The KC Chiefs have not beaten the Tennessee Titans in the regular season since 2013. What has happened in every game since?
Since the Kansas City Chiefs hired Andy Reid as their head coach in January 2013, they have a record of 2-5 (0.286 win %) against the Tennessee Titans, including 1-4 in the regular season and 1-1 in the playoffs.
This is odd since the Chiefs have a 117-51 overall record (0.696 win %) since the start of the 2013 season, while the Titans own just a 79-80 record (0.497 win %) over that same time frame. After some simple arithmetic, the Chiefs have a 0.714 win % against NFL teams that aren’t the Titans, but only 0.286 against them. What has happened in each of the seven meetings that have led to only two wins over the past nine seasons, including one win across the past eight seasons?
Chiefs 26, Titans 17 (October 6, 2013)
In the first meeting between the Andy Reid-led Chiefs and the Titans, Kansas City earned its first and only regular season win against Tennessee over the last decade. It was a fairly even game as the two teams were close in total yards (353-339 Kansas City), Time of Possession (31:17-28:43 Kansas City), and Yards per Play (5.43-5.38 Kansas City). The key difference was turnovers as Kansas City forced three turnovers (muffed punt and two interceptions), while Tennessee forced only two (fumble and interception). The first touchdown of the game was arguably the most important as Chiefs’ cornerback Marcus Cooper recovered a muffed Titans punt in the endzone to give them a 7-0 lead almost four minutes into the game. The victory propelled Kansas City to 5-0, while Tennessee fell to 3-2.
Titans 26, Chiefs 10 (September 7, 2014)
This was arguably the weirdest game in recent history between these two teams. In their only September meeting in recent history, Kansas City came in as 3.5-point favorites but lost by 16 points. After a disappointing outing from Alex Smith (19-35, 202 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions, and a 45.2 passer rating) and countless missed tackles, it makes sense that the Titans came out on top. Dwayne Bowe was also suspended for this game due to a November 2013 arrest. The odd part of this game is that Tennessee finished the 2014 season 2-14 and Kansas City finished 9-7. That means the Titans went 1-14 after this game, while the Chiefs went 9-6 the rest of the way. It’s not often that you see a bottom-two team in the NFL blow out a team with a winning record on their home turf but it happened here.
Titans 19, Chiefs 17 (December 18, 2016)
In the Chiefs’ most heartbreaking defeat of the 2016 regular season, Ryan Succop got his revenge on Kansas City by nailing a 53-yard field goal in the arctic cold. In very Chiefs-like fashion, Kansas City lost as 6-point favorites immediately after they beat division-rival Oakland on Thursday Night Football to take over first place in the AFC West. This loss catapulted the Raiders back into first place. A Derek Carr injury ended up pushing Oakland back into second place and Kansas City into first place to end the season. Alex Smith had a very bad day as he went 15-28, 163 yards, no touchdowns, an interception, and a 56.1 passer rating. The defense allowed almost 400 yards to a good, but not great, Titans offense, including a six-play, 40-yard drive with a little over a minute remaining in the game.
Titans 22, Chiefs 21 (January 6, 2018)- AFC Wild Card
Arguably the most inexcusable playoff loss in Andy Reid’s Kansas City tenure to that point was the 2017-18 Wild Card loss which saw the Chiefs blow a 21-3 lead to the Marcus Mariota-led Titans at home. This game also featured Mariota throwing a touchdown pass to himself (sorry to bring up bad memories) and Travis Kelce leaving the game due to a concussion. Kansas City scored zero second-half points as the offense was lost without Kelce. Despite the loss, I felt that this was Alex Smith’s best individual playoff performance as a Chief (24-33, 264 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 116.2 passer rating) as he was very accurate and the victim of four drops, including three by then-rookie Tyreek Hill. One positive takeaway is that this game forced the Chiefs to hand over the reins to Patrick Mahomes.
Titans 35, Chiefs 32 (November 10, 2019)
This game was one of the most infuriating regular season Chiefs losses in the Patrick Mahomes era to date. After returning from a knee injury, which forced him to miss two games, Mahomes went 36-50 for 336 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 119.3 passer rating. The Titans scored on a 53-yard fumble return by Rashaan Evans after Damien Williams coughed up the ball. Kansas City had a 29-20 lead in the fourth quarter but couldn’t hold onto it. With a little under 90 seconds remaining in the game, Kansas City was going to attempt a 47-yard field goal up 32-27 but they botched the snap, giving Tennessee life. The Titans went on to score a touchdown (plus a two-point conversion) to give them a 35-32 lead. After a quick 28-yard drive led by Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City went for the game-tying field goal, but the kick was blocked and they lost the game and fell to 6-4. One silver lining was that Kansas City did have an opportunity for revenge down the road that season.
Chiefs 35, Titans 24 (January 19, 2020)
No Tennessee-Kansas City matchup in the Super Bowl era has had more at stake than the 2019-20 AFC Championship Game. One year after falling to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the same game, the Chiefs had a prime opportunity for redemption against the same team that handed them both a home playoff defeat two years earlier and their last loss of any kind ten weeks earlier.
In my humble opinion, this game was one the best games that Patrick Mahomes has ever played in the NFL, if not THE best, which I acknowledge is a very strong statement. His passing stat line (23-35, 294 yards, 3 touchdowns, zero interceptions, and a 120.4 passer rating) may not be the sexiest, but I 100% promise that the box score didn’t do him justice. He was deadly accurate throughout the game and had one of the great runs by a quarterback in recent NFL history, a 27-yard run right at the end of the first half which gave Kansas City a 21-17 lead. The Chiefs never relinquished the lead afterward.
After icing the game with a 60-yard touchdown to Sammy Watkins, Kansas City not only won the Lamar Hunt Trophy but also Super Bowl LIV over the San Francisco 49ers.
Titans 27, Chiefs 3 (October 24, 2021)
This game was the largest defeat the Chiefs have suffered in the Patrick Mahomes era in terms of point differential. This game was ugly from the start as Tennesse went right down the field to open the game to take a 7-0 lead. After punting on their first offensive drive, Kansas City proceeded to allow Tennessee to walk right down the field on a 97-yard touchdown drive that took not even six minutes. The game just got worse from there as Kansas City fell 27-3 and also saw Patrick Mahomes leave the game in the second half with an injury.
Similar to 2019, this game could be seen as a turning point for the team as Kansas City went 9-1 down the stretch in the regular season after this game. At the same time, since Tennessee went on to earn the #1 seed in the AFC that season, Kansas City would have been the #1 seed in 2021 had they won this game, assuming every other game has the same result. Although this game ended up not mattering in the end as Tennessee was one and done in the playoffs and Kansas City (yet again) hosted the AFC Championship Game.
Conclusion
Does recent history have any bearing on this week’s matchup? Probably not but it is something to at least consider. Andy Reid had never won a regular season/playoff game in Arizona before this season and that changed in Week 1. The Chiefs hadn’t won a regular season/playoff road game against the 49ers since 1971 before this season but that also changed in Week 7. While it is true that the Chiefs haven’t beaten the Titans in the regular season since 2013, the Chiefs are still the heavy favorites (they’re about 11.5-13 point favorites depending on the sportsbook) and should have no problem beating them coming off their bye in Week 9.