5 takeaways from the Titans-Chiefs wild card game, as viewed through a Patriots’ prism

Taking the measure of Saturday's AFC wild-card game from a New England perspective.




(Note: With the Titans win over Kansas City, Tennessee will play the Patriots in the divisional round, unless Buffalo beats Jacksonville on Sunday afternoon.)

1. Bill Belichick is loving this, on a number of levels. Last year, in the days before the AFC title game, Belichick was asked about the value of home-field advantage and what sort of edge it might provide. It was days after the Cowboys lost at home to the Packers and the Chiefs lost in Kansas City to the Steelers. “I don’t know,” Belichick said. “Go ask Dallas and Kansas City.” Expect Belichick to use that if a media member asks about home field this week, and expect him to use it time and again with his players when it comes to making sure they guard against overconfidence when it comes to preparing for Saturday’s divisional playoff game.

2. The Chiefs are a completely different team without Travis Kelce. You have to give them some leeway because it’s always hard to adjust on the fly during the game, especially when you lose such an integral part of your offense. But the Kansas City offense in the second half was absolutely wretched. It couldn't sustain any drives, and had zero offensive rhythm. Alex Smith looked mostly lost, and the skill position players who had to step up in the wake of the injury looked woefully unprepared. Individually, the numbers looked OK, but truth be told, the bulk of the work was done in the first half. Smith was 24-for-33 for 264 yards and a pair of touchdowns, Kareem Hunt had 11 carries for 42 yards and a touchdown (how do you not give the ball to the NFL's leading rusher more than 11 times?), and Tyreek Hill had seven catches for 87 yards. Good, but not great. Bottom line? You have a performance like that at home in a playoff game -- regardless of who goes down -- you deserve to lose.

3. That game was pretty much emblematic of the entire Kansas City season. The Chiefs looked awesome to start the year, dealing an opening night shocker to the Patriots that left New England reeling out the gate. Kansas City was the best team in football for the first five games of the season, one of the worst teams in the league for a month-plus after that, and then finished the year with a four-game win streak. On Saturday, they looked unstoppable for portions of the first half and shaky in the third quarter. They, they collapsed inward like a dying star down the stretch. I know that Kansas City is a stable organization that doesn’t get rattled by much, but a loss like this (combined with the uncertain future for quarterback Alex Smith) might cause ownership to take a close look at the franchise this offseason. You can’t expect to ride this sort of wave and be taken seriously as a championship contender. (How can a franchise lose six consecutive home playoff games?)

4. As bad as they looked in the first half, the Titans played a smart game in the second half. Down by 18 at the half on the road, in a postseason game where they had a handful of guys getting their first taste of playoff football, Tennessee didn’t freak out. They put together a sensational, tone-setting drive to start the second half — 15 plays and a whopping 91 yards — and started to climb back. They were helped by some bad play on the part of the Chiefs, but Marcus Mariota’s second half was really impressive. In addition. the defense (led by the ageless Dick LeBeau!) made a bunch of key stops when it needed to and Henry was big down the stretch. (The ball-control offense and stout D was impressive, and led to just seven third-quarter plays for the Chiefs' offense.) If Mike Mularkey was on the hot seat entering this game (and several reports indicated the Titans were ready to go hard after Josh McDaniels if they had lost), he probably earned a reprieve on Saturday.

5. Marcus Mariota may have grown up a bit Saturday night. The Tennessee quarterback wasn’t overwhelming (19-for-31, 205 yards, two touchdowns, one INT), but he was very good when he needed to be, right down to the block he threw on the game-clinching carry for Derrick Henry with just under two minutes left. He tossed one pick, but other than that, he took good care of the ball, he relied on his offensive difference makers like Henry (23 carries, 156 yards, one touchdown) and he put together three drives in the second half that ended in touchdowns, including one that was capped off by him throwing a touchdown to himself. (He caught a batted pass out of midair and lunged for the pylon.) I’m still not sure how successful he’d be against the Patriots if it’s Tennessee-New England on Saturday night, but Saturday represented a sizable step forward in his overall development as a quarterback and a leader. And he’s now responsible for our favorite box score line of the year.