The Chiefs must improve these 3 things after Lions win
Too Many Fumbles
As I alluded to in the previous section, the Chiefs are having far too many issues with ball security. The Chiefs had four fumbles on Sunday, and lost three of them. Yes, two of them were on special teams, but they had two more on offense as well. That is after they had three fumbles last week against the Baltimore Ravens.
Seven fumbles in two weeks is completely inexcusable. Period.
I don’t care if Patrick Mahomes is having an off game like he did on Sunday or is playing like the best quarterback in the history of the league, you can’t continuously put the ball on the ground, especially if your goal is to win the Super Bowl. A team like the New England Patriots is going to absolutely bury you if you are putting the ball on the ground that much.
The Detroit Lions clearly went out of their way to punch the ball out and it worked. Maybe that is something they always do or maybe they saw on tape that the Chiefs were susceptible to it, but either way when you’ve fumbled 7 times in two weeks, teams are going to take note and are going to try and take advantage of that against the Chiefs if they don’t clean it up.
Ball control is a mental focus issue. You have to be focused on keeping a kung-fu death grip on that ball at all times. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t see the defender coming. You shouldn’t only be protecting the ball when you see a defender coming for it. You should be protecting the football AT ALL TIMES! Sorry to go all caps locks and exclamation points on you, but it drives me crazy that a Super Bowl caliber team can be so careless with something that has such a huge impact on the game.
The opening kickoff of the second half is a perfect example of how a fumble can completely change a game. The Chiefs had battled back from an early 10-point deficit to tie it at halftime. K.C. got the ball first with a chance to take real control and continue their first half momentum. Instead, Mecole Hardman coughed up the football, which gave the Lions and their fans the belief they could pull the upset off.
Andy Reid is one of the best offensive coaches in NFL history. I love that he’s the Chiefs coach, but he’s got to get on his guys about protecting the football. The Chiefs are too talented and have too much potential to shoot themselves in the foot with things like fumbles and penalties that are about focus and concentration. The staff has to crack down on this team to clean those things up to make sure they don’t come back to haunt them when the games matter most.
Finally, let’s talk about the run defense.