The Chiefs will not go undefeated. Nope. No sir. Probably not, anyway.
We start right here at the top with some advice I’ve never given before and, unless I decide I want to be fired, will never give again:
Do not read this.
Please.
Do us both a favor.
Because I shouldn’t be writing this and you shouldn’t be reading it. This is a waste of both our times, one I’m humoring here for two reasons. First, a lot of you have asked. Second, considering the alternatives of what we could be reading and writing about, well, a waste of time is in some ways inevitable.
This one might be fun, at least:
Will the Chiefs go undefeated?
No.
They will not.
At least, probably not. Right, Patrick Mahomes?
“I haven’t thought that far ahead,” he said. “We’re just 3-0 right now. If you start thinking like that is when you lose football games. Look at us last year: we came up with a big win against the Ravens and then dropped a few games right there in this October month.”
Well, that’s not exactly shooting the idea down. He’s right about 3-0 not meaning much. Last year, the Cowboys, Rams and Lions were each undefeated after three games. None made the playoffs. Shoot, last year at this time the Patriots were 3-0 and had outscored their opponents 106-17. They lost four of their last six.
But if we’re going to jump ahead and talk about something that absolutely, positively — excuse me, again: probably — will not happen this is a good week to do it.
The Patriots — Sunday’s opponent at Arrowhead — are the last franchise to dance with perfection. The dance lasted all the way until the last minute of the Super Bowl, David Tyree’s helmet catch setting up Plaxico Burress in the end zone for the Eli Manning Giants’ first Super Bowl win.
That Patriots team was loaded, and if we were talking instead of writing we would say it like this: LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW-did.
They outscored the poor suckers on their schedule by an average of 19.7 points. They won as many games by at least 30 points (four) as they did by fewer than 10. They scored at least 34 points in every game until November. Backup quarterback Matt Cassel finished six games. Randy Moss caught 23 touchdown passes. He looked out of place competing against humans.
“I have some memories for sure,” said Mahomes, who turned 12 during that season. “When they had Moss and Brady and they were lighting up the scoreboard and making the run and everything like that. That was an amazing football team.”
The 2020 Chiefs are very good. They have a chance to be excellent. If we can say the ante for “amazing” is 16-0 — the 2007 Patriots and 1972 Super Bowl champion Dolphins are the only teams to go undefeated during the regular season — then perhaps we should acknowledge that it is possible.
But mostly in the way that if Randy Johnson can kill that bird with a pitch then anything is possible.
The 2007 Patriots changed football. That was the year Brady removed all doubt — he won his first MVP, throwing 50 touchdowns and eight interceptions after going for 24 and 12 the year before. But, again: even they lost.
The Chiefs have some ingredients, sure. This group has changed football in its own way, particularly with a shameless collection of speed that’s exploiting league-wide trends and being copied by others.
The offense can score quickly, and in enough different ways that no specific matchup presents a problem for which the Chiefs have no solution. The defense just played its best game since coordinator Steve Spagnuolo was hired before last season.
Analyzing schedules is a fool’s errand because of how quickly things change in the NFL. But, in all appropriate humility, I am the fool for this errand so I’ll just point out that the Chiefs just won the toughest game on their schedule in a runaway.
Mahomes is 13-1 against the AFC West and none of the other three teams appear particularly ready. Road games at Buffalo (Week 6), Tampa Bay (Week 12) and New Orleans (Week 15) appear to be the most difficult.
But, according to BetOnline.ag, the Chiefs would be favored in each of those games if played this week. Going deeper, the Chiefs would be favored in each of their remaining games, from a range of one point (at Bills and Saints) to 17 (Jets at home).
Look. This shouldn’t have to be said. The NFL is an empire so rich its dry cleaner finds forgotten stacks of cash in the pockets of tailored designer suits and it got that way because it holds two truths above all others:
First, chase cash always and without apology.
Second, make sure fans of all 32 teams have reason to believe they can win and reason to fear they might lose.
The Giants are pushing that boundary on one end, and the Chiefs are now pushing it on the other. They have won 12 games in a row, including three in last year’s playoffs and the win last week against the Ravens, who’d won their first two games by a combined 49 points.
But, well, I couldn’t help it. I asked my friends at BetOnline.ag for hypothetical odds on whether the Chiefs will go 16-0 during the regular season.
Yes 8/1
No 1/20
I have to admit. That is ... not as much of a longshot as I expected.
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM.