Are the Chiefs Back? | The NFL Today

Are the Chiefs Back? | The NFL Today

alongside coach Nate and Matt. We’ve got the guys to talk about what happened. Man, what did happen? Kansas City. Well, let’s take a look at the highlights in Kansas City. This is a one-sided affair right here. The Kansas City Chiefs taking on the Raiders. Patrick walking in. Division rivalry. He’s ready to go. And boy, was he ever ready to go. Rasheed Rice is back, Nate. That’s right. Takes it to the house for a little two-y touchdown for the first score of the game. Punch that ball into the stands right here. Patrick, he’s going to look over and find Hollywood Brown right down the middle. eight yardd touchdown and then they just keep it going. Find Rasheed Rice one more time. Beautiful back shoulder fade. Looks like they have not been rusty or anything like that. Just perfect. Chiefs absolutely dominate right here. 31 to nothing. Andy Reed and Pete Carol catching up there after the game. But this was domination. They’ve got all of their pieces back. The offense was electric. Patrick looked incredible today. Defense steps up. That’s what you got to do. You got to go win the games you’re supposed to. But that was a statement win. Yeah. You know what um word pops in my head when I think about the Chiefs is urgency. Um one the season didn’t start off the way they wanted. So they have this sense of urgency trying to get things figured out before they really get into the heart of the season, especially November and December where you become who you’re going to be in the playoffs. And then also urgency in getting Rashi Rice the ball. All right, he’s back on the field. He got fresh legs. Let’s go ahead and feed them early and often. There is no mistake. I don’t care if we’re facing you as a defense. You know exactly what we’re going to do with the ball. Just like when Worthy was on the field for the first time this year, they got on the rock. And the last um last person is Rasheed Rice himself. Urgency. Listen, you’ve been missing for for reasons we don’t have to discuss. You already served your suspension, but there is a sense of urgency for you to reestablish yourself, not just on this team, but as a playmaker in the league. And right here, right out the gate, they’re going to give it to him. He has a little face mask. He runs through it, cuts the ball. I’ve been there before. Um and and then a little spot route over the middle of the field. Just look at the locations of where he is on the field and then on the outside back shoulder fade ball. So they’re using him in every which way. So listen, urgency, sense of urgency from the team, sense of urgency getting their playmakers the ball and then Rasheed Rice himself understanding, hey, listen, I’m at a point in my career where I got to tighten up on and off the field if I want to one stick around for a long time and also keep making some money. You know, I think you look at this Kansas City Chiefs and I think that’s an accurate uh word to use in the approach that they took this week because clearly we sat there and talked to Chris Jones before the game. Chris Jones is talking about studying tape up until the time he leaves. Come on now. So, you know, through the course of that week talking about the Raiders, it’s a divisional game and they’re talking about how last year we didn’t play well in these divisional games. He’s won score games. There is that sense of urgency in that locker room on both sides of the ball. Y and I thought you saw today. And a matter of fact, from the defensive side of the ball for Andy Reid, he has coached, this is his 427th game. Okay. He’s been there for 27 years in the National Football League. Uhhuh. This is his first regular season shutout. That’s hard to believe. Unbelievable. Well done. Well done. Not cheeseburgers for everybody. You know, and again, you talk about the complimentary parts of a football team, offense to defense. Andy Reid to Steve Spagnolan, what these guys have accomplished together and it speaks volumes about how they approach things, how they approach the game and and again I go back to the word that you use because that that to me here we are in week seven and they’re applying urgency because they understand what it was like early in this season when they felt they were backed into a corner. They lose those games. All of a sudden they’re down three divisional games. Everyone’s handing the division to the LA Chargers because they’ve won three in a row and it’s all wow what about us? And yet all the backups were playing. They’re getting experience. They get Worthy back. Boy, they look faster. They get Rice back and they are now on another gear. You know what? Just to coail on Nate’s point about the accurate word urgency as opposed to what some of the fans were saying, they ought to be panicking. Patrick Mahomes never did. He said three games or so ago, hey, look, I believe in the character of these guys. We know what we’re doing. All he needed were his weapons back. And there is still cuz you even asked me on your other show, your new show. You know what? Is he still the best quarterback? I say when he’s got his weapons, are you kidding me? Yeah. And listen, they weren’t broken early on in the season. They were just working out the kinks. But here he is patient in the pocket, understanding if I step up, I can buy myself a little bit of time. Wide