Chiefs Kingdom should brace themselves for anti-KC hot takes

If we’ve learned anything this season about those outside of Kansas City, it’s that national pundits and talking heads love to bury the Chiefs.

While the team most certainly deserved every ounce of criticism that came their way through the first two months of the season, it seems that most talking heads have had a hard time coming to grips with the team’s resurgence. It’s as if no one likes the idea of the AFC being a one-team show for the foreseeable future.

That should make the next few days a fun stretch for some of the biggest names in sports “analysis”.

The K.C. Chiefs are in for a long week when it comes to sports’ most popular talking heads.

Coming into Sunday’s game, the Chiefs were on an eight-game win streak and owned the top seed in the AFC despite beginning the year with a 3-4 record and a familiar spot in the basement of the AFC West. During that time, despite an offense that could score points in bunches, a special teams unit that ranked as one of the league’s best, and a defense that was carrying this team time and again, the Chiefs overall failed to generate much respect.

Patrick Mahomes has been referred to as “broken”, even during good stretches, and Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce have both been questioned, too. Andy Reid‘s “genius” shine lost its luster for a long time as well. In one matchup after another, it’s been Mahomes in particular who has taken his licks with multiple analysts insisting that names like Josh Allen or Josh Herbert or Joe Burrow were preferable to Mahomes to run a franchise.

Early in the year, the dart-throwing made sense. Mahomes’ forced heroism wasn’t doing anyone any favors, but he was getting little to no help from the other units on the roster. The defense was plagued by missed tackles and miscommunication. The pass rush couldn’t get past injury-plagued front lines. The secondary couldn’t slow mediocre quarterbacks. Even special teams became known for its miscues, and the entire team looked sloppy with turnovers and penalties as the team’s calling card instead of points and wins.

Then came the streak. The defense that was once the league’s worst made several minor shifts to morph into an elite unit. The offense began hitting on all cylinders again. The mistakes were erased and the execution was beautiful. Two months later, the Chiefs became the first team in the AFC to clinch their postseason spot.

For some reason, during the streak, the likes of Ryan Clark or Damien Woody or Skip Bayless still wanted to pour on the insults. It’s like they delighted in seeing Mahomes-as-mortal, which meant they made more about his number of interceptions than several other quarterbacks with the same totals (or even more). Despite having numbers that should put him firmly in the MVP race, Mahomes is still often derided as someone having a bad season. It’s as if these analysts breathed a sign of relief at the vulnerability displayed by the Chiefs this year.

That’s what’s going to make the next few days tough to stomach if you’re the type of person who wastes time watching these shows. (Of course, what does that say about me since I’m wasting time writing about these shows, right?) The media is going to have a field day with this and not in ways that are responsible.

Here’s what is true, whether you’re a Chiefs fan or not: the Cincinnati Bengals deserve a ton of praise for the way they played on Sunday against the Chiefs. Every analyst should be singing the praises of Zac Taylor and Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Logan Wilson. They played the best team in the AFC and took them out. They won the AFC North. They made the very leap that you want such a young unproven team to make. It’s an incredible win for Cincinnati!

At the same time, someone had to lose and the Chiefs had won 8 straight. They’d erased all of their deficit from a pitiful first half and had the Bengals on the ropes for most of this game. They lost two tackles, had poor officiating, shot themselves in the foot multiple times, and still almost came away with a road victory. They shouldn’t hang their heads over this one.

However, that’s exactly what the talking heads will say on Monday and beyond as they armchair their way forward and create public opinion about something that is false. Instead of saying what is true about the Chiefs, about the game, about their competitive chances, they’lll find ways to bring down Mahomes, to talk poorly about the team in one way or another. If there’s a question to raise, they’ll raise it. If there’s a minuscule issue, they’ll turn it into a mountain.

It doesn’t have to be this way, but the Chiefs have been fighting the needless noise for quite some time. Especially after their loss in months, the Chiefs will now hear another week’s worth of complaints and/or lame analogies. The sum total will just be that much more of a hill to climb to get to where the Chiefs wanted to get all along.