LANDOVER, Md. — A week ago, we opened the overreactions column with the idea that the Kansas City Chiefs were in trouble. They were 2-3, turning the ball over too often and slipping behind the Chargers in the AFC West.

So I went to see their Week 6 game against Washington on Sunday, and honestly, at halftime, it looked as if the Chiefs really were in trouble. Three more turnovers in the first half, including an ugly, inexplicable Patrick Mahomes interception that he said was likely to end up on “C’mon Man.” They trailed Washington 13-10. Tyrann Mathieu was screaming at teammates and coaches on the sideline. If you were looking to support a theory that things were falling apart for Kansas City, you had some evidence.

But then …

“I just think the guys set their minds to it, beared down and, you know, enough is enough,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “There comes a point where you have to do that.”

That point, for the Chiefs, was apparently halftime. They came out on fire, outscored Washington 21-0 in the second half and evened their record at 3-3 with a performance that looked a lot more like what we’re used to seeing from them.

“We were just amped up and ready to go play,” said running back Darrel Williams, who scored two touchdowns in his first start in place of the injured Clyde Edwards-Helaire. “We knew we left some stuff out there in the first half, and we went out and took care of it.”

The Chiefs were fired up after this one, having convinced themselves the sky was not falling and that they really could stop turning the ball over and become the dominant, high-scoring team they’ve been since Mahomes entered the league. It was just 30 minutes of football in the early part of a 17-game season, but the Chiefs walked off the field proud and fired up.

And so, one week after leading off the overreactions column with a question about whether the Chiefs were in trouble, why not lead off this week’s with the opposite question? Isn’t that, after all, what this column is all about?

The Chiefs are going to be just fine

Reid and the Kansas City coaching staff didn’t just sit on their hands all week. They worked and schemed and made actual changes designed to get things right. They changed right tackles, from Lucas Niang to Mike Remmers. They made a switch at safety, using the speedier Juan Thornhill in place of Daniel Sorensen. They dedicated themselves to the run game (as much as one can expect an Andy Reid team to).

And while the start was shaky, it all paid off in the end with a 31-13 victory on the road. Mahomes threw for 397 yards. Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill had big games. If you’d only watched the second half, you’d have come away thinking the Chiefs were rolling through another 12- or 13-win season, ho hum no big deal.

The verdict: OVERREACTION. We have to be fair, right? We said last week that it was an overreaction to say the Chiefs were in trouble, so I don’t think we can say they’re out of the woods just because of one good half against a not-very-great Washington team. If they’re really going to commit to the run game, we need to see them do it a few times. If Mahomes is really going to quiet down his feet and patiently take the underneath stuff teams are offering him — as he says he knows he must — we need to keep seeing it. If they’re really going to pressure opposing quarterbacks, we need to see them start doing it. They didn’t have a sack Sunday, and they have only seven through six games.

Kansas City is capable of doing all of these things and going on a run, because it has great coaches and talented players all over the roster. But we’ve seen just as much worrisome stuff from the Chiefs this season as we’ve seen confidence-inspiring performance. Their remaining schedule includes the Titans, Packers, Chargers, Cowboys and Bengals (don’t laugh — they’re 4-2!) in addition to two each against division rivals Denver and Las Vegas. Not a lot of pushovers in the season’s remaining 11 games.

I still think it’s more likely than not that they’ll be fine, but I don’t think the second half of Sunday’s game is enough to make anyone certain of that.

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The Cardinals are the best team in the league

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the league’s last unbeaten team was remaining unbeaten with a thoroughly impressive 37-14 thumping of the Browns. Four more touchdown passes for MVP favorite Kyler Murray, to three different receivers. Five sacks by the defense. Three turnovers by the Browns, none by the Cards. This was a complete victory in all facets — the kind that leaves no doubt.

Arizona is now 6-0 and still a game in front of the second-place Rams (who it beat head-to-head) in the NFC West.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. I mean, what can you say? I think the best team in the league is playing tonight, but the Bills do have that Week 1 loss to Pittsburgh and the Cardinals haven’t lost since last season, so my argument obviously has a glaring hole. The Cards have played one really close game — their one-point victory over Minnesota in Week 2 — and the 49ers held them to 17 points last week. But they’re averaging 32.3 points per game and a 14-point margin of victory. Four of their six wins are on the road.

You can question the sustainability of their success and point out that they’re one Murray injury away from being mediocre, and you might turn out to be right. But you’d also be a grouch, because this is a seriously fun team to watch.

