Kansas City Chiefs: Are they that good or this bad

The Kansas City Chiefs have an identity crisis on their hands. Are they as good as they showed last week or as bad as they showed this week?

Perhaps the Kansas City Chiefs owed Chase Daniel a good outing like the one we saw from him on Saturday afternoon. Or maybe the Chiefs need more help than once thought.

Last week the Kansas City Chiefs lit up social media with the way they handled Atlanta after falling short during the first quarter. Highlighted by the long bomb to Tyreek Hill from Patrick Mahomes, the Chiefs were looking legit, but it’s just preseason, right?

This week, career backup, and former Chief Daniel looked like a Hall of Fame quarterback playing against the third string defense.

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The problem was that Daniel is still a backup, and the majority of the first string defense played the entire first half.

As is the case with anything during the preseason, everything good that happens is underplayed, and everything bad that happens is overplayed.

Preseason games are nothing more than glorified practices or scrimmages. They do not count because, well, they don’t count.

Everything that happens in preseason means squat once week one comes around. The slate is wiped clean and all is forgotten.

What happened in Atlanta was hard to not over-analyze. It’s hard to not be worried with over-analyzing after what we saw in Chicago.

Mahomes looked fine. Tyreek and Travis Kelce looked fine. Kareem Hunt was absent other than his 19 yard scat to the endzone from the flat. The defense had few things to positive about.

The linebacker combo of Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Ragland looks really good. Kendall Fuller looks like he’s as good as advertised. That’s it. The secondary is as bad as advertised.

But it’s preseason. Over the course of time teams have gone winless in the preseason and become Super Bowl contenders. Teams have gone undefeated in the preseason to not being capable of matching that win total over 16 games.

The game against Chicago reminded Chiefs fans of teams in recent memory. The third down defense was atrocious. Penalties on defense extended drives, penalties on special teams did the same.

The moral of the story? Don’t sweat it. When good things happen there are good topics to write about. When bad things happen, writers like myself feed you baby birds with stuff that fits the narrative after a game like Saturday’s.  The Chiefs were a good football team after last week, now they’re considered nothing much other than AFC wannabes.

The game was ugly. The players didn’t perform well, but the Chiefs will be just fine, at least until next week.