Once again, the Chiefs have found themselves in a bit of a bind. After beating the Colts in a must-win scenario in Week 12, Kansas City fell to 6–6 on the season in a 31–28 Thanksgiving loss vs. Dallas, further complicating their hopes of yet another Super Bowl run.
Of course, this conundrum is certainly top of mind for every member of the team, especially quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who has shouldered much of the blame for the rough showing (by Chiefs standards) and spent some time after Thursday’s loss acknowledging the rough road ahead.
“You’ve got to win every game now, and hope that’s enough,” the quarterback, who threw for 261 yards and four touchdowns, said Thursday. “We’re going to play a lot of good football teams coming up. If we're going to make the playoffs, we’re going to have to win them all. That’s got to be the mindset when we step into the building when we get back.”
Mahomes also prescribed the Chiefs’ issues to the team’s lack of consistency.
“I mean, our ceiling is playing in the Super Bowl. We’ve got all the same guys, and we added players. But at the end of the day, you've got to go out and do it every single week, on a week-in, week-out basis,” said Mahomes. “We can beat anybody, but we’ve shown that we can lose to anybody. So, we've got to be more consistent. It starts with me being consistent throughout the entire game, not in just big moments. That's something that we have to do throughout an entire game and week-to-week. It's not just one time.”
If the season ended right now, the Chiefs would be on the outside of the postseason looking in, per the NFL's playoff predictor. And according to ESPN analytics, the team’s chances of clinching a playoff berth dropped from 63% to 47% after Thursday's loss. It certainly doesn’t help that all five of their remaining games are against AFC teams, either.
So yeah, the margin of error really is as slim as it seems, and the Chiefs will need to bring their A-game if they want to avoid missing out on the postseason altogether. With the Thanksgiving game out of the way, they’ll have a little bit of extra time before taking the field again in Week 14, which will be another must-win contest vs. the Texans at 8:20 p.m. on Dec. 7.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Patrick Mahomes Shared Blunt Perspective on Chiefs’ Playoff Hopes After Loss to Dallas.
