It wasn’t, you know, the Super Bowl, but the Chiefs did, mind you, beat – nay, embarrass – the NFL betting favourite titleholders. The Nature Boy Ric Flair used to say that to be the man, you gotta beat the man, but isn’t it a bit early to name, as does the WaPo’s Neil Greenberg, the Chiefs Super Bowl contenders? Greenberg, however, is not, as many most likely did the morning after, so much jumping into KC’s bandwagon, as he is, having gone on record prior to Thursday night’s online NFL betting upset, the wagoner.
“The one team that should be taken more seriously as a title contender is the Kansas City Chiefs,” Greenberg wrote. Well, if they weren’t, before stunning the Patriots, taken seriously, they sure are now. Curiously, though, Greenberg didn’t seem, when he wrote “[the Chiefs] won’t be the favorite to start the season 1-0,” to have too much faith in Kansas City. Eh, maybe he was just talking out of his derriere the entire time. The point remains that, not only did the Chiefs outplayed the Pats, but they also, in the process of doing so, out-falconed the Falcons.
Those clamoring for rookie Patrick Mahomes to take over from Alex Smith, will have, to put it bluntly, not unlike those hyping a 19-0 Patriots record, to put a sock in it. Smith is, as NFL betting fans know, not a deep passer. His passing is like, for lack of a better comparison, Virgil Starkwell playing the cello in a marching band. Smith did, nonetheless, with his stop-start approach, record 368 yards and four touchdowns, while completing, out of 35 attempts, 25 passes. Smith’s confidence may have gotten a boost from his new helmet that, though oversized, is not a hairmet – which it’s got extra room built in so you don’t mess up your hairdo – nor is it inspired by Spaceballs’ Dark Helmet, but is instead designed for enhanced shock-absorption, and is, according to Business Insider, “considered the safest helmet in the NFL.”
The ZERO1 is catching on at Arrowhead. https://t.co/rOUgWVQ8YM
— VICIS (@VicisPro) August 25, 2017
Two of Smith’s scoring passes went to rookie Kareem Hunt, who, from scrimmage, that is, combining both receiving and rushing, gained more yards, 256, than any player since, in 1970, the AFL NFL merged. Little did we know that Hunt, like a tennis player winning a Grand Slam tournament after dropping the very first set, would, after fumbling on his first professional carry, put up a performance for the ages.
The only fly in the Chiefs’ ointment is safety Eric Berry’s potentially torn Achilles tendon, which, all things considered, is, compared to Hodgkin lymphoma, with which Berry was diagnosed in 2014, not really all that bad. “I don’t think it’s positive [news],” opined, nevertheless, KC head coach Andy Reid. “We’ll see what the MRI shows.” Well, it usually shows images of the organs in the body, but that’s not important right now. Berry had, before being carted off the field in the fourth quarter, seven – four solo – tackles. Other than that, the Chiefs, as do their fans, find themselves currently in NFL betting Cloud Nine.