Chiefs, Titans putting bad stretches in past
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The Chiefs have won back-to-back division titles but took a peculiar path to do it.
They won their first five games this season and looked like the NFL’s best team before losing six of seven. They pulled out of their tailspin, however, by winning their final four.
They play host Saturday to the Titans, who have endured their own wild ride. They appeared to be on the right path at 8-4 before losing three in a row. They recovered to win their finale and make the postseason for the first time since 2008.
Coach Andy Reid, who has led the Chiefs to the playoffs for the third year in a row, has 11 postseason victories, second to the Patriots’ Bill Belichick in this field.
Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith led the NFL with a career-best 104.7 passer rating and has thrown for more than 3,000 yards with fewer than 10 interceptions for five years in a row, the longest such streak in league history.
The Titans’ Marcus Mariota is making his first postseason start. He’s particularly good in the red zone, with 39 touchdown passes and zero interceptions in his career.
What a season for Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt. He led the NFL with a franchise rookie record 1,327 rushing yards. Reid said Hunt pushed to get the ball down the stretch to lock up the rushing title.
“I fought him a little bit on it, and he won that fight,” Reid told reporters. “He told me he’d get it taken care of quick, and he did that.”
The Titans counter with former Heisman Trophy winner Derrick Henry, as DeMarco Murray will miss his second straight game with a right knee injury.
The Chiefs are coming together at the right time. They have held opponents to fewer than 100 rushing yards four times, three of those coming in the past month.
“We’ve been doing a better job stopping the run, but you can never get complacent,” linebacker Derrick Johnson told reporters recently, according to the Kansas City Star. “You can never think you’ve arrived. It’s always making a conscious effort (that) we need to stop the run, stay in your gaps, play tough team defense.”
The Titans are 3-5 on the road, and Mariota has not played well away from home. The Chiefs are 6-2 at Arrowhead Stadium, and they are rested. Reid is seasoned and will have his players ready to move on.