KANSAS CITY, Mo. The losing locker room sounds like the DMV. The most distinctive sound is feet shuffling across carpet. Quiet. Heads down. Nobody wants to be here.
Does anything in sports move as fast as the NFL? At 8:04 p.m. Sunday, Patrick Mahomes performed a magic trick, retreating twenty-some yards behind the line of scrimmage before firing a spiral into the end zone for a touchdown, then taking a victory lap around the field and screaming into the night and living rooms across the country: LETS (BLEEPING) GO!!!
At 10:12 p.m., with the Chiefs down six, a run on second-and-forever is greeted with unmistakable boos. Within minutes, the mass fan march to the parking lot began, hope disappearing and taillights filling the roads back home.
The Chiefs lost 19-13 to the Indianapolis Colts, a good-but-not-great team that followed a simple-but-coldblooded game plan attack the Chiefs most glaring weakness without mercy, so that you face the Chiefs most remarkable strength as little as possible.
Its no mystery what these teams are coming in here to do, Chiefs defensive lineman Frank Clark said.
He was talking about the Chiefs inability to stop the run, but he couldve been talking about so much else. This is two weeks in a row the Chiefs have played their worst game, a rocket ship turned into a station wagon, and the film of both games is dotted with similarities.
The Colts exploited the Chiefs in plain sight, rushing for 180 yards. They did this by bullying the Chiefs at the line of scrimmage. It was simple. It was direct. It came without apology or decoy. They ran the ball on more than 60% of their snaps and held the ball for more than 60% of the game.
Most importantly, the Chiefs went a stretch of six consecutive possessions without points, unable to solve the same riddle thats confused them before.
Thats part of what makes this outcome feel significant. Football is never perfect. Even great teams lose. The Chiefs retain a vice grip on the AFC West.
But even beyond a head-shaking list of injuries their top two receivers, starting left tackle, starting left guard, best defensive player and starting middle linebacker are all varying degrees of hurt the Chiefs are starting to trend the wrong way.
Bashaud Breelands 100-yard, nobody-knew-if-it-counted-until-replay touchdown return and Patrick Mahomes first last-minute game-winning touchdown drive saved them in Detroit last week.
Against the Colts, the Chiefs looked slow, hesitant and overpowered physically. On both offense and defense.
Clark and others will focus on an inability to stop the run, and they should. This exact game plan has been openly discussed the last two seasons.
If only that was the only problem.
Last season, Bill Belichick wrote the specs on how to beat the Chiefs. Oversimplified, the Patriots plan was to run the ball on offense to give Mahomes fewer chances, and on defense double-team Tyreek Hill and play man everywhere else.