Best Of: Nick Wright's CHIEFS ROLLERCOASTER season week-by-week reaction | NFL

Twelve and five would disappoint me. I expect thirteen and four or better. They are not going eleven and six the Chiefs. We don't need to spend more time on it. Everyone knew I was going Chiefs over because it is the right bet. I am going over with the Kansas City Chiefs. Our annual tradition EXACTA. Three years ago we had Chiefs Niners, and the Niners found themselves in the Conference championship game. Last two years ago we had Chiefs Cowboys,

and the Cowboys found themselves with twelve wins. Last year we had Chiefs Bears, and the Bears had a season from hell and missed the playoffs. This year, the Super Bowl EXACTA at fifty five to one is a drummer. We please, Demonse.

Mixon was in the game. He ran for two sixty okay and four touchdowns. But that wasn't the story. The story was Baker. Baker was twenty seven of thirty six only through thirty six passes for five hundred and forty five yards, seven touchdowns, no picks. Jesus okay, okay. Patrick Patrick was fifty two of eighty eight.

It is an all time legendary college football game.

looked hugely problematic against Herbert and the Chargers. Week two, I thought the secondary looked really good, right, So like that's the one good game, one bad game. I'm not focusing on that. Here is what through two weeks looks problematic, and I don't know where the solve for it is. The Chiefs running game is as inept right now as it's ever been since Patrick's been there. Pachecko sadly, he just does not look like the same player he was

before he broke his leg. And what's odd about it is his biggest problem through two weeks doesn't seem to be explosion. It seems to be vision and hitting the right hole. You wouldn't think that is related to a lower body injury, but he just hasn't been effective. Kareem Hunt is who he is. He if you need one yard more way more often than not, he will get it for you. But he has no chance of getting you ten. And they brought in Elijah Mitchell. Nothing's happened there.

They drafted Brischard Smith in the I think seventh round. He's seventh round rookie. Like they just right now don't have the horses in the running back room, and that is a spot that I would not at all hate for him to be active on. In the trade market, I think we have There has been a lot of

discussion of should the Chiefs trade for Tyreek Hill? The wide receivers are coming back, Okay, I if I were doing a trade with Miami, I might be equally, if not more, interested in Devin h Chan Like I think that there are you running backs will be and should be available, and that might be a spot that they have to bite the bullet and spend some draft capital via trade on. So that's one piece, and here's another one. As good as Josh Simmons has been at the left

tackle spot, Patrick still doesn't feel totally comfortable in his protection. Now, some of that's been the left guard spot's been really problematic. But Creed's great, Trade's great, Simmons is really good, Joan Taylor when he's not committing penalties is fine. And Patrick just seems like he doesn't trust it right now. And I am as confident in Patrick Mahomes as any player that's ever played in the league that he will figure stuff out. And there have been times this season where

it has felt like he's out there. I don't want to say by himself, but nobody can get opening. They can't run the ball, which has forced him to and this is the part of the season that I have liked the absolute least. It has forced him to activate playoff running Mahomes in weeks one and two, and I despise that because obviously it puts him in jeopardy, which is the biggest concern. But the other thing is one of the reasons he has had the post season's success

that he's had. One of the reasons he has been so much more dynamic and effective statistically and from a winning perspective on a per game basis than any other quarterback in the history of the league come the postseason is because every single postseason he adds a huge weapon to his game that is not there in the regular season, which is the quarterback runs the scrambles, and if he's using that during the regular season, it has just multiple concerns.

One is he can get banged up. Another is you're not getting that auto postseason boost. Like Josh Allen and Lamar are unbelievable runners at the quarterback position, they do it starting in Week one and never stop. So it doesn't add an element to their game come the playoffs. It has for Patrick and the last listen issue on offense is the greatest tight end in the history of the league has had a really rough two weeks. There's no way around it. Third play of the season. I

thought it was Xavier's mistake. He says. It was his mistake that he ran the wrong depth of his route and Xavier's hurt. Later in that game, he and Patrick aren't on quite the same page. When they're down nine, about to score, they don't connect on what would have been a touchdown. And then obviously the Eagles game, they're about to take the lead and he bobbles a pass and it turns into a game changing interception. That's all. It's been highly damaging. I don't know if it's yet

