Chiefs Get Drilled by Titans in Nashville, 27-3: Key Observations and Numbers to Know

The expectations for this team need to be changed

The Chiefs got humbled Sunday afternoon in Nashville - getting beat in every facet of the game by the Titans en route to a 27-3 defeat.

Here’s what stood out:

Mahomes’ health scare

Everything will always stop and start with the health of Patrick Mahomes. He had to be helped off the field after a brutal hit to the head with the game out of reach. Concern moving forward about if he’ll be okay. 

Mahomes was pressing

The All-World Quarterback again looked mortal — and at times indecisive — against a bad, injured Titans defense. He looks like a man trying to do too much, and mask deficiencies on the team. 

Titans use tempo

With starting linebacker Anthony Hitchens out, Tennessee immediately went to tempo on the opening drive to force good communication/alignment from the Chiefs’ defense. They drove down the field with ease for an early touchdown. 

AJ Brown is a monster

The third year receiver may have missed the week of practice due to illness, but he was outstanding all game — especially after hauling in a touchdown to put the Titans up 14 in the first quarter. 

A horrendous offensive performance

The Chiefs couldn’t keep pace with the Titans’ offensive start — punting on the first two possessions and giving their opponent a 14 point lead and a chance to extend to a three score lead. 

The run defense wasn’t the problem

The Chiefs held the Titans to a mere 3.1 yards per carry in the first half. They did a great job in between tackles — highlighted by some great plays by rookie linebacker Nick Bolton.

The pass defense WAS the problem

Ryan Tannehill completed his first 11 passes and had his way with the Chiefs. Bolton was great against the run, but was targeted heavily in the passing game — as were the outside cornerbacks.

Holding penalties doomed plays

The Chiefs got in their own way with some holding penalties. Rookie guard Trey Smith was guilty of a pair of them. He had the worst game of his career.

It’s time to start changing expectations

This team has failed every big test they’ve had. They’re 0-4 against first place teams, and 1-4 against teams with winning records. There are fundamental issues with this team, and they aren’t getting fixed this year. 

Blow it up

The Chiefs will win some games, but they need to blow up the defensive side of the football and look hard at making some more changes to this team. Personnel, coaching staff, you name it. Voices need to change to get this organization back on track.

Play[s] Of The Game

Not sure how much can really be said about the Kansas City Chiefs performance against the Tennessee Titans. The Chiefs were thoroughly outplayed in every facet of football for four quarters and presented just about no fight to the Titans.

It was tempting to sprinkle some positivity into this section and choose one of Nick Bolton’s run stops as a Play of the Game but ultimately decided against it. The Chiefs lost this game super early on - before even taking the field, realistically - and it’s worth talking about why.

This two play stretch happened back to back for the Chiefs on their very first drive. The first play saw the defensive end completely avoid Orlando Brown Jr’s punch up the arc and start to turn the corner around nine yards. Patrick Mahomes doesn’t see or feel the wide open escape path out of the B-gap to the left, instead rolls right and is met with a lot of covered receivers and defenders in pursuit.

The very next play, learning from the play before, the Titans rush an even wider rush lane. This time, the defensive end is re-directed slightly by Orlando Brown Jr. but instead of working to counter back inside, continues to just run a wide arc. Yet again, Mahomes doesn’t feel the open B-gap escape to his left and tries to slide to his right only to get hit from behind.

Back to back plays in which you can absolutely pin a good bit of blame on Patrick Mahomes but also see how his style of play isn’t meshing with this current offensive unit. The offensive tackle group struggles to consistently push defenders up the arc deep enough for Mahomes to feel comfortable. Mahomes doesn’t do a good enough job utilizing a quality interior pocket when it is presented to him from his interior offensive line.

When these two things are shoved together in a single offseason - paired with wide receivers and play calls not beating basic 2-high coverages - things simply don’t look pretty. This isn’t pushing blame onto any specific player but rather the marriage of the style of play the quarterback prefers and the style of play the offensive tackles are executing don’t play well with one another.

Mahomes went on to be under pressure regularly and when he wasn’t, he moved like he was. This has been the case for much of the season but when this is the sequence that kicks off the very first drive, it sets the game off on the wrong foot.

67% - Third down conversion percentage for the Titans offense

One of the early storylines for the Chiefs defense was their ability to perform well on third downs -- despite rarely getting there in the early part of the season. However, that stop percentage has progressively gotten worse as the season has gone along, with this week being their worst such performance on the all-important down. They allowed the Titans to go 8-for-12 on third down, and allowed a staggering 89% conversion percentage in the first half.

The Chiefs defense is now allowing a conversion on third down 53% of the time, which will likely end up ranked 31st (just ahead of Washington Football Team) after the weekend shakes out. Obvious passing situations and third downs are where Steve Spagnuolo’s unit has made their money in past seasons, and that’s decidedly not the case this year. With that out the window -- and early down stops becoming rarer and rarer -- the identity on this side of the ball is in question.

4 - Games with 3+ turnovers, most in any Chiefs season under Reid

It’s not news that the Chiefs aren’t taking care of the ball well. They’re on pace to turn the ball over 41 times in the 2021 season. Obviously that’s a lot, but this is far from normal for Reid’s Chiefs. As a matter of fact, since 2013 the Chiefs have never had a season where they had 3 or more games with 3 turnovers -- and they eclipsed that in week six of the 2021 season.

Furthermore, this is the third consecutive game that the Chiefs have turned the ball over three or more times -- which alone would have topped Reid’s worst Chiefs season. Going back through Reid’s head coaching history, his teams have only repeated this feat four other times. His 2007 squad had a stretch from Week 11-13 where they did it, but that team landed around the league average in turnovers for the season.

The other three seasons happened consecutively to close out Reid’s tenure in Philadelphia. In 2010, his Eagles finished the season with three straight games turning the ball over 3+ times -- losing twice -- before losing in the first round of the playoffs. That team was once again around the league average in turnovers on the season with a 10-6 record. However, 2011 and 2012 were not so fortunate.Both the 2011 and 2012 seasons had seven games with 3+ turnovers, funneling 38 and 37 turnovers to the opposition, putting Reid’s teams 31st and 30th in the league. Neither season resulted in a winning record nor a playoff appearance, and the result was eventually Reid’s dismissal. 

These Reid Chiefs teams are far from that level of destitute. They’re coming off of three AFC Championship appearances and two Super Bowls -- with one Lombardi in the case. However, there are some potentially eerie similarities between those late-stage Reid Eagles teams and this Chiefs team through 7 weeks. At the rate they’re turning the ball over, they may eclipse the number of games with 3+ this season for a Reid-led team. That almost certainly spells doom for this football team if it keeps going the way that it has.