LANDOVER, Md. — A week ago, we opened our overreactions with the idea that the Kansas City Chiefs were in trouble. They were 2-3, turning the ball over too often and slipping behind the Chargers in the AFC West.
So I went to see their Week 6 game against Washington on Sunday, and honestly, at halftime, it looked as if the Chiefs really were in trouble. Three more turnovers in the first half, including an ugly, inexplicable Patrick Mahomes interception that he said was likely to end up on “C’mon Man.” They trailed Washington 13-10. Tyrann Mathieu was screaming at teammates and coaches on the sideline. If you were looking to support a theory that things were falling apart for Kansas City, you had some evidence.
But then …
“I just think the guys set their minds to it, beared down and, you know, enough is enough,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “There comes a point where you have to do that.”
That point, for the Chiefs, was apparently halftime. They came out on fire, outscored Washington 21-0 in the second half and evened their record at 3-3 with a performance that looked a lot more like what we’re used to seeing from them.
“We were just amped up and ready to go play,” said running back Darrel Williams, who scored two touchdowns in his first start in place of the injured Clyde Edwards-Helaire. “We knew we left some stuff out there in the first half, and we went out and took care of it.”
The Chiefs were fired up after this one, having convinced themselves the sky was not falling and that they really could stop turning the ball over and become the dominant, high-scoring team they’ve been since Mahomes entered the league. It was just 30 minutes of football in the early part of a 17-game season, but the Chiefs walked off the field proud and fired up.
And so, one week after leading off our overreactions with a question about whether the Chiefs were in trouble, why not lead off this week’s with the opposite question? Isn’t that, after all, what this column is all about?
