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The Kansas City Chiefs took care of business on Sunday with a fun-to-watch 41-10 home victory over the Chicago Bears. Still, one of the outlets we’re following actually marked the Chiefs down a spot for Week 4. Seven others moved Kansas City up in their rankings, two were unchanged — and half of them mentioned Taylor. (Only NFL.com mentioned Jawaan Taylor. The rest were referring to Ms. Swift. So it goes...).
Here’s this week’s sampling:
NFL.com: 3
(down from 2)
The Chiefs needed a game like they had Sunday, in which they rolled over the vulnerable Bears, following the Week 1 loss and a meat-grinder win in Week 2. Patrick Mahomes dished the ball around like candy, while the run game was the best it has looked since the Super Bowl. And the defense! The Chiefs have allowed four TDs this season: one was a pick-six in Week 1, and one was a garbage-time score Sunday. You’d like to see the receivers keep stepping up, and Jawaan Taylor’s struggles are concerning, even if Andy Reid thinks the refs need to chill a bit on his new right tackle. But this is still a pretty complete football team that can clean your clock almost any given week.
— Eric Edholm
ESPN: 4
(up from 5)
Offensive efficiency: 53.9 (8th)
Biggest issue on offense: Dropped passes
The Chiefs have dropped 5.3% of their passes, which is tied for the sixth-worst rate in the league. Many of their drops came in the season opener against the Lions and were a major reason for the Chiefs’ only defeat. Most harmful was the easily catchable pass that Kadarius Toney deflected to Lions safety Brian Branch, who returned it for a touchdown. Had Toney caught that pass, the Chiefs would most likely be undefeated today.
— Adam Teicher
The Athletic: 3
(up from 6)
QB confidence rating: 10
Patrick Mahomes is still the league’s gold standard. His overall numbers aren’t at their usual gaudy level, but he led the Chiefs to a 41-0 lead Sunday before coming out with almost five minutes left in the third quarter. And even with a slow (by his standards) start, he’s third in the league with seven touchdown passes. Mahomes now has 25,044 passing yards in 83 career games and is the fastest player to reach 25,000 yards in league history. Chiefs fans almost fainted when Mahomes rolled his ankle early, but he bounced back quickly.
— Josh Kendall
Sports Illustrated: 3
(unchanged from 3)
I’m kind of tired of the entire Chiefs narrative within the greater football media world. One understandably poor performance yields some kind of attention-seeking criticism, which then prompts us to come back around and pretend that the attention-seekers who dared doubt the greatness of Patrick Mahomes were sorely mistaken. It’s silly. Kansas City is great. They’re probably going to be in the Super Bowl this year. The only reasons they aren’t No. 1 in the power rankings every week? One, because we are probably captivated on a moment-by-moment basis in seeing new teams win in different ways. Two, because we are numbed to how good this team has been consistently.
— Conor Orr
Pro Football Talk: 4
(up from 5)
Something something title of a Taylor Swift song.
— Mike Florio
CBSSports.com: 3
(up from 4)
They got the offense on track against the Bears, which is not a good sign for the rest of the league. The defense has been really good so far.
— Pete Prisco
Fox Sports: 4
(up from 5)
I think the Chiefs’ flawless performance probably had more to do with getting to play the Bears than it did with Taylor Swift attending the game, but either way it was one of the most entertaining blowouts I can remember. The offense got back to its old ways, and the defense is quietly allowing just 11 points per game.
— David Helman
Yahoo! Sports: 3
(up from 4)
Insert witty Taylor Swift fake lyrics related to Travis Kelce here.
— Frank Schwab
The Sporting News: 2
(up from 4)
The Chiefs’ defense is the big story early in the season. They’re getting slowly revved up offensively toward their super standards with more diversity in the passing and running games for Patrick Mahomes, but Chris Jones’ pressure and a dominant pass defense have been more impressive early.
— Vinnie Iyer
USA Today: 4
(unchanged from 4)
Looking down the road – exactly what you’re supposed to do in the NFL – we’re going to speculate that Taylor Swift will get the blame if Kansas City becomes the 20th consecutive defending Super Bowl champion that fails to repeat. #ChiefsKingdom vs. Swifties (-13).
— Nate Davis
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