For years the Kansas City Chiefs have been pushed around by the more physical teams in the NFL. That ended Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Kansas City Chiefs didn’t just beat the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday; they dominated them and I loved every last second of it.
Maybe it was because I was worried about the Chiefs facing such a dominant defense on a short week (and in questionable weather, too). Maybe it was because we’ve seen previous Chiefs teams get pushed around by the bullies of the NFL on more occasions than I care to count. Regardless of the reason, KC’s 30-14 dismantling of the Jaguars was one of the most satisfying wins I’ve had the privilege to watch at Arrowhead.
After the game I saw a lot of negatuve reactions to the ejections of Chris Jones and Dee Ford. I understand where those people are coming from. The Chiefs have to be able to keep their heads and not lose control. However, I didn’t hate it as much as many people did.
Why?
Because the Chiefs for the first time in many years stood up to the bully. Not only did they stand up to them they punched them in the mouth and then just kept putting it on them.
Does that make it okay for Jones and Ford to lose their composure? No, it doesn’t, but speaking as someone that was in the stadium, that defense wasn’t going to get pushed around today. During timeouts they were jumping up and down, egging on the crowd noise and firing each other up. The same chip on their shoulder that inspired their best performance to date also led to those penalties.
The mindset was right. The control was just a little lacking.
Hopefully Andy Reid will use this as a chance to teach his team that the attitude was right but they just need to be smarter. That’s certainly the impression you get from this post game quote about the ejections.
Andy Reid said his team needs to be smarter (regarding ejections) but added that “nobody’s going to push us around, anywhere.”
— Chiefs Reporter (@ChiefsReporter) October 7, 2018
The Jaguars clearly came in expecting to be the physical aggressor. They expected the Chiefs with their high powered passing attack and pourous defense to be a finesse team that they could push around on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
The Kansas City Chiefs had other plans.
They weren’t going to be pushed around. They certainly weren’t going to allow the Jaguars to laugh at them like Telvin Smith did earlier this week. If I’m being honest, I even doubted them when I picked them to lose a close physical game coming off a short week. The Chiefs track record said that they didn’t handle the really physical games well. The Chiefs heard that message loud and clear and decided they were going to do something about it.
If you don’t want to take it from me, that’s fine. How about from the Chiefs own head athletic trainer that works with the team every day?
I believe that if you are challenged, told you can’t do it and someone attempts to push you around, that you stand up for yourself. Congrats @Chiefs. Well done men!
— Rick Burkholder (@proatc) October 7, 2018
That means something. An employee of the team doesn’t tweet something like that out unless this game really meant something to the team. Every game in the NFL means something. Every win is valuable, but sometimes a win makes a statement. Sometimes that statement is to the opposing team, the fans or even the national media. Other times, the most important statement a team can make is one to one another. That’s what they did on Sunday when they finally out-bullied the bully. The knowledge that they can should only fuel this team going forward.
So you can be mad at Chris Jones and Dee Ford if you want to. You can criticize Andy Reid and say he didn’t have control of the team. I won’t, though. I’m thrilled with how the Chiefs played on Sunday, not despite of their confrontational nature but because of it.
The Jaguars were still trying to establish themselves as the bully after the game ended.
Telvin Smith just shoved Sammy Watkins after the game.
— Hays Carlyon (@HaysCarlyon) October 7, 2018
They still couldn’t believe that they had been manhandled and dominated by a team they thought they could push around, a team that they laughed at. Once the game was over and the realization of what had just happened sunk in at least one Jaguar was finally willing to give credit where credit was due.
This quote is from a piece by Yahoo’s always fantastic Terez Paylor:
"“If I was a betting man, I’d say that in years past, the AFC championship definitely has to go through Foxborough,” safety Tashaun Gipson said. “But [this year] it’s coming through here.”And why does he think that?“We came here with all this hype, talking about how good we are as a defense, myself included,” Gipson said, “and we got drug out there – straight drug.”"
You should definitely go read the entire piece but that quote was the eye-opener for me. The Chiefs proved to themselves they could stand toe-to-toe with the kind of physical team that used to beat them down. They not only stayed in step with the Jaguars, but they dominated them. And they did it so convincingly that the very team that was mocking them before the game was talking about how the road to the Super Bowl now goes through Arrowhead after it.
The emergence of Patrick Mahomes as a true star quarterback is the biggest development of the 2018 Kansas City Chiefs season, but the Chiefs finding the fight and belief in themselves that they showed Sunday is second on my list. That was different than Patrick Mahomes going bananas and vanquishing the demons of the Pittsburgh Steelers (who have also bullied the Chiefs) by outscoring them. No, this game wasn’t about Patrick Mahomes. It was about this team as a whole standing up for themselves. It was about a defense that had been mocked and called the worst in football showing they weren’t going to take it anymore.
That’s huge and if they can maintain that physical nature along with their high powered offense this is a team that nobody in the entire NFL will want to see in the playoffs.