KANSAS CITY, Mo. — While celebrating a long touchdown against Rashid Shaheed, New Orleans Saints quarterback Derek Carr said, “I told you so!” repeatedly to quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko. And at that point, Carr shouted the comment at least three times.

I told you! I told you! I told you!

Carr boasted after the score, but Monday’s 26-13 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs made for a different kind of statement. The Saints have serious issues to work through, issues that may have been masked during their electric start to the season.

Coach Dennis Allen’s defense? Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs paced the unit for a season-high 460 yards.

The running game? Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams collected just 35 yards on 13 carries.

Explosive games allowed? Yes, it was a mess again.

And a bad night for the Saints ended even worse, with Carr heading back to the locker room with just over six minutes remaining. The quarterback suffered an oblique injury on a fourth-down incompletion. He did not return.

“Not good,” Carr said when asked how he feels. “We’ll get an MRI and all sorts of things done (Tuesday) and figure it out.”

Carr’s injury is obviously a concern. The quarterback said he did not know if he would be available for next week’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, adding that the injury was more than just a matter of pain tolerance.

But the Saints can’t let that overshadow what happened against the Chiefs. New Orleans has now lost three straight and fallen below .500. The 2-3 record is somehow worse than a year ago, despite a bright start.

“For the first time this year, we didn’t play the way we could have played,” Allen said. “So I was disappointed in that.”

Unlike the Saints’ last two losses, Monday’s game was not decided by the final drive. In fact, one ill-timed throw on New Orleans’ opening drive made it clear what kind of night the Saints were in for.

Three minutes later, after leading the Saints to the Chiefs’ 39-yard line, Carr collapsed under the pressure. The quarterback desperately threw a throw off his back foot that sailed over Shaheed’s head and into the arms of Chiefs safety Bryan Cook. The interception was a terrible mistake, the kind Carr has made all too often in this stadium.

Carr fell to 1-9 in his career at Arrowhead Stadium. No team had harassed the quarterback more than the Chiefs, who Carr had dealt with often while he was a member of the Raiders. Carr knew the atmosphere that awaited him and the Saints on Monday, and the precision it would take to overcome it.

But the Saints weren’t exactly against the Chiefs. Not on offense, with a depleted offensive line allowing interior pressure after pressure. And certainly not on defense, where the defensive line fails to bring Mahomes down.

On Monday, the Chiefs offense finally looked like the Chiefs offense of old. During the first four weeks, Mahomes and Co. a slow start to the season. All four of their wins were decided by one score, and Kansas City suffered injuries to key playmakers like Isiah Pacheco and Rashee Rice.

The Chiefs have found ways to overcome those injuries in a way the Saints haven’t been able to with theirs. From the jump, Mahomes exploited New Orleans’ inability to defend tight ends by involving Travis Kelce (nine catches, 70 yards). But the Chiefs could do more than that. JuJu Smith-Schuster, who rejoined the Chiefs just a month ago, had seven catches for 130 yards. Kareem Hunt had 102 yards on 27 carries.

The Chiefs jumped out to a 10-0 lead, with the second drive being particularly excruciating for the defense. While the unit held Kansas City to a 34-yard field goal, the Chiefs still managed to get within scoring range despite facing down and away from second-and-34 and third-and-22. On the latter, the Chiefs gained 21 yards when Kelce started running. back Samaje Perine on an open-field lateral that ended just short of the first down.

Still, the Saints stuck around. In the second quarter, Carr hit Shaheed for a 43-yard touchdown to make it 10-7 – ultimately connecting on a deep shot that the quarterback looked for repeatedly all evening.

In the fourth quarter, the Saints made it a one-score game again when Carr found tight end Foster Moreau for a 6-yard touchdown with 14:16 remaining. Moreau’s score was determined in part by an incredible sequence: Defensive tackle Khalen Saunders picked off Mahomes in the end zone after a ball bounced through Smith-Schuster’s hands.

Saunders, a former Chiefs player, sprinted to the 35-yard line on a run that reached a top speed of 25.8 miles per hour, according to Next Gen Stats.

It’s fitting that the Saints’ promising plays would be overshadowed by further mistakes.

After Moreau’s touchdown, kicker Blake Grupe missed the extra point to keep the score at 16-13. On the ensuing drive, the Chiefs didn’t take much time to march down the field. Xavier Worthy’s 3-yard touchdown capped a five-play, 68-yard drive, bringing the score back from a double-digit deficit.

“We had it so good the first two weeks of the season, I just hope everyone knows that their process can always be adjusted for the better,” Moreau said. “Never take anything for granted. … I know if we follow the right process, the results will come out.”