Beatable, yet unstoppable: The Chiefs showed both sides of themselves Sunday
In a beatdown of the Steelers, Kansas City showed both how they can be vulnerable and also how scary they are once they just get out of their own way.
Things were not going well.
The Chiefs’ first 5 possessions against the Pittsburgh Steelers went: Punt, punt, interception, punt, fumble returned for a touchdown. In five chances, the offense had given up more points than it had scored and had wasted both a fantastic performance by the defense (which forced Pittsburgh punts their first SEVEN POSSESSIONS) and a brilliant return by Mecole Hardman that should have set up a score.
Andy Reid’s crew was somehow, against a clearly inferior opponent, beating themselves and on their way to another game in which they managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory all on their own.
The Steelers couldn’t move the ball (I honestly could write an article about the defense right now, but that’s for later this week once the all-22 comes out) and yet Kansas City, with Patrick Mahomes as its quarterback and a healthy Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, couldn’t move the ball or stop getting in its own way.
That’s been the story of the much of the 2021 season. The Chiefs have been almost unstoppable for opposing defenses, yet through turnovers or self-inflicted failures of execution have stopped short of being the best offense in the league. Consistently avoiding mistakes is the hallmark of a good team, and Kansas City all too often was doing the exact opposite and lost multiple games because of it.
We all saw that in the first quarter against Pittsburgh, a desperately overmatched team that only had a chance at winning if the Chiefs handed it to them.
But then we saw the other side of the Chiefs. The one that has fans certain that, despite their flaws, Kansas City has as good a chance (or better) to hoist the Lombardi trophy as anyone else in the league.
And holy crap, was it something to see. And fortunately for me and my dad, we got to see it live.