Here’s what national NFL media is saying about Chiefs following loss to Eagles

The Chiefs have a short week and maybe that’s a good thing. They won’t have to wait long to make amends for Monday night’s 21-17 loss to the Eagles.

Coming off their bye week, the Chiefs made a bundle of mistakes with turnovers, dropped passes and penalties. The Chiefs have a 7-3 record, and lead the AFC West, so they are in a great spot heading into the final stretch of the season.

Here is what national NFL media members were saying about the Chiefs following Monday’s game.

Eric Edholm of NFL.com dropped the Chiefs three spots in his power rankings to No. 5.

This is part of what he wrote: “The Chiefs’ defense turned in a first-class effort, even if it wore down a bit late, and Patrick Mahomes and Isiah Pacheco made enough plays. This one is going to sting, if for no other reason than it served as a reminder that the Chiefs’ pass catchers — even Travis Kelce on Monday — have been a net disappointment this season. Kelce had a drop and a fumble. Justin Watson had at least three, including Mahomes’ final attempt. But if Marquez Valdes-Scantling catches that late deep ball, perhaps none of it mattered. The Chiefs were the better team Monday until they weren’t.”

The Ringer’s Danny Heifetz wrote a story with the headline, “The Kansas City Chiefs are literally dropping the ball.”

Here is an excerpt: “(M)ost upsettingly, Kansas City’s comebacks used to be the entire fun of watching the Chiefs. Remember their win over Houston in the playoffs after the 2019 season, when they were down 24-0? Or how they won five games in a row last season in which they were down at halftime? Or the three comebacks from double-digit deficits in the first eight games last season? Those Chiefs seem to have slipped through our fingers like a Mahomes downfield pass.

“The mental mistakes are magnified when the rest of the Chiefs are so magnificent. Mahomes was magical from start to finish. His scramble and throw created the touchdown on Kansas City’s second drive. He had another ridiculous scramble at the end of the first half to set up the field goal to make it 17-7 at halftime. He had a ludicrous falling-back touch pass to Watson on the sideline. And the two throws to Valdes-Scantling and Watson on the final drive were basically perfect. The performance was reminiscent of when Mahomes tossed a pass 30 yards downfield while flying through the air on fourth-and-9 in the Super Bowl against the Buccaneers and hit his teammate in the face … only for the pass to be dropped. That pass, like his perfect fourth-and-25 throw on Monday, went down in the box score as a turnover on downs.”

NFL Researcher Blake Warye noted the Chiefs have failed to score in the second half of three straight games. That is the first time that’s happened in franchise history.

Yahoo Sports’ Frank Schwab shared his takeaways from the game.

This is a snippet of what he wrote: “The Chiefs should have won but two bad red-zone turnovers cost them. Mahomes threw an interception into the end zone in the first half and Travis Kelce lost a fumble in the second half. You don’t expect two future Hall of Famers to make mistakes like that, but that helped keep the Eagles in the game.

“The thought was always that if the Chiefs got an elite defense, the NFL would be in trouble. The Chiefs’ defense is very good. And it’s the offense that hasn’t been quite right.”

ESPN’s “Get Up” crew talked about the Chiefs’ problems on Monday night. Jeff Saturday said: “There is nothing more simple than saying, catch the ball and you win the game.”

Sky Sports’ Neil Reynolds wrote about the Chiefs’ woes.

Here is a passage from his story: “They are averaging 5.53 points per game in the second half which is the lowest in the league. That’s incredible when you think about how good Andy Reid is.

“We saw on Monday how much Mahomes has to hold the ball, waiting for separation, and we saw that in Frankfurt as well, these receivers don’t separate nearly enough. We put Week 11 into the boxes, there is a body of work now with this Chiefs offense and it’s a real concern, it could hamper their Super Bowl chances down the line.”

Nick Shook of NFL Media chastised the Chiefs for failing to close out the Eagles.

Here is an excerpt: “We’ve already covered the turnovers and the drops — the two biggest red flags in this Chiefs operation — but there’s no explanation for a loss like this when a team outgains its opponent by nearly 100 yards, converts 8 of 17 third downs (while limiting the opposition to 3 of 11), and still fails to finish a game. Five second-half penalties stand as a glaring issue. A lack of clutch playmaking in key moments is also concerning. The Chiefs simply haven’t been able to finish in most of their contests played against high-quality opponents, and their second-half issues haven’t disappeared. They’ll likely still finish the regular season with 12 or more wins because they have a relatively soft remaining schedule, but Kansas City will be tested again in the postseason. The Chiefs need to figure out how to pass such tests before everything is on the line.”

And finally, this isn’t a commentary but “Art But Make It Sports” shared this on X (formerly Twitter):