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Instant analysis of Chiefs’ Week 7 loss to Titans

charles goldman
·4 min read

It was one of those games for the Kansas City Chiefs where absolutely nothing went right on either side of the ball. At halftime, the team trailed by 27 points and looked completely stunned by their performance. Despite some sort of effort to mount a comeback, they were unable to get anything going at all offensively for the majority of the game.

So what else did we learn about the Chiefs in Week 7?

Final score: Titans 27, Chiefs 3

AP Photo/Mark Zaleski

The Chiefs had an opportunity to get off the field defensively on the second drive by the Titans’ offense. An offsides penalty by Frank Clark gave Tennessee a fresh set of downs, and from there, things just began to spiral for Kansas City. It felt like every time they made a play to get ahead, there was a flag, turnover or otherwise waiting to set the team back. The comedy of errors resulted in the worst loss by this team in the Andy Reid era along with the lowest-scoring game of the Patrick Mahomes era.

Weekly awards

AP Photo/Mark Zaleski

  • Chiefs Wire Game Ball: LB Willie Gay Jr.

  • Harrison Butker Rookie of the Game: LB Nick Bolton

  • Casey Wiegmann Veteran of the Game: WR Byron Pringle

  • Jamaal Charles Offensive Player of the Game: WR Tyreek Hill

  • Bobby Bell Defensive Player of the Game: LB Nick Bolton

  • Morten Andersen Special Teams Player of the Game: K Harrison Butker

  • Otis Taylor Play of the Game: Willie Gay Jr.’s 1-yard interception.

  • Wesley Roesch Stat of the Game: Chiefs 4-for-11 on third down.

Quick-hitting observations and analysis

AP Photo/Mark Zaleski

  • You’d like to hope that the defense could carry over something from their Week 6 win over Washington, but they really didn’t carry much over from it. Maybe there’s something to be said about holding Derrick Henry under 60 yards in the first half, but there wasn’t much good to come from it.

  • The offensive playcalling was really horrendous in the first half of the game. They did little to help out their obvious deficiencies in pass protection. They didn’t have much in the way of plays designed to free up their playmakers. Most of all, they kept hurting themselves and getting behind the sticks with penalties.

  • The Titans have more than a dozen players on injured reserve and are starting guys signed off the street in their secondary. The Chiefs’ offense struggled every step of the way to get things going in this one. Even just kicking a field goal at the start of the second half was a struggle.

  • The Chiefs were slow starters even in their Super Bowl-winning season. But they have trailed at halftime in 5-of-7 games this season. That’s not a very good recipe for winning football games, no matter how many times they’ve won the toss and deferred.

  • There were a lot of guys making business decisions on defense today. I get that Derrick Henry is a handful to tackle, but these are moments where guys could’ve contributed to game-changing plays and simply chose not to. You can’t have that type of effort on the field when you’re struggling to get things going in the first place.

  • As bad as the defense was through the first 2.5 quarters of play, you have to give them credit for coming up with a defensive turnover. Chris Jones put pressure on Ryan Tannehill which forced him into a bad throw. Willie Gay Jr. came up with a much-needed interception, but it didn’t help in the long run because the offense couldn’t get anything going. Still, they gave the team a chance and that’s all you can ask for when down big late in the game.

  • The interior offensive line for Kansas City has been solid, but the tackle spots have just been abysmal trying to protect Patrick Mahomes. He was sacked four times for 31 yards, including a fourth-down sack that left the star quarterback shaken up on the play.

  • The way this team is playing right now, they’re not a Super Bowl team, let alone a playoff team. They’ve lost to every team that sits atop the rankings in the AFC conference and they’ve inspired little confidence that they can get things turned around through seven games.

Up next

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The Chiefs get a long week of practice before returning to Arrowhead Stadium to face the New York Giants on “Monday Night Football.” This is going to be the team’s third prime time game this season. It also marks the third NFC East team that Kansas City will have faced so far this season. It should be a good opportunity to get back to .500 for the Chiefs.

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