From the FanPosts. Great stuff here. -Joel

With the recent news of the Chiefs vs. Broncos game in Week 12 being flexed to the Sunday Night Football slot, there's obviously some mixed emotions about whether we should be excited or feel doom and gloom about being in a primetime slot to watch our team.

The immediate sentiment is "Well damn this team hasn't done well in primetime football for a while, so I'm not really sure I like this." On the other hand, some are more glad our team is doing well enough to get flexed for the primetime slot, and give our team a chance to redeem themselves in front of a wide audience to gain the respect they feel they deserve. Being a small market team, sometimes the media and those talking about the team don't always give them the respect (or attention) Chiefs fans feel they deserve when they're fielding a good team. Of course, our results on primetime the past decade or so haven't really proven to as many NFL fans in general that we're a team that should be respected.

To put it in context, it's not just the fact we're 10-18 in primetime games (including playoff games) since the 2004 season that has me worried (I'll get to that in the next paragraph). 2004 was one year after the magical 2003 season where the Chiefs went 13-3, had all kinds of offensive talent in Priest Holmes, Tony Gonzalez, Trent Green, a great offensive line, and even a great blocking fullback and tight end with Tony Richardson & Jason Dunn. There was also the magic of Dante Hall to boot with the special teams, and that gave us a special team at least for that one year even though we lost in the playoffs. At the very least, we were more than competitive and scoring points to match a Peyton Manning led offense come time in the playoffs, only to be let down by a porous defense. We had Hall of Fame talent and performance on that team, and unfortunately one side of the ball was just too deficient on talent to overcome in the late season stretch.

Ever since after that magical 2003 season, we haven't fielded a record better than 11-5, and have won the AFC West only a single time and have only one playoff win. And in the context of those primetime wins & losses, there's a lot to look at of who we beat, and who we lost to. Some games are too important to lose for things like playoff positioning, tiebreakers, momentum, etc. One primetime loss in 2015 was even so demoralizing it affected the team for the next 2 weeks, which were losses where we got heavily outplayed by playoff teams.

Here's a list of all our primetime games since 2004, including the final records of the teams we played. I'll take note of some notable things to observe with bullet points after showing the results.

Primetime from the 2004 season - Present (2016): 10-18 (including playoff games)

2004 (7-9 overall, 2-2 in primetime)

L 24-34 @ Denver Broncos (10-6)

W 27-24 @ Baltimore Ravens (9-7)

L 19-27 vs. New England Patriots (14-2)

W 49-38 @ Tennessee Titans (5-11)

2005 (10-6 overall, 2-1 in primetime)

W 23-17 @ Oakland Raiders (4-12)

L 30-10 @ Denver Broncos (13-3)

W 45-17 @ Houston Texans (2-14)

2006 (9-7 overall, 1-2 in primetime)

W 19-10 vs. Denver Broncos (9-7)

L 9-20 @ San Diego Chargers (14-2) (NBC SNF)

L 8-23 @ Indianapolis Colts (12-4) (Playoffs)

2007 (4-12 overall)

No Primetime Games

2008 (2-14 overall)

No Primetime Games

2009 (4-12 overall)

No Primetime Games

2010 (10-6 overall, 1-1 in primetime)

W 21-14 vs. San Diego Chargers (9-7)

L 7-30 vs. Baltimore Ravens (12-4) (Playoffs)

2011 (7-9 overall, 1-2 in primetime)

W 23-20 vs. San Diego Chargers (8-8)

L 3-34 @ New England Patriots (13-3)

L 9-13 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers (12-4) (NBC SNF)

2012 (2-14 overall, 0-2 in primetime)

L 13-31 @ San Diego Chargers (7-9)

L 13-16 @ Pittsburgh Steelers (8-8)

2013 (11-5 overall, 1-2 in primetime)

W 26-16 @ Philadelphia Eagles (10-6)

L 17-27 @ Denver Broncos (13-3) (NBC SNF)

L 44-45 @ Indianapolis Colts (11-5) (Playoffs)

2014 (9-7 overall, 1-2 in primetime)

W 41-14 vs. New England Patriots (12-4)

L 20-24 @ Oakland Raiders (3-13)

L 16-29 vs. Denver Broncos (12-4) (NBC SNF)

2015 (11-5 overall, 1-3 in primetime)

L 24-31 vs. Denver Broncos (12-4)

L 28-38 @ Green Bay Packers (10-6)

W 30-0 @ Houston Texans (9-7) (Playoffs)

L 20-27 @ New England Patriots (12-4) (Playoffs)

2016 (Ongoing, 7-2 overall, 0-1 in primetime)



L 14-43 @ Pittsburgh Steelers (4-5) (NBC SNF)

So yeah, you may have noticed things don't usually go in our favor when playing the good teams in these sorts of games. Here are the bullet points to look at.

Primetime record against teams with winning records from 2004-2015: 6-14

Primetime record against playoff teams from 2004-2015: 3-14

Primetime record against teams better than 9-7 from 2004-2015: 2-14

Primetime record on NBC's Sunday Night Football from 2006 - 2016 (present): 0-5

Primetime record against the Denver Broncos from 2004-2015: 1-5

Primetime record against the Denver Broncos on NBC's Sunday Night Football from 2013-2014: 0-2

As is so painfully obvious from the numbers shown, the Chiefs struggle to win against good teams in primetime, and struggle mightily to get wins against the Broncos in primetime. They're also winless in Sunday Night Football games, as well as being 0-3 in games which were flexed to feature the Chiefs (they failed to score more than 17 points in any of those 3 contests).

