The Kansas City Chiefs lost a one-point game against the up-and-coming Detroit Lions on Thursday night in a matchup that seemed destined to go down to the wire all week. The disappointing outcome left Chiefs fans with a bad taste in their mouths when the final whistle blew, but a single loss will hardly doom Kansas City’s 2023 campaign.
The Chiefs were without two of its top players, one on each side of the ball, and shot themselves in the foot at every opportunity. Offensive execution was lacking as Patrick Mahomes adjusted to his new receiving corps, and Kadarius Toney seemed wholly incapable of hanging onto the football despite the reigning MVP’s excellent throws.
Miscues like the ones Kansas City suffered on Thursday are to be expected, even if the sheer volume of errors in the game was excessive, and Toney’s performance was heinous.
Put simply, it took more than six drops by several receivers (four by Toney), the concurrent absences of Chris Jones and Travis Kelce, and a fluky pick-six for the Chiefs to lose this game. Detroit played well, there’s no doubt about it, but if Toney had come down with a few more catchable passes from Mahomes, the outcome of this game could have been much different.
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