The Kansas City Chiefs: Worst 4-0 Team in Football?

Week 4 of the NFL season saw, among other things, the Kansas City Chiefs head to SoFi Stadium for their first of their annual two meetings with the Los Angeles Chargers. It was a rough start for the Chiefs, as they fell behind 10-0 after the first quarter, and it was 10-7 Chargers at halftime. However, true to the form we've seen quite a bit, the Chiefs managed to snatch victory from the jaws of near certain defeat. 17-10 ended up being the final score in favor of the back-to-back defending Super Bowl Champions.

So yes, the Chiefs are 4-0 to start this season. 4-0 is a very impressive start. Yet I am not impressed. Why? I'll tell you. Because we've seen this before. We've seen this way too many times with the Chiefs. Dating back to the penultimate week of last year, the Chiefs have won ten straight games. However, their overall combined margin of victory? 61 points. Ten straight wins by a grand overall total of 61 points. If you take away the 19 point win in last year's Wild Card Playoff, that's nine wins by 42 points. Overall, they won their games by an average of six points, which is two field goals, or a conversion-less touchdown.

Now you know what gets said by talking heads in the NFL: "Championship caliber teams win games like that." That may be true, but here's the thing. The reason why KC's wins have been so close lately? The team tends to not start games on time. By that, I mean they've had to play from behind too much, even in Super Bowl LVIII, the Chiefs started way late.

In the case of this game, the Chiefs started late--down 10-0 and came back to win. But let's look at the other three wins.

Week 1 (vs Baltimore)

Kansas City won by a literal toenail on opening week against the Baltimore Ravens. This was a game that saw Lamar Jackson outplay Patrick Mahomes, yet KC had to use every proverbial horseshoe they had to hold on and win this. That incompletion ended a drive that happened because the Chiefs couldn't put it away minutes earlier with a first down. Now I'm not saying that the Chiefs would have lost this game if that toenail was inbounds and the game ended up in OT, but you never know.

Week 2 (vs Cincinnati)

This was a mix of two things. One, the refs bailing out KC when said Joe Burrow fumbled. Burrow was down with the ball for five seconds before it came out, but they said fumble, allowing a KC TD afterwards. Two, the DPI that placed KC in FG range. The fumble call was bullshit. The DPI wasn't. The DPI was absolutely obvious. Has to be called at all times. Chiefs won in the final seconds with a FG; a win in a game where the Chiefs did not start on time.

Week 3 (@ Atlanta)

The most glaring of the four times that KC barely escaped. Interesting. In Week 2, KC won thanks to DPI being called. In Week 3, KC won because they got away with DPI. This is textbook defensive pass interference, but the refs swallowed their whistles. In addition, this was a game that the Falcons pretty much had in the bag before it got away from them. Where have we heard that before? In any event, Atlanta did get another shot after, again, KC couldn't put it away with a first down. A terrible running play on 4th and Inches saved the Chiefs. Holy moley.

Again, it gets said that championship teams win the close ones. However, they don't win like this. In about eight or nine of the ten straight wins, the Chiefs did not start on time. Teams don't get away with this for long. Oh, and about this week's win, it came at a price. Rashee Rice, their top wide receiver? Left the game early due a knee injury. The fear is that Rice tore his ACL. If he has, oh boy, they're in trouble. Now, we've seen the Chiefs dig their way out of trouble before, but what if they can't anymore?

Chiefs will host the New Orleans Saints next week on Monday Night Football. Their bye week follows, but after that: off to Santa Clara for a Super Bowl rematch, then off to Vegas, and then hosting the Bucs on MNF. It looks somewhat easy, but the Chiefs don't make things easy on themselves. I know this much: until they get those statement wins that they were getting a few years ago, the side eyes to this year's Chiefs team will continue to be displayed.