Arrogance, humility, and the hare-like mindset of the Kansas City Chiefs

Even after an embarrassing loss to the Titans, the Kansas City Chiefs still sound like a team who believed too much of their own press.

The proof was in the product on Sunday afternoon, tell-tale signs that the Kansas City Chiefs had long ago bought into their own hype.

It was in the mental miscues and needless penalties. It was in the questionable calls and the inattention to detail. It was in the dropped passes, missed blocks, and poor execution. Even after laying a total egg in a 35-32 road loss to the Tennessee Titans, a defeat that invented new ways for a team to lose, the Chiefs still believed their own press. If you didn’t see the proof during the game, then you could hear it in the words of linebacker Anthony Hitchens.

“We dominated them honestly, and I’m not scared to say it, but a couple big plays killed us,” said Hitchens. “It’s in both phases, too. We had a fumble in the first quarter. We had a big, deep pass play-action coming off the timeout that was 50 or 60 yards. Then Derrick Henry broke a 60 or 70, so those three plays, that’s 21 points. But we’ve got the guys here. This is the NFL. We’ve gotta turn around and win. We’ve just gotta win.”

Confidence is good. Arrogance is bad. The Kansas City Chiefs are, unfortunately, the latter.

Listen again to Hitchens’ comments. When asked about the game by Mitch Holthus, the first words referred to how the team had dominated the opponent, the ones who had just defeated them. By his own admission, Hitchens is “even keeled”, a wonderful trait to be sure, but in the face of a preventable loss, the appropriate response has nothing to do with your own abilities. Instead, some soul-searching is needed.

Here’s the frustrating part: it’s not that Hitchens is wrong. Hitchens is absolutely right. The Chiefs, by all accounts, did dominate. It’s the reason why fans are more frustrated about this loss than any of the other three suffered this season.

• The Chiefs had more first downs (28-19)
• The Chiefs converted 7 of 14 third down opps compared to 2 of 8 for the Titans
• The Chiefs had 530 total yards compared to 371 for Tennessee
• The Chiefs held the ball for nearly 16 minutes more than the Titans (37:51 to 22:09)

On paper, this was an easy win before the game and an easy win after the game if you just look at some base statistics. What the box score cannot fully account for is the arrogance that led the Chiefs to play like they did.

A quick aside. We’re likely all familiar with The Tortoise and the Hare, but any good writer knows the rule is to never assume the reader knows anything. The familiar fable of Aesop tells of an arrogant rabbit all too aware of his own speed who is mocking a slow old tortoise. “Do you ever get anywhere?” he asks. The tortoise responds with a challenge in the form of a race. The hare agrees, runs out to a ridiculous lead and then decides to nap. By the time he awakens, the tortoise has not only caught up but passed him.

The fable is so familiar because it’s such a wonderful allegory for arrogance. The hare loses the race because he lacks the proper humility to know that he can be beaten, to know that he is flawed, to know that there’s always a chance a tortoise can pull off an upset. The hare would scoff at the idea of “any given Sunday,” because, after all, he is the hare.

If the hare were to talk to a reporter after the race, he’d likely say something like, “I dominated him honestly, and I’m not scared to say it, but the nap was just a bit too long.”

Back to the Chiefs. Here’s a team who knows how fast they are. In fact, it’s the substance of inside jokes. Chiefs players laugh back and forth about Tyreek Hill‘s speed and who might be able to win a race against him. Damien Williams told him not to show him up on his next 91-yard run. The laughter. The hilarity. The confidence.

If it stops there, then it’s fine, but it doesn’t. These Chiefs somehow don’t seem to really believe their own mortality. Instead, they’ve believed the hype. They know they have the NFL’s reigning MVP under center. They know that not a single NFL team can rival their mix of offensive playmakers. They know they have a creative genius as a head coach and that their special teams are always actually special. Defenders like Chris Jones, Frank Clark, and Tyrann Mathieu are also always talking a big game.

In recent weeks, the Chiefs looked mortal, with their quarterback on the outs due to a knee injury, and it was then that we saw a humbled side of the Chiefs. It was the brief period of time when penalties were more than halved and execution was at its finest. Mental mistakes were minimized and the team came together to provide a close game against the Green Bay Packers and a meaningful win over the Minnesota Vikings.

This week, however, Mahomes returned and so did the swagger, the arrogance that shrugs at a mistake or five and still wants to discussion the domination.

Right now, the Chiefs need to wake up from the nap they are taking. This race is far from over. The finish line is still ahead. The healthiest thing they can do is realize the tortoises of the AFC have caught up or even surpassed them and that dominating anyone on paper doesn’t accomplish anything at all.

Back to Hitchens. At the close of his interview with Mitch Holthus following the game, he said, “The best thing about this is that we control our own destiny. We’re in the driver’s seat. If we look back and we don’t come out on top, we can blame ourselves for that. So if we all put in the work, it should be all right.”

In this he’s absolutely right. If the Chiefs put in the work, if they swallow their pride and put their heads down, and really, truly do the work that’s before them, it should be all right.

The only way they get there, however, is to abandon their current mindset for something with a little bit more humility.