The Early Years Tournament: Round 1, Heat 3.

[Rain Man]

Hoo boy. This is a heavyweight Round 1 matchup.

2018 - Week 2 - W 42-37 over PIT
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...1809160pit.htm
Chiefs 1-0 / Steelers 0-0-1

Who is this kid? WHO IS THIS KID! Six touchdown passes to five different receivers for Patrick Mahomes in his second start of the 2018 season. Chris Jones also scored a touchdown, but it was called back because refs hate Chris Jones. Roethlisberger had 452 passing yards but was clearly the second-best QB on the field.



2019 - Week 17 - W 31-21 over LAC
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...1912290kan.htm
Chiefs 11-4 / Chargers 5-10

The Chiefs needed this game for a shot at the #2 seed. The Chiefs came through and Fitzmagic came through. But so many other things happened in this game. We saw two of Damien Williams' greatest runs. Mecole had a 100+ yard kickoff return touchdown. Patrick was great but didn't have a dominant game. The defense harrassed Rivers with 2 ints and 3 sacks, and Butker was 4-4 on field goals. This was a prelude to the playoffs featuring Playoff Frank, Playoff Damien, a long pass to Tyreek, a game-changing kick return, and on and on.



Round 1 will have 32 heats. The rules are here:

Spoiler!

With inspiration from Chiefspants' postseason tournament and suggestions by Hammock Parties and Wazu, we'll run a tournament this offseason to identify our favorite regular season Chiefs win of the Mahomes era.

As a little bit of background and rules, read the below:

1. The Mahomes era is defined as the era since Mahomes took the field in a regular season game. So we'll only consider wins that occurred in the final week of the 2017 season or later.

2. We're not considering the rare games where the Chiefs ended the game with fewer points than their opponents. Those games aren't fun. (Note: no games against the broncos were eliminated as a result of this rule)

3. We thought there were 64 wins in the tournament, but there are actually 65 wins. Mahomes has won 64 games as a starter, but the Chiefs also won a game against the Vikings in 2019 where Mahomes didn't start, and we can't possibly leave that win out.

4. Because we have 65 wins, the tournament will begin with a play-in of two randomly selected games.

5. This will be a single-elimination tournament. All seedings will be random. Don't blame me if your two favorite games get pitted against each other early.

6. I'll include a short summary but will probably miss awesome plays or key points. Feel free to add to the narrative by watching the highlights and reviewing the game stats that I'll provide.

7. At the heart of the issue, we acknowledge that every win is our favorite win, and no win is superior to any other in the win column.

8. We recognize that we have hundreds more games coming up in the Mahomes era, and they will be even better if such a thing is possible. Therefore, we will term this "The Early Years" tournament.

[Chiefspants]

Should it come down to whether this was the better Mahomes performance or whether the game was more important for our franchise? I'll have to think on this one and come back.

What a great early round fight.

[DJay23]

Steelers game only because its the only Chiefs game I had gotten to go to in over a decade.

[Rain Man]

Yowza. These are notable games.

The Chargers game was an eerie premonition to the playoffs if you watch it. It was peak Damien Williams, and the receivers were amazing. The defense harassed Rivers nonstop and Hitchens was a tackling machine. The Chargers focused on shutting down Mahomes and actually slowed him down a lot, controlling the time of possession by a large margin. But the Chiefs had the speed machine going full throttle, and then when you throw in a dash of Fitzmagic, that was a great week to be a football fan.

But gee whiz, I have to pick the Pittsburgh game. I just gotta. That game was Michaelangelo bringing us from the Dark Ages. That game was D-Day when legions of Chiefs fans were liberated from our NFL oppressors. That game was listening to Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time on the new Queen album. I don't care that it was early in the season. I don't care that it didn't lead to a Super Bowl win. I don't care that the defense was getting torched all day. That game was a new sheriff coming into town.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by Chiefspants

Should it come down to whether this was the better Mahomes performance or whether the game was more important for our franchise? I'll have to think on this one and come back.

What a great early round fight.

I'm voting based on which game I enjoyed the most. Of course, Mahomes plays a role in that, but I'm looking at the overall game.

[WhawhaWhat]

Went with the Steelers game. This was when you knew that the Chargers game the week before wasn't an anomaly and just the Chargers being the Chargers. They had something here that had tons of potential. I think the 49ers game the week after was when you knew the something they had was going to be special.

[smithandrew051]

****ing hate the Stoolers. That game was epic. More TDs than incomplete passes.

Boner fuel.

[raybec 4]

Chargers game for me, it was the game that clinched homefield advantage for the playoffs and Harlan did the epic call of both games at the same time.