Imperfection

Two NFL teams dashed hopes for perfection yesterday. One ruined the perfection of glory. The other ruined the perfection of shame. What two teams are these? First, the Kansas City Chiefs, a team that six days prior fired their head coach after an embarrassing loss to the New York Jets. They dashed the hopes of the Green Bay Packers and ruined their perfect season with a 19-14 victory at home to stay in the AFC West chase.

While I find it odd that the Chiefs fired Todd Haley while they were still in the Playoff Hunt I find it more odd that the Chiefs continue to play after being given the proverbial 'your season is done' kiss of death. It's definitely a long shot for the Chiefs to make the Post-Season, which requires them to win out, Denver to lose out, Oakland and San Diego to only win a single game for them to make it via tiebreakers. Kansas City can make sure Oakland and Denver lose once each, but after that it's up to Denver to lose to Buffalo and for San Diego to lose to either Detroit or Oakland. While the AFC isn't the pinnacle of the league, it's definitely turned out to be a tight race. It's a shame that it could end at any moment, just like the winless season of the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts have had a terrible season and there's no way to say otherwise. They lost Peyton Manning for the entire season early on and lost their first 13 games going into Sunday like the Packers won their first 13 games. They've been blown out, they've lost close, lost leads late, and more often than not had their effort called into question given the likelihood they'd be drafting Andrew Luck first overall in the next NFL Entry Draft. Enter the Tennessee Titans, a team that just lost out on claiming the Colts' AFC South Crown for the second time in the past half decade, still looking for a Playoff berth. The Titans took a small lead into halftime, but didn't come out of the locker room for the second half as the Colts outscored them 24-7 to take their first victory of the season. For the Titans, it's demoralizing loss that will probably cost them a shot at the post-season. For the Colts, it was their Super Bowl.

The Colts have nothing to play for now. The Chiefs on the other hand do. While both teams ruined "perfection" on Sunday, no one will remember 12 months from now what they did. They say nobody's perfect, but for one Sunday, perfection was needed to deny these teams.