highly concerning, but it's highly damaging. Okay, So there is that piece of it on the defensive side of the ball. The only complaint I have after week two is they cannot seem to get pressure without sending a blitz, like if they rush for they just cannot get home. So I don't know if that means the rookies Ashton Jalot or Omar Norman lot need to be more effective. Certainly Charles Amena who needs to be more effective. Mike Dana

got hurt in this game. That didn't help. George Karloft has just got paid by this team, he needs to be more effective. Like Chris Jones is a man on an island at times. And so those are real problems, okay, And right now the Chiefs don't deserve to be anything close to Super Bowl favorites. I'm not gonna sit here and act like, ah, they got unlucky, they got this. No. If anything, it is surprising that they have had a chance to win both of these games when they haven't

played well. They've missed kicks in both games. They haven't forced a turnover. So that is the true and fair, sober analysis of where the Chiefs are through two weeks. Anything past that is nonsense. Anyone trying to pedal Wow, should they be worried about making the playoffs? I think has lost their mind. Now is the division for the first time in Jeopardy? Yeah, when you're zero to two and a team that beat you is two to zero with a divisional win, it's understandable that the Chiefs are

no longer the favorites in the division. Demanse and where where does hard Rock Bet have them at? Right now?

on the TV show. I'm going to tell it again here because having an encyclopedic memory about the Patrick mahomes Erra for the Kansaity Chiefs can pay dividends and so let me tell you guys. A quick story. In twenty twenty, the Chiefs with the defending champions, went back to the Super Bowl and got blasted by Tampa Bay. The next year, not only did they start out three and four, but Mahomes had the first real slump of his career. Is with Kelsey this Tyreek. They get blown out by Buffalo,

they get blown out by Tennessee. They then play the Giants and need a field goal with a minute left to be a foreign and eventually four win. Joe Judge Giants team to get to three and four. The very next week, they play the Packers in the game Aaron Rodgers can't play in because of That's how we found out he didn't have the COVID vaccine because he was on the COVID list. And Jordan Love, in his first career start, comes to town and it's one of the

ugliest games ever. And with two minutes left it is thirteen to seven Kansas City and Mahomes has played terribly okay, And it is third and ten and a first down wins the game, and they don't get a first down and they could lose outright and fall to three and five, and Patrick play breaks down. Patrick scrambles to his right off one leg, zips in a laser down the sideline to ice the game. And I went on TV the next day and said, I believe that's the moment Patrick

snapped out of his funk. I believe that is the moment that the Chiefs will be the Chiefs again. And the rest of the season they lost one time and made it to the AFC Championship Game, where they did lose to the Cincinnati Bengals, But the rest of it, from that moment forward, there were good. What does any team in football this year? They get blown out in the Super Bowl, they look terrible through two weeks. They are playing the New York Giants. It is a tie game.

Approaching halftime, Patrick attempts to swing past Isaiah Pacheco, who

runs in the wrong direction. The ball is live, it is about to be Giants thirteen to six, and the Chiefs are going to be in dire straits and Patrick Mahomes runs down the Giants player who's about to scoop and score, takes the ball back from him, steadies the team, And from that moment forward in that game was Patrick Mahomes again, I do think we are going to look back on that moment as the moment the Chiefs studied themselves. Where I am, though, Demons is fully relaxed and comfortable

and relieved about the Chiefs. Let's get right to the game of the weekend.

Chiefs had close to a competent receiving corps. The offense looked good again the last And we don't have to do this full history in depth, but it is worth mentioning that the Chiefs traded away Tyreek Hill Mahomes snap in an offseason changed the way he played based on the receivers they had one league MVP. The very next year, dealt with more drops than any quarterback literally in modern NFL history, figured it out by the playoffs, won the

Super Bowl. The next year, dealt with the most injured wide receiver and running back room in the NFL, got all the way to the super Bowl. And the next year, which was this year, walked into the season with his number one receiver suspended for six games and his number two receiver knocked out of Game one three plays in.

And it looked shaky for a bit. And I told you guys that I knew real like I guess insight that that Chargers Week one game plan Xavier Worthy was the ePIE center of it, and him being knocked out three plays in threw everything off. But this, the fatalism surrounding the Chiefs from almost everyone else in the media was And I don't want to be a scold and I don't want to be more annoying than I naturally am.

But it was embarrassing, and it was so fickle and so myopic, my opic, pardon me, as if they don't have a Hall of Fame head coach, a Hall of Fame caliber decoordinator, and the most talented quarterback to ever live, that they couldn't figure it out. And it was as if they were getting boat raced in these early games, or as if they were playing terrible teams and losing. Neither were true. Now, I want to make this clear. I don't think the Chiefs are, you know, quote fully back.

If back means being the highest scoring team in the league, I don't think that's who they're going to be. I don't think the Chiefs have solved all their issues. I still think the running back room leaves a lot to be desired, and their ability to get pressure on the opposing quarterback without sending a blitz at the moment leaves

a lot to be desired. But you look, if you going into the Baltimore game, if you looked around the AFC, the only team that really you could say had no holes to poke at it was the Chargers going into Week four, But they already were dealing with some potentially mounting injuries that sadly, they dealt with more of during Week four in a game they had no business losing but lost, and so the Bills were undefeated. But the Bills defense had looked shaky, and they they had and

have played three consecutive games against just bottom feeders. The Ravens were given this huge benefit of the doubt despite having the same record as the Chiefs, and then every other team that had a good record, like the Steelers or the Jags, you had real reason to be concerned about. I didn't really sleep last night and then got up this morning, took your sister to school, picked your mom up from the gym. I don't know if I said

ten words to either one of them. I then just laid on the couch, which I never do in the mornings, and tried to like take a nap. That didn't work. You know how I can tell your mom knows I'm in a teetering emotional place. I could probably, well, here's here's how I know that she knows and that she's empathetic, because there were she's doing like a whole giant house cleaning thing. Prior to I knew it her birthday. Well, no,

hold on there. Within the ninety second when I came downstairs, there were three things I saw her do that she had asked me to do previously, and she wasn't even mad at me. Yep, I was like, oh, she legit feels bad for me right now. She's like, she is really showing a real amount of empathy because I was supposed to put those coffee cups away. I was supposed

to throw that backpack away. And she's doing all of it, and she's doing with a smile on her face, which means she has correctly clocked that I'm not doing great. Hopefully this will be my Catharsis. Let's get to Monday night football.

years get stuck in the mud. They you know, there are ways that they can lose a game, and other people panic or you know, talk about in what bad shape the team is in, and I do not because of the the full confidence that by the end of the year Patrick will have figured stuff out, or the team will get healthier or whatever it is. Losing a game like that last night, they don't blow two touchdown leads. Every other team in the league mate, they don't. They

did last night. While the Chiefs don't blow teams out the way the other excellent teams in football do over the last few years, they just simply never beat themselves, and yesterday they beat themselves. Yesterday is the first game in four years the Chiefs have won the turnover battle and lost the game. There have only been three games in the last four years where they have won or tied the turnover battle and lost the game. Week one against Detroit couple of years ago, the pick six Week

one against the Chargers. This year team turned it over, and then this week with a pick six, and so all of that just it. It's just a horrible loss. All is right in the world again, Ye're pretty happy this he's and it's just everything's back the way it's supposed to be. You guys, check the latest MVP odds. Who's the favorite? Patrick go on hard Rock Bet Check the latest Super Bowl odds, who's the favorite the Chiefs.

Everything's everything is the way it's supposed to be. And one, and what is so gratifying about this is we don't I thought the way this was going to go was all the folks that wrote the Chiefs obituary three weeks ago, we're going to have to answer for that commentary in January instead, because of how even with the loss nine days ago by the Chiefs, because of how the rest of the league has looked and how Kansas City looked on national TV Sunday night, all those folks have to

eat it immediately. We're not to Halloween yet, and they all have to be like, all right, I'm dumb, you're right, I'm wrong. It's so good it's so much fun. And the fact that they're winning this way with the offense humming back to you're shocked when they don't get a touchdown doing Patrick things and they don't have their best offensive weapon not named Patrick Mahomes yet And then you just you watch the rest of the league and and

we'll get to these games. But you watch the Broncos do everything they can to try to lose to one of the worst teams I've ever seen in the Jets. You watch the Chargers do everything they can. Great play at the end by the Chargers, but the Chargers struggle with a Dolphins team that seems to actively hate each other. You watch the Bills what they did last night, the Eagles that are ripping themselves a part of the seams,

the Lions, we saw them play. And the other reason I'm happy is, you know the one team, Demonsey, that you can hold up next to the Chiefs right now and be like, hey, what what are you what's the what are you gonna say bad about this team? And I'm gonna say, no, there isn't anything. The Bucks, the Bucks, who are my pick going into the year. I'm feeling good. I had to eat it a lot those first couple of weeks. I had to come on here talk about

all these concerns. I had to listen to the great my beloved Kevin Wilde's act like Andy Reid and Travis Kelsey are not essentially family and worry about the fact that Andy bumped Travis. I do all that, and less than a month later, you know the other way, I know we're back because we're back to the refs. We are so the Chiefs are.

This guy hand up. Guess who didn't everyone else. It's one of the most ridiculous studies I've ever seen. The too long, didn't read version of it is the Chiefs have played the most play off games, and therefore their opponents have been called for the most penalties. That like, give you it is, but I don't even give it. I don't care about that. I do care about high leverage spots. Again. The games are on TV. Thirty million people watch him find Me, Find Me? The the call

we're all mad about. But I don't even want to talk about it. I don't I'm gonna get I'm gonna get mad. That's not what today is for. It's not for the idiots in El Paso. The so one Lion safety took the loss so well he went on tweet storm,

tweeting out photoshops of Mahomes kissing a raft. The other Lion's safety took the loss so well he hit Juju Smith Schuster in the face and now he's going to have to miss a massive game against Tampa and then goes in the locker room and I don't know if you guys watched that video, but it sure seemed like he was about to cry while saying and I quote they were bullying me out there, and the quote whim

what you were bullied out there? Is this Sunday night football with the big bad Detroit Lions or the Great Recess? What are you talking about? You got bullied? Should Juju have to sit by himself at lunch? Is Patrick gonna have to miss the not get a juice box tomorrow? You got bullied. You're supposed to be the bullies. And

instead of being the bullies. On fourth and goal, to set the tone on your first drive of the game and handing the ball to David Montgomery from the six inch line, you pop Jared Goff out wide on a play because you're that you don't even know the rules on and throw them a pass. You got bullied. That's

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eight hundred and nine with it. Gambling problem, Call one eight hundred gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. Here are my snap takeaways from it. Okay, so, Patrick, for just the second time all year made costly miss. The pick that Lattimore got was at the time his third pick of the year. Two of what the Jags pick and the Latimore pick were, you know, bad throws

and or bad decisions. And then all later in the first quarter, for the second time all year, Patrick made a great throat to Travis that Travis bobbled and got picked. And because of that, the Commanders were able to hang around. Luckily, the Chiefs are back to being the Chiefs in full

and because of that, it flatly did not matter. They had a drive in Demondsey, they had a drive in this game that was one hundred and nineteen yard touchdown drive because they got it started on the six and they got penalties on it to where they had to recoup those yards. And as I have been and screaming from the mountaintops for the better part of two years. All Patrick Mahomes needs is a competent offensive line and a league average receiving corps, which now they have above

league average, and now they do have. Demon's a real AFC playoff team gauntlet coming up Sunday at the Bills, then a bye week, than at the Broncos, than home for the Colts, and that will that three game stretch will determine the AFC West. It will go a long way to determining the AFC East for the Bills purposes, and it will go a long way to determining the number one seed in the AFC. And so I could not feel better about where this team is right now.

And oh yeah, by the way, the defense has allowed seven points in the last two weeks. Let's get to Bills Chiefs. All right, it's that time.

and Josh played great and Patrick played really shaky. That was the first game in Patrick's entire career he completed less than fifty percent of his passes, and they pressured the Chiefs at will, and the Bills were the far better team. It was a miracle. The Chiefs had multiple possessions down seven in the fourth quarter, and that last possession when McDermott chose to go for a field goal,

was coaching malpractice. You have to punt there, like the going for that field goal and giving the Chiefs a short field when they're only going to have twenty three or twenty two seconds if you punt is just insanity. I couldn't believe he did it, but set that aside,

Buffalo steadied themselves. Buffalo stayed very alive for their division as the Patriots have just a cake schedule moving forward, and Buffalo ran the ball great, Josh was awesome, and the defense, which was my concern with them, more than stepped up. So all of that is true. That can be true, while it's also true that this does not change my opinion one percent about what a Chiefs Bill's

playoff game could look like. And I thought the Bill's young secondary players Cole Bishop and Xavier Hairston after the game talking about the tells they saw on tape was a big unforced error. Save that info, kids like, you're probably going to have to play this team again, and so listen. Kansas City has its work cutout form. But the whole if the playoffs started today thing is just meaningless to me. The playoffs don't start today. They have eight more games to play. If I now, did this

hurt their chances of winning the division? Sure do I still right now? Would I still pick them to win the division? I? Would? And I think that the Chiefs are going.

you include their asinine and ridiculous political talk shows. But when it comes to actual sports talk, I do quite a bit. I'm not going to be able to run from any story, and I certainly can't run from this one. The Chiefs went to Denver and arguably their biggest regular season game of Patrick's career, and got thoroughly outplayed and blew a more than winnable game multiple times, blew a fourth quarter lead, and in that singular game, Bo Nicks

played better than Patrick Mahomes. That is what happened. I could not have been more shocked watching a game than I was watching that one. Because the Chiefs are healthy for the most part. I know they don't have Pacheco. The Chiefs right now are a healthier than average NFL

team for this point the season. They were off a bye, they had full motivation, a lot of familiarity with that opponent, and Patrick was off and the defense could not get a stop when it mattered, and so on the offensive side of things, first second play of the game, you have Xavier Worthy open for six. Yeah, it's a tough throw because it's sixty yards in the air, but those are the throws that you know partly made Patrick Mahomes.

Patrick Mahomes, he missed him. That would have been a chance to just basically set the tone for the game. Immediately missed that opportunity. Obviously. You know they had a sequence right before the Patrick interception, and this might have been the single biggest swing of the game. Patrick throws a little swing pass to Kareem Hunt. He gets down to the two yard line. They're gonna have first and goal from the two. Juwan Taylor the illegal formation lined

up too far back. Instead of first and goal from the two, it becomes first and fifteen. Two plays later, Patrick makes a terrible throw, and instead of at least being without the penalty, it's probably gonna be thirteen to six with the penalty, it still should be at least nine to six throws a pick, Denver dry down and scores.

Despite all that, Kansas City fights back, scores a couple touchdowns, takes the lead, has the ball in the fourth quarter with a lead, go down, score a touchdown, game over three and out, then gets the ball back, tie game four minutes perfect, not going to cover the three and a half, but still drive down the field, kick a

field goal, win the game three and out. And then on the defensive side of the ball, first drive of the game, first play sack, have them in second and sixteen, which turns into third and seven, and give it up. Later in that drive, have them in third and eleven outside a field goal range, and give it up. And on the final drive of the g game, after those two offensive three and outs, you instantly have bon knicks in third and fifteen and you can't get a pass rush,

and you give up a twenty yard completion. Three plays later, it's third and six, still not in field goal range, and you give up a seven yard completion. Denver made the high leverage plays, Kansas City did not, and Denver now is a stranglehold on the division. And I can think what I want and still think about bone Nicks and his long term viability as a franchise quarterback. But the fact of the matter is on Sunday, he played, in my opinion, the best game of his career in

the second biggest game of his career. The only game that would have been bigger is the playoff game, and he was excellent. Excellent might be strong. He was good. They are five and five. Obviously, if they go seven and oh, they're a lock for the playoffs. And at seven and oh they actually would have a chance to

come all the way back and win the division. But it would be and even though they're favored in every game remaining, given the fact that they're five and five, just sitting here saying they're gonna rip off seven straight would be overly optimistic, even for me. But seven and oh definitely gets them in. Six and one, which would put them at eleven and six almost assuredly gets them in.

