They beat the Superbowl champion New England Patriots in Foxboro Stadium. The next week, they beat Doug Pederson’s NFC-leading Philadelphia Eagles. They even beat the DeShaun Watson-led Texans in Houston. After week five, Kansas City looked like the best team in the NFL. Game manager Alex Smith totaled twelve touchdowns in five games (20 total touchdowns in all of 2016).
Since week five, the Chiefs have gone 1-6. What happened? Is it because rookie breakout star Kareem Hunt hasn’t broken through the end zone after week three? Is it their uncharacteristically poor 30th ranked defense?
Losses to the Steelers by one score and a healthy Dallas team in JerryLand are acceptable. Those are tough places to win. Losses to the 2-10 New York Giants and identity-less Bills are mystifying at best for a club with so much talent on both sides of the ball.
The Chiefs at 6-6 sit in a three way tie to claim the AFC West with the Chargers and Raiders. Their remaining schedule has a combined record of 20-28, with competitive games against the Raiders and Chargers and then bouts against the defective 5-7 Dolphins and broken 3-9 Broncos to finish out the regular season. On paper, Andy Reid’s team looks like it should be able to finish with at least eight wins. Whether they can handle a motivated Raiders team and angry Chargers team will decide whether these Chiefs go to the playoffs for the third time in three years or are forced to regroup in the off-season.
Gridiron Seasonal 