Our Kansas City Chiefs found numerous creative ways to help themselves lose in Tennessee last week, which immediately added weight to this evening's meeting with the Chargers in Mexico. The reigning MVP returned to the field and racked up 446 passing yards and three touchdowns. Somehow, Kansas City then lost. This stunning defeat makes KC's chances at a first-round bye slim, to say the least. If our Chiefs cannot defeat the Chargers tonight, the lowly Oakland Raiders will momentarily claim first place in the division. Imagine explaining that to a member of Chiefs Kingdom when KC was 4-0 to start the season.
It took a lot of things going wrong for our Chiefs to stumble into a loss last week, and that's a very important thing to remember going forward. Up to four different members of the offensive line were missing at some point due to injury. Damien Williams coughed up the football, which the Titans scooped up for a defensive touchdown. The reliable Harrison Butker missed an extra point. Then came the ugly, painful ending, wherein the Chiefs seemed determined to beat the odds and give away a win by any gut-punchingly wacky means necessary.
The prolific combo of Mahomes and Reid got the ball back in Titans territory with less than two minutes left in the game and a five-point advantage. KC failed to moved the chains, leaving 1:27 on the clock as the Chiefs set up for a 47-yard field goal attempt. Then, that botched field goal/intentional grounding thing happened. This disaster left Ryan Tannehill's Titans with the ball on the Tennessee 39 with a minute and 21 seconds left to play. That led to the touchdown which gave the Titans the lead, but Mahomes still had a little time left for magic. Even after all these shenanigans and mistakes, Patrick Mahomes put KC in a position to tie with a long field goal....but you know what happened next.
I'm hearing a bunch of media personalities jumping off the bandwagon after this disappointment, but that seems illogical to me. All this stuff, this somewhat self-inflicted and silly stuff, was necessary to make the Chiefs to lose a game to an average NFL team. I didn't expect this team to have four losses at this point in the season either, but we have to look at the long list of reasons why those L's exist before we jump to any excessively harsh conclusions. Then, look at KC's remaining schedule, and remember the fact that KC plays four of its six remaining regular season games against teams with losing records.
With Mahomes healthy, and defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo at least showing us an openness to adaptation, this Chiefs team still has a good chance at finishing the regular season as a more cohesive, effective football team than what we saw last year. If you believe that, then you still believe they have Super Bowl aspirations.
Now, if our Chiefs get stomped tonight by the 4-6 Chargers, we can all proceed to panic. I don't care about how surprising it is that the Chargers aren't better, and I don't care about their thus-far-underutilized talent. The Phightin' Philips simply aren't better than our Chiefs on paper or on the gridiron. Their yards-per-game average ranks in the middle of the pack, and their scoring ability is well below-average. But, while the Chargers offense looks unimpressive on paper, their defense looks elite.
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