KC Chiefs: Five things we learned in week five loss to Colts

This game was an ugly one for the KC Chiefs and I really don’t know where to begin. I have no witty intro, no quips about our opponent or anything of the like. Let’s get this over with so we can move on, shall we?

Walking Wounded

Let’s get the obvious out of the way here. The Kansas City Chiefs are playing with fire, thanks to all of the injuries. This isn’t college where you have 90 guys on a roster. In the NFL, a team can only take so many injuries before they tap out.

The Chiefs lost Chris Jones, Anthony Hitchens, Andrew Wylie, Sammy Watkins, and Xavier Williams, not to mention Patrick Mahomes is hobbled. That doesn’t even include Tyreek Hill and Eric Fisher, who has been out the last several weeks plus Alex Okafor who got hurt in last week’s game.

Run Defense finally bit the Chiefs

The bane of Chiefs fans existence has arrived. It was only a matter of time before the Chiefs run defense cost them a game and here it was. The Colts absolutely dominated on time of possession and kept Mahomes off the field, and their run game totaled 180 yards on the ground.

The Chiefs run defense has been the weakness of this team for a while now and while it wasn’t the only reason the team lost, it played a large part in it. Hats off to the Colts for going with the run and sticking with it.

Run Blocking

The Chiefs can’t run the ball to save their lives at this point. Never in all my years of being a fan of the Chiefs have I seen them run the ball this poorly. This all starts up front with the offensive line. Andy Heck has done a great job getting guys ready, but he needs to invoke some nastiness into them.

Unfortunately with Fisher out and Wylie being hurt, it is only going to get worse, that’s not to say that play calling doesn’t have a little to do with it either. The Chiefs need to get things straightened out and quick because teams are going to be keying in on this and exploiting it.

Is it time?

It might be time to relieve Dustin Colquitt of his duties. These are words that no Chiefs fan wants to read or type, but he just hasn’t looked the same. This could be due to any number of reasons, but this doesn’t seem like the Colquitt of old.

His punts aren’t traveling as far as they usually do. It could be the lack of work the last couple of seasons, causing him to be stiff or even possible injury. I also expect that he and Toub will figure this out if there is anything to fix. Could this soon be the end of the Chiefs longest-tenured player?

Eliminate the kick-off

When the NFL enacted the new kick-off rules, it was supposed to be for player safety. The unintended consequence of it might be the death of the onside kick. At this point, you might as well get rid of the kickoff and force the offense to a fourth and long instead of an onside kick.

Not only are kickoffs not even all that exciting anymore, but the onside kick isn’t even a viable strategy anymore. At this point, the NFL is keeping it around for the fans. The Chiefs tried to run an onside kick at the end of the game, but without getting a run-up, it just wasn’t going to work.

CONCLUSION

It isn’t all doom and gloom Chiefs fans. This team has dealt with far bigger struggles under Andy Reid and one game does not make a season. Injuries happen and even the best teams have bad games. The team will regroup and come out ready for next week’s games.

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