and if he could catch the ball he would be even better.  He has benefitted from the improved play of the defensive line and making big plays.

This week's win is a good sign for the Chiefs but I don't expect a turnaround.  They play the Colts next week but their schedule after that  is rough, a disadvantage of winning the division last year.  The whole "Suck for Luck" campaign sort of makes me mad, I would never root against my team.  Winning games at the end of the year, even when you team is out the playoffs is crucial.  Two cases, the 2009 Chiefs, who played well at the end of the season, beating the Broncos in the final game and then made the playoffs in the following year. In addition the 2010 Lions who won the final four games last year are 4-0 this year coming off a historical comeback against the Cowboys this week.  Wins build confidence.

KU football lost a 20-0 lead against Texas Tech on saturday, the only positive I got out of that was KU's jerseys were really cool.  They scored touchdowns on their first three possessions and I honestly thought they were going to run away with it.  KU's defense is just so bad though, they look like they are scared of hitting sometimes.  When you watch them you almost know that they are gonna give up a touchdown.  Their offense isn't bad but not good enough to carry the team.  I think they will win one more game this year, don't know when it will come, but they can't lose all of their conference games.

One last thing, I will write way more after a win than after a loss.  I just don't enjoy writing about negative things.