Arrowhead Pride
Nothing about this looks quite right. The offense feels stale. The defense lacks playmakers. The whole thing just feels… off. Maybe this is the year the Kansas City Chiefs don’t have enough to get back on track.
I think those statements generally capture the way non-Chiefs fans feel about the team. It’s hard to completely deny the critiques. Many of the greatest concerns about this year’s team have, indeed, come to fruition.
A healthy Isiah Pacheco hasn’t fixed the running game. Travis Kelce looks better, but he’s certainly not his old self. The Arizona Cardinals might be the only 2-0 team that doesn’t have multiple receivers better than the Chiefs’ top wideout.
By the way, who is the Chiefs’ best receiver right now? Tyquan Thornton?
And what about the defense? It has a serious lack of pass rush, paired with exactly zero takeaways through the first two games.
All of it has led to the Chiefs’ first 0-2 start since 2014. It is just the fourth time in head coach Andy Reid’s lengthy NFL head coaching career that his team has started with two losses.
Just how concerned should we be? And how likely is it that the team will get things back on track?
Unfortunately, we won’t know the answer to either of these questions until we get more information on what this team is going to look like at full strength. But we can begin by looking at recent history.
A year ago, the Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams each started 0-2. All three teams reached the playoffs. The 2022 Cincinnati Bengals also did it, along with the 2023 Houston Texans. In all, 12% of the 42 teams to start 0-2 since 2020’s postseason expansion made the playoffs.
But no team has started 0-2 and reached the Super Bowl since the New York Giants did it in 2007. The New England Patriots pulled it off in 1996 and 2001, as did the Dallas Cowboys in 1993. But that’s it.
So the odds are not in the Chiefs’ favor.
But this is nothing new, right? It’s been years since the odds were in their favor. Patrick Mahomes was the first quarterback to reach the AFC Championship in every one of his first seven seasons as a starter. Kansas City has reached five of the last six Super Bowls and won nine consecutive AFC West championships.
None of this is likely. And it’s not going to be easy to continue one of the most dominant stretches of football in NFL history.
That’s OK. It’s supposed to be hard. It is exactly this difficulty in sustaining greatness that makes the Chiefs’ current run so darn impressive.
Kansas City’s season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers made me nervous. The offense didn’t look much different from last season, and the defense couldn’t seem to get a stop. Mahomes’ performance was the only glimmer of hope in the team’s overall play.
Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles was different. And...
