Have the Kansas City Chiefs lost their way as they head to Philly? Well, actually ...
Inside the media room at the Chiefs’ practice facility, coach Andy Reid walked to the podium and awaited a line of questioning that reflected the moment.
Do you get the sense that your team is worn down?
The Chiefs had lost in the final minute the previous day, undone by uncharacteristic gaffes and self-inflicted mistakes. They had lost a game more than the opposition had won it — a trait that made it all the more frustrating but perhaps too provided all the more reason to worry about the future.
Two days later, Clark Hunt, the team’s CEO and chairman, stood at the same podium. Same line of questioning.
What gives you confidence there is still optimism for the team this season?
It’s early, to be sure, but the Chiefs have transformed from a preseason Super Bowl favorite to a last-place team in a matter of three weeks. They’ve lost consecutive games for the first time in nearly two years. They have a losing record for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes Era that is in Year Four.
But the aforementioned inquires —the seeds of doubt planted in those Reid and Hunt press conferences — aren’t from this week.
No, those came in November 2019, the response after the Chiefs had blown a victory in Nashville to fall to 6-4.
Some 84 days later, the Chiefs would win a Super Bowl.
This year’s Chiefs are 1-2. How will they respond?
So, yes, the Chiefs have been here before — facing questions about the reality of their contention — and all was not lost, after all.
But if they are to follow in the bread crumbs of that 2019 surge, they will have to turn a corner that might require a sharper rotation than it did two years earlier. This is a flawed team, not a perfect one.
Ahead of a 2019 trip to Mexico City, as their grip on a playoff race loosened to a mere half a game, the Chiefs began to play with urgency. That’s what the players remember as they look back now. The defense operated like they had no choice but to turn it around. They felt a mounting pressure, they would later characterize it, but they enjoyed that aspect of it.
As we would later find out, that team was at its best the greater the pressure ballooned.
This group isn’t there yet. The 2021 Chiefs have blown two fourth-quarter leads in three games. That 2019 team erased them.
But now comes the true test. Just three weeks into the season, they own a self-imposed, backs-against-the-wall feeling.
So, what now?
“As I’ve kind of sat back and thought about it, it’s exciting,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “Now you know you have to go.
“Now we’ve put our back against the wall, so how are we going to respond? I think this is where you’ll get the best out of everybody. You’ll get the best out of every person in this locker room — because you know that it’s time to go.”
The sample size is as small as sample sizes get — not even a game is included in this following anecdote. But in the initial week back at the training facility, with head coach Andy Reid returning following a health scare after Sunday’s loss to the Chargers, the signs are already there.
On Tuesday, Reid opened with a team meeting, challenging the team more mentally than physically.
A day later, tight end Travis Kelce described the team’s first practice succinctly: “We were flying around, man.”
He later explained it: “(Reid) sets the challenge right now. The leaders in this locker room, we’re here and it means a lot to us. We’re going to find a way to figure things out.”
The Chiefs are 1-2 with real problems that must be corrected — they’re turning the ball over like never before; the defense is encountering an inordinate amount of communication errors before the ball is even snapped. Those are schematic and fundamental points that have been discussed, dissected and addressed throughout the week.
In those conversations, though, the leaders and coaches are keen to strike a balance that reaches urgency but falls short of panic.
“I think (the urgency) is kind of understood. Obviously, we talk about being great every single day. We talk about trying to have the best day at practice,” Mahomes said. “But we’re not used to losing here. So whenever we lose a couple of games, we don’t like that feeling.
“We have to do whatever we can to be better, because we’re going to get great games out of every team we play on this schedule, and if we want to end the season where we want to end the season, we have to have that urgency every single day to make ourselves better.”
It needs to be mentioned that we’ve heard this before. In fact, quite often before the season began, Mahomes underscored the importance of the attention to detail. He talked about an undefeated season, a comment that was less about truly going through a year unblemished and more an attempt to inform his teammates to treat each and every game — each and every practice snap, for that matter — with the utmost importance.
The Chiefs have encountered the real effects of overlooking some of the finer details. Offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy said the response will ensure “the little things that we need to do are not just being swept underneath the rug.”
A franchise that last year absorbed a personality of finding a way to win games late is now a couple of bounces of a spheroid from being 3-0. The small details matter. All of that offseason emphasis is no longer talk. The proof is on film.
What comes next?
“I think the guys were real (about the problems),” Reid said. “As coaches, we’re real with them. And I think this situation is very obvious on what needs to take place. We’ve got to make sure we get it done. We’re all in it together.”