Fortunately for us, the guys over at comedy troupe Landlocked Pioneers put together this spoof video of Orton bidding a fond farewell to Denver, with a dead ringer playing the role of a surly, beer-swilling Kyle … who is also clearly hurting inside:

“My rockin Neckbeard!!!

And living in Colorado, I can tell you that they nailed the local references to IKEA and the DIA “demon horse”. Awesome.

Unfortunately, the play was called back on offsetting penalties, and the Chiefs ultimately lost the game 17-10, but regardless, this is one of the most incredible grabs you’ll ever see:

[via CosbySweaters]

Chiefs LB Andy Studebaker recovers Rivers epic blunder (Photo: Yahoo.com)

With just over a minute to play in regulation during last night’s Chargers-Chiefs game, Philip Rivers apparently got a case of the Halloween spooks.

After rallying to tie the game at 20-20, Rivers had his team deep in Chiefs territory and was planning on taking a knee to set up a game-winning field goal attempt. But as the Chargers QB stepped under center for the routine snap, something strange happened:

VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

Ouch … clearly the fumble was all on Rivers, and that’s the type of mistake that can haunt a guy for his entire life.

In overtime, Ryan Succop kicked the game-winning field goal for the Chiefs, completing the nightmare for Rivers, and putting Kansas City in a 3-way tie for first place in the AFC West.

“We were saying, ‘Don’t quit,’” Studebaker said. “You never quit, even if it looks ugly. If you quit every time something looks ugly, you miss an opportunity to do something special.”

And now we’ll look to see if Rivers can mentally recover from what has to be one of the most devastating losses of his career. Afterward the QB stood alone the sideline, but could be seen saying aloud, “That was the worst thing ever”.

BONUS PIC – Chargers NT Antonio Garay was definitely in the Halloween spirit last night … check out the hairdo:

(Photo: Yahoo.com)

Bowe is an early contender for catch of the year (AP Photo/AJ Mast via google.com)

Here are a couple of the most impressive plays from today’s early games, if not the early part of the season, with the Chiefs’ Dwayne Bowe and Giants’ Victor Cruz making a pair of impressive juggling grabs for touchdowns.

Watch this amazing 5-yard snag by Bowe with a defender draped all over him. Bowe had 128 yards and 2 TDs in the Chiefs 28-24 win over the Colts:

WATCH CRUZ’ CIRCUS CATCH AFTER THE JUMP

And just when you thought we had seen the best catch of the day, here comes Cruz’ 68-yard leaping, juggling, one-handed circus grab from Eli Manning in the Giants 36-25 loss to the Seahawks.  

Cruz, who has already been at the center of quite a few big plays in his young career, finished the day with 161 yards and 1 TD receiving, but also had a fumble and a costly tipped ball on the game-winning interception for Seattle.

Sunday confirmed Indy's worst fears. (Source: NBCSports.com)

Week 1 in the NFL is a lock to produce its share of over-the-top, knee-jerk reactions. Half the league’s fan base wakes up Monday morning feeling great about themselves — and life. The other half are looking around the house for sharp objects. The meaningless preseason has given way to real games, and losses can’t be shrugged off — for some teams, Sunday was a reality check. Here’s a look at yesterday’s biggest losers:

5t. Cleveland (27-17 to Cincinnati): Extremely disappointing for the Browns. Cleveland has won only ONE opener since 1999, despite hosting every one of those games. With their new pass-oriented attack run by Colt McCoy, the Browns looked poised to take a step up in the AFC North — instead, they’re 0-1 after dropping a stinker to Cincy, who many considered worst team in football.

5t. New York Giants (28-14 to Washington): Every other team in this division gets massive media hype, but Washington could end up surprising. They’re immediately dismissed because Rex Grossman‘s at quarterback, but the Shanahans love this kid, and he performed yesterday. For the (heavily banged-up) Giants, a loss that raises more questions about Eli Manning, but not earth-shattering. They played even in the first half and, more importantly, this is a team that does not give up.

4. Kansas City (41-7 to Buffalo): A nightmare opener for the Chiefs, who were as lifeless as they appeared during a tumultuous preseason. Last year’s 10-6 team looked hundreds of miles away.

3. Dallas (27-24 to New York Jets): The Cowboys ended this one in embarrassing fashion, but it was the loss of their starting three corners for most of the second half that allowed Mark Sanchez to find his receivers (including the tedious Plaxico Burress) and climb back in. It’s a bitter defeat for Dallas, but they looked fantastic defensively early on, and there’s reason for hope here. Jason Garrett is putting together a team that could (or should, at least) defeat anyone else on this list.

