Chiefs The Chiefs’ collective journey towards the Super Bowl: ‘everybody’s together' - Page 3

Hammock Parties · 11-06-2018, 12:25 AM

https://www.kansascity.com/sports/sp...221115285.html

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CLEVELAND

Dustin Colquitt has a lot of time on his hands. You probably know this. He has been with the Chiefs longer than anyone else on the roster or coaching staff, and a historically efficient offense means his punting skills have never been less necessary. So, he has time.

And one thing he’s noticed, it’s the darnedest thing. Subtle and sort of high school-ish, but as much as anything it might explain why the guy with more experience than anyone else believes this is the Chiefs’ best chance at a Super Bowl since in his 14 years.

“This is the first time I’ve watched whatever side of the ball isn’t on the field, after they do all their checks and whatever they do on the sideline, they’re watching what’s going on on the field,” Colquitt said. “Usually it’s a split thing, but now everybody’s together.”

The Chiefs beat the Browns 37-21 here on Sunday. It was, in most ways, an accurate one-game assessment of who the Chiefs are: Patrick Mahomes was spectacular, Kareem Hunt brutal to tackle, Travis Kelce impossible to cover, and the defense good enough.

The Browns are a mess right now, even by Browns standards. But aside from accumulating too many penalties, the Chiefs were good enough to beat most anyone on Sunday. They are in the softest spot of their schedule, with the Cardinals coming to Arrowhead next week before one of the league’s most anticipated games of the season: against the Rams in Mexico City on Monday, Nov. 19.

The Chiefs are in an envied spot. They are the Super Bowl favorites, according to some metrics, and they are about to improve — a source close to the team said Justin Houston will likely play against the Cardinals, at least on a pitch count, with the idea of getting him to full strength for the Rams game. Additionally, the hope is that Eric Berry will return sometime this month.

This is one of the league’s top teams and it’s about to get even better. It is often said that Super Bowl teams get hot at the right time, but what about a team that has essentially been hot all season?

The Chiefs could be more about maintenance than anything else.

“Last year, we learned the importance of practicing fast,” right tackle Mitchell Schwartz said. “If you go out there and you’re practicing and you’re not simulating game movements as close to game speed as possible, when you get out there then everything is faster and faster. So, understanding the importance of that.”

It’s a point Schwartz made several times a year ago when asked about that roller-coaster regular season of 2017 — a 5-0 start, 1-6 slump, and 4-0 finish. Chiefs coach Andy Reid references practice speed often, too, and if nothing else it provides a level of confidence and comfort that the chaos of a game day won’t overwhelm.

But this is, for the most part, a group that’s trying together to do what none of them have accomplished individually.

Comparisons across sports can be a little clumsy, but it’s worth noting that the Royals’ rise was marked in large part by the 2013 trade for James Shields (made, coincidentally, the same day as the Chiefs’ most recent game in Cleveland).

Shields had pitched to and in the World Series and was brought in as a spirit guide as well as a workhorse starting pitcher. Later, in 2014, the Royals brought in Raul Ibanez as something of a swagger coach. There are a million other factors that went into the Royals’ two World Series appearances, but those are two. You know how that ended.

The Chiefs don’t really have anyone like that. Reid, somewhat famously, lost the only Super Bowl he has reached in 20 years as an NFL head coach (though he did win as an assistant in Green Bay).

This is a young roster, and most of the veterans have spent their careers with the Chiefs. Their playoff experience is more about what not to do.

After Colquitt, the men with the most NFL service time are cornerback Orlando Scandrick and backup quarterback Chad Henne, with 11 years each. Henne made the AFC championship game last with Jacksonville.

“I don’t compare teams,” Scandrick said. “But this is a good team. But I was on a team in 2016 that went on a 14-game winning streak and lost in the first round. Didn’t handle business.”

Scandrick’s former team, the Dallas Cowboys, actually won 11 in a row that year, or 13 of 14. But, either way. Ultimately, they lost to the Packers at home on a last-second field goal in the division round. Like the man said: didn’t handle business.

This becomes the Chiefs’ challenge, then, as much as anything else. The NFL is about adjustments, and then adjustments to those adjustments. The Eagles won the Super Bowl last year, a run that included scoring just 10 points in a loss at Seattle and 43 in a win at the Rams the next week.

Those wild deviations are the norm in the NFL, but the Chiefs have been remarkably consistent. They’ve now scored between 37 and 45 points in all but three of their games this season, and never fewer than 27.

Deviations have come from the defense, but they’ve now held five of their last six opponents to 27 points or fewer. The offense shows no reason to believe regression is coming, and the defense shows every reason — better tackling, more consistent coverage, and now some stars on their way back — to believe it is improving.

Recent Chiefs history is full of teams that showed promise, then fizzled. That’s this team’s challenge: to write a new history, instead of continuing an old one.

Before every game, without fail, receiver Chris Conley finds a moment in the locker room to tell his teammates that somebody is going to have the chance to make the play that matters. Somebody is going to find the moment, or maybe vice versa, and more than 100 snaps are going to come down to a few.

His teammates have found comfort in that message. So far, with one exception at New England, the player who won that moment has been in Conley’s locker room. None of them can say exactly why, or identify the best way to make sure that continues. None can say exactly what is required, or lean on a past experience.

This is a journey they will have to make together, in every sense.