:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/388543/153119019.jpg)
The Kansas City Chiefs lost a heartbreaker to the San Diego Chargers in Week 4 but using the words heartbreaker shouldn't suggest that the game was close. The Chargers controlled the game from their opening drive and never really looked back.
The Chiefs performance sucked. Plain and simple. The worst part about it is that, despite the score and the way the Chargers played, this was much of their own doing.
There are five things that have to stop. They're all pretty much the same thing but they all have to stop. Now.
Romeo: 'I'm staying with the QB' | 'Quinn can't possibly be worse' and other tweets
The blowouts have to stop
I will never, ever be happy with losing. That much I can tell you. If the Chiefs lost 10 games this year and they were all by three points or less I'd still be an unhappy camper. I can't stand losing so that's not what this is about.
This is about the way you lose.
The blowouts...they have to stop. It's getting ridiculous. The same thing happened in the Todd Haley era, even when they were winning the AFC West, so this isn't totally a coaching thing. I don't remember an era of Chiefs football where the team is blown out --at home! -- so often.
That's what's so depressing about this. It's only the losing. And it's not only the blowouts. It's when it all comes at home...in the first two home games of the season.
John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE
The turnovers have to stop
This was 'The year of 2010' when the Chiefs returned to the way they played in that division-winning season. But it hasn't exactly worked out like that.
The Chiefs lead the NFL in interceptions AND fumbles. Tied for first with seven picks and they're atop the leader board with 10 fumbles but second in the league with only (only?) six of those lost.
The Chiefs can be a good team if they don't turn the ball over. Even in Sunday's game, the Chiefs weren't completely out of it in the first half despite a number of turnovers.
The turnovers aggravate me more than anything else because you're beating yourself.
Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE
The meltdowns have to stop
Take away that first quarter. Take away the turnovers, the Chargers starting in Chiefs' territory and see where this game is. Not too bad, right?
Unfortunately, those turnovers do count.
By the time the Chiefs figured out what was going on -- well, they never really figured out -- they were in a huge 17-point hole. I mean, I was sitting in the press box and I hadn't even finished up my (second) serving at the pregame buffet and it was 17-0.
One bad play is excusable. That happens. But multiple bad plays, all right in a row -- the meltdown -- has to stop. It can't go on.
Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE
The embarrassment has to stop
We can blame a lot of people -- Scott Pioli, Romeo Crennel, Matt Cassel and the defense, to name a few. And you'd be right in blaming all those people. They've all played a part in the horridness that is the Chiefs first month of the season.
But something has to give.
I can't keep being so embarrassed about my team. It's gotten to the point where I'm asking to only lose by a field goal or a touchdown. I mean, think about that. My expectations are now so lowered that what I'm asking for from the Chiefs it to keep it competitive.
John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE
This feeling has to stop
I'm defeated. As a fan, I'm defeated.
And that's the worst sign about the Chiefs right now: I don't care as much as I once did.
I don't spend my Sunday afternoons talking to my friends from Chicago about how the Chiefs are a better team than the Bears. I don't call up Old Man Thorman after a game and talk about what went wrong. I don't feel like the Chiefs always have a chance like I once did.
It's a feeling of being defeated, of not caring as much. And it sucks.
I never used to laugh at the Chiefs. Laugh with them, sure. But not at them.
I would never look through postgame photos, see the one below, and think, "This sums up the Chiefs as best as I know: the punter trying to complete a pass."
John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE