This Week in Techniques for Winning Ugly

TWiTfWU dissects the Buffalo-Kansas City thriller. This time I am not being facetious in saying that this game was riveting, since it truly came down to the last second. However, some say that the journey is more important than the destination. I don't think that anyone would have signed up for this "journey," which lasted for 75 minutes, across two seasons of Lost, and through the midterm elections. Since a team's score is a monotonically increasing function, one might guess that the score of this expedition would be in the 75--71 type of range (or for those accustomed to watching the Big 12 South: 164--137). The baker's dozen of fans that survived this game without missing their annual dentist appointment will attest that the final tally was a mere 13--10. Over 700 yards of offense resulted in 2 touchdowns and 3 field goals. What's even worse is that there was only one turnover. I'm still not sure how both teams managed to march up and down the field, without turning the ball over, and still failed to score more than 24 points.

In spite of the concerted efforts from both teams to leave Arrowhead undefeated yesterday, fortune would not be so kind as to award a rare tie (don't tell Donovan McNabb about the even rarer double OT). Skipping right ahead to the extra frame, KC kicker Ryan Succop missed a sub-40 yard FG, a relative gimme in the NFL, due to swirling winds in the stadium. Bills kicker Ryan Lindell was able to make a 53 yarder in OT, but the Chiefs had called a timeout before the kick (obviously he missed the real try). Finally, the clock gods had mercy on us all and Succop celebrated by hitting a high draw through the uprights from 35 yards to steal the victory from the jaws of a tie.

Moral of the story: if you're going to play ugly, at least do it against the Bills, so you can still win.