Kansas City Chiefs haven’t been playing their best and are 8-1

The Kansas City Chiefs head into their bye week with an 8-1 record. That’s impressive, considering that they have yet to play their best football.

Most NFL teams and their fans would love to be sitting at 8-1 at this point in the season. For fans of the Kansas City Chiefs, though, it just doesn’t feel like this team is putting their best football on the field. Like any season so far in the Patrick Mahomes era, there’s been a lot of highlights and more records broken. But even at 8-1, why does it seem like they’re leaving something on the field?

By many measures, the Chiefs are looking good. Patrick Mahomes has once again put himself in the running for league MVP, having thrown only one interception to 25 touchdowns passes. Travis Kelce is having a career year and clearly looks like the most dominating tight end in the game. And Dirty Dan Sorensen has taken his game to a level that no one would have expected.

Oddly enough, the offense this year looks even better. Despite lots of injuries to the offensive line, the Chiefs have somehow continued to put lots of points on the board. The addition of rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire seems to have brought a nice balance to the offensive attack. Now, the Chiefs can choose to beat teams through the air or on the ground.

The defense has also seemed to hold their own. They’re currently ranked sixth in the league in points allowed, which is a stark difference from just a few seasons ago. And even though they do give up a lot of rushing yards per game, they seem able to shut teams down when it matters most. So, what seems to be the issue overall?

This Kansas City Chiefs team seems to lack a fire that could really propel them even further along.

There are moments when all three phases are individually firing well, but they just haven’t put it all together, with the exception of the Denver game. Maybe this is what a Super Bowl hangover looks like for Kansas City. It’s odd to look at an 8-1 record and the scores from those games and think there is something “wrong” with this team.

Along with lacking some fire, the Chiefs seem to be out of sorts or undisciplined. Kansas City has been the seventh most penalized team this season. That seems about right when watching a game as the team often looks off-kilter as a result of the poor timing of penalties. It’s hard to know if the penalties say more about undisciplined players or a coaching staff that needs to take the problem seriously.

All is not lost, though. In 2019, the Chiefs beat the Chargers in Mexico City before heading into their bye week. They looked exhausted at that point and the bye week was really what they needed. Will this year’s team respond in the same way? After a near loss to Carolina, Kansas City could really use a bye week to rest mentally and physically before heading into the latter part of the season.

After the bye in 2019, Kansas City went on their incredible run that culminated in a Super Bowl win. With a schedule that includes the Saints, Buccaneers, an up-and-coming Dolphins team, and three division games, the Chiefs will need to be well-rested in order to handle these opponents.

They may not have played their best football so far, but they certainly can from here on out. Hopefully, we’ll see a reinvigorated Chiefs team that once again puts together a run that ends with a second straight Super Bowl win.