There’s just no way around it: in front of a national “Monday Night Football” audience, the Kansas City Chiefs gave away their Week 5 matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Kansas City accumulated more passing yards, rushing yards and time with the ball. The team had fewer turnovers than Jacksonville — and didn’t give up a single sack.
That was the good.
But in Monday’s 31-28 loss, the bad outweighed the good. The Chiefs racked up 13 penalties for 109 yards. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw a pick-6
— and even worse, failed to make game-winning plays when it mattered most.
“When we didn’t have the issues, I thought the guys executed well,” said head coach Andy Reid. “We had penalties, the interception — all those things that went on — negated some of that. Overall, I thought our execution was pretty good.
“But you’ve got to score more points… right?”
Mahomes also thought there was some upside to be found in the bitter loss.
“I mean, obviously, there’s positives on how we’ve progressed as an offense,” he told reporters. “But like I said, I think more than anything, it’s about making winning plays.
“In years past, we might not have had so much success offensively. But we’ve made those winning plays whenever it’s counted. So I think we have to get back to doing that. Obviously, we want the offense to continue to progress — but when we get in these high-leverage, high-intensity moments, we‘ve got to execute at a higher level. That starts with me — and it kind of feeds throughout the rest of the team.”
Running back Isiah Pacheco has faith that the team will turn things around.
“We’re building something special here,” he declared. “Together every week, you see how tough we are. [We’re] not pointing the finger. We’re building on each other [and] loving on each other. We’re going to get going.”
“We’re getting better,” said Mahomes. “That’s all that you can do.”
And starting on Monday, suspended wide receiver Rashee Rice will be back on the practice field. That should also help the team get back on track.
“At the end of the day,” added Mahomes, “it’s all about winning. I think if we can start making those winning plays, that is the last step we need in order to take our offense to the next step.”