open. Travis Kelce, another guy who has a sense of urgency, right? He’s on the last leg of his career and he knows that if he wants to go out as a winner, he’s going to have to step up and make plays on the sideline hitting his big target. And then over the middle, another guy that they have at their disposal, Maris Hollywood Brown and and Patrick Mahomes, knowing that if I get the ball to my fast guys like Thornton, I can make plays, stretch the field in different ways. And just check them out. Listen, I I I am guilty of it. Those first three weeks that you are looking at, I was having conversations about playoff teams, about the MVP, about Super Bowl contenders, about teams that look good, teams that look cool, teams that look sexy, all without talking about the Chiefs. So Chiefs, I’m sorry, cuz I was also guilty of that. And now here is the ultimate reminder of the Chiefs saying, “Wait a minute. You can’t talk about the postseason without us. You don’t even know what the postseason looks like without us over the last handful of years. You can’t talk about Super Bowl contenders without us. You can’t talk about the MVP race without mentioning the best quarterback in football, Patrick Mahomes. So, you’re right, JB, you’re spot on. They were patient. I think people like me on TV were not because we are expecting them to be shot out of a cannon early on in the season. Love what you said about the numbers. Seven consecutive AFC Championship games, five-2 record by the Chiefs. That’s right. Five consecutive Super Bowl appearances. Three and two. And MVPs, please. Whose name is that? Let’s keep on the numbers. Nine different guys with catches today in the past game. The highlights that we’ve shown show everybody touching the football. Coach, you talked about complimentary football, complimentary coaches. What about complimentary pieces on the offensive side of the ball? You bring Rasheed Rice back. It’s his first. You get him involved early. Xavier Worthy makes some plays. Get some touches in the gadget stuff. You’ve got both tight ends making plays. Noah Gray was down on the sideline. Travis Kelce opening up. This becomes a really difficult team to defend when they have all their weapons backs. And coach, you said it, the speed. You feel the speed from them. And I like the way they’re running the football, too. Starting to get back to pounding the football with Pacheco and Kareem Hunt. We’ll see if he’s all right. But they they’re they’re rolling. They’re rolling right now. And I think when you go through that, I think sometimes you start you come out of the gate, you start winning. It’s hard to fight the comfort that you can fall into, the complacency that you fall into, but you come out of the gate and everyone’s questioning you. not even talking about you and yet you’ve been there before. It’s kind of all you needed. So they may have to thank you, Nate. So they’re gonna thank you for for sitting there just questioning us, not mentioning us. So they say, “Thank you for that little bit of motivation.” The doubt and the criticism. It it it could have been misplaced by people like me on TV. But let’s also keep it real. Starting slow, they were part of that, too. Listen, when you’re winning and you’re popular, listen, my man Travis Kelsey was hosting shows, acting. You know, Patrick Mahomes was in commercials. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be doing those things. I don’t know what it’s like to come off of a Super Bowl, so I can’t speak on that. But what I do know is there was a lot of Kansas City Chiefs players that were doing a lot of things outside of getting ready for football when 5 years ago it was just football. But there lies the gift and the curse of winning. So, I think they needed to have a little bit of time to figure out who they were and find their rhythm after a preseason where the vets didn’t really pay. Well, one thing I think Kansas City has done better than anybody the last seven, eight years is understanding winning moments in games, right? And making the plays when you need to make them and they’re opportunistic when it comes to those things. The other thing I think they understand, and it goes back to the word you used at the beginning, urgency. They understand the important moments within a season, right? There’s a pacing to the season and kind of figuring out what pace you need to be at at different times. I go back to when we were live at uh Arrowhead Stadium and them playing uh Baltimore. And both those teams only with one win at the time. And who showed up with their best performance of the season? Kansas City. And they played physical. So they understand the little milestones that you have to hit throughout the year to kind of keep yourself in the race, where you want to be in that race, and then start to play your best football as you need it. And you hear a lot of the murmurss from a lot of these teams about the people that are not applying themselves through the course of a week, right? We heard about the people that aren’t coming to players only meetings. We’re talking about that down in Miami. So there’s a thing that su success is preparation meeting opportunity. And no one prepares better than the Kansas City Chiefs. They cover every little detail. They had Dave Top, one of the best special teams coaches in the National Football League. Steve Spagnola, one of the best defensive