Opinion: Chiefs’ early struggles include trying to buck history of Super Bowl Loser’s Curse
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The last-place Kansas City Chiefs.
Think about that one for a moment. Andy Reid has rolled out a healthy Patrick Mahomes each week to ignite what is still one of the NFL’s most productive offenses, but one glance at the standings illustrates part of the issue for the Chiefs as the Buffalo Bills come to Arrowhead Stadium Sunday night looking for payback in an AFC championship game rematch.
The Chiefs are 2-2, looking up from the bottom in the competitive AFC West.
And if the Los Angels Chargers, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders aren’t enough to contend with, there’s the matter of history lurking as a formidable foe: The Super Bowl Loser’s Curse.
Sure, it’s early. Yes, the Chiefs defense allowing 31.25 points per game, has seemed cursed for some years now, carried by the high-powered offense.
Yet the Chiefs, crushed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl 55, are also following the pattern of so many teams that lost on the league’s biggest stage and came back the next year to flop amid lofty expectations. Some facts:
♦ Of the previous 54 Super Bowl losers, 18 missed the playoffs the next year — and seven of those teams finished in last place.
♦ Just three teams — the 2018 New England Patriots (hello, TB12), the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 1971 Dallas Cowboys — won a Super Bowl in the season following a Super Bowl loss. Five other times, Super Bowl losers came back to lose the Super Bowl again. But that hasn’t happened since the Buffalo Bills had their run in the early 1990s, resilience that seems more remarkable as time passes as they advanced to four consecutive Super Bowls and lost every time.
♦ This trend isn’t so much ancient history. Of the past 20 Super Bowl losers, 11 missed the playoffs. Of the past five Super losers, four missed the playoffs. The exception, as noted, were the 2018 Patriots — the only team in 27 years since Buffalo’s run to make it back to a Super Bowl the year after losing one.
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Remember Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers? They went 15-1, got smashed by the Broncos in Super Bowl 50 and came back the next year to finish 6-10, in last place.
The San Francisco 49ers finished last, too, last season, after nearly beating the Chiefs in Super 54. And the Los Angeles Rams came back to the pack after Super 53, just like the Atlanta Falcons did after blowing that big lead in Super 51.
This might be a tough history lesson for Chiefs fans, but it also underscores how each year presents a new season. Of course, Mahomes, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce carry over from the back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, but Reid Co. still need a fresh equation.
The Chiefs are playing with fire, trying to win shootouts each week. No, you can never count Mahomes out, and that’s backed up by so many comebacks the past couple of years. Yet when the defense has regressed, stuff happens like blowing a big lead in Baltimore and a tighter, fourth-quarter lead against the Chargers. The Chiefs could have also lost the opener against the Cleveland Browns. And there can’t be much comfort in allowing the Philadelphia Eagles to put up 30 with a young quarterback.
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has been under fire (again), but it hasn’t helped that injuries have already taken a toll on his 31st-ranked unit, which was already light on depth. One of the best players, defensive end Frank Clark, is expected to play Sunday after playing just one game due to multiple hamstring injuries. Linebacker Willie Gay is also expected back, which can’t come fast enough.
The Chiefs have tried moving Chris Jones, one of the league’s premier defensive tackles, to defensive end. But that hasn’t exactly been a hit when it comes to defending the run.
After hosting three consecutive AFC title games, it’s clearly a new year — curse or not — for the Chiefs. It’s early. But if they lose to the Bills, the chances of earning the No. 1 seed that propelled them to host those three straight championship games could be out the window.
Will Big Ben ever get his groove back?
Matt Canada was promoted during the offseason to become the fifth offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers during Ben Roethlisberger’s 18 NFL seasons.
The move hasn’t worked.
Like last year, Pittsburgh still has the NFL’s worst-ranked rushing attack — despite drafting running back Najee Harris out of Alabama. And Roethlisberger has hardly performed like a quarterback who can carry the load.
Roethlisberger, 39, heads into Sunday’s game against Denver as the NFL’s fifth-worst passer for efficiency, with three of the four quarterbacks rated lower learning the ropes as rookies. Roethlisberger’s 78.9 rating (4 TDs, 4 INTs) is on pace to become his worst mark in a full season since 2006.
Furthermore, despite the buzz in training camp about Roethlisberger having extensive leeway in running Canada’s offense after the scheme collapsed under previous coordinator Randy Fitchtner, there are rumblings that the Steelers are now restricting the quarterback’s freedom.
In case you’re wondering: Roethlisberger’s first three coordinators were Ken Whisenhunt, Bruce Arians and Todd Haley.
Back to Big D
It doesn’t have the sizzle of Tom Brady going back to Foxborough, but New York Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett is headed back to Texas to face his former team on Sunday.
Last year, Garrett went back with the NFL’s worst-ranked offense and lost on a day the Cowboys’ season turned with Dak Prescott’s gruesome, season-ending ankle injury.
This time, the Giants offense is coming off an impressive comeback at New Orleans, when Daniel Jones passed for a career-high 402 yards to help seal the first win of the season. Jones has been playing the best football of his career in this make-or-break season, and as Garrett noted this week, the reduction in turnovers (1 INT, fewer fumbles) has allowed for the progress, in addition to better offensive line play.
Also, Saquon Barkley is getting stronger after missing the bulk of last season due to a torn ACL. Barkley has produced 220 yards from scrimmage with three TDs the past two games.
With Prescott back in a flow, the Cowboys are heavily favored.
But the Giants have a history of pulling off upsets in Dallas when least expected, first at Texas Stadium and in more recent years at ATT Stadium. This looks like a trap game for Dallas, with their former head coach positioned to extract at least a measure of revenge.
Follow Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell.