What are the Kansas City Chiefs talking about ahead of Sunday's matchup against the Detroit Lions at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium?

1. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes knows the Chiefs have some things to clean up on a short week coming off a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars Monday night. They come home to face a high-powered Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football. Mahomes particularly lamented the penalties on offense that he thought prevented them from reaching their full potential offensively against the Jaguars.

"We have to be better, you know?" Mahomes said. "We've lost too many game already (3). We have to find a way to be better as a team and come together and play better throughout the rest of the season.

"We hurt ourselves with penalties. As we continue to clean that up, we'll continue to put more and more points on the board. We have another great challenge this week playing the Lions, which is another great football team, which scores a lot of points themselves, and plays with a lot of pride, so it'll be super important for us to go in with the right mindset knowing it'll be a great challenge."

2. Chiefs head coach Andy Reid opened his Wednesday press conference looking forward to the challenge the Lions will provide his football team Sunday night.
"Dan (Campbell) has done a nice job with that crew," Reid said.

Campbell opened his Wednesday press conference saying the same thing about Reid and the winning culture Reid's instilled in Kansas City for years now. Both coaches have a ton of respect for one another.

3. What concerns Reid the most about playing the Lions Sunday?

"They are playing good football," he said. "Good solid defense flying around. Offensively, they've been very effective points-wise and execution-wise. They haven't had the self-inflicted wounds as much as some other teams. You know that they aren't going backwards. We have to make sure we take care of business, stay aggressive on both sides of the ball and special teams."

4. Mahomes shouted out Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard for his ability to vary his gameplans and give un-scouted looks. He said Sheppard does a good job from the tape he's watched of putting his players in good positions so they can go out and play fast and play hard. Mahomes said he can see how much Detroit's defenders respect Sheppard by how hard they play for him.

"He gets the best out of his guys," Mahomes said.

5. Chiefs linebacker Nic Bolton described Detroit's No. 1 scoring offense as 'special.' He mentioned tight end Sam LaPorta, running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, the depth Detroit has at the receiver position, and he even knew quarterback Jared Goff was leading the NFL in completion percentage.

He said Kansas City's defense needs to have an all hands on deck approach with their front seven and on the back end must mix up their coverages and try to force turnovers. He said Detroit does a good job keeping defenses off balanced and it was going to be a big test for them Sunday.

6. Reid admitted that one of the biggest surprises from Kansas City's 2-3 start are some of the uncharacteristic self-inflicted issues. Kansas City is the third most penalized team in the NFL through five weeks with 42 penalties, some of those coming at critical moments in their three losses.

7. Bolton said the Chiefs' defense is ready for Detroit's aggressive mindset on fourth down and will put an emphasis on being good on third down. He said they know once Detroit gets past midfield they want points and will be aggressive.