The Kansas City Chiefs are not playing their best football right now. Even with a much needed 20-17 victory over the New York Giants on Monday night, the Chiefs aren’t playing anywhere close to the level that allowed them to appear in the last two Super Bowls as the representative from the AFC.
“Everything is not beautiful right now. But we’re fighting through that. That happens in this game,” head coach Andy Reid told reporters after the game.
The Chiefs are in the bottom third of the league in points allowed defensively. And even thought they’re still averaging 26 points per game offensively, the turnovers have spiked in the wrong direction as well. Patrick Mahomes threw 11 total interceptions combined over the previous two seasons for Kansas City. He’s been picked off 10 times in eight games this season after Julian Love intercepted him on a deflected pass in the end zone Monday night.
“There’s great competition in this league, which I think you know,” Reid said. “You saw those games yesterday and teams that were supposed to win by X number of points get beat. There’s so much parity in this league and so you’ve got to fight. That’s the part I’m taking out of this game. Our guys battled. They didn’t give up on each other. They kept working through what could have been a time where you just throw your hands up and things aren’t working the way they’re supposed to work. Guys didn’t do that. So we’ll build on that. Let’s keep going. They don’t give these things away and I think that’s important for everybody to understand. The other teams are coming after you and you’re going to get their best shot and I thought they did a heck of a job with it.”
The Chiefs fell behind 17-14 in the fourth quarter after a 5-yard touchdown pass from Daniel Jones to Evan Engram gave the Giants their first and only lead of the night. Mahomes then helped author consecutive field goal drives to lift Kansas City to the victory. The win moved the Chiefs back to .500 and kept them from falling alone into the cellar of the AFC West.
“All in all a good hard-fought win. One that was needed,” Reid said.
