Kansas City Chiefs go from bad to worse in blowout loss to Titans

Just when it seemed like the Kansas City Chiefs were turning things around, Andy Reid and company suffered their worst loss of the season.

I have been rolling this piece around in my head since about 3:00 yesterday afternoon, trying to think of a way that it will come out as more of an informative analysis of the Kansas City Chiefs and their current status, and less of a ticked off fan going on a tirade because he is beginning to come to grips with the crushing reality that his team isn’t as good as he thought they were.

They may not be any good at all, in fact, and guess what? I can’t think of a way to write this piece in a way where it is going to be anything less than the ranting and raving variety. I am openly admitting that so that no one is going into this piece unaware.

All that being said, here we go.

As most of you are aware, I am also a huge college football fan and my team of choice is the Oklahoma Sooners. Having grown up in Norman, Oklahoma and my father being the passionate OU fan that he is, trust me, it wasn’t much of a choice. So any of you who keep up with both the NFL and college know that I had to suffer this type of game not once but twice this weekend. At least OU managed to beat Kansas, and believe me, I am not bragging about that.

All right, is it embarrassing to lose a game to the Tenessee Titans? Absolutely not. The Titans are a more than solid team, and losing a close competitive game to them at home would not have been a point of shame.

Unfortunately, the Chiefs didn’t lose a game that was even in the same ballpark as close or competitive. Rather, they got taken behind the woodshed for three hours and were absolutely molly-whopped in every possible way.

I honestly don’t recall the last time I saw a Chiefs loss that was so lopsided and had so few positives you could glean from it. Without using Google, I am almost certain this is the most lopsided loss the Chiefs have suffered since Patrick Mahomes started taking the snaps in 2018, and it just seems to be the latest chapter in the Chiefs not only not improving but becoming progressively worse.

A couple of weeks ago, after the Chiefs were embarrassed to a lesser extent by the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night football, I wrote a piece about how despite the Chiefs’ struggles, I believed them to still be a good team and most likely a playoff contender. Now, I am being forced to do what most sports writers have to do at some point or another: Recant my statement, dip my words from the previous piece in some KC BBQ sauce, and eat them.

After I wrote these words, the Chiefs needed a second-half comeback to beat a hapless football team that doesn’t even currently have a name, and then got absolutely thrashed the next week by the Titans.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have written pieces in the past about how the Titans seem to be a thorn in the sides of the Chiefs and Chiefs kingdom, but yesterday was not a thorn in the side. It was a boulder rolling downhill and crushing everything in its path, and all who might have thought to oppose said boulder were powerless to stop it.

I so desperately wish that I could get on here and write a feel-good piece. about how the Chiefs are still playoff contenders and perhaps even Super Bowl-bound. That they just need to figure a couple of things out.

One of the few statements I made in my last piece that I don’t have to retract, however, is that I am not one of these delusional fans who refuses to see my team for what they are.

When they are good I will sing their praises from the mountain tops, but when they are bad I will tell you they are bad and spew venom and vitriol all over the page. Yesterday’s performance has earned them some venom and vitriol spewing.

Does this mean I am no longer a Chiefs fan and have given up on them? Don’t be ridiculous.

Does this mean I am now listing my Patrick Mahomes autographed football on eBay? Not on your life.

I am in fact writing this article while wearing my Chiefs jacket, my Chiefs flag hanging proudly from my desk (albeit at half-mast), and with the declaration that the Kansas City Chiefs are now and always will be my team.

I am no fairweather fan, but I am no delusional fan either and I will always write and embrace the facts. The fact, at this juncture anyway, is that the Chiefs aren’t any good.

In my prior piece, I wrote that the Chiefs, while struggling, are still a good football team, and I am now forced to retract that as well. Can they become a good football team once more? Absolutely, but at this point, they are not a good football team.

The other statement I must retract is proclaiming that they would most likely still win the AFC West and make the playoffs. Unless they do a complete 180 and pretty much win out the rest of the season, they will absolutely not win the AFC West. There is a better than good chance they don’t make the playoffs either.

OK, alright, I’m done. The ranting and raving on the state of the Chiefs have concluded and I’m sorry you had to read it, but it needed to be said.

Now look, all the pieces are still there. In fact, that is part of what makes the current state of the Chiefs so mind-numbingly frustrating. Kansas City still has a fantastic play-caller in Andy Reid and some of the best playmakers in the league in Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and company.

Of course, there’s also the man I still believe to be one of the best quarterbacks in the league in Patrick Mahomes.

The pieces that made up the 2019 Super Bowl-winning team and the team that traveled back to the Super Bowl the very next year are still on this team. They just need to start connecting again in every sense of the word. I fully believe that if any team in the league can find a way to turn things around, no matter how bleek they currently look, it is the Kansas City Chiefs,

I 100 percent believe that, but a lot of changes have to happen and they need to happen now.

The defense has got to step up. They did hold Derrick Henry to 86 yards on 29 carries, so, there’s that. Offensively, no more turnovers, no more dropped passes or passes that should have been caught. In the name of all things holy, just play clean football. The Titans game looked like someone had upended their dirty laundry bin on the field there were so many flags.

I’m just going to say it: This team isn’t going to the Super Bowl and I don’t think I’m letting some big cat out of the bag by saying so.

They may not even get into the playoffs and probably won’t win the West either, but it is not too late for them to develop some momentum and try to find a positive way to salvage this season and finish out the season with a respectable record.

Will it be what frankly spoiled Chiefs fans have come to expect from this team? No, it isn’t going to be, but if it could be at least a winning record. Considering how this season has gone so far, I think most fans could find a way to be satisfied with that.

The Chiefs’ next game is hosting the Giants on Monday night football. Even with the Chiefs’ current woes, they are still nine-point favorites over the Giants.

It is a primetime game under the lights of Arrowhead, which seems to be the perfect opportunity for the Chiefs to have a good game in front of their fans and the rest of the country, and seize some momentum moving forward.