The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, but it wasn't exactly a clean win.
The Kansas City Chiefs are winning games again, which isn’t at all surprising given the way quarterback Patrick Mahomes has looked so far. It’s taken a bit for Mahomes to return to form, but he keeps getting better with every game, so everyone should be happy, right?
Sort of. The Chiefs face scrutiny that’s unlike that of any other time, in large part due to Mahomes, but also due to Kansas City’s legacy of championships.
But the Chiefs’ last two wins haven’t been all that, really. They let the Indianapolis Colts hang around in their 33-30 OT win that became a track meet game, and on Sunday against they did the same against a bad Miami Dolphins team that was within striking distance halfway through the fourth quarter of what wound up being a 24-10 win.
The problems have been little ones. Not finishing drives. Bad penalties at the worst possible times. Poor execution in short-yardage situations, or Mahomes not being on the same page with his receivers.
Most teams would love to have these kinds of problems, so call them the NFL’s version of a so-called first-world problem. The Chiefs got out of the habit of winning last season, so there’s some muscle memory that needs to be restored.
The Chiefs are aware of the problems, but they’re not about to apologize for winning. Both Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce said as much in their post-game media comments on Sunday, with Kelce trotting out the old “it’s hard to win in this league” trope.
But there’s another side to this. The Chiefs play the Las Vegas Raiders on the road, then the Los Angeles Chargers on the road, which will be two more chances to see if the slop creeps in again.
After that, though, the Chiefs get the Seattle Seahawks and a road tilt against the Denver Broncos, and if Kansas City isn’t executing the way they did during that first win over the Broncos, those little things will suddenly matter a lot more.
Coach Andy Reid is well aware of this, and so is offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. The Chiefs ran a tough training camp, but they had to shut things down toward the end due to a rash of injuries that put them in jeopardy. Now Kansas City is 3-0 and in danger of coasting, and there’s no way in anyone in the Chiefs locker room wants to return to the bad old days of last year.
