The day after: The Chiefs look bad, and it's time for some self-reflection within the organization.
Trying to piece through a thorough, total annihilation at the hands of the Titans
It is nearly impossible to overstate how badly the Chiefs were beaten by the Titans on Sunday.
The best way to say it, I think, is that the final score of 27-3 didn’t really do justice to just how completely not-close the game was. Which is saying quite a bit, because that’s a 24-point difference. The broadcast was changed in the 4th quarter to a more “competitive” matchup… where the Bengals were winning by two full touchdowns.
Think about that. The Chiefs were losing so badly that a 2-touchdown deficit in the 4th quarter was considered more competitive. And that STILL doesn’t accurately depict how terrible Kansas City played against the Titans.
I could run through a myriad of statistics to talk about just how poorly the Chiefs played, or walk through a number of snaps that were just… difficult to watch. However, anyone who watched the game knows what happened, and the film review portion (to detail precisely how and why) will come later this week. For now, I think it’s most important to talk about what that age-old question of… now what?
The Chiefs are facing an issue they haven’t faced since Patrick Mahomes took over at quarterback; They look like a mediocre football team. Not “less than great.” Not “only OK.” But genuinely mediocre. Their only wins have come in a Week 1 comeback and against a pair of NFC East teams that are considered below-average opponents.
The defense has been completely, utterly abysmal in every game except one solid outing against the Washington Football team. That includes getting raked over the coals almost effortlessly by a Tennessee air attack that has not been particularly deadly this season.
Perhaps worse still, an offense that was generally playing historically well to start the season (and been generally unstoppable barring self-inflicted wounds) ground to an absolute halt against a Tennessee defense that was supposed to be vulnerable. This comes several weeks after a very uneven performance against the Bills. Due to those games, as well as the offense’s inability to hang on to the ball (they’ve turned it over at a rate that is best described as “frightening,” and every week it feels harder to believe that will change at some point), we’ve seen the offense drop off a bit.