A Simple Explanation Of Sunday’s Loss

Twenty-two players could wind up on next week’s injury report. The Kansas City Chiefs shot themselves in the foot repeatedly on Sunday. The 22-17 loss to the San Francisco 49ers stings because it was a game that was theirs for the taking. Instead, the Chiefs will head into the bye week at 2-3 with a road game at San Diego just on the other side. All things considered, this is where I expected Kansas City to be at the break. While the team has proven they can play with any team in the NFL, in any setting, I have a hard time believing that anyone will be smiling at One Arrowhead Drive this week.

Reid and company missed a golden opportunity to do a complete 180 from a disastrous start to the year. Had the Chiefs won, they’d be riding high into Qualcomm on two straight road wins. Now they’ll be faced with a “must win” game against arguably the best team in the division. The Chargers steam rolled Jets 31-0 over the weekend.

The Bolts are now 4-1 and should have all the confidence in the world drawing an inconsistent, young divisional rival in two weeks. It’s impossible to know how this team will rebound. They have a lot to think about over the next week. For now, let’s take a look at what went wrong on Sunday.

1. Refusing to run in short yardage situations 

There were three crucial downs where Kansas City needed only one yard to move the chains on Sunday. Two of them were 3rd & 1 situations. On one particular drive, the Chiefs had two downs to obtain that yard. In those three plays, Reid thrice threw the football.

With perhaps the league’s best lead blocker and running back tandem at his disposal, Reid dialed up pass plays that failed and subsequently ended two promising drives. He’s often come under fire for his situational coaching, and I suspect that he always will. Had either of those offensive series continued, there’s a good chance the Chiefs put more points on the board. After dropping the game to San Francisco by only five points on Sunday, you can’t help but wonder how much those two mistakes contributed to the loss.

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