Is the Kansas City Chiefs’ ERA OVER? 😳 Stephen A., Dan Orlovsky & RC DEBATE! 👀 | First Take

Is the Kansas City Chiefs’ ERA OVER? 😳 Stephen A., Dan Orlovsky & RC DEBATE! 👀 | First Take

Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead, y’all. Go ahead, man. Go ahead. How about a week two Super Bowl rematch for you? Jaylen Herz and the Eagles travel to Arrowhead to face Badger Mahomes and the Chiefs. KC will be looking for revenge after getting blown out by Philly in the big game in New Orleans. Super Bowl champion Rob Gronowski is gassed up for the matchup with the heavyweight reference telling K. Adams this. The Eagles opened the floodgate of, hey, if you punch these guys in the face, if you come out swinging, they’re going to fold and they’re not going to be the team you saw all last year. SA, you buying Gron’s comments? Um, no. I think Grank is buying my comments. I said it first. Damn it. I’ve been saying it for the last two, three months, if not longer. What has happened? I said that the Eagles punch they got Kansas City punched drunk. I walked into the season believing that the aura of invincibility per se that Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reed and the Kansas City Chiefs had attached to them had drastically diminished because it’s not about losing because anybody could lose. It’s how you went down. And I used a boxing analogy which is appropriate because I’m here in Vegas for arguably the biggest fight of this decade between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford. What did I say RC do? Anybody could get clipped. Anybody could get caught. We understand that, but when you get your ass kicked, that’s an entirely different thing alto together. And the Kansas City Chiefs got bum rushed. It was so bad for the Chiefs, the cameras didn’t even show Taylor Swift. They said, “We don’t want to do that to her. We don’t want to do that to the Swifties.” This is how bad it was. I mean, they got stomped. And when that happens, And when that happens, and you are a team, you’re an NFL team and you’re watching the Eagles not blitz one time in the Super Bowl, sending four, dropping seven back in the coverage, you talking about what is it, nine plays, and and you can’t do anything. 12 of your first 13 offensive possessions was five plays or less. Complete utter domination. Spotted them 34 points before you scored a point. They got run. And if you’re an NFL opponent and you see that, you’re like, “Wait a minute. We respect Kansas City. We know what they bring to the table, but damn, we ain’t see him get humbled like this.” Yes, they can be had. And I do think that a order of invincibility has been touched quite significantly. Am I tell apologize for not giving him credit for that? We should have never shared Grock’s comments. That was messed up. Next time, quote your source. Seriously, I’m going say this. You don’t give it to me. I’mma take it. I’m going to say this, Stephen Nay, because because I know you don’t drink. You must be punch drunk too out there in Vegas because I’m gonna say this. I’m going to say this. There is no champion that hasn’t gotten up off the mat. There is no champion that’s had to pull himself off the ropes. There is no champion that’s had to be coached in his corner how to fight back and win the next round after losing one. You don’t go to the AFC Championship every time since being the starting quarterback and never have learned the rebounds. I get it. You look at the Philadelphia Eagles and you think about that game and you say to yourself, “I’ve never seen the Kansas City Chiefs look like this.” Unless you go back to 2020, 2021, look at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl when they were punched in the mouth and when they found a way to rebound. All this team has ever done is get up off of the mat. But because we see him on top all the time, because we see them getting their hand raised at the end of the bouts, we always think of them as winners. But this is the team that knows how to fight. This is a team in Andy Reid that has the toughest training camp in the NFL every single year. And you got your sports mixed up. See, football, football ain’t boxing. Football is MMA. It’s mix it’s mixed martial arts, right? It’s the UFC. Don’t nobody go undefeated, right? That’s why we talk about Kabib the way we talk about him. That’s why we talk about Jon Jones the way we talk about him cuz you don’t go undefeated. The best of the best of the best have lost and then they get to the top of the mountain and they hold the championship belt and we respect them for what they’ve been through and that’s who the Kansas City Chiefs are. Now, if a team is better, if a roster is better, if they get outplayed, then that’s going to happen. But it ain’t going to be because this team is scared to fight and doesn’t know how to take a punch. Well, Before Dio goes, first of all, if I got my sports wrong, you got your facts wrong because New Mega Met never lost. John Bones Jones didn’t lose in the UFC. So the fact of the m I mean they in the UFC. That’s what I’m saying. I’m just using your analogy. Just using your analogy. That’s what I’m saying. That was the that was the point the point I made was that’s why we hold both of them in such high regard because they never lost in the UFC. Okay. Okay. All right. No problem. What I’m saying to you is this. In the end, what it comes down to, I got it. I got it. What I’m saying to you is this, and I’ll pass it to DO. This is RC talking. Do think about this for a second. You trying to tell This is This is the part that gets tricky. So, you try to tell me you see a team get stomped like that, a three-time Super Bowl champion, a team that’s been to five of the last six Super Bowls that looks relatively invincible, and you see them get beat like that. And you as a potential future opponent, don’t look at them and say, “Aha, I’m seeing something today that I didn’t see before. I not that you can’t, not of course they’re still explosive. Of course, they’re still great.” I’m not saying that. I’m talking about the fear factor that they may have instilled in you may have been compromised to some degree. A champion like Gronk pointed that out and I agree with him. Uh I don’t question the Chiefs toughness. I I question their ability to be explosive on offense. Yeah. I think there’s real football questions about where their offense is right now because if you go back to last season, their inability to be explosive with the football down the field and when they do not hit it, that’s more concerning to me than getting punched in the mouth. And so that’s going to be the thing that would keep them away from the Super Bowl once again. It’s not the physical, it’s not the toughness. This defense got Chris Jones on it, man. This is a defense that has been probably one of the most physical defenses in football. So, I have questions and um foreshadowing concerns about the offense and the way that it plays football and their ability to go do that, but I don’t question their toughness. and Stephen A and respectfully to Gronk, stop using the Super Bowl as a comparison of, okay, this is how to go do it. That defensive line for Philadelphia had two cats go in free agency and get $100 million deals with Milton Williams and Josh Sweat. Two, they had the defensive player of the year or defensive rookie of the year, excuse me, and Jaylen Carter. So, there’s not a lot of defensive lines that are replicating the the amount of talent that that group had. Maybe Denver this year. Maybe when it comes to that. So there it’s not like every defense that the Chiefs are going to play against has the horsepower when it comes to the the Eagles last the Eagles were going to whoop up on a lot of offensive lines in that Super Bowl. Okay. So I don’t agree with the punch him in the face and they don’t know how to respond thing. But I will say that this offense has question marks that if it does not get fixed and get better, the Super Bowl is not a competition. And I think that’s the that’s the conversation to be had, right? Whether whether Taekquin Thornton, who I saw in game one, seemed to be the deep ball guy, especially once Xavier Worthy was injured. Can he make some big plays for you? Can Hollywood Brown, who has the big fourth downy, can he start to push, right? What does Rasheed Rice look like when he come back? Those are the questions that we should be asking about the Chiefs. And this is the other question I have about him, Dano and Stephen A. the loss of Justin Reed who’s now a New Orleans Saints look great. When you look at this defense and the way they’re pieced together on the back end when it comes to their blitz responsibilities and coverage, that wasn’t good. The open field tackling, the communication wasn’t great. We haven’t seen Steve Spagnolo’s defense look like that in a very long time. That was concerning to me. But it’s not about physicality. Well, here’s what here’s the part that here’s the part that here’s the part that’s making me laugh. See, I don’t mind deferring to y’all when it come to football, but when it comes to creating narratives, who do y’all think y’all should be deferring? My lane that would be my lane. And so, and so there we go. So, my so so my point to you is this. We can get technical with it all we want to about, okay, I’m using the words like punk drunk. I’m simplifying it or whatever. Y’all going to the nuances of all with the expertise that y’all religiously provide us, which I’m very appreciative of. You just pointed out their secondary. You talk about how their defense was being compromised. You talk about open field tackling that wasn’t sublime. I’m looking at the injuries last year. Rasheed Rice, of course, you had