we beat those guys!

My favorite HBO special ever done was on the 1980 US Hockey team. Its just an incredible hour of television. If you've never seen it, you need to, its that inspiring. And my favorite moment, every time I watch it, is goalie Jim Craig's reaction after the biggest upset in sports history. Everyone else is running around (ok, skating around) like a chicken with its head cut off. The emotion in that building, I don't think its even possible to describe it.

Except for Jim Craig. Who initially just stays at the net, this goofy satisfied grin on his face ... and as he notes in his interview, "we beat those guys. The only thing I was thinking was, we beat those guys!"

We beat those guys. (steve starting to tear up ...) We beat those guys. Really, what more do you need to say?

We beat those guys.

Wow. Or, as Dave Armstrong would note, WOW!

I already blogged my immediate post-game thoughts yesterday, you can scroll down for those. Now for a few other thoughts ...

* I concurred with kicking the field goal on the first possession. When you haven't had a lead in 21 quarters, you take what you can get. Plus it was goal to go at the 4 1/2, 5 yard line. But the 2nd field goal infuriated me. And I wasn't alone, the boos reigning down were deafening. As well they should have been. You're 0-3. You haven't won a game in 344 days. You've got an unbeaten division leader, your hated rival, potentially on the ropes early, and you've got 4th and less than 1 at the 2. We had a chance to really strangle denver early, get them down 10 before they even got started. Instead, as I pointed out to Damien and Dusty, "Herm needs to ask Hillary to borrow her pair". Gutless football. I was p*ssed.

* denver's only touchdown, to give them the lead at 7-6, again, what an amazing throw and catch. cutler put it where only marshall could get it. But the play that made the touchdown possible, the 40 yard screen on 3rd and 18 ... inexcusable. To say I was angry at that play, is an understatement.

* the marshall fumble and return to the two. Holy crap, what a moment. denver had just stopped us, we'd punted for the first time. denver up 7-6, at midfield, poised to assert the control of the game many feared would happen. Then out of nowhere, DJ comes from behind, strips him, and Flowers takes off, nearly scoring, before being dragged down at the 2. I think that was the first moment it started to dawn on the crowd that "oh my goodness, we can win this thing".

* LJ's first touchdown ... I thought he scored on the leap on 1st down. But he left no doubt on 2nd down.

* and what did we see after that touchdown? To put us up 13-7? Streamers! They were flying out of the upper deck, just like the good old days! Awesome stuff. That was the first of many "tears in the eyes" moments for me.

* and if you think I'm joking about crying and tearing up yesterday, you've obviously never witnessed a denver broncos game with me. I can't describe my hatred for that team. Its not possible to put into words how much I, as a fan, needed that game yesterday. I know I take Chiefs games far too seriously, but denver ... denver's special to me. denver has added meaning. To beat them like we did, in the physical fashion we did, meant a lot to me.

* and how physical was our defense? Good Lord, I counted at least 5 donkeys who had to be escorted off the field with ailments of some kind. Jennifer kept texting "another broken donkey!" I loved it.

* halftime was horrid. The ksu marching band ... wearing pink t-shirts. I am not making that up, they wore pink t-shirts with purple band pants. Oh, and as Gregg pointed out, they had a flag boy. They had a dude doing the flag twirling along with the other flag girls. Or as Ty noted once I pointed out that observation, "guess we can drop the l out of flag for that guy".

* the denver guy who had to be taken off the field on the body board. There's some things that are tradition at that stadium, that really don't make a lot of sense to others who weren't there when said tradition first happened? That was one of those moments, when the "boo!" text message came in. (You can check out the Mitch Lyons Game in the 2008 Tailgating Glossary for an explanation). God I miss the old days sometimes. "Get off the field! BOO! BOO!"

* at 16-13 KC, we traded turnovers on back to back plays. Then, denver called a great rollout play for cutler. He had easily 15, 16 yards of wide open field in front of him. Only, for some idiotic reason, he chose to throw across his body, across the field, for a well covered brandon marshall. Brandon Carr leapt ... picked it off, and that place erupted again. I think that was the game-changing moment, because ...

* something you definitely could pick up on in the 2nd half: every stand only further emboldened the defense. They finally were getting some help from the offense, and they were clearly using that as motivation, a "wow, we don't have to run back 3 INTs today to have a chance to win". They played relaxed, if that makes sense, they actually could have confidence and trust in the game plan, because it was working. And it showed.

