Week 1 didn’t go the way the Kansas City Chiefs planned when they hosted the Detroit Lions at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium to kick off the 2023 NFL season last Thursday. On a night that the Chiefs were celebrating its most recent Lombardi trophy one last time by hosting the Super Bowl LVII championship banner at Arrowhead before kicking off what Chiefs Kindom hopes will be another trek to the big game, by starting the year 1-0.
Instead, the Chiefs were met by a group of not-so-cowardly Lions led by head coach Dan Campbell. In a game that became a defensive battle, the Chiefs lost due to the absence of tight end Travis Kelce and the entire wide receiving core continuously dropping dimes from quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Defensively, Kansas City tightened up after allowing Detroit to reach the end zone in the first quarter. On their next six possessions, the Chiefs’ defense forced the Lions to punt four times and turn the ball over twice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough as the Lions scored in the fourth quarter, taking the lead and inevitably winning the game as Kansas City starts the 2023 campaign 0-1 following a 21-20 defeat.
Linebacker and defensive leader Nick Bolton spoke about the team’s dissatisfaction after leaving Arrowhead with the first ‘L’ of the season.
“We lost the football game,” Bolton said. “I think that’s where you measure yourself at – especially in this league. Games are won in inches and in a couple of situations down the stretch, and we didn’t execute well enough. You can say that we gave up 14 points, and that’s a good start and all that, but ultimately we lost the football game. Our goal was to come out of here 1-0 this week, and it didn’t happen. Back to the drawing board, the guys will be better and ready to go for Jacksonville.”
Two dropped passes by wide receiver Kadarius Toney ultimately doomed the Chiefs last Thursday. One resulted in a pick-six, and the other arguably could’ve been a game-winner had the third-year vet caught the ball in the open field late in the fourth quarter. Despite the offense’s uncharacteristic performance, Bolton said he isn’t concerned about the team’s ability to move the football.
“Our offense has given us reason to believe that they are the best in the league at what they do,” Bolton began. “Regardless of how the game goes, whenever they have the football, they have a chance to score. We had 100 percent faith that we could get a stop and get the ball back to our offense – even in the last two minutes,” he explained. “They’re going to score [with] the football, and we have a lot of faith that those guys are going to come back hungry next week and figure out what they have to do on that side of the ball. Now it’s up to us, on our side of the ball, to maintain what we did this week and also find ways to get better. Tackling is going to be at the top of the board.”
Kansas City expects a better outing next weekend when they play the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-0). The good news for the Chiefs is that they should have a healthy Travis Kelce back in the lineup, and finally having defensive tackle Chris Jones back in the locker room is also a plus as Kansas City works to get their season back on track.
