Self-Inflicted, the Finale: In the end, the 2021 Chiefs were who we feared they were.

A talented team couldn't get out of its own way on Sunday, and that will unfortunately be the way a very good team gets remembered.

Many of you won’t feel like reading this. I certainly don’t feel like writing it. But such things, as unpleasant as they are, can be at least somewhat cathartic. Understanding the “why,” at least for some people, helps deal with the “what.”

And the “what,” of course, is the fact that the Kansas City Chiefs are not going to the Super Bowl for the first time in three years, falling JUST short by losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in overtime. Which… well, it stinks. It’s wildly disappointing. And I think what makes it so disappointing is that it’s both very surprising and not even a little surprising.

How can it be both? Well, watching Patrick Mahomes (from all appearances, we’ll get to his film later this week when we’ve had a little time to breathe) crumble in the second half was like watching a dog talk, or a person just casually lift up a car. It just didn’t compute, it didn’t make sense to see. I’m still trying to process it and making assumptions that the all-22 will reveal a different, story, but from all appearances Mahomes just didn’t have the “it” that he’s possessed in spades throughout the entirety of his career. To call that “surprising” is an understatement.

But at the same time, the rest of the game wasn’t something we haven’t seen before in the 2021 season. We watched as they marched out to a massive lead looking unstoppable on offense and impenetrable on defense, only to see it all fade away in a mist of self-inflicted errors. Unstoppable, until they stopped themselves. Impenetrable, until they couldn’t execute the basics.

All told, the AFC Championship game told the story of the 2021 Kansas City Chiefs perfectly. They were the team that had everything they needed, but could not get out of their own way when it mattered most.