Phrases like “it was the tale of two halves” or “halves of the season” are often thrown around pretty liberally when assessing what happened with a team in a given year. However, that phrase has never been more wholly applicable than it is to the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2015 regular season.
If you’re grading only the first half of the season for the Chiefs, you have to give them an F. They started the year 1-5 and there were fans legitimately calling for Alex Smith’s job as he wasn’t moving the ball downfield well enough and as the Chiefs couldn’t get over the hump against some of the better teams in the league and were underperforming against some of the more lackluster teams in the NFL. Then came the turnaround.
After the 1-5 start, the Chiefs didn’t lose again in the regular season. With a hard fought victory over the Oakland Raiders in Week 17, the Chiefs capped off a 10-game winning streak to end their 2015 season. Their defense is playing at an unbelievably high level, Smith is getting the job done (and no one is calling for his job now), Jeremy Maclin is a weapon, and even the Jamal Charles injury isn’t being that greatly felt.
Though the first half of the season for KC deserves a failing grade, the second half and the winning streak has them heading to the postseason. As such, they earn a more than respectable B+ for the season.
Next: Miami Dolphins