Andy Reid Says KC Chiefs’ Week 16 Loss to Raiders Was Rallying Point for Season
Just over a month ago, many wouldn't have believed you if you said the Kansas City Chiefs would be playing in Super Bowl LVIII. Yet here Andy Reid's team is, just a win over the San Francisco 49ers away from going back-to-back as world champions.
It was a tumultuous regular season for Kansas City, one that featured a 6-1 start but also a 3-5 stretch thereafter. The low point was on Christmas Day against the Las Vegas Raiders, which is much later than a team wants to have a reality check.
As it turns out, that was actually the perfect time for the Chiefs. Reid, appearing on the Let's Go! podcast with Tom Brady and Jim Gray, said this week that the Week 16 defeat led to the season being turned around before the playoffs. Reid credits his players for leading a collective rally.
"Yeah, listen, I give it to the Pat Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones, the players," Reid said. "That locker room — and Tom can tell, he knows this — when you've been there and you understand the urgency it takes to get there, then you up your game. That's just what you do. I think after my man (Antonio) Pierce out there with the Raiders kicked our tail, it woke us up and said, 'Hey, listen, we need to take our game up here a notch or we're not going to stand a chance here to get into the playoffs and/or to win in the playoffs.' Those guys took care of business. They got everybody rallied around them and said, 'Here we go.' Good things happened."
In that aforementioned loss, Kansas City scored just 14 points. The worst sequence of the game (and of the season) was when consecutive offensive plays led to touchdowns for the opposition. The Chiefs' offense, as it had for weeks beforehand, looked out of sorts and struggled immensely. At the end of the game, Reid's team had lost three of its last four games and its lone win was over the lowly New England Patriots.
Following an AFC Championship Game win over the Baltimore Ravens last Sunday, Reid admitted the Raiders game was a wake-up call for the Chiefs. Doubling down on it on Brady's podcast, it appears to truly have been a turning point for the conference champions. Reid credits the "natural" leadership of Mahomes for fighting through adversity and assisting the rest of the team in making a push to end 2023 and start 2024.
Kansas City is one game away from doing what no team has done in two decades: repeat as Super Bowl winners. Ironically, Brady is the most recent man to know what that looks like. Reid is well aware of it and hopes prior experiences can come in handy in the biggest game of the year.
"It's tough to get to the Super Bowl, period," Reid said. "To be able to back-to-back it — you (Brady) taught us part of that lesson — not only as a player with the Patriots, but also you kicked our tail at Tampa Bay. There's a certain attitude and toughness that you've got to come into each game with, and you presented that to us down there. It was a good learning experience for our guys."