The NFC is tough to pick right now. The Rams look great. The Packers look great. The Cowboys look great. The defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers look great. Lots to sort out here still, but no team has been as consistently great so far as the Cardinals.

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Tua Tagovailoa is not Miami’s answer at quarterback

The Dolphins went to London and lost to the Jaguars. I almost feel like I shouldn’t have to type anything else after that. But as we’ve written before, this year is Tagovailoa’s chance to show the Dolphins they don’t need to trade for Deshaun Watson or another established quarterback — that they can win with the guy they took No. 5 overall in the 2020 draft.

He has already missed three games due to injury, and the 1-5 Dolphins might be the league’s most disappointing team this season. It’s not going great.

The verdict: OVERREACTION. Tagovailoa was kind of the least of Miami’s problems Sunday. Yeah, he had the bad interception, but he was also 33-for-47 passing for 329 yards and two touchdowns. He didn’t take a sack. And he was also their best runner. Miami has problems on the offensive line, in the run game and on defense, where it was without its starting corners for this game.

Could Tagovailoa take the fall for a lost season if the Dolphins decide to pursue one of the top quarterback options next spring (or even at this year’s trade deadline)? Sure he could. But he also could spend the rest of this season playing the way he did in the first half Sunday, and getting better, and looking like the guy they thought he was when they drafted him. I don’t think it’s over for him in Miami just yet.

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The NFC East race is over

The Cowboys didn’t make it easy on themselves, with 115 yards of penalties and a blown coverage on a long, late Mac Jones touchdown pass. But they pulled off an overtime win in Foxborough because of their own MVP-candidate quarterback, Dak Prescott, and a breathtaking performance by second-year wideout CeeDee Lamb.

Dallas has won five in a row. Its only loss was the close one in Week 1 in Tampa. It is 5-1 and no other team the division is better than 2-4. The Cowboys are lapping the field. If this were baseball, we’d say their Magic Number is 9. I’m not saying they’ll clinch the division on Thanksgiving, but it looks like it might at least be mathematically possible at this point.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. The NFC East is unpredictable, so it’s hard to sit here and feel as certain as the standings make us want to feel. But who’s going to catch them? I’ve personally sat through two of Washington’s games already this season, and they don’t show you much on either side of the ball. The Eagles have some fight in them, but their one-dimensional offense looks likely to keep them from being a real contender. The Giants were flat-out non-competitive Sunday against the Rams and haven’t been good in five years.

The Cowboys are far from flawless. They likely have potholes in their road ahead. We still don’t know for sure whether their defense can hold teams down when they aren’t forcing turnovers at a crazy rate. But next to the rest of the NFC East they’re the Joe Montana 49ers. If another team is going to slog its way out of the sludge at the bottom of the division and push the Cowboys, it is going to have to do it soon.

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Lamar Jackson is playing better than he did in his 2019 MVP season

Confession time: I picked against the Ravens this week. I didn’t feel good about it. While I’ve been unfortunate to have to see Washington twice this season, I’ve also been lucky enough to see the Ravens in person twice, and they make you a believer.

Jackson is the most exciting player in the league and, I do believe (due respect to Murray, Prescott and all of the other great candidates) its Most Valuable. But the Chargers came in red-hot and seemingly healthier and I just thought … well, it doesn’t matter what I thought. I was wrong, and by a lot.

The Ravens beat the Chargers 34-6 to improve to 5-1 and hold their one-game lead in the AFC North over the Bengals, whom they host in a sneaky-fun matchup next week.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. Jackson wasn’t as brilliant as a passer Sunday as he has been lately, not by a long shot. He was 19-for-27 for 167 yards, one touchdown pass and two interceptions. But it didn’t matter, because the Chargers can’t stop the run and the Ravens wisely decided to exploit that. Jackson ran for 51 yards on eight carries. As a team, the Ravens ran for 187 yards on 38 carries. The 2016 Pro Bowl trio of Le’Veon Bell, Latavius Murray and Devonta Freeman each had a touchdown run. The Ravens had 27 first downs, a 38:07 time of possession and dictated everything about this game.

The game itself wasn’t fodder for Jackson’s MVP candidacy the way Week 6 was for Murray’s or Prescott’s or Brady’s or … you get the idea. But the Ravens’ 5-1 record, in a season that began with an incomprehensible rash of injuries and in a division that was supposed to be the toughest in the league, certainly is.

Jackson is the sun in the Ravens’ solar system. Their belief in him is central to all the success they’re having. And he has already had two passing games that eclipse what he was doing two years ago. His game has evolved, the Ravens are here to stay, and Jackson’s going to be in the MVP mix all year long, as he should be.