The 1 win against the Broncos in primetime? The Thursday Night Thanksgiving game Lamar Hunt so desperately wanted and got before he eventually passed away. So the win we did get was really nice, and I also happened to be in attendance for that game back when I was in high school. It was sweet, Larry Johnson had a 100 yard game, Dante Hall nearly took a kick return all the way, Trent Green was finally returning from his concussion (we were all hopeful at the time he would be the usual Trent Green going forward, didn't turn out that way in the end).

But of course that's only one game, though it's the only primetime game I've ever had the chance to attend so far in my life.

The big problem here is how we've done against contenders playing in the spotlight, and needing to win those important contests for a possible division crown or merely getting into the playoffs. We lost to the Chargers in 2006 when we had a good team. We lost to the Broncos in 2005 when we had a good team. We lost to the Broncos in 2013 when we had a good team. Same thing in 2014 and 2015 against the Broncos. Had we simply won at least one of those times against the Broncos from 2013-2015, we could have ended up

Making the playoffs in 2014

Winning the division in 2013

Starting 2-0 in 2015, and without the demoralizing loss that affected the team in weeks 3 & 4. At minimum we sweep the Broncos and win the division in 2015.

Those 3 games sure made a big difference in the playoff positioning for the Chiefs, and 2 of those 3 contests were at home. We simply got beat and didn't show up when it mattered most, and the same could be said of how we do in the playoffs with our lone win coming against a mediocre 9-7 Texans team winning a weak AFC South in 2015.

Simply put, we have to do better at beating the great teams on the big stage. There's no way around it really. The 3 wins against playoff teams in primetime dating back to 2004 are in 2013 against the 10-6 Eagles, 2014 against the 12-4 Patriots who won the Superbowl, and 2015 against the 9-7 Texans in the Wild Card playoff win. 3 wins total, over about 12 years of football. The Monday Night shellacking of the Patriots was great granted, but it's still only one game. They won the Superbowl that year while we still didn't make the playoffs, and we lost to a then winless Raiders team on a Thursday Night game later that year (that was embarrassing).

So while it's great to have a feather in your cap beating a great team that won the Superbowl on the primetime stage, that's really the only notable primetime win we've had since the 90s. Even in 2003 when we had a great team, the teams we played in primetime weren't very good that year though we at least went ahead and won those games like we were supposed to.

I just wish, personally, that we had the consistency of teams that generally make a playoff run, and win key games during the season that allow them to have home playoff games. If you don't win your division, your chances of a home playoff game as a 5 seed are pretty shaky at best. The 6 seed would essentially have to beat the 3 seed and the 1 seed for you to have a home playoff game, though with how the AFC West looks this year that might not be too farfetched. But regardless, I'd rather just win the division outright and at least earn the 2 seed, extra rest plus a home playoff game for the fans to provide homefield advantage.

Where am I going with this? Well, primetime games generally involve divisional games, or games against what are considered to be prime contending teams (or both). Primetime games aren't just for show, they're also quite important for your team to win even if playing against a lesser team.

Since 2004 whenever the Chargers or Broncos have fielded a team better than a middling 9-7 record, we've lost to them in every game played in primetime. Every, damn, game.

Double digit wins for the Chargers and Broncos has pretty much spelled doom in the past playing against them on the big stage. The Raiders for a while were of course, not very good. But that didn't stop us from losing to them in 2014 either (that cost us a playoff spot ultimately).

I don't think it bears a reminder, but I may as well go ahead and say it. The upcoming game against the Broncos may be the most important game of the season. We hardly ever play well against them at Mile High. We're 1-5 in primetime games against them the past 12 years. We've never won a Sunday Night Football game since it's been on NBC. We have a way of stalling on offense playing in primetime, and Smith's recent game against the Panthers wasn't even average.

Ultimately, if we want to be the king of the AFC West, we've got to win these big contests in the spotlight starting now. And we have to make sure we're not looking ahead to the Broncos like we did in 2014 when the then winless Raiders beat us a week earlier. The Buccaneers aren't a great team, but it's still a game we could lose if our offense comes out flat again and puts all the pressure on the defense.

Will we go 14-2? Probably not, unless the defense plays insanely good when Justin Houston returns. Even then, 12-4 is probably a more reasonable prediction and that would probably still be good enough to win the division as long as our games against the Broncos and Raiders go well. A loss against an NFC opponent like the Buccaneers or the Falcons wouldn't prevent us from winning the division. Nor would losing to an average Titans team that's on the outside looking in for the playoff picture.

4 of our final 6 games are divisional games, and those are the ones that count and act as 2 game swings with a win or a loss. Those are where the tiebreakers come in too. You know what else? With the Chiefs vs. Broncos game in 2 weeks being flexed to primetime, 3 of the Chief's final 6 games are in primetime, all 3 of them divisional games. Oh fellow Chiefs fans, save me from this madness known as primetime meltdowns.

To sum it up: I just want a damn win for once.