Agonizing defeat

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Sports

November 11, 2019 - 9:50 AM

Running back Damien Williams (26) of the Kansas City Chiefs rushes past linebacker David Long (51) of the Tennessee Titans in the second quarter on Sunday. BRETT CARLSEN/GETTY IMAGES/TNS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The saddest, angriest, most frustrated and stunned locker room in the NFL has been open for 14 minutes and Damien Williams is not moving. Tears slide down his right cheek. The mechanics of a sports failure play out in front of him.

The Chiefs had this thing won, wrapped tight, right up until the moment they gagged it up and lost 35-32 to the Tennessee Titans at the gun here Sunday.

The loss could end up a footnote, could simply be the placeholder for the “adversity” every team loves to talk about after an ultimate success. Right now, though, it feels like something bigger. Something worse. The structure of this season was supposed to include improvement down the stretch, both from a defense gaining familiarity and an offense gaining health.

The Chargers are getting better. The Raiders, too. The Chiefs have lost four of their last six, and now they can’t even blame their quarterback’s knee injury. They can only blame themselves. With a select few exceptions, every guy in this locker room can blame himself for something.

The Chiefs have lost some whoppers, many in bigger moments, but none quite like this.

“(Expletive),” defensive lineman Tanoh Kpassagnon said. “It still doesn’t make sense for me.”

Football is controlled chaos and guys process at different speeds. That’s never as apparent as after a brutal loss. Some guys small-talk. Some scroll through their phones. Some, like center Austin Reiter, politely ask for more time before answering questions.

“I need to cool off,” he said.

In the moments during the 20 or so minutes the media was allowed inside the Chiefs’ postgame locker room, two pairs of teammates talked animatedly toward each other.

Nobody wore the frustration more obviously than Williams. He started for LeSean McCoy — who fumbled last week — and took a career-high 19 carries for 77 yards. But he also fumbled, the ball picked up and returned 53 yards for a touchdown by Titans linebacker Rashaan Evans.

It was a crucial moment in the second quarter, but there were lots of crucial moments. Too many penalties. A field goal snap that caught the holder off-guard. Missed tackles. Whiffed blocks. Dropped passes. Questionable play calls. A blocked field goal.

At one point, the Chiefs used four right tackles in four consecutive snaps. Chaos. And still, they should have won.

“It’s still kind of hard to process all that happened,” lineman Andrew Wylie said.

Really, just about everyone screwed something up. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was great in his first game 24 days after his right kneecap slid to the side of his leg. The offensive line protected him well, somehow, despite at one point playing just one original starter at his original position. Tight end Travis Kelce was terrific. Trainer Rick Burkholder is earning his pay.

Other than that, woof, they all had a hand in it, and the emotions could be most clearly seen on Williams’ face. Every once in a while, he ground his teeth together, his temples bubbling. He blinked. His mouth squished together, the muscles in his jaw and temple bubbling. That was it. No other movement for what felt like forever.

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