The Kansas City Chiefs dropped their second consecutive game on Sunday and are clearly not playing like a Super Bowl caliber team any more.
The Kansas City Chiefs were largely viewed as one of the top Super Bowl contenders in the NFL at the start of the season. While their first four games weren’t always pretty, it was hard to argue with the results. The Chiefs were 4-0 and almost universally seen as the number two team in the NFL behind only the defending champion New England Patriots.
Now after suffering their second consecutive home loss where the team hasn’t looked good in any of the three phases of the game, it is time to question their status as one of the NFL’s elite teams—at least for now.
Before anyone comes after me for being too negative or overreacting, let me say without hesitation that I am not writing this team off. Nor am I saying they will never be a Super Bowl caliber team. I am saying that they are not a Super Bowl caliber team right now. I don’t think any Chiefs fan that watched both their 19-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts or Sunday’s 31-24 loss to the Houston Texans could say that those performances were even remotely close to being good enough to make the Super Bowl (which was absolutely the goal of this team and every single Chiefs fan entering the season).
If we’re being honest, the new look defense has been way too similar to last season’s defense and the offense hasn’t really looked right for the past three games. I know they put up 34 points against the Detroit Lions, but Patrick Mahomes didn’t throw a touchdown pass in that game. The offense was also helped by a couple of key fumble recoveries that set them up with favorable field position.
I also want to address the injuries right off the bat. Yes, the injuries tare part of the problem. Had the Chiefs been at full strength with no injuries, could they have pulled off these past two games? It’s definitely possible. However, there is more to it than that. The Colts lost their starting quarterback right before the season and had a decimated secondary and still came into Arrowhead and beat the Chiefs. The Texans lost one of their starting tackles in this game and still drove down and got the game winning touchdown. They were without both starting cornerbacks by the end of the game—they were playing Phillip Gaines for crying out loud!—and still came up with key stops in the fourth quarter.
Yes, the Chiefs will be better if they get guys like Eric Fisher, Sammy Watkins, and Chris Jones back, but this is about more than injuries. Other teams have had the discipline, determination, and game plan to overcome their injuries and the Chiefs have not. So let’s talk about the things that have to improve regardless of the injury situation if the Chiefs want to get back to being a real Super Bowl contender.
If you read my piece about the three things that the Chiefs needed to improve after their narrow win over the Lions and/or my piece last week about how the Chiefs basically beat themselves against the Colts, you’ll find some recurring themes again this week.
Let’s start with the one that is making me the most angry.