The Kansas City Chiefs suffered their first loss of the season to the Indianapolis Colts. While it was one loss, there are many reasons to be concerned.
On Sunday Night Football this week, the Kansas City Chiefs fell for the first time this season, as they couldn’t get it done at home versus the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts improved to 3-2 on the year, while the Chiefs fell to 4-1, as Indianapolis stunned Kansas City in Arrowhead 19-13 in primetime.
While even the best teams in football lost a few games each year, this one was revealing for Kansas City. Frankly, these last few weeks have been revealing for the Chiefs. It was only a matter of time before an opposing team put it all together and beat them with the template Kansas City has laid out for them.
If you look at the final score, this would be a game that you’d thought Alex Smith would have lost for the Chiefs. But it was not the case, as the Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes, the reigning NFL MVP. Mahomes threw only one touchdown pass this week at home after not throwing any on the road against the Detroit Lions in a game the Chiefs somehow pulled out in Motown.
Sure, the Chiefs will get back explosive wide receiver Tyreek Hill at some point, but that’s not the issue that is plaguing the Chiefs. They have a few glaring problems that need to be addressed quickly if they want to stay among the elite teams in the AFC.
Newsflash: the Chiefs are atrocious at stopping the run. If your team has a semi-competent running back, you will rush for well over 100 yards when you take on the Chiefs.
The Colts’ Marlon Mack rushed for 132 on the road in Arrowhead Sunday night. Kerryon Johnson rushed for 125 yards in Week 4 in Detroit for the Lions. Even Mark Ingram had 103 rushing yards and three trips to pay dirt for the Ravens back in Week 3. You see the trend, right?
Not only can you throw the ball at will on this lackluster Kansas City secondary, but you can run the ball down the throats of the would-be tacklers in the front-seven. All this does is allow opposing offenses to get more creative with their attack, as well as control time of position, thus, keeping the ball out of Mahomes’ hands.
Kansas City also needs to do a better job of protecting its star signal-caller. He’s been dealing with an ankle issue for most of the season. Mahomes got stepped on a few times under pressure from the Colts’ pass rush. If Mahomes misses any significant time then the Super Bowl LIV dream is over for Chiefs Kingdom.
Lastly, we can no longer say that the Chiefs are in the same class as the New England Patriots in the AFC. That’s not to say that the Chiefs won’t remain the favorites to win the AFC West again this year, but this team isn’t winning in Foxborough in January, not the way that they are playing.
Add in that they suffered a home loss to a fellow AFC playoff contender in the Colts and that could potentially knock them out of contention for home-field advantage in the playoffs. It hurts, but the Chiefs are in fact more like the Colts than they are like the Patriots. This was an opportunity to put Frank Reich and Jacoby Brissett in their place and Kansas City didn’t take advantage.
The Chiefs will have time to improve as a football team, as the season is young. However, what we’ve seen the last three weeks won’t be enough to get Kansas City back to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1960s.