corners who can come up with a game plan and he’s going to take away what he perceives to be your strength and make you beat him beat him with something else. And they got maybe one of the best creative play callers in Andy Reg. It’s preparation. You talk about what you want. It’s all about preparation. I think there was a play in this game that showed their preparation is second to none. And honestly, Nate, I think some of those acting gigs that those guys have been doing were helpful for the Kansas City Chiefs where Patrick was out there saying, “This never works. This doesn’t work. We’re not going to boom, snap that and get the fourth.” We’re going to show that later in the show. But maybe that acting gig, you know, maybe all that State Farm work that he’s done has that’s the preparation that goes to the next to the next level. That’s Jedi mind tricks from Andy for sure. And and another thing I love about this squad is that they they definitely hear what people are saying externally. Yeah. But they they only respond internally, which means they can hear the criticism, they can hear the doubt, they understand what people are saying about their team, their players, their organization, but they don’t use their mouth. They don’t run their jaw. They they just they they handle everything indoors. They improve and work on what they need to work on internally. And then on Sundays, they show the results. That’s what makes this team very unique. And they they in that locker room, the players take ownership over the product. And Andy is able to give them that little bit of input. They’ll say, “Hey, let’s Hey, coach, let’s try this.” Sure, why not? And I’m telling you, there’s a lot to be said for letting players have involvement and input into the game plan. When they have input into the game plan, they’ll take ownership over it in the locker room. You know what, coach, you’re right. I’ve heard more from their veterans than I’ve heard from Andy Reid, especially over the course of the first few weeks. I heard Patrick Mahomes taking full responsibility after every single loss, saying, “We have to be better. I have to be better. We’re going to figure it out.” And all of the veterans were repeating the same. It’s almost like coach Andy Reid doesn’t need to say those things. Doesn’t have to. Hey, let me use a basketball reference to make a point here. You guys will understand where I’m heading. Larry Bird, perhaps the biggest trash talker. Yeah. in NBA history. And when he was feeling it and folks were doubting him, you know, he would tell his defender, “I’m going over to the low post over here, I’m going to fake one time and I’m going to nail this shot.” Telling him beforehand. And he would do it. What’s the idiosyncrasy that Patrick Mahomes shows you when you know he’s in a groove and he’s got his weapons out there? If he’s going through the huddle, what are you seeing him do? Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Moving and moving his guys. Yeah. And when he starts getting in this bag, you know that he’s feeling himself. That’s for sure. And he’s also he also while they were struggling to find their rhythm and their pacing and their identity, he was telling everybody it’s going to be all right. No, he did. You guys are hitting the panic button. We are not. And up until today, and I I don’t know if it’s still that case. He was a lead rusher on this football team. This guy takes the ball into his own hands in the fourth. He didn’t have to do it today, but watch this guy in the second half of games. in the second half the games he will run with the ball more than any other quarterback in National Football League just to extend the drive to give him a chance to line up again. We’ve seen him spin and turn looking for that first down marker. They’re going to win or lose on his talent and he plays it one play at a time and he wants to win every play that he’s out there. Bill, you helped to educate me before I move to the next topic. You said that Patrick Mahomes is a what? He’s a winner. Yeah, but but the type of player he is versus a runner. You said he’s a he’s a scrambler. He’s not a runner. He’s a guy that he scrambles, always looking downfields, always trying to to to see what what’s available down there, but he also has an eye on the first down marker. So, he’s on the side of his eye. He’s got that peripheral vision. I’m looking down here. First down marker and also the line of scrimmage. How close can I get to this before I let this ball go? So, you’re probably talking about peripheral vision. And that’s the what great quarterbacks have. You hyper awareness. Yes. and you could see the whole field, have a feel for where you are in the pocket and where people are around you. And on top of it, he’s a great decision maker in those situations, right? And so, it’s one thing to be able to have the the the vision or to be able to have the ability to extend these plays and hang on to the ball, but you trust him like Andy trusts him implicitly in those critical situations to make the right decision, whether it is to run, whether it is to give somebody an opportunity on a ball down the field or or whatever it is. Maybe throw it away at certain times, too.

Nate Burleson, Bill Cowher and Matt Ryan talk about the Chiefs after their HUGE 31-0 win over the Raiders in Week 7.

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