In 2017, the Kansas City Chiefs started the season at 5-0. From there, they would lose six of their next seven games before finishing the season with four consecutive victories. Kansas City would end the regular season at 10-6 and would win the AFC West. However, K.C. would fall to the Titans at Arrowhead in the wild card round.
On Sunday, the Chiefs dominated the Jaguars 30-14 at Arrowhead to move to 5-0. Have the Chiefs learned from what happened last year? QB Patrick Mahomes, who backed up Alex Smith in 2017, sure hopes so.
“Last year we had a great team, and we won a lot of games,” Mahomes said. “This year we’re just going to try to just learn from last year, the little drought that we had, and just try to make it a process. NFL seasons are long. There’s going to be ups, and there’s going to be downs. But, if you kind of just grind out every single day and try to get better every single day, you hope that you can limit the downs and maximize the ups.”
Wide receiver Chris Conley believes the team has learned from last season, and he thinks what happened last year will help the Chiefs in 2018.
“I think we learned a lot from what happened after our 5-0 start last year,” Conley said. “We know that we can’t be excited about being 5-0. We have to be looking forward to that next game. We have to know that it’s a long season and you really have to build if you want to continue to win.”
At this point, Mahomes appears to be an upgrade over last year’s starter Alex Smith, but in the first five games of 2017, Smith was playing lights out football as well. However, Mahomes looks as if he will have staying power, and this Kansas City offense looks more explosive than it did a year ago.
Hopefully, for Chiefs fans, Mahomes and head coach Andy Reid can keep it going, and as we saw on Sunday, maybe the defense will join the party.
The Chiefs will have a stern test next Sunday night against the defending AFC champions the New England Patriots in Foxboro, which will tell us a little bit more about the 2018 Kansas City Chiefs.