him miss a few games. He missed about, you know, 13 to 15 games. You know, Hollywood Brown missed some games. They missed a combined 28 games last year. PCO was out for about 10 games. Okay. So, there’s a lot of things that went with the Kansas City Chiefs. And as we transition to this season, of course, we’re able to look at those things. All I’m trying to say is once upon a time, you’re looking at the Kansas City Chiefs and it’s like, damn, we in for a long one because I I I don’t know if we can take these boys. Whereas now, you got some teams whose confidence maybe foolheartedly, but their confidence may have elevated because they see some vulnerabilities like you guys have just pointed out and they think they could be had. That’s all I’m saying. Not a crime. Absolutely. I think I think my biggest takeaway is the fact that Stephen A said he’s basically the same person as Jerry Jones just straight in there and that’s how he wants his first. First of all, I’m not worth 16 billion dollars. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. I’m not worth 16 bill. Now, if I had that kind of money, then you’re on to something. But even then, I’d be committed to winning. I’d sacrifice some of the dollars for winning. I’d sacrifice some of the dollars to win. East Kingdom will raise a banner above the National Football League again. I can’t lie to you, bro. That last one changed my soul, man. The Philadelphia Eagles have won Super Bowl 59. It’s going to hurt for a while. It was something that we’ll think about for the rest of our careers. Jaylen Herz puts it on the money. He’s going to go. Touchdown. We found business. We got fights. The championship rematch has arrived. [Applause] Week two. Let’s get it. We got a Super Bowl rematch as the Eagles head to Arrowhead to take on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. The last time these two teams saw each other, Eagles dominated Kansas City in a 40 to22 win. Mahomes reflecting on one of the biggest losses of his career. It sucks that you lose the game, but in order to progress and to be better next time, you have to watch it and learn from it. And so I don’t know the exact amount of times, but you watch it and then you watch it in the offseason um with the team and with the coaches and then you watch it obviously this week as well. And so um they did they had a great game plan. They they played hard and and and did a great job of disrupting my timing. And so I have to learn from that, find ways to get the ball out of my hand. And then when the opportunities are there, I think that’s something I did miss early in the game is there was opportunities to make plays and you got to make those plays. If you don’t, they’re not going to allow those opportunities again. Disrupting his timing. What? Let me say this. This dude always takes the blame. He every single time cuz I would disagree with those comments that he missed him. He always takes the blame and that’s one of the reasons why he is and that has to get said. Okay. Like before we get into it, he always does and that’s that’s such a big deal. Yeah. Absolutely. No, I mean I think what Dan is saying about Patrick Mahomes is the reason people follow him. It’s the reason you see disappointment when they don’t produce. when offensive linemen don’t block, when receivers and tight ends don’t catch the ball, don’t run their routes the right ways, not only because of the way he’s working every day, the success he’s having, how he’s producing, it’s the fact that it’s always on him. Even when I can watch a football game and be like, “Say, bro, that ain’t on you.” By the way, he was preposterous on Friday night. Like, he was amazing. He made like four or five plays where you’re like, “Good God, you’re the only person who could do that stuff.” So, um, but in relation to Are you going to ask the question? Oh, I’m gonna bring Stephen A into Steen. Yeah, let’s bring Stephen A into the conversation. Nope, I’m not. I’m not. You know what this is? This is breaking news. I’m going to bite my tongue. I’m not going to say what I’m tempted to say. I’m saying it. No, I’m saying. Don’t you change. Guys, being a leader, when you’re a leader, you guys know this cuz I consider you both leaders. Yes. It’s great to take responsibility and culpability, but sometimes it’s necessary to point out what others ain’t doing. Sometimes it’s necessary to take that veneer, that cloth of protection away and put people on front street because sometimes that’s what mandates them elevating their level of uh their game and making sure they bring it all to the table. I love Patrick Mahomes and I agree with what you said, Dio. I’m not disagreeing with you. Neither you RC. I’m just saying we go out of our way all the damn time for applauding people for internalizing stuff, keeping stuff out of harm’s way. And for the most part, 99% of the time, it’s