Wait...Is It Football Season?

The recent success of the Kansas City Royals got me thinking about something strange regarding this 2014 Chiefs season. In my limited time as a sports journalist, doom and gloom and disappointment made up at least a slight majority of the job. Despite reaching the playoffs in the first year of the Reid/Dorsey regime in 2013, we all know what happened to end that dream and leave us all with nightmares all through the offseason. At this point, it's too late to go back and reminisce on that historically pathetic defeat, but last Sunday the Tennessee Titans helped to prolong the pang of pain in the gut of every Chiefs fan.

As the Chiefs stumbled out of the regular season gates, I switched back channels continuously to my first place Royals as they held the Bronx Bombers scoreless on Derek Jeter Day. KC won that important series and claimed their first season series win against the New York Yankees since 1999. With the Royals now nearing the middle of September with a great chance to make the playoffs, I started to wonder if all my experience reacting to disappointment and failure would wind up going unused this year. Thanks to our Kansas City Chiefs, I now have no need to worry.

The first half of KC's first game mostly told the story of rust and regression. It all began promisingly enough- Jamaal scampered untouched for a smooth first down on KC's first drive. Dustin Colquitt buried the opposing offense inside their own ten yard-line, as he so often does, and Tennessee's first snap resulted in a false start in front of a wild Arrowhead crowd. Even when Cairo Santos bounced in his first NFL field goal, we thought KC could shake it off and be happy with a slim early lead. The Chiefs did follow this up with a long completion to promising TE Travis Kelce, after all. Then, there goes Santos again for attempt #2...

From that doink on, KC's numerous questionable areas of the roster were exposed. An apparently downgraded secondary eventually gave way to a single touchdown that gave the Titans the lead, if only because of Kansas City's complete failure to reach the end-zone. Chiefs fans had a few positives to take to halftime- most of them being sacks from key defensive stars- but the second half failed to bring amy significant improvement from the offense.

This team isn't as awful as many Chiefs fans will believe following this ugly loss, but there's a fundamental problem with making that argument; I still don't think the Chiefs are good enough to make a playoff run this year. This season's schedule, as we'll review in the coming week, is undeniably harsh, and nobody can seem to find an area in which KC legitimately improved their roster. It's no wonder to me why I keep trailing off mentally during analysis of this blowout to daydream about the next Royals game.

Here's the good news: the Chiefs held a sneaky-good Titans offense scoreless for over thirty minutes of game-time. The bad news was, you know, the rest of the game. The worse news is the terrifying feasibility of the Chiefs falling into a huge hole early this season. Kansas City's next six opponents include five playoff teams from last season and the Miami Dolphins, who just beat New England by double-digits. This goes without mentioning the two awful, season-ending injuries to Mike Devito and Derrick Johnson.

Losing in such an embarrassing fashion surprised many, but to avoid falling to 0-7, the Chiefs have to pull off an equally surprising upset against a superior opponent. So, why not do it next week in Denver? Stay tuned in the next few days for analysis of that upcoming inspirational upset victory/ humiliating bloodbath defeat.

Doug LaCerte operates this blog, writes for Rant Sports and occasionally speaks of himself in third-person for the sake of fake professionalism. Feed his fickle ego by following him on Twitter @DLaC67, troll him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google, because they're gonna make you use that shit, anyway.