Tom Brady was finished. Bill Belichick couldn’t coach anymore. The New England Patriots’ run of dominance had ended.
Those were the premature headlines and hot takes after the “We’re on to Cincinnati” game 11 years ago.
Now, it’s the Chiefs hearing similar questions.
The Patriots were destroyed by Kansas City 41-14 in front of a national television audience on Monday night, Sept. 29, 2014 to fall to 2-2.
Brady threw two interceptions and Jimmy Garoppolo played well in garbage time, prompting folks with ill-advised opinions to call for a quarterback change.
Belichick didn’t care to rehash the lopsided loss when he spoke to reporters two days later, and he wasn’t interested in questions about benching his 37-year-old quarterback.
Five times, Belichick responded: “We’re on to Cincinnati.”
He made sure the team was focused on looking ahead and not dwelling on the past.
The Patriots routed the Bengals 43-17 to spark a seven-game winning streak, finished 12-4 and went on to win their fourth Super Bowl with Brady and Belichick.
They won a fifth and sixth Super Bowl title over the next four years.
That talk about the end of the dynasty in 2014 was nonsense.
Brady went on to win his seventh Lombardi trophy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at age 43.
Good thing Belichick never listened to the “experts” who wanted him to replace Brady with Garoppolo.
The Chiefs are in an unfamiliar position at 0-2 for the first time since that 2014 season, the last time they didn’t win a division title. The offense is struggling and their decade-long reign over the AFC West is in a precarious position.
Like Belichick and Brady when they faced criticism in 2014, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are 3-2 in Super Bowls together.
Anything less than a Lombardi won’t be considered a success in Kansas City. But making the playoffs is going to be a challenge at this point.
Only five of the 43 teams (11.6%) that started 0-2 have made the postseason since the field was expanded in 2020. Only the 1993 Cowboys, 2001 Patriots and 2007 Giants have won a Super Bowl following an 0-2 start.
“Listen, we haven’t won (a) game so I understand, I get it,” Reid said about the criticism. “We keep pushing, and we’ll keep pushing and working forward and seeing what we can do going down the road here.”
The Chiefs haven’t been blown out in their first two games. They lost 27-21 to the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil in Week 1. The defense couldn’t get a stop late in the game to give Mahomes a final drive to try to win it.
They lost 20-17 at home last week in a Super Bowl rematch against the Philadelphia Eagles, who dominated the Chiefs in February. The outcome probably would have been different if Travis Kelce didn’t drop a pass at the goal line that turned into an interception in the fourth quarter.
Mahomes, who turned 30 earlier this week, is a long way from finished. He leads the team in rushing, which needs to change. He also doesn’t have all of his playmakers. Xavier Worthy was injured in the opener and Rashee Rice is suspended through the first six games.
“Even though we have never been 0-2, we’ve had stretches where we’ve lost big games kind of consecutively and guys have responded,” Mahomes said. “It’s about the character of the guys in the locker room more than it is the play on the football field and I think that we have the guys that are going to continue to work. They’re not going to let this push them down, they’re going to use it, if anything, as motivation to be even better.
“I think that gives me the most faith and then the coaches that we have they’ll continue to push to be even better. We’ll have a great week of practice this week and know we’re going to have to play our best football to win a game against a good football team in the Giants.”
The schedule is daunting after New York (0-2). Five of the next six games will be against playoff teams. The Chiefs host the Ravens in Week 4, the Lions in Week 6, the Commanders in Week 8 and visit the Bills in Week 9.
“You take it one week at a time, but I think you just continue to even amplify the little details,” Mahomes said. “Sometimes when you’re winning a lot, those little details get lost and that’s how you lose, but when you lose early like this, you have to really just focus on those little details and maximize those and then you try and set the example on the practice field and stay after and do extra stuff and do a little bit here and there and push other guys to do the same. We’re really good at that.”
What Brady, Belichick and the Patriots accomplished in New England — six Super Bowl titles in 20 years — may never be duplicated. The second half of that run — three championships in five seasons after Brady turned 37 and the “on to Cincinnati” game — is even more impressive the first.
The Chiefs have a long way to go to even enter that conversation but it’s way too early to count them out.
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press