what we we is what people should do. But that 1% and just that 1% some moments it’s necessary to call it out because if you don’t people gonna still drag their feet be in you know be be a bit lacadasical not prioritize what they’re supposed to be prioritizing don’t want to hold themselves accountable and everybody sinks because of it all I’m saying is while you sit up there with your saliloquy telling the audience what you love about Patrick Mahomes and I get it and I agree with you. All I’m saying is don’t forget that 1% of the time is necessary to hold folks accountable. That’s all I’m saying. Interesting. I’m saying I’m curious if you agree with that from a player’s perspective because both of you guys have been in locker rooms. Is that the right approach? I think as a quarterback and we’re often taught and from a very early age, it’s always your fault because here’s the in and I think there’s a lot of similarities with it. You’re a quarterback, you run an organization, you’re the leader of a family. Because I think when you’re the quarterback and you stand in front of everybody and constantly say, “Me, I have to be better. We have to be better.” It makes the other people that are doing it with you want to be better because of that and want to improve because of it. And once you start to point the finger, and I don’t think Stephen A’s intimating that. I really don’t. I think Stephen A’s pointing out to a point of like, hey, we got to be better. But I think once you point the finger, a lot of other people are going to go, “Oh, you weren’t perfect either.” Like, “You missed that.” But but but but Dan, but but but Dan, it’s And I’ll come to you all in a second. It’s not always about pointing a finger. Sometimes it’s Sometimes it’s about this. Okay. So, if I’m a quarterback and I got a receiver that’s made a business decision and he decide not to run the route that we that he’s supposed to run, he decides not to make the block that he’s supposed to make, etc. And, you know, it’s a dereliction of duty, the attitude might be right. He might be a bit canankerous, a bit of Serbic, he might not be about the team, etc., etc. That doesn’t mean you go in a press conference and call them out. But what it also doesn’t mean is that you sit up there and say, “It’s me.” when you know damn well it ain’t you and mitigating circumstances call for something a little bit different. And that’s what I’m saying. You reserve the 1%. You reserve the 1% for those moments. That’s what I’m saying. Well, here’s the I I I disagree with that. I think Patrick Mahomes did it exactly how you’re supposed to do it. Because when you do that publicly for me, you can tell me whatever you want behind closed doors. Right. When when you go into that meeting and when we looking at the film, you can tell me if my route supposed to be at 12 and I run it at 10. Hey man, you got to get those two yards. You could tell me that, hey look, I need you to get off of the ball quicker. I need you to push and pass me cuz I’m going to step up. You could talk to your coaches about, hey, look, in this situation, I like these calls better. I like these plays better because you didn’t throw me under the bus. And the other piece is this. When Patrick Mahomes says publicly, it’s me, and the entire world knows that it’s not, you better be saying it’s you, too. Travis Kelce, it’s you. Right. defensively. Brian Cook, it’s you. Tranquil, it’s you. Right. Chris Jones, it’s you. We all got to stand up and say, “It’s me.” Right? We should all We should sit around and there should be so many thumbs in our locker room that we ain’t got no pointer fingers. If Patrick Mahomes lives that way, leads that way. He can come into that locker room and say whatever he want cuz those dudes are going to know that you got my back. I say it all the time about my friendship. That’s fine. That’s fine. But that’s not what I’m saying because you’re absolutely right about that. Again, the 99% of the time, but if RC, if you’re the leader and I’m working under you and you have taken hit after hit after hit, okay, publicly, privately, you talk to me 10 times, 15 times, and I ignore you, I disrespect you, I disregard you, etc. Because we know of NFL players who have done this. We can go through a litany of storylines over the spanning decades where quarterbacks and certain players were not on the same page and clearly it was some tculent stuff going on with one another where they had attitude etc etc. One person was more responsible than another. The other person was more egotistical than the other when that happens. How many hits do you take publicly before you at least take a deep breath and just say nothing? I didn’t say more. Just say nothing. That’s exactly what he’s doing through his leadership, Stephen A. He’s setting the tone for accountability. And that’s what Ryan saying that at all the