Chiefs face quick turnaround with Thursday game vs. Oakland
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The sun had set on Arrowhead Stadium, to say nothing of Kansas City’s perfect start, by the time Alex Smith and the bangedup Chiefs finally headed to their cars Sunday night.
They don’t have much time to recuperate. Mentally or physically. After getting dominated on both sides of the ball by the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 19-13 loss, the Chiefs have four days to flush it from their system.
They will head to California to face the AFC West-rival Oakland Raiders on Thursday night in a game that suddenly appears much more difficult.
“That’s part of it,” Smith said. “Coming off a physical game, you know you’re going to have another big divisional game and travel. You got all those built-in excuses there to lean on.”
That’s where a little mental fortitude comes in.
The Chiefs (5-1) ran roughshod through the first five weeks of the season, dominating the Patriots on the road and dispatching everyone else with apparent ease.
Their offense was the best in the league, their defense was stingy and opportunistic, and even special teams were playing at such a high level that some began to wonder whether anybody could beat them.
There was certainly a profound sense of confidence in the Kansas City locker room, where rookie running back Kareem Hunt and wide receiver Tyreek Hill were getting plenty of national attention.
But if their egos were inflated, the Steelers did a brutally efficient job of deflating them.
They held that high-flying offense to 6 yards on 16 plays in the entire first half. They churned out 179 yards rushing with Le’Veon Bell against that plucky defense.
And when Hill finally got loose on a punt return late in the game, they laid such a lick on him that he was checked for a concussion.
“They say not to take anything personal,” Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson said, “but when they run the ball like they did on us, you have to. Does this count for more than one loss? No, not at all. Should it light another fire? It will and we’ll respond the right way.”
That sounds like someone who intends to be mentally right by Thursday night in Oakland.
Getting right physically might prove to be a bigger challenge.
The Chiefs were without center Mitch Morse and right guard Laurent DuvernayTardif again on Sunday, and the ailing offensive linemen could well be out against the Raiders.