The Kansas City Chiefs were a preseason favorite to return to the Super Bowl for a third straight season. However, seven games into the season, they’re 3-4, sitting tied for last in the AFC West, 11th in the conference.
If the season ended today (it doesn’t), the Chiefs would be at home for the postseason, owning the No. 16 overall pick.
Sunday’s 27-3 blowout loss to the Tennessee Titans highlighted K.C.’s flaws. The defense couldn’t get off the field for the entire first half, and the offense pressed, leading to more turnovers from Patrick Mahomes.
“It’s been kind of rainbows and flowers and awesome for these last few years, but whenever you want to build something substantial and you want to build something great, you’re going to go through parts like this,” Mahomes said, per the Associated Press. “It’s going to take us getting better every single day.”
The loss marked the largest defeat of the Mahomes era; Kansas City's 22-point loss to Tampa Bay in Super Bowl LV previously took the cake. The Chiefs' three points scored are also the fewest in the Mahomes era (10 points fewer than the previous regular-season low, Week 5, 2019 versus Indianapolis).
The QB threw another INT and lost a fumble in the blowout. Mahomes now has one or more interceptions in six straight games, the longest streak of his career. The QB has nine INTs this season and eight over his past five games -- he had five INTs in 2019 and six all of 2020.
Mahomes noted that sometimes he’s pressing too much when the Chiefs get behind early.
“It’s kind of been one thing here and there each and every week,” Mahomes said. “It’s not like a whole overarching one thing, and today it was probably me. I just pressed a little bit too early in the game and then we got down we were in the mode where (we had to go) no-huddle, which you don’t want to be in in the NFL.”
With a defense that no one expects to get stops, Mahomes looks like a player who believes he must spin magic every play instead of playing within the framework of the offense.
“We got to eliminate the turnovers and the penalties,” coach Andy Reid said. “Again, these are things that ... haven’t been common to us. I’m seeing things that I haven’t seen before. And we just got to fix it. And the players, they know that.”
On the plus side, Mahomes was cleared after taking a wicked shot in the fourth quarter that forced him out of the game early.
Needing a winning streak to save the season before we’ve even hit Thanksgiving, the Chiefs host the New York Giants (2-5) on Monday night, before games against the Packers (6-1), Raiders (5-2), and Cowboys (5-1). Reid’s team needs to fix the issues quickly, or 3-4 could become 4-7 in a hurry.