In year’s past, this is about the time Chiefs fans await the team’s inevitable doom that comes at the end of every season. Proving that the dark cloud still hangs over Arrowhead and the playoff demons that haunt the Kansas City Chiefs organization are still alive and well, killing any Super Bowl aspirations that were built up over the course of the previous months.
If you’ve been a fan of this organization for any period of time, then you’ve played this game and know all about the atomic punch to the gut that comes with every disappointing end after a winning season.
However, in 2018, that all changed. Kansas City finally got its savior and while it wasn’t the first time the Chiefs built a high-flying offense while leaving the defense to fend for itself, Patrick Mahomes put the team on his back and with his arm, he took the franchise to the AFC Championship game for the first time since 1993.
Unfortunately, like the Montana-led team, Mahomes and the Chiefs came up short.
While 2018 was the closest the Chiefs have come to sniffing a Super Bowl thus far, the stars seem to be aligning for the team to make another incredible run to finish what they started last season.
The 2019 season has already been a special one for Kansas City; the Chiefs set the franchise record by winning the AFC West for the fourth consecutive year in a row, they finally got the best of the New England Patriots and with a little help from Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins, they helped secure Kansas City a first-round bye.
Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like rays of light are poking through the darkness that has covered this franchise for the past five decades.
The vibes this year are remarkably similar to the championship season the Chiefs’ next-door neighbors had back in 2015.
When the Royals came up short in Game 7 of the World Series against the San Francisco Giants in 2014, many expected them to fall off the map but instead, they played with a chip on their shoulder the following season and it showed.
Kansas City’s baseball team came back swinging in 2015 and showed the rest of the major league that they weren’t afraid to go toe to toe with anyone even if it went clearing the dugouts. You just knew that with the energy that team carried and how they played of the field, they were going to do something great and it wasn’t a surprise when they made it back to the World Series and tore the Mets a new one to win the championship in five games.
The Chiefs have a chance to do the same sort of thing after last season’s AFC Championship against the Patriots. The Chiefs were a 3rd down stop from going to the Super Bowl but now have an opportunity to make their 2019 campaign really special because not only are they firing on all cylinders, but this is the first time they’re not one dimensional.
Championship teams are usually composed of some combination of great offense and great defense and it’s crazy that in the past 50 seasons, the Kansas City Chiefs have had both but never at the same time.
It’s been a conundrum that’s kept Kansas City from coming anywhere near a legit trip to the Super Bowl since they won the whole thing in 1969.
Marty Schottenheimer’s teams in the ’90s had the defense but not the offense and it was vice-versa in the ’00s during the Dick Vermeil era.
That’s not the case with this year’s team and it’s because of the resurgence of the defense over the past two months coupled with a revolutionary offense.
I want to give these defensive players credit, it took a while for them to adjust and buy into Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s defensive scheme and now, Kansas City is on their way towards reaping the rewards for being sound on both sides of the football.
But to further grasp how good the Chiefs defense has gotten, consider this:
In their last six games, the Chiefs defense has allowed 11.5 points per game, 5 passing touchdowns to 10 interceptions, and they’ve been able to stop opposing rushing threats, allowing just 94.6 yards per game. Kansas City has allowed only one 100-yard rusher in that span (Josh Jacobs) and only two rushing TDs.
Compare that to their first 10 games in which the Chiefs defensive unit struggled, allowing 23.9 points per game, 16 passing touchdowns to only 6 interceptions, and allowing an average of over 148 yards per game on the ground.
For the first time, the Chiefs are preparing for a postseason run without a glaring weakness and they’re about as healthy an NFL team can possibly be at this point of the season.
For the first time, Kansas City will be going into the playoffs without some kind of monkey on their back.
No longer are pundits questioning if the team can accomplish some kind of minor goal like ending a long playoff drought, taking down a tougher opponent, or even overcoming an internal issue because they finally did those things last year.
Patrick Mahomes ended the last of the postseason drought in Kansas City by defeating the Indianapolis Colts in last season’s divisional round, the defense is proving that they can hold their own, and the Chiefs have already faced the remaining postseason opponents this year.
The expectation before this season began was to go on a Super Bowl run and for the first time in 50 years, the Chiefs have a real shot at accomplishing their goal.
