Tennessee poised heading into KC

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes rarely says the wrong thing when he stands at the podium. He is poised and polished, in victory or defeat, and has carried himself in that professional manner since he joined the Kansas City Chiefs.

So it speaks volumes of the lasting impression that the Titans’ 27-3 rout of the Chiefs last season had on him when the Pro Bowl quarterback was asked about it this week: “We weren’t ready,” Mahomes replied, “and they beat our [butt].”

Only he used a three-letter word for derrière rather than a four-letter one.

That’s about as close as you’ll get to Mahomes cursing in public.

“They have that mentality that they’re going to come in and win,” Mahomes continued, by way of an explanation, “and a lot of times in this league, when you don’t have the confidence coming in, you’re going to lose. But when you have a team that is as confident as you, it’s going to be a battle.”

The Titans (5-2) have every reason to be confident as they visit Kansas City (5-2) for a Sunday night showdown between divisional leaders. They’ve won five of the past six in the series, including a wild-card playoff game, though the one defeat happened to come in the AFC Championship Game and sent the Chiefs to the Super Bowl.

In any case, the Titans also roll into Arrowhead Stadium today having won five consecutive after an 0-2 start.

“It’s tough. It’s a fun place to play. It’s an atmosphere that you dream about when you’re a kid, going into a rowdy road environment. That is exactly it,” said Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who hopes to return after missing last week’s win over Houston with an ankle injury. “They love football. They’re loud. They’re into it the whole game.”

There are plenty of familiar faces from the last time the teams met in Kansas City for that AFC title game; Mahomes and Tannehill are two of them. Another is Titans running back Derrick Henry, who just gashed the Texans for 219 yards and two touchdowns last week. He was held to 69 yards rushing by Kansas City on Jan. 19, 2020.

“There are going to be things that you’re going to do to try and stop him. I think the whole NFL has tried that somewhere,” said Chiefs Coach Andy Reid, who is 20-3 when his teams are coming off a bye. “He’s a great player, and you’re not going to stop him on every play. You just want to get the numbers up where it’s a reasonable number of stops.”

The Chiefs did that pretty well last year, too, holding Henry to 86 yards rushing.

It didn’t matter. They still lost in a blowout in Nashville that Mahomes and Co. remember to this day.

“You watch that on film and see how you played, it wasn’t just them beating us,” Mahomes said. “We played bad and they just put it down on us at the end of the day. We have to understand they’re going to be ready to go.”

“He’s a great player, and you’re not going to stop him on every play. You just want to get the numbers up where it’s a reasonable number of stops.” Kansas City Chiefs Coach Andy Reid on Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry