The Kansas City Chiefs took their first loss of the season, falling to the Indianapolis Colts 19-13 on Sunday night at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs offense had one of their worst games with Patrick Mahomes as the starter, while the defense struggled to slow down Marlon Mack and the Colts offense.
Here are five takeaways from the game:
Ball security needs to be a bigger emphasis
The Chiefs offense had their worst game of the season, putting up only 13 points against an injury-riddled Colts defense — the lowest-scoring game with Mahomes as the starting quarterback. This is the second week in a row in which the offense has looked off, and the best way to fix that is to focus on the small things.
The Chiefs have recently had a problem with hanging on to the football, with four lost fumbles in the last two games. The Chiefs almost lost two more fumbles on Sunday night because of tight end Travis Kelce, but they were both called incomplete passes. If one of those gets called differently on the field, it could just as easily end up as a fumble.
In their current state, Kansas City can’t have drives stopped because of their inability to hang on to the ball. If running back LeSean McCoy didn’t fumble against Indianapolis, the Chiefs would at the least had a chance to make a field goal. Additionally, the play he fumbled on would have been a big boost to an offense that struggled most of the night.
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The offensive line needs to be better
The line didn’t do its job this week against the Colts. It gave up four sacks, and Mahomes was hit multiple times. It’s hard for any offense to have success if the quarterback is constantly under pressure.
There is only so much Mahomes can do, especially after aggravating his ankle injury. It’s great to see Mahomes play through an injury, but if the offensive line isn’t doing their job, it’s only putting him at more of a risk of getting an injury that will put him out for a significant amount of time.
The line play needs to improve soon. If teams continue to get pressure by only rushing four, it will be a long season for Mahomes. This may be a position Brett Veach takes a look at as the trade deadline nears this month.
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The run defense was a big problem
One of the many problems on the defense is the Chiefs’ inability to stop the run. This is the third consecutive game in which Kansas City has given up over 180 yards on the ground.
This type of success running the ball keeps Mahomes off the field. You can argue that time of possession isn’t that important, but when the offense is misfiring and going three-and-out, it’s really important to give Mahomes as many chances as possible to put up points.
The defense can’t allow opposing offenses to have multiple drives over six minutes long because they can’t stop the run. The defense needs to get the field off faster and more often.
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The secondary is still an issue
Although the defense only gave up 151 yards passing and got an interception, the secondary still needs some work. The secondary together had five penalties for 75 yards, with four coming against Brashaud Breeland, who had been the Chiefs’ best corner to start the season.
It’s bad enough that Kansas City is having a hard time stopping the run, but if they keep giving up free yards in the air it makes it that much harder to keep up and get the offense back on the field.
The Chiefs did get Morris Claiborne into the lineup after a four-game suspension to begin the season, but he didn’t get much playing time, which was expected. Hopefully, with more time he can start to make a bigger impact in the secondary and clean some things up. If not, it looks like we will see a repeat of the 2018 defense.
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Chiefs need to get healthy, especially at wide receiver
This is the most important part of getting the Chiefs back on track. They have been without Tyreek Hill since Week 1 and Eric Fisher since Week 2, so it’s not surprising to finally see them struggle offensively for the first time without them.
It also doesn’t help that Sammy Watkins only played a few snaps Sunday night before leaving the game. If any of those three played against Indianapolis, it could have been a different game, because the offense really struggled to move the ball.
The Chiefs’ wide receivers against the Colts after Watkins left were Byron Pringle, Mecole Hardman and Demarcus Robinson. This is not the ideal wide receiver lineup. It will be important to get both Watkins and Hill healthy as quickly as possible to help bring up the offensive production.
I would imagine that the Chiefs will be rushing Hill back sooner rather than later as it seems like Watkins’ injury history is catching up to him. Hill is a generational player whose speed is matched by few. He may be exactly what the Chiefs need on offense. Hill practiced every day the week prior to the game against the Colts, so it’s reasonable to think he could be available against the Texans in Week 6.
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