2. Pittsburgh (35-7 to Baltimore): Are the Steelers in trouble? Not yet. The team has climbed out of bigger holes than this. The team is aging, yes, but they are among the best-coached squads in the game. The Ravens wanted this one more — and it showed.

1. Indianapolis (34-7 to Houston): Nobody picked Indy to go anywhere without Peyton Manning, but Sunday’s trainwreck was clear confirmation that the Colts are in jeopardy without their all-everything quarterback. Granted, it’s going to take Kerry Collins time to learn the offense, but there was very little, if anything, to be hopeful about in this one.

(Photo: Reuters)

Anybody who spends any significant amount of time watching the NFL (or playing fantasy football for that matter) quickly comes to realize how big of an impact injuries can have on a team’s season. So much so that over the years, I’ve fallen firmly in the camp that injuries – and more importantly how back-ups perform in the inevitable case of injury to big-time players on both sides of the ball – are the single most important factor for a team’s success. Everything else can seemingly go out the window if the cornerstone of your offense goes down and nobody steps up to replace him. Add in the loss of leadership on the field, and there can be a domino effect that takes an irreparable toll on the entire team.

(Image: FootballOutsiders.com)

Well, the guys over at Football Outsiders put together an interesting statistical breakdown which might blow my theory right to hell. Or not. This table breaks down the total number of games lost by each team, and as you’ll see, this year’s playoff teams are all over the map. The most startling difference can be found in the NFC Championship opponents. The Packers came in second league-wide with 83 total games missed, while the Bears are tied for dead last with just 11. Meanwhile, the Steelers are middle-of-the-pack with 49, and the Jets got off relatively easy with 38 starter games missed.

In all, 4 of the 5 most injured teams, along with the three least injured teams made the playoffs this season. The remaining five playoff teams (Pats, Steelers, Ravens, Jets, Saints) are somewhere in the middle, and the Colts clearly got the worst of the injury bug this year. So what do we learn from this? Mainly it proves that a team can overcome injuries and still make a run at the post-season. It’s just a matter of having capable back-ups. At the same time, we can also see that some teams who weren’t necessarily expected to be contenders this season (Chiefs, Bears, etc.) benefited from staying healthy.

It should be noted that this breakdown isn’t statistically perfect. It only takes into account 22 starters on each team per game (11 offense, 11 defense), and most teams use more players than that regularly on each side of the ball. Also, it doesn’t take into account injuries to multiple starters at the same position (see the New Orleans Saints RBs). But perhaps most importantly, the table doesn’t assign any value to the importance of the player injured or the total number of games missed by that player. Losing someone like Sidney Rice, Ryan Grant or Ed Reed for much of the season is a far more significant injury than losing a 2-down linebacker for a few games here or there.

So, while this table may be interesting to look at, it doesn’t really give us the full picture. It would probably take a much deeper analysis than I’m capable of (hint hint, Football Outsiders math wizards) to show which teams really faced the most overall adversity due to injury.

(Photo: Baltimore Sun)

Ravens S Ed Reed has long been one of the game’s most ferocious hitters, and most respected defensive players. But on Sunday, as Baltimore traveled to Kansas City for their Wild Card playoff match-up, Reed found himself with a heavy heart, and he wasn’t quite sure how he was going to handle it. You see, Reed’s brother Brian disappeared on Friday and is presumed dead from drowning after jumping into the Mississippi River while being chased by police in Louisiana.

After much introspection, Reed decided that his brother would have wanted him to play, and with his family’s support, took the field against the Chiefs with Brian’s spirit in mind. And during the second quarter, Reed took his emotions out on Chiefs RB Dexter McCluster, who was hung out to dry by Matt Cassell on this swing pass:

The hit came at a fairly critical point (on 3rd and 8 with KC moving the ball), and afterward, head coach John Harbaugh credited the play as the turning point in the game.  In recognition of his effort, the Ravens also honored Reed with the game ball in the locker room, which made for an emotional scene post-game:

“This ball is for your family, in memory of your brother,” Derrick Mason said, as he passed the ball to Ed Reed, who choked up as he accepted it on behalf of his family and brother.

“My family will really appreciate this,” Reed said. “So would my brother. My brother would want us to beat Pittsburgh.”

Afterward, Reed said that he took comfort in the game and being around his teammates. He also said that his family helped him keep focused on the job at hand.

Sadly, the search for Reed’s brother was called off this morning.