But five and two probably does not. And that is the thing that I think, if we're gonna have an honest conversation about where the Chiefs are, what has to be acknowledged is they probably only have one more loss to play with, barring a true collapse by the Jags

or the Chargers. We start with the Chiefs saving their season, because while they would not have been mathematically eliminated, and I probably would have even convinced myself, well, if they just go six and zero down the stretch, they'll make the playoffs, which what is true. By the way, eleven wins almost assuredly will get a man and five and six they would have still been alive. For eleven wins,

that would have been a season ending loss. Dominating the time of possession, dominating the yardage battle, and just not making championship plays would have signaled that this Chiefs team simply doesn't have the juice of Chiefs teams in years past. Thankfully, however,

they are the Chiefs. They do still have Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones and Andy Reid, and despite fumbling inside the five yard line while trailing by eleven in the fourth quarter, they then played perfect defensive football, good but not great offensive football, and it was enough to potentially derail is probably too strong, but really throw a wrench in this magical Indie season and give Kansas City a chance to in forty eight hours be for the first

time or just the second time all year two games above five hundred really have their head above water and be able to have the many buy take a deep breath before a very difficult stretch run of final five games, two of which are cupcakes, the Tight and the Raiders, and three of which are teams fighting for exactly what the Chiefs are fighting for, AFC playoff spots and AFC playoff seeding with games against the Texans, Chargers and Broncos. So how did they do it? Because right now they

are still the ten seed. They went into the week the nine seed, but they come out of the week despite the win the ten seed because every because the Texans won, the Chargers were off, the Jags won. We'll get to those games later. So how did they do it? They did it because the defense absolutely shut down start to finish Jonathan Taylor in one of the most impressive

defensive performances any team has had all year. They allowed twenty but seven of them were on a drive that started at the three thanks to Patrick's interception, and so to essentially hold the highest scoring, highest yardage, most efficient offense in the NFL to thirteen points without forcing a turnover is just a remarkable job by that Chiefs defense, and for the Colts to have the ball up eleven and go run, pass pass, and then have the ball up three and go pass, pass, pass, and then have

the ball up three again and go pass pass pass, before you go to overtime and you go pass, run, run. It's just it is a testament to the fact that the Chiefs defense was able to convince the Colts by the fourth quarter of this game, you're simply not going to get Jonathan Taylor going. But it also and it also was a testament to the fact that the Chiefs defense, right or wrong, simply said Daniel Jones, go ahead and beat us. We don't think you can, and he couldn't.

And that gave the Chiefs offense and Patrick just enough bites at the apple that they were able to overcome a really sloppy game, not just the turnovers, but the red zone inefficiency, the missed open guys, and the hurky

jerking nature of the offense. And Rashi Rice in the second half of that game, really, for the first time, maybe since his suspension, certainly since his first game back from the suspension, looked like the player that we saw at the end of his rookie year, and the beginning of last season before he got injured, which is just a dynamic, elite yard after catch player. Xavier Worthy made

a huge play. Noah freaking Gray made a catch while unconscious, which is still one of the more remarkable feats of this NFL season, and the Chiefs offense did just enough against the lou Anarumo Colts defense to where they're now stabilized. By the way that is now four consecutive wins by Patrick against lou Anarumo, his alleged kryptonite four wins in a row. After losing the first three games he faced against him, He's now one four straight. But the story

of the game is the defense. The fact that the Colts had thirteen to three and outs all year going into that game, which is remarkable, and I don't know how many they had total in the game, but I do know they had four straight to end the game. And Chris Jones, who has been I think it's fair to say underwhelming this year, picked a hell of a

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in the playoffs is by winning out. And I am listen, some folks are it is not a mathematical certainty that winning out gets them in, but winning out gets them in, and so they they are alive and the AFC to me, does feel as wide open as it has at any point in my life, maybe since eight, the year Brady went down with an injury, and it wasn't a great Peyton Manning year, and so certainly the most wide open

it's been in more than a decade. So if they were to get hot, play their best football, get in, I think that they would be immediately the Vegas favorites to win the conference. The problem is getting in is going to be very difficult because of those tiebreakers they

don't have that you mentioned now. If they were to beat Houston and then the Chargers, which are their next two, then maybe they could lose to Denver and sneak in at ten and seven because they would have a tiebreaker over the Colts, tiebreaker over the Ravens which won't matter, and a tiebreaker over Houston. Maybe there would be a path there, But the only certain path is winning out, and right now it is very difficult to trust this team.

Even though Patrick's had at least a five game winning streak every year of his career, it is very difficult to trust this team to win five straight because quite simply, they can't get off the field, and this was a problem in Week one against the Chargers, it was a problem against Josh Allen, it was a problem against bow Knicks, and it was a huge problem against Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys, where historically what the Chiefs defense would do really well is one good run stop on a

drive to put you in second and nine, one forced in completion to put you in third and nine, and then dial something up to get you off the field. All game long and all season long, this team has been forcing third and longs and then been totally unable

to get off the field. And that is why despite Patrick playing at the level that he is, and he was brilliant on Thursday, and he's currently he's third in the league in yards, fourth in the league in touchdowns, for second in the league in QBR, the ESPN stat, first in the league in the nerd stat that I

don't love EPA. He's having an awesome year, but poorly time turnovers by the Chiefs in previous games, and the total inability all season long, aside from the Colts fourth quarter against the Colts to make impact plays on defense might wreck the season. It's very precarious. It's the most precarious. It's ever been in Kansas City. There's no getting around that. Now.

With that said, I know myself and I don't think it will be unreasonable or irrational that if if they win Sunday, and I'm telling you right now with that offensive line situation, Chiefs minus three and a half are not going to be one of my picks this week. If they win Sunday, then I will feel like, all right, beat the Chargers now next week and you're gonna go to another super Bowl. That's how all feel I will. I feel like they're a win away from being a

win away. If that makes sense. Yeah, that makes sense. And so I I have not my hope. I have not given up hope or given up belief, but my confidence has been shaken because it should be. The Chiefs are six and seven demos.

thinking about starting Philip Rivers. So the Colts part of it, to me is easy because the Colts have Seahawks, Niners, Jags, Texans, So the the let's just say the Colts are out and then the Chargers have to go either ohero and four or one in three, with one of the losses being to Denver in week eighteen. The simplest way to look at can the Chiefs make the playoffs is they

have to beat the Chargers this weekend. They then have to beat the Titans, the Broncos, and the Raiders, and the Chargers have to then lose to Denver in week eighteen and to either the Texans or the Cowboys in week sixteen seventeen. If that happens, the Chiefs make it. Chiefs lose. Chiefs eliminated, Patrick injured.

devastation of the moment is real. The sympathy or empathy that folks should have for me, or for Chiefs fans or whatever right now, I think that's overstated, because this is pro football, and this happens. And it was the Chiefs turn to have the year from hell, and it was sadly Patrick's turned to roll craps and he was fighting through a knee injury. The last few weeks. He was on the injury report the last few weeks. You

saw him laboring. We said after Week one, man, he sure ran a lot and sure took a lot of hits. And there's a tax to all of it. There just is. And there is a cost to the twenty game seasons. There is a cost to the offensive line injury. There is a cost to Patrick's refusal to sit out a game when his knee was obviously bothering him. There is a cost to the Chiefs being in must win, gotta

have it elimination games this early in the season. You extend your body, you extend plays, you put yourself out there, and this happens. This is not I am sick for Patrick. I'm sick for myself, but I'm also the Patriots and their fans watch Tom Brady go down the first week of a season. The Colts and their fans watched Peyton

Manning miss a whole year with a neck injury. The Packers and their fans watched Pete Aaron Rodgers knocked out for half a season with a snapped collar bone, like the Ravens twice have had Lamar Lateney get hurt and never come back. The Bengals and Joe Burrow have had

multiple seasons derailed by the guy getting hurt. Like this is pro sports and this sport in particular, and so I I am trying to balance how much it sucks that Patrick is going through this, how much the reality of We now have a line of demarcation in Patrick's career that's going to be before and after the ACL and we're going to see how he recovers from it, how he attacks it, how it changes for good or for bad, the player that he is, and I and I can recognize that and do me a favorite. Guys,

don't put questions in the rundown near the top of it. Sorry, this is a production note while we're doing it. It's good I lose my train of thought and I can recognize all of that while also not feeling like woe is me is appropriate. This has been as good of a seven year run as any football fan base has ever gotten seven years of conference championship games, five Super Bowl appearances, three Super Bowl victories that you can put it up against anything any team has done in the

history of the sport. This seven years matches any seven years the Patriots had, any seven years the Niners in the eighties had, and the Steelers in the seventies is a weird one because they won four super Bowls, but they didn't get to the conference championship game every year, and they didn't get to five super Bowls. That's a tomato tomato thing. You can say that one was better, but it's at least in the argument. And now the Chiefs received back into football general population and then see

if they can emerge once again. And I hate that I have talked about this comp so much and now it is even more apropro apropos. But you guys have heard me whenever we have done the Brady Mahomes career stuff, talk about in his eight years a starter, Tom blew out his knee and then that team had its only real low. Obviously, they missed the playoffs the year Tom missed.

