The Chiefs need to get some things cleaned up if they want to keep rolling.
The Kansas City Chiefs pulled out a thrilling overtime victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday. It was a very ugly game, but the Chiefs managed to find enough magic late in the game, and Harrison Butker was as clutch as any kicker in history. That was enough to get the job done.
Last week I wrote that the NFL should be terrified of the Chiefs because they dominated the Houston Texans despite not having their “A” game. While being 2-0 is fantastic, and the way they pulled out the win on Sunday was thrilling, at some point the Chiefs are going to need to actually play up to their potential.
Don’t misunderstand me. I was on cloud nine after Butker made that third overtime field goal attempt. I was yelling and cheering and jumping around my living room. It was fantastic. It was much the same when Patrick Mahomes broke out the “Mahomes Magic” on an unbelievable 54-yard touchdown pass to Tyreek Hill. This was certainly a much more exciting win than the win over the Texans, where they basically just cruised through the game.
The problem is that next week the Chiefs face arguably their toughest opponent of the 2020 regular season in the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens have looked flat out dominant in their first two games, and if the Chiefs want to move on to 3-0, they are going to need to find a way to actually win by putting forth their best effort. They won’t be able to coast along on cruise control like they did against Houston, and they certainly won’t be able to play bad football for three quarters like they did against Los Angeles.
Now, it’s still a good thing that the Chiefs are such a talented team that they can be sitting at 2-0 despite not having played a really good game yet. It also shows a lot of determination to pull a game like Sunday’s out and have a quarterback and a kicker that are clutch enough to get the job done. However, there are three things that I believe the Chiefs absolutely must clean up if they want to beat the Ravens that were glaring issues against the Chargers.
Pass protection
First, the offensive line has to clean up the protection. Patrick Mahomes was harassed all game long, and for three plus quarters ,it really took the offense out of their rhythm. Mahomes was having to get rid of the ball so quickly that it felt like it took an eternity to complete a pass to a wide receiver.
While we’ve always known that the interior of the Chiefs line was a little susceptible to pressure, the tackles were exposed at times in this game as well. That is not something that we’ve come to expect in recent years.
Pressure can be a drive killer ,and if the Ravens are playing ball control offense, the Chiefs can’t afford protection problems to kill drives and put the ball right back in the Ravens’ hands.
Costly penalties
Second, the costly penalties have to be cleaned up. The Chiefs are really lucky that the numerous penalties they had late in the Chargers game didn’t cost them the win. The Chiefs ended the game with 11 penalties for 90 yards and several of those came at awful times late in the game.
There was the roughing the passer penalty on Chris Jones that almost allowed the Chargers to get in the end zone in regulation. Then there were the two holding calls on the Chiefs final drive of regulation that likely prevented them from winning the game before overtime. There was also the false start on the game-winning field goal that made Butker have to kick two more 58-yard field goals. Overall, the Chiefs were very fortunate the penalties didn’t cost them the game.
Tackling concerns
Third, the defense simply must tackle better next week. Period. The Baltimore Ravens are a smash-mouth team that ran the ball 37 times for 230 yards on Sunday. The Chargers showed on Sunday that the strategy of extending long clock eating drives and keeping the Chiefs offense off-the-field is a good strategy to beat them, they just couldn’t quite pull it off.
The Ravens are a significantly better team than the Chargers, and if the Chiefs tackle as poorly against the Ravens as they did against the Chargers, the Ravens will dominate the time of possession. That will prevent the Chiefs offense from having enough opportunities to get the score high enough to make a Chiefs victory possible.
I don’t know on how many drives the defense allowed to be extended because of extra yards the Chargers picked up after a missed tackle on Sunday, but it was a significant amount. Nobody tackled well—not the defensive line, not the linebackers, not the secondary. It was a major issue that has to be better next week if the Chiefs want to assert themselves as the clear frontrunner in the AFC.
If they allow the Ravens to physically dominate them all game long and come away with a head-to-head win, it will be an uphill battle to reclaim the top spot in the AFC and the lone first round bye in the playoffs this season. A huge part of preventing that will be better tackling on defense.
The Chiefs pulled off an exciting comeback win on Sunday. Mahomes once again showed that he is the most amazing quarterback in the league and no lead is ever safe against him. Butker made a strong case for being the best kicker in the league. The bottom line is that the Chiefs are 2-0. That’s all that really matters today,
However, next Monday, when they line up against the Ravens for their first true test against a fellow NFL powerhouse, the time for “cruise control” and “ugly wins” is over. The Chiefs have had two weeks to knock off the rust and cobwebs. Next week they need to finally play like the dominant Super Bowl favorite that we all think they are—otherwise they run the risk of losing that title to the Ravens.