WATCH VIDEO OF THE RAVENS LOCKER-ROOM CEREMONY AFTER THE JUMP

(Photo: KCStar.com)

The Kansas City Chiefs clinched their first division championship in seven years today with an impressive 34-14 win over the Tennessee Titans. The Bengals helped the Chiefs out by downing the Chargers, but KC did their part to secure the division title, opening up a 31-7 halftime lead and not looking back.

Matt Cassel led the way with 314 yards and 3TDs, while Dwayne Bowe had 153 yards receiving, including this 75-yard second quarter strike from Cassel:

The win completed the best turnaround in franchise history for Kansas City. In just his second season at the helm, Todd Haley’s club went from 4-12 last year to 10 wins (so far) in 2010. And those ten wins equal the total number of wins in the Chiefs’ previous three seasons combined … so it looks like Haley and GM Scott Pioli‘s plan to resurrect the Chiefs seems to be working.

Yeah, I know, neither of these guys are exactly marquee names … but that’s because for the first time ever, this week’s HOTW comes from a special teams play!  Exciting, right? We’re not big fans of showing tiny punters get blindsided by linebackers or anything, but this play involves two big guys running straight at one another, resulting in a monumental collision.

Watch here as Kansas City lines up for an onside kick attempt against Denver, and Joe Mays (a back up LB for the Broncos) delivers a devastating block on Chiefs TE Moeaki.  Moeaki – who has been a nice surprise as a rookie for KC this year – gets his bell rung pretty badly by Mays. And in case you weren’t sure, as he gets up, Tony does a little dance to show just how much damage his brain suffered on the play:

Of course, the immediate question in today’s NFL is whether or not Mays led with his head.  Tough to tell from the clip, but it looks like he went in straight up, and Moeaki may have turned his head at the last second, and got ear-holed. So far, there hasn’t been any word of a fine from the league on the play.

Moeaki has been diagnosed with a concussion by team doctors (gee whiz, ya think?!?), and was held out of practice on Wednesday.  He’ll most likely be listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Cardinals.

Tim Tebow continues to cast his spell over the NFL (Getty Image via Zimbio)

The Broncos never really gave the Chiefs a chance in Denver today, jumping out to a quick 21-0 lead before the end of the 1st quarter, and not letting up from there. Denver went on to an impressive 49-29 win, led by Kyle Orton’s 4 TD, 296 yard (0 INT) performance.

But the big story of the day in Denver was – as per usual – rookie QB Tim Tebow. Earlier this week we learned from CNBC that Tebow’s jersey was still #1 in the league, despite the fact that he had only played sparingly as a pro. But today, Tebow gave his fans even more reason to slobber all over him, throwing his first NFL pass which resulted in a 1-yard touchdown to FB Spencer Larsen.

WATCH TEBOW’S FIRST NFL TD PASS HERE

Tebow also ran for a 1-yard score earlier in the game, making him 2-for-2 on the only plays he was in the game. Say what you want about the guy, but his efficiency has been absolutely unbelievable … every time he touches the ball he seems to score.  Granted, he only gets in the game on goal line packages, but you can’t argue with the results. Josh McDaniels is finding ways to make Tebow effective, so even if he couldn’t possibly run the entire offense right now, you have to consider the Tebow experiment to be a success so far.

BONUS SUPER-AWESOME POST-GAME DRAMA: From Chiefs HC Todd Haley, who refused to shake McDaniels’ hand after the game.  Instead, he wagged his finger at McDaniels, scolded him with a few choice words and walked away.

Haley gives McDaniels a thorough finger-wagging after the game (Image via MileHighReport)

When asked about the incident, Haley simply said that it was “private” and tried to change the subject. From the Denver Post:

“That’s a private time between head coaches,” Haley said. “The main thing was I thought our team played hard up to the end.

Haley said he saw some things on the Denver sideline as the time ran out that he didn’t appreciate.

The most logical explanation would be that Haley took offense that McDaniels kept his starters in so long and kept chucking the ball downfield, well after they had the game in the bag. But unless Josh was flashing his nuts at the Chiefs sideline as time expired, Haley needs to suck it up and shake the guy’s hand. It’s a division rivalry … get used to it.

WATCH VIDEO OF TODD HALEY SCOLDING JOSH MCDANIELS AFTER THE JUMP

From the Mile High Report:

The win snaps a 4-game skid for the Broncos (3-6), who will likely find more ways to get their rookie sensation on the field moving forward … especially once they’re mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.  Even if Denver doesn’t end up winning any more games, they’ll at least move a few more million dollars worth of Tebow jerseys.  So that’s nice … right?