They still won eleven games, by the way, which is shout out to how unbelievable the seven pats and eight Pats were as a roster, and then in two thousand and nine Tom wasn't his best. They won ten games and got annihilated in round one of the playoffs. And in twenty ten Tom was exceptional. That team was fourteen and two, and then they lost one of the weirdest playoff games ever to Mark Sanchez and the New York Jets.

And then in twenty eleven they started their run and I don't know what is I here is as far as this not being what's the right way to put this? In a weird way, I feel worse for Packer fans with the Mica injury than for chief fans with the Mahomes injury. In this regard, I was wrong about this team. They didn't have it this year. And so had they been eleven and three in that game, and or I guess ten and three because that was right? How do I have this right? I'm all scattered ten and three

going into that game and had looked great. It was like, man,

this is another championship level team. I think this would sting even more, but it was pretty clear it became I came to terms with where this Chiefs team was about an hour and a half before Mahomes's injury, the final drive of the first half up thirteen to three, letting the Chargers drive the length of the field the combo platter of not being able to punch in the Herbert interception and getting seven, and then later in the second quarter allowing them to go the length of the

field in forty seconds to take what could have been a seven teen to three or at the very least thirteen to three, or worst case scenario, thirteen to six lead into halftime in a must win home game, letting the Chargers, whose offense right now is not very good, go the length of the field to make it thirteen to ten, and then watching the Chiefs offense do nothing

the entire second half. They didn't have it, And so this was not the Chiefs leaving a man, left a potential championship on the table because the quarterback got hurt. They were not good enough this year, and I was wrong. I talked a lot of shit, poked at a lot

of folks as soon as they looked like the Chiefs. Again, that was a brief mirage in who this seam was this season, and I do feel demonse that they are about to have a mirror held up to some of their structural issues that Patrick was holding together over these last three weeks of the year. Because I think they are going to lose to the Tennessee Titans. I think they are going to get beat up by the Denver Broncos. OK, and then we'll see Week eighteen Raiders Chiefs in Vegas.

You know who shows up for that game. But I think with these o line injuries, this lack of a running game, and one of the bigger disappointments of this season is the lack of development from the wide receivers, I think you're going to see what this offense looks like with bad quarterback play. Because I understand Mahomes numbers after the bye. The Cowboys game notwithstanding, were ghastly. The

Cowboys game is the one thing propping them up. I think you're about to see what actual bad quarterback play would look like with the team right now with its issues, and I do think that there needs to be some real soul searching is too strong, but some personal accountability by everyone involved in the team, and hey, how do we make sure the next time Patrick takes the field this team doesn't have as many glaring weaknesses as it

had in twenty twenty five. And listen, it's hard. There is a reason only one team ever's gone to four straight Super Bowls. There's a reason only one team ever has gone to more than seven straight conference championship games. There is a reason only three other teams ever had gone to three straight Super Bowls. What the Chiefs accomplished was certain things were unprecedented, and certain things were only you know, had only been accomplished by one or two

of the other greatest dynasties ever. But you saw some of the where of the late draft picks, of guys not developing, of some a draft miss here, a free agency missed there, a poorly timed injury there. And they couldn't run the ball, and they couldn't rush the passer all year long. And these receivers who I like, I think Rashid Rice has the ability to be excellent. I saw him be exceptional for the second half of his

rookie season. I know the talent Xavier Worthy has. But those guys not developing into fully formed, legitimate man beating wide receivers hurt this team a lot too. And so those are the things that you address moving forward for the Chiefs, and then you see what version of Patrick

we have when he comes back. I believe the type of competitor and legendary athlete he is, that there is a very good chance he comes back as a better player as a player that if he especially if he can't early on rely as much on his athleticism, is even more precise in the pocket and traditional drop back since then he's been the last couple of years, and so I'm not worried about Patrick, and I would put I understand it was a terrible injury and he tore

two ligaments. I would put all my money on him being back for Week one next year. It's right at nine months, and I think he'll do it. And what will the team around him look like is the question