Well, that wasn’t a very fun way to start the season.
During Friday night’s early going, the Kansas City Chiefs looked jet-lagged and sluggish against a rejuvenated, hungry Los Angeles Chargers team that at last looks prepared to give the Chiefs a run for their money in the race for the AFC West crown. Playing on an international stage, the Chiefs had an opportunity to make this a statement game. But instead, they left São Paulo with more questions than answers after losing their season opener 27-21.
Here are five other things we learned in the Week 1 loss.
1. The Chiefs are suddenly thin at wide receiver
With Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and Jalen Royals on the field, the Chiefs’ receiving corps looked potent and ready to make some noise. But with all three out of the mix, the Kansas City offense suddenly looked a whole lot less explosive. It wasn’t until late in the first half that we began to see some chunk plays from the team’s offense, but even these were few and far between.
For much of the game, the Chiefs’ passing attack looked like it was pulling teeth to move down the field. Luckily, we have a firm date for Rice’s return — and hopefully, Worthy and Royals will be back as well. Because here’s the unfortunate truth: Hollywood Brown, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Tyquan Thornton are fine role players. But if they are the team’s starting wideouts, there’s a problem.
2. They are who we thought they were
Take your pick: Jawaan Taylor, Kingsley Suamataia or Chamarri Conner.
I don’t want to continue to harp on how poorly these three continue to play, because it’s just not fair to expect them to be more than they are. At this point, we have enough evidence to know they just don’t have the skills to perform their duties as NFL players.
Taylor and Conner’s shortcomings were especially on display on Friday night. Both were routinely smoked by the competition. I think it’s fair to say that if they had played even 50% better, the Chiefs would have been in a position to win the game.
3. The coaching staff needs to find a way to motivate the team
The Chiefs came out flat on both sides of the ball. If it were just the offense or defense, then the team have could overcome the lack of energy by holding on until the rest of the team decided to wake up.
But in the first half, the Chiefs looked utterly absent.
It’s the coaching staff’s job to make sure their players are prepared — and up — for the game. This time, head coach Andy Reid and his staff dropped the ball. The team looked disjointed, slow and sloppy. The NFL’s margin for error is just too small. If the Chiefs continue to play as they did Friday, they’re in real trouble.
4. The Chiefs have a problem with their pass rush
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defense was unable to generate pressure against the Chargers without dialing up exotic blitzes that were disguised at the line of scrimmage. These plays are fine in small doses — and can lead to big defensive plays, too. But they lose their effectiveness when they are overused. So the team must figure out how to generate pass rush with only four down linemen.
Otherwise, we’re going to continue to see the same result: opposing quarterbacks getting as much time as they want to make plays.
5. Mahomes still has it
While missing his top weapons (and running for his life), quarterback Patrick Mahomes showed that he still has that Magic Mahomes lurking down inside him. Whether he was throwing the ball while being 100% horizontal in the air or scrambling outside the pocket to gain additional yardage, Mahomes’ Friday night performance was nothing short of sorcery.
He played well enough to keep his team in contention until the very end. Even with everything else that went wrong on Friday, Mahomes still nearly willed his team to victory.
