The Titans dominated the whole game on Sunday, it is that simple! The Kansas City Chiefs are no longer the team to beat, at least this season.
In a blowout loss 27-3 in Tennessee, the Kingdom has a lot of questions. After a good performance against the Washington Football Team, the fanbase was hoping for a rebirth, and it did not happen.
It is obvious the Chiefs have not really been the best team of the conference since day one, but many observers were wondering whether the bad mistakes could be fixed easily and quickly, or if they were just plain bad.
What is disturbing about this game is the Chiefs’ defense actually achieved what they were supposed to do to win this game, in theory: stop King Henry. Derrick Henry just piled up 86 yards and was slowed down the whole game. However, Ryan Tannehill made a pretty good job throughout the whole game with the best season performance by AJ Brown.
Not only Brown, but eight other receivers were targeted on Sunday for a total of 270 yards. The Titans’ offense anticipated the focus on the run and made plenty of deep passes all through the game. Ryan Tannehill completed 81.8 percent of his play-action passes and averaged 15.7 yards per attempt on those plays, according to Pro Football Focus.
The whole Chiefs defense struggled apart from the fantastic Nick Bolton.
But the big surprise came from the Chiefs offense, crushed by the Titans’ defense, which stopped them at 3 points, and no touchdowns, an event that did not happen for years in Kansas City. The Chiefs lead the league with 17 turnovers. It is quite shocking, especially when you have one of the best quarterbacks on your team.
The Titans pass rush was quick, way too quick for Patrick Mahomes, and it showed. He was intercepted, made very inaccurate passes, and pressed.
“We have a Hall of Fame head coach and the best player in the game in place. Basically, the two most important factors are in place. I view it as the ultimate stability. The beauty of this game is that alone isn’t enough. … The pressure is always on to fill out depth on both sides of the football.” Said Brett Veach back in February 2021. And boy was he right about that statement.
Tennessee’s defense held Mahomes to 5.9 yards per attempt and a QBR of 6.0—easily the worst game of Mahomes’s career. And unfortunately, that is a trend since the Chiefs have ranked 24th in offensive DVOA, according to Football Outsiders. People understood how to take care of the superstar quarterback and his coach Andy Reid, and things need to change very quickly!
The Tennessee Titans entered their Week 7 game with the Kansas City Chiefs with lots of injured players on the defensive side of the ball, especially in the secondary. Starting cornerback Kristian Fulton remains on IR and rookie first-round pick Caleb Farley tore his ACL in Monday’s win over the Buffalo Bills. Starting safety Amani Hooker popped up on Friday’s injury report after suffering a late-week groin injury.
Hooker was among the inactives and the Titans were down another starter in the secondary. Cornerback Chris Jackson, who was set to start was surprisingly among the inactives despite practicing in full on Friday. It looked like an easy task for the wizard skills of Patrick Mahomes up in the air, but it never happened.
Is the Chiefs’ defense really the weakest link? Mahomes might be trying too hard to force throws instead of getting a sack, given the inability of his defense to hold up teams and put them in a situation to punt.
Talking about the brand new offensive line, they played a pretty bad game against the Titans. Tennessee blitzed just once in 44 dropbacks, but Mahomes was still pressured 18 times. The Chiefs only completed two passes that went for 20 yards or more. It was an astonishing performance by the Titans defense, to say the least.
Shane Bowen, their defensive coordinator prepared them well for this game, and his players executed his game plan to perfection. The defensive line was just perfect from start to finish, they dominated Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offensive line with ease and erased their running game. In fact, Darrel Williams rushed only for just 20 yards on five carries.
Overall, the defense AND offense of the Titans had a perfect game and showed the AFC they are indeed one of the top teams to consider this year.
