Free-falling Chiefs find ways to lose
The Kansas City Chiefs started the 2017 season 5-0 but have lost six of their past seven games to fall into a three-way tie for first place in the AFC West.
Kansas City lost 38-31 to the New York Jets on Sunday, and Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger said the Chiefs are in a free-fall.
“The Chiefs’ current reality would be unthinkable if it did not fit so neatly into what the franchise has been about for nearly 50 years. Letdown after letdown after momentary promise leads to letdown,” Mellinger wrote.
“The premise would be laughable if it were not so agonizing. The best team in the NFL to a reliable and free-falling loser, all tightly wrapped into the same season.
“The failures would be simpler to address and trust would be easier to grant if a team five years in the making with a coach in his 19th season did not provide such a diverse and at times darkly comedic collective of ineptitude. Offense one week, defense the next, with stupid penalties and stupider mistakes.
“This group should be better, in theory, but instead the 2017 Chiefs are among the NFL’s greatest disappointments because the men who swear they’re better than this repeatedly make liars of themselves and fools of anyone who believes.
“This team once talked about winning the Super Bowl, and people once heard that without laughing, but a 38-31 loss to the Jets here on Sunday sticks out from past failures only for its creativity.
“Good teams find ways to win, bad teams find ways to lose, and so far this group has alternatively lost because it couldn’t stop the run (Steelers), couldn’t stop the pass (Raiders), couldn’t do much of anything except a potato-sack dance (Cowboys), couldn’t score against a team that had quit (Giants), couldn’t score against a team that gave up 101 points the two weeks before (Bills), and couldn’t keep Josh McCown from looking like John Elway and Jermaine Kearse from looking like Jerry Rice (Jets).
“Ugh. It’s even worse when packed into one paragraph.
“Andy Reid has worked five years to build this team, finally with the speed and versatility and experience to best complement his scheme, and a confident defense with talent at every level, and the result at the moment is closer to the dysfunction he inherited than the Super Bowl champion he envisioned.”