The Kansas City Chiefs have moved up one spot in the Touchdown Wire power rankings. The team tumbled to the No. 5 spot last week after losing to the Las Vegas Raiders.
This week, a victory over a fledgling AFC competitor in the Buffalo Bills only gave Kansas City a one-spot jump in the rankings. They’re currently trailing the Tennessee Titans, Seattle Seahawks and Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s certainly not ideal that two AFC teams are in the top three, especially when the Chiefs don’t play either team this season. It feels like they’ll need some defining wins moving forward to make any sort of upward progression in these power rankings.
So what did Touchdown Wire learn about the Chiefs this week? Here is just a bit of what Doug Farrar had to say about the team:
“When we talk about a game ‘slowing down for a quarterback,’ this is what we mean. Being able to decipher everything that happens on a given play, all the moving parts, and to still make good decisions with the football.
Scary to consider that he could be getting better.
Scarier still to consider this offense after acquiring LeVeon Bell, and seeing rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire have a breakout night, rushing 26 times for 161 yards.
They are not going away.”
Beyond Mahomes’ improvement and the addition of Le’Veon Bell, I feel like the Chiefs have shown they can be adaptable. In Week 5 against the Raiders, they were seeing few defenders in the box, with Las Vegas selling out to defend the pass. Andy Reid said he felt he didn’t give the ground game a chance to get going and take over that game. He didn’t make the same mistake in Week 6 against the Bills, even with a patchwork offensive line.
This team is taking what opponents are giving to them and beating them with it. They’re doing it in a very unselfish way across all facets of the game too. I think this will prove very useful as the season progresses so long as Reid, Mahomes and the rest of the team stay committed to that approach.
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