Would the Real Kansas City Chiefs Please Stand Up
Who the hell are these guys?
Let’s recap the 2016 Kansas City Chiefs’ season thus far, shall we?
Game One, the Chiefs overcame a 24-3 deficit with quarterback play that was “out of this world” from the Ultimate Game Manager, Alex Smith. They managed to score touchdowns on the ground and though the air en route to the biggest come from behind victory in team history. It was an offensive performance like we’ve never seen. Literally. And the whole thing was at the expense of San Diego Chargers’ quarterback Phillip Rivers, which made it all that much better.
In the second week, the Chiefs faced the team they beat twice last year, with the second victory coming in the playoffs–the team’s first in 22 years. The narrative heading into that game–last week’s game–was that there was no way the Houston Texan’s were 30 points better than they were in the playoffs last year–which is how many points the Chiefs put up on them, by the way.
In case you missed the game last week, I’ll save you the time of logging into NFL’s GamePass and re-watching the garbage that was the Chiefs’ performance. It was terrible. In fact, in my article last week, I lamented at how terrible it was and hinted that I wouldn’t even be writing a Wednesday piece, breaking down a touchdown. In fact, the only high point last week were second-year cornerback Marcus Peters’ two interceptions. Did I mention that the Chiefs didn’t even score a touchdown?
And what happened this week?
While the Chiefs weren’t “prolific” on offense, they did just enough. Smith had a pretty good game, going 25 for 33 with 237 yards and a touchdown. More importantly, Smith didn’t turn over the ball once–which was the problem last week–and his defense was awesome. How awesome, you may ask? Let me tell you. I played against them–the Chiefs D–and they scored 36 points. If you’re not familiar with fantasy football, that’s a lot of points for a defense.
That defense forced eight turnovers. Yes, eight. Eight. Eight mother f*$%1ng turnovers. That’s not a random pass picked off by Marcus Peters–he had two by the way–but, eight turnovers. Everybody got in on the action. One of the turnovers was a fumble on a kick return which popped out of kick returner Jalin Marshal’s hands and into the arms of tight end Demetrius Harris who returned it for a touchdown. It doesn’t get much more perfect than that!
The Chiefs scored touchdowns yesterday in all three phases. In addition to the Harris score, Smith passed to tight end Travis Kelce for his first score of the year and at the end of the game, linebacker Derrick Johnson picked off Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick for the fifth time on the day and took it to the house. That is truly a three phase victory.
But that is the point of this piece. Who the hell are these guys?
Is Alex Smith the guy who throws for nearly 400 yards and can fight back from three scores down? Or is he the guy who misses a wide open wide receiver and is unable to put the game away?
Is running back Spencer Ware the “bell cow” back who can pound the rock into the end zone and carry a team on its back? Or is he the guy who fumbles and turns the ball over?
Is corner back Marcus Peters the guy who can shut down any receiver and pick off a quarterback at will? Or is he a chump who gets burned more than he stops his opponent?
So far in 2016, this team has shown everything. They are the team we thought was the best case scenario in preseason and they are the team we thought was the worst case scenario before the season started.
I have a very distinct feeling we’ll find out exactly who they are next week when they travel to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers on Sunday Night Football.
Everybody is picking the Steelers. I don’t blame them. I picked the Steelers too. But that team is coming off its worst loss since I was in the sixth grade. I’m almost 40 if that tells you anything.
If there was any time the real Kansas City Chiefs were going to stand up, next week would be a good time.