* underrated play of the day: 3rd and 9 near midfield, still 16-13 KC. As I noted when the teams lined up, "denver's in zone! They don't have enough guys on the left side of the formation! Either Bowe over the middle or Webb downfield, one of the two will be open!" Bowe wide open 16 yards downfield in the middle of the field. First down Chiefs. And to Chan Gailey's credit, he went right back to it when denver didn't adjust, when they kept 8 in the box playing a cover 2: Huard to Webb for 15. Huard to Bowe for 10, and then the end zone catch by Tony G. I thought Gailey in the second half really grasped what denver gave us, and he just throttled them with it. "You wanna play 8 in the box? Fine, we'll air it out. You adjust and go man? We'll pound it down your throats". A well called offensive game. With solid, competent adjustments. Its been at least 2005 since we witnessed one of those.

* how huge was the goalline stand on that drive? denver gets it to goal to go at the 7. Gain of nearly 5 on first down. Receiver falls down on 2nd down and drops the pass. And Flowers with a huge knockdown on 3rd down in my corner. Holding them to 3 there, huge.

* for all the b*tching about how the offense hasn't performed when it counts ... we had 3 offensive possessions in the 4th quarter yesterday. Touchdown to Gonzalez to get up 10. Field goal by Novak to get up by 10, and bleed nearly 5 minutes off the clock as well. Touchdown by LJ to go up 14 and seal the win.

* after the onside kick failed (and I would NOT have tried an onside kick there if I was denver, they still had two timeouts plus the two minute warning. Pin us deep and force the punt ...), after that failed, and LJ broke it ... the emotion in that building was just electric. And then, after the penalty made it 2nd and goal at the 16, just a simple little handoff designed to force denver to blow its last timeout, a simple draw up the middle ... that LJ somehow willed into a 16 yard scamper to the end zone. denver's tackling on that play was pathetic, granted, but when LJ is running with determination, like he has been since halftime of the Falcons game, I'll take my chances against anyone.

a couple other random thoughts before I get to my closing ...

* how awesome was it to see how dejected denver fan was? They showed up en masse yesterday, expecting a 40-10 victory. I can't even begin to express how much fun it was mocking them in the parking lot afterwards.

* and I wasn't even the worst one. Dusty was mercilessly taunting them. He even dropped the "how'd he do today! how'd your boy do today!" blast to someone in a darrent williams jersey. Not even I'm that classless (usually). I loved it. I absolutely f*cking loved it. Again, I cannot put into words how much I hate the denver broncos.

* finally, something Gregg pointed out to me this morning, and that I feel the need to expand on: the swagger of the defense yesterday. There's one moment I want to focus on in that regard.

Tony G has just scored to put us up 23-13 with about 12 minutes to go. The crowd is starting to really get into it. Great coverage on the kickoff, as the denver returner was tackled at his own 22.

The past few years, in that situation? The defense just takes the field. Its just another moment in the game. And it would fall on us in the stands to inform our defense of the magnitude of the moment, that this was a huge game-changing point and they'd better man up and come through.

Sunday, in that spot ... I'm tearing up again just typing this ... they got it. Our guys understood the magnitude of the moment. Tank Tyler standing over the ball, "raising the roof". Jarrad Page making the "pound the seat" motion. But the capper, the one that set me off, Bernard Pollard sprinting -- sprinting! -- around the west end zone, waving his arms, urging everyone to get loud, to be counted, to stand up! (Chuck, stand up Chuck! Oh, God love you, what am I talking about?!?!) That moment ... the last time I can recall any Chiefs defender showing emotion like that was "Brave" Bennie Sapp, after the final stand against denver on Thanksgiving Night 2006, grabbing a donkeys towel, standing on their bench, and waving it over his head in celebration. And that spectacle was after the play was over. Pollard was urging us on before the ball was snapped.

Seriously, when was the last time our defense showed emotion like that PRIOR to a drive? The late 90s, when DT and James Hasty and the last gasps of greatness from the middle of the decade were trying for one last championship push? Its been a long, long time since we had a defense that played with the passion, the emotion, the "leave every damned bit of energy we have on the field" focus we saw yesterday.

I don't know if yesterday was a fluke, one brief shining moment in a season filled with darkness ... or if yesterday was the start of something remarkable. I do know this: we beat those guys. We stood toe to toe with an unbeaten division leader that was nearly a double digit favorite in our stadium ... and we took them to the f*cking woodshed, and beat them like that government mule the Reverend Sharpton is still waiting to receive (along with his 40 acre, of course).

Yesterday ... we beat those guys!

Here's hoping the emotion, the passion, the precision and execution from yesterday, carries over into a very winnable roadie on Sunday in Charlotte. Because if it does, that Titans game in three weeks suddenly has importance for both teams on the field ...