The Chiefs are learning how the other half lives

Patrick Mahomes and company, for perhaps the first time in six years, are at a point where less than their best isn't good enough.

I went right to bed after the clock hit zero.

What was there to say? The Chiefs had lost. I knew there would be the usual postgame presser talk about improving execution, how cutting down on mistakes is necessary and you can’t get away with that against a good team, as well as praise (well-earned) for Jordan Love and the Packers. I knew fans would (perhaps rightfully) bemoan officiating and talk about who is to blame on failed passing downs and Kansas City’s increasingly maddening situation at wide receiver outside of Rashee Rice.

I know these things not because I’m particularly bright. It’s because I’ve seen this play before in a frustrating season for the Chiefs despite their 8-4 record. They’ve beaten some good teams, and lost to some good teams, but one thing that’s been consistent about them is that they don’t have the same “oomph” they did in previous years on offense. And while having a really, really good defense is terrific, it’s not going to be enough in today’s NFL if the offense is, as the kids say, mid (do the kids still say that? They probably still say it).

And so Chiefs fans, and the Chiefs themselves, are learning a hard lesson in 2023; This is what it feels like to be part of the other half. Because absent the 5-7 times a game Mahomes does something absurd…

… Kansas City lacks the juice to be consistent on offense even with a metahuman at quarterback. And not only that, their flaws are of the type to be able to directly counteract said metahuman.

And what that means, as Nate Taylor has said on Only Weird Games, is that they don’t have the same margin for error we’ve grown accustomed to during the Mahomes era. Let’s talk about how last night’s game was demonstrative of how, at least for 2023, the Chiefs are going to have to figure out how to execute on offense in a way that has never been necessary the last half-dozen years, and how they’re finally getting a taste of the cold reality of the NFL in a way they haven’t before.