Three Takeaways From the Chiefs' 38-21 Loss to Los Angeles
The Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up the 2020-21 regular season with a 38-21 loss to AFC West divisional rival Los Angeles Chargers.
The Chiefs lose their first game since Week 5 as they finish the season 14-2 with their only two losses coming to divisional opponents.
Here are three takeaways from this afternoon's contest.
1. Darwin Thompson and Byron Pringle showed out.
In a game where the backups were able to show what they have, these two stood out to me the most. Thompson doesn't get a lot of attention due to the crowded running back room but his two-touchdown day shows he can hang. Pringle's explosiveness at the wide receiver position was promising. These two could be vital pieces in the future with the uncertainty surrounding the salary cap for next year.
2. The injuries to Willie Gay and DeAndre Baker hurt.
The reason most of the starters didn't play today was because of this reason. Having Gay leave the game early was tough and we don't yet know the severity of his injury. Hopefully, he was just held out of the rest of the game for precautionary reasons. When it comes to Baker, his injury made me physically sick. Seeing a former first-round pick have the opportunity to show he belongs in the league go down as he did was not how today was supposed to go. Seeing those injuries just reminded me why the starters didn't play in this meaningless game. Just one play away.
3. The backups are not as good as the starters.
I guess that's why they are the backups, right? While this is probably obvious, some things usually expected from the Chiefs were not achieved and that took some time to get used to. Maybe the backups couldn't beat the Chargers but I was impressed with Chad Henne and his ability to run the system. If anything was to happen down the stretch, I have confidence in Henne with the full arsenal of weapons to be able to proficiently fill in.
