The Kansas City Chiefs are 4-1 and one of the most talented teams in the NFL, but on the field they’ve been bad more than they’ve been good this season.
The Kansas City Chiefs were handed their first loss of the season on Sunday as the Las Vegas Raiders rolled into Arrowhead Stadium and shocked the defending champs. The loss wasn’t a fluke. The Raiders clearly outplayed the Chiefs in this game and ended their 13-game winning streak in the process.
While it stinks to lose a game to a division rival, especially a home game (and one against Derek Carr), that’s not what makes this loss concerning. The real problem is that the Chiefs have looked bad more often than they’ve looked good so far this season.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a piece that’s going to say it’s time to panic, that the Chiefs are a bad team or that the season is in jeopardy. Quite the opposite, actually. I still believe the Chiefs may have the most talented roster in the NFL, a Hall of Fame coach, and are in great position to not only win the AFC West division yet again, but go on to claim the top seed in all the AFC.
If that’s the case, then what’s the problem? Well, the problem is that despite having one of (if not THE best) rosters in the NFL and a Canton-bound coach in Andy Reid, the Chiefs really haven’t played very well through five games of the season. I know some people will roll their eyes at that and say that wins are all that matter or I’m overreacting to one bad game. My argument to that is that the things that lost them this game to the Las Vegas Raiders are the same things that turned what should have been easy wins into ugly ones against the Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots.
Yes, wins ultimately matter, but the lack of execution that plagued them in two games cost them a win this time. If they don’t figure that problem out, it is likely to cost them more losses as the season goes on.
Let me again stress the fact that the Chiefs are so talented that they sleepwalked their way to a 14-point win against the Houston Texans, played like garbage for much of the Chargers and Patriots games and still won, and played terrible against the Raiders and only lost by 8 points. Most NFL teams (maybe all of the other 31) would be 2-3 at this point in the season with execution/effort like the Chiefs have shown through five games. The fact that the Chiefs are 4-1 is proof of just how talented they are, and their dominant win over the Baltimore Ravens is evidence of how dangerous they are when firing on all cylinders.
Why have we only seen them play a complete game once this season? Why have we only seen their best in little spurts here and there? I understand that it’s a long season, and even the best teams in the NFL are going to have tough games, but when the quarters of frustratingly bad execution outnumber the quarters of impressive high execution, there’s a problem.
It’s important to acknowledge that opposing teams have really brought it against the Chiefs. The Chargers and Patriots both had great defensive efforts against K.C. and the Raiders clearly looked like they wanted this game more. Hats off to them, but at some point the Chiefs have to stop getting a pass because they won the Super Bowl last year and have Patrick Mahomes to pull out ridiculous wins when the team may not deserve it.
It’s great to have the ultimate parachute that can save you any time the plane is going down, but shouldn’t the goal be to not have the plane going down every time? I love that Mahomes is so clutch, and there’s not a doubt in my mind that he would have driven them down and tied the game up if the defense had made a stop on that final drive. However, this time around, the Chiefs waited too long to pull the cord. The plane was too far gone. I’m hoping this game was a wake-up call to the Chiefs that they can’t just fart around all game long and then assume Mahomes will save them.
Against the Ravens we saw a highly motivated team. The players were amped up and the coaching staff had a fantastic game plan. The Chiefs called and executed a splendid game. There’s not a team in the NFL that can beat the Chiefs when they do that. While it may be impossible to be that pumped up for every game, there has to be a happy medium between that effort and the sloppy play we’ve seen in much of the other games.
Andy Reid‘s playcalling on offense has been vanilla far too often. The execution when the game isn’t on the line is sloppy and half-hearted. The offensive line has been bad far too often and the loss of Kelechi Osemele is only going to make it worse. The tackling on defense has been brutal at times. The pass rush has been very hit-and-miss, and even the coverage, which had been good through most of the season, was abysmal against the Raiders. Finally, the penalties have been really frustrating all season long. Penalties are often a sign of concentration, or a lack thereof, and it’s yet another sign that the Chiefs are their own worst enemy.
I still believe in this team. I think they have a great chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions, but they can’t just expect to coast through the regular season. They need to find a sustained level of execution. Otherwise, they could find themselves without a first round bye and a much harder road to repeat.
The good news is that most of the Chiefs problems aren’t talent related. Yes, they could use a little more help along the offensive line and at linebacker, but every team has spots where they need help. The Chiefs still have more talent than most the NFL.
What the Chiefs need is a little better plan of attack and a lot better effort and execution. That’s a “want to” problem and the Chiefs better fix it before next Monday’s game against the undefeated Buffalo Bills. Otherwise they will find themselves two games back of the Bills in the loss column in the AFC and losing the head to head tie breaker.
Here’s to hoping that those stakes are enough for the Chiefs to find their “want to” again.