other uh positions, they’re also going to use thumb rather than pointer. And the film doesn’t lie. We So what is so when So So all right. All right, y’all. So when Michael Irvin So when Michael Irvin went to Jimmy Johnson and walked from one locker to the next like this dude got to go, this dude got to go. That dude got to go, y’all. C that was a problem. Was that a problem? In my opinion, the position matters. Yeah, the the the position matters, but also you got to know the people, right? There’s a level of authenticity that you have to live with. I’m going to be honest, there’s a lot of dudes who are jerks. There’s a lot of dudes who don’t take accountability, but they’re like that every single day. So, every time I walk into the building, I know exactly who you are. I know exactly on what I’m counting you on on you for, and I know what I ain’t. This is who Patrick Mahomes is. Yeah, Patrick Mahomes isn’t the dude that was always expected to be the next great or to be a dude that’s going to be in a conversation with Tom Brady. He wasn’t that. Patrick Mahomes had to earn this. And the one thing I’m going to say about least most players I know when they don’t do it right, it’s not because they ain’t trying, right? And I think Patrick Mahomes understands that. It ain’t for everybody. I believe that it ain’t for everybody. I’m just talking about I’m talking about the 1%. The conversation we’re having, y’all, is about the 1%. 99% of the time, y’all are absolutely right. Exactly what you’re saying. I’m talking about that 1% of the time, 1% of the time you run across people, they just got to go. They just got to go. If Patrick Mahomes came out, if Patrick Mahomes came out to a winning environment if Patrick Mahomes came out into a press conference and say, “I believe this person needs to go or it wasn’t my fault, it was the offensive line fault.” He would get crushed and then there’s a crack and then there’s a crack in the locker room and then you you’re not getting that guy back now. Like you’re not once you walk into the locker room or a press conference, excuse me, and you say Thornton’s got to go, you ain’t getting him back. Once you say Xavier Worthy’s got to be better, you’re not getting back a prime example right now. I’m not saying that. I’m not saying to do that. I will say this. I will say this, Moss, to back because we got off the conversation. It is an absolute mustwin with the Kansas City Chiefs. How come? Because 0 and2 is not going to cut it in that division. 0 and2 is not going to cut it in that conference. And it better look better offensively when it comes to being able to be explosive. If we’re talking about the best offenses in the conference, they’ll be all we’re No, they won’t. Um, we’re talking about Buffalo, they’re explosive. We’re talking about Baltimore, they’re explosive. Those are the two teams now, too. Los Angeles Chargers, they’re going to be explosive. They are explosive. So, that’s the thing. It it it has to look better offensively. They got to get healthy. I’m gonna give them some grace. They’ve earned that. They They can’t fall to Stephen A in that division. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on, Stephen. They stop. They can. They can. If anybody Hold on. If anybody can do it, they can do it. They just can’t get their ass kicked by the Eagles. If they play a competitive game, but they end up being 0 and2. These are the Kansas City Chiefs who we’ve seen go to Buffalo and win a playoff game. We’ve seen go to Baltimore and win a playoff game. We know what they can do. And oh, by the way, you talk about Hollywood Brown, you’re talking about Rasheed Rice, you’re talking about these cats with Kelsey. They haven’t played a game together since 2024 when all of them were there together. They haven’t played one single game on the field together as of yet. And I think I I think here’s the problem. You lose this game, you’re looking at a team that could have four losses headed into week seven. And no matter what, no matter how much we believe in them and can they can go on the road in Buffalo, they could go on the road in Baltimore. We’ve seen it. That’s not something that is sustainable every single year. they lose this game, they could be in a position where we don’t see them back in the ASC championship for the first time in a long time. Absolutely. We got to leave it there, guys. We’re up [Music]

Stephen A. Smith, Dan Orlovsky and Ryan Clark join Molly Qerim on First Take to preview the Philadelphia Eagles vs. the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2 of the NFL season.

0:00 Gronk’s comments
1:05 Chiefs are “punch drunk”
5:43 Questions about the Chiefs
9:08 Out of the Chiefs era?
10:32 Patrick Mahomes on losing
14:21 Eagles vs. Chiefs
16:50 Leadership discussion
19:50 Is Sunday a must-win for KC?

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