KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs did not impress. They haven’t impressed all season, if we’re honest. Their 2021 Take It Back season has been a long line of bad defense, missed reads, dropped catches and shrugging shoulders.
But, also and notably: the AFC is opening up for them.
Everything they wanted out of this season can still be theirs, despite themselves.
The Chiefs beat the Packers 13-7 at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday and, let’s just be honest, they had a lot of luck.
This must be said: it is unlikely that a team in desperate need of a win has ever managed a less inspiring win over a previously 7-2 team than this.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers missed the game after testing positive for Covid-19. You may have heard that on the news. Jordan Love is not currently on a Hall of Fame track. You may have seen that on the broadcast. The Packers’ field goal operation was a disaster, and the defense missed some opportunities.
But, Rodgers or not, the Packers still hadn’t lost since the season opener. The Chiefs do not need to apologize. Frankly, they’re not good enough to be choosy.
Besides, with the Raiders, Bills and Bengals all losing the AFC — and the AFC West — continues to condense in the Chiefs’ favor.
The Chiefs have a lot to fix, still, most notably the quarterback and we’re going to talk much more about that soon in the game column. Short version: the (by far) worst stretch of Patrick Mahomes’ career is continuing, with more problems than solutions being offered every week.
The quarterback is missing open receivers — sometimes literally, like he just doesn’t see them — and the receivers are dropping too many that come their way.
The defense has played better the last four weeks (notable exception would be the first half in Nashville) and the pass rush looks legitimately invigorated but nobody cares as much about that as long as the unicorn quarterback is playing more like a mule.
We’ve gone through all the excuses. Two deep coverage. No third receiving threat. Not enough protection. Bad play calls. Some of you are even blaming a baby. Or commercials that were shot in the offseason. The only one we haven’t heard is that he’s adjusting to a left-handed center.
Whatever it is, the Chiefs are too good with expectations too high to be stuck in the mud for this long. But, again: we’ll get into this more with the game column.
For now, perhaps this can be a good reminder that the Chiefs might not have to be as good as they’ve been the last two years because nobody else in the AFC is, either.
The Chiefs are a half-game behind the Chargers and Raiders. The Chargers just got their first win in nearly a month. The Chiefs can pass the Raiders with a win in Las Vegas next week.
The NFL is full of parity, to the point that by now the loss in Baltimore would be more accurately framed as the Chiefs impressively having a chance at the end.
For most of the last two years, the Chiefs were stretching the limits of that parity.
But at the moment — and for however long they keep winning unimpressively — they are the benefits of that parity.
