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After an ugly 27-3 loss to the Titans on Sunday, quarterback Patrick Mahomes told reporters that the Chiefs need to go through some adversity to build something substantial.
At 3-4, the Chiefs haven’t gone through this kind of rough stretch since Mahomes became the team’s starting quarterback in 2018. And as the club enters Week Eight, its defense has been one of the league’s worst. But the offense hasn’t been great either, with at least three turnovers in three straight games.
Head coach Andy Reid said on Monday that penalties and giveaways are issues that the Chiefs clearly need to immediately correct. But Reid also noted that he saw something encouraging on the flight home from Nashville.
“On the plane, they all had the game on [with their iPads]. They were all looking at the game in the back of the plane,” Reid said, via Pete Sweeney of ArrowheadPride.com. “It wasn’t the loud music or whatever you can perceive that goes on. This was focused on trying to get better and looking at it. Curious to see what went wrong. So I can handle that.
“That normally tells you you have a pretty strong locker room, and we need that right now. That’s what we need. We need strong coaches and coaching, and we need a good, solid, strong locker room. So I felt guys want to do the right thing. We just got to make sure that we’re putting them in a position to do it — and then when they’re out there, they execute it the right way and then make a play.”
Reid also noted that he liked the players’ effort throughout the second half.
“You see a lot of teams just tank in the second half. I didn’t see that. I saw guys busting their tails to get the job done,” Reid said. “We were off. And you’re playing a good football team — you cannot be off. That’s the bottom line. We have to figure out a way to do that.
“That’s what we’ve done in the past. We’ve been able to do that, and so we’ve got to keep urgency up in practice and the right frame of mind when we’re playing the game to get that done. That, again, comes back to what you’ve got [in] coaches and what you’ve got in the locker room. But that urgency’s got to be there.”
Already 2-0 against the NFC East, the Chiefs should have another opportunity for a get-right game against the Giants next Monday night. But the Panthers may have thought that, too, before losing to New York 25-3 on Sunday afternoon.
