The Kansas City Chiefs had a rough start to the new year when they lost to the Cincinnati Bengals which also resulted in them losing the top seed in the AFC.
It was definitely a gut-punch type of loss that made the team and its fans realize that they can still lose to decent competition despite the dominant eight-game win streak that gave a lot of us a false sense of invincibility. The good news is there is no shame in losing to the Bengals, and dropping a game to them at this point in the schedule isn’t a season-derailing type of loss.
I don’t want to downplay the giving up of the No. 1 seed in the AFC, because that is a hurdle the Chiefs will likely have to prepare for with just one game left in the regular season. However, they were lucky to even have the No.1 seed after they gave themselves such a thin margin for error at the beginning of the season and starting out 3-4. Many never thought the No. 1 seed was still in play then. They put themselves in a position where they knew they had to run the table to even have a shot, which was always a big ask.
However, this loss shouldn’t change the odds of the Chiefs winning the AFC or making it back to the Super Bowl. In fact, fans can even draw parallels between this most recent loss and another game back in 2019 in which the Chiefs claimed Super Bowl LIV.
KC Chiefs fans can draw parallels between losses to the Bengals and the 2019 Titans.
There’s a silver lining to be found after the Bengals game. Believe it or not. It reminded me of the 2019 Week 10 loss to the Tennessee Titans.
If you remember correctly, the Chiefs had actually had a rough start to the 2019 season and dug themselves in a hole early on. Injuries and poor defensive play made things difficult for that squad but things were looking up even despite Patrick Mahomes dislocating his kneecap against the Denver Broncos and missing a few games.
The defense appeared to be turning a corner and the team was finally getting healthier leading up to that Titans game. Then, everything that had been hurting them earlier in the season came back to haunt them and it resulted in an embarrassing 35-32 meltdown loss that ended on a blocked Harrison Butker field goal attempt that would have tied it.
It was a terrible and indefensible loss that made you question whether or not the Chiefs were Super Bowl contenders. Yet, they went on to never lose again that season and took home the Lombardi trophy. It was almost like they needed one last reality check, one last bit of adversity to prepare them for the playoffs.
You could certainly say that same vibe surrounds the Bengals loss. They made a lot of mistakes that plagued them at the start of the year, they seemed to lack a sense of urgency, and it came back to bite them.
It dropped the Chiefs to the 2 seed, but guess what? They were also the 2 seed in 2019 when they won the Super Bowl. Of course, the second seed doesn’t get a bye under this format but the pressure of being the first seed can actually be a disadvantage and you still have home field advantage as a second seed for every scenario besides a game versus the first seed.
This loss comes a little bit later in the year than the aforementioned Titans loss from 2019 but a similar dynamic surrounds it and it’s going to have to be the case if the Chiefs want to get back to the Super Bowl. I think you’d almost rather have another bump in the road for a team like the Chiefs than have things come too easy for them. It’s better that they work out those kinks now and have a bad loss to look back on and use to get better right before real January football.