KC Chiefs: Keenan Allen Injury Changed Course of Chiefs Season

The KC Chiefs clinched their first AFC West title since 2010 this past weekend with a 12-4 record and a perfect 6-0 record within the division. Would the Chiefs have done so well had Keenan Allen of the Chargers not gone done in week one?

It’s rare to look at an opposing team’s injury and question as to whether or not that could have been the turning point for your team of choice. That’s just what this post pertains to though, as the injury to San Diego Chargers Keenan Allen ended up being a major one for the Kansas City Chiefs.

In case those of you don’t remember, the KC Chiefs hosted the Chargers in the first week of the season. The Chargers were curb stomping the Chiefs in that game, marching down the field on every drive and posting a 21-3 score at half time.

Allen was having himself a great game, grabbing six catches for 63 yards. He was matched up against Marcus Peters and was making Peters look beatable early in the game.

In the second half, however, Allen went down with an injury and had to be carted off the field.

The Chargers would only put up a field goal after that and would go on to blow their three possession lead. Kansas City ended up forcing overtime and won the game with a dominant performance from Alex Smith.

While the Kansas City Chiefs were obviously one of the best teams in the AFC this year, could this injury have been what changed the course of their season?

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Had Allen not gone down, Philip Rivers likely would have kept throwing to their number one guy and the Chargers would have been able to keep running the ball to run the clock out. They couldn’t do the second option once Kansas City started to come back, and that cost them in the end.

At the end of the day, the season opener against San Diego really should have been a Chiefs loss. The Chargers, however, created crazy new ways to blow football games, and that was displayed in their very first game of the season.

Keenan Allen going down did help the KC Chiefs win this game, whether fans want to admit that or not. He was torching Peters down the field, and likely would have continued to make big grabs for the Bolts.

Instead, Allen was out for the season, and the Chargers were left without their best receiver.

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The Kansas City Chiefs could have started the year off 0-1, which would have made the game against the Texans a MUST WIN. Instead, they rallied off the Allen injury, which demoralized the Chargers (for good reason) and made the stops on the Chargers offense.

Now we’ve seen the Chiefs come back from a 1-5 record, but starting off 0-2 would have been brutal in a year in which we saw high hopes for this team.

One last thing, I’m not rooting for Keenan Allen getting injured, but it definitely helped carve this Chiefs season into what it was. He was beating Peters on every play and was the Chargers best receiver that day.

Had he continued on in the season opener, we might not be AFC West champions this morning.

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