What’s not clicking in Kansas City?

The defending champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, are still sitting pretty atop their division. However, from seemingly nowhere, Denver has emerged as a real threat.

They have an 8-5 winning record, but have now lost 4 out of their last 6 games. Now against the Broncos they were soundly beaten and no real argument can be made against that, but their other defeats have all come in games that they could have won. One score games, where you would usually always bet on Mahomes to come out on top. Only this time he hasn’t and the Chiefs don’t look as formidable as they have in previous years. 

It’s easy to say that it’s because he doesn’t have a standout receiver and that is true but that isn’t the only reason for some of these losses. They still have good weapons and the young rookie WR Rice is putting together a very solid debut season in the league.

Most of the issues that the Chiefs have to face are in house and are mistakes made by themselves. Alarming amounts of dropped passes, far too many penalties and especially in critical positions, turnovers. These are the reasons for the losses and I know there have been questionable decisions at times from the referees, but that is sport. The Chiefs have had their fair share go their way and now they aren’t, that will swing back around at some point and is out of their control.

Everything else is fixable and coachable. Now what needs to happen is for them to learn from it: the turnovers need to stop, the players have to be more disciplined and they need to correct themselves on the practice field to stop these big time penalties from carrying on. If they don’t, then they will not go very far in the playoffs, not because of a lack of talent, but because they are making the challenger even harder on themselves. I’d like to see Mahomes control himself a little more.

You can see he is rattled, you can see he isn’t happy with the standards, but when you get hot under the collar, you lose control and that only leads to mistakes. If he can hit a reset button and just focus on the details, the performances will begin to improve. This is a time to get back to basics, look at what has created success before and repeat it. 

They have a more favourable end to the season now and it’s critical that they not only win the remaining games, but they create a bubble where it’s just them – no outside noise. The Chiefs certainly aren’t favourites but that means absolutely nothing on the day. They might not be the best team in the NFL right now, but they are still more than capable of winning and repeating.

They have experience firmly on their side. They are now starting to be counted out and that will fuel them. They also need to step back and look at the landscape of the AFC – it is wide open. There are lots of seriously good teams but each has shown vulnerability in recent weeks. If I was Andy Reid, I’d be drilling that into the team, the AFC is more than winnable for them. 

My overall view is that the Chiefs aren’t as strong a unit as they have been, not from a roster standpoint, but from a unity standpoint. They don’t have that same edge to them as they have done for many years and they look frustrated and emotional. Each can be positive but only if used in the right manner, currently that isn’t the case.

Can the Chiefs be a force still? The answer is yes. They have too many talented people in the building, players and staff. It’s just about looking forward now. They have lost games – who hasn’t? They have faced adversity – who hasn’t? Often when a team faces hurdles like this it does one of two things, it breaks them or it makes them. The Chiefs get to decide which of those it’s going to be for them. 

These last games are the perfect opportunity to tidy up the issues, build some confidence and to make sure that if they lose, it’s because the other team was simply better on the day, don’t leave it down to sloppiness or a referee’s decision. 

The Chiefs will improve, I’d be shocked if they didn’t, they have the perfect platform to build on. They know what needs to be done, it’s just time to do it now.