The Kansas City Chiefs have finally fallen this season as their first loss puts their record at 5-1 on the season which is still the best record in the NFL. The Chiefs are dropping in some NFL power rankings this week with many media rankings putting the Eagles ahead of the Chiefs — despite the Chiefs beating the Eagles just a few weeks ago.
Putting the Eagles atop the Week 7 power rankings is fair because they’ve been better more recently and power rankings include some recency bias. I’m OK with them being No. 2 to the Eagles. You lose and you drop in the power rankings. That’s fine.
I’m not sure how you rank the Steelers. They beat the Chiefs so should they go ahead of the Chiefs? They also lost to the Jaguars. The Chiefs haven’t had the lows that the Steelers have had. For now, I think the Chiefs should be ahead of Pittsburgh.
This week’s power rankings...
The undefeated season is over, and if the Chiefs want to bounce back from a 13-point effort against the Steelers, they'll have to do it on the road. They travel to Oakland, Dallas and New York to face the Giants for three of their next four.
Still, it's hard to knock the Chiefs too much for finally losing a game. They still had a shot to win it in the end, and had a pass to Antonio Brown not bounced off two defenders and still ended up in his hands, the end of the game could well have unfolded differently.
The Chiefs are still the best team in football. They simply didn't play their best game in Week 6. As I mentioned before, the best team doesn't always come out on top.
I’m not a fan of pollsters automatically moving the No. 1 team down due to a loss. Let’s examine the full body of work. The Chiefs have a fine set of quality wins (at New England, vs. Philadelphia, at L.A. Chargers, vs. Washington, at Houston). The loss against Pittsburgh wasn’t a bad one. Despite a rough day Sunday, they’re second in yards gained this season. The overall defense has given up a lot of yards, but the pass defense is solid and capable of making plays. If you take all six weeks together and don’t get caught up in recency bias, they still deserve the top spot.
Last Week’s Rank: 1
Points in MMQB Power Poll: 375
First-Place Votes: 7 (Bishop, Benoit, Feldman, Jones, Kahler, Rohan, Vrentas)
Lowest-Place Vote: Fifth
The Kansas City Chiefs finally lost, losing 19-13 at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Considering how the Steelers looked the week before in losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the NFL remains so hard to figure out. The Philadelphia Eagles are playing well right now, and a road win in Carolina looked like reason enough to bump them to No. 1. But I don’t really know who will end up with the best record by the time the season ends.
The NFL’s last unbeaten fell but they can get back to winning ways Thursday night at Oakland.
Take away the Chiefs’ running game and all the pressure is on Alex Smith to perform. Smith couldn’t get much going against Pittsburgh’s defense. Down goes the consensus No. 1 team in the NFL.
Still, the Chiefs are 5-1 and Week 6 was rough on the Broncos and Raiders too. Kansas City has plenty of reasons to feel good about its place in the AFC, but the Chiefs aren’t going to stick in the top spot in the power rankings this time.
The Chiefs simply cannot beat the Steelers. Accept that and move on. They remain among the league’s very best teams. Kansas City simply must find a way to avoid Pittsburgh during the AFC playoffs. QB Alex Smith was not exactly bad against the Steelers. But he was not as sharp as he’s been virtually all season, either.