Midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday at Mile High Stadium, the Chiefs were trailing 21-20, sputtering overall and on the cusp of falling farther behind … and perhaps smack into an unforgiving roulette wheel of playoff seeding with a second straight loss.
The day had been marked by some slapstick slips on an unacceptably treacherous field, and by key players such as Tyreek Hill and Darrel Williams (and later Travis Kelce) limping on and off with injuries.
All of that poor and uncertain footing lurked as fine analogies for how they stood to enter the postseason.
In an instant, though, all of that theoretically was transformed by defensive end Melvin Ingram crunching the ball loose from Denver’s Melvin Gordon at the Kansas 14-yard line and rookie linebacker Nick Bolton scooping it up, whirling out of the arms of former Mizzou teammate Drew Lock and skedaddling 86 yards.
“I never beat Nick Bolton in any sprints at Missouri,” Lock told reporters after the game. “And I didn’t on that one either.”
Even though Bolton’s dash came with a little stagger just past midfield.
“He almost went down,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said with a smile.
He didn’t go down, though. Just like the Chiefs didn’t as they prevailed 28-24 for their astounding 13th straight win over the Broncos.
And you could chalk this up as all’s well that ends well, leaving the Chiefs 12-5 and guaranteed at least the No. 2 seed and a home playoff game … and leaving them in contention for the No. 1 and a bye if the Titans (11-5 with the tiebreaker over the Chiefs by virtue of beating them 27-3 earlier this season) should stumble Sunday at Houston (4-12).
But this victory, deserved and hard-earned as it was, also was testimony to something more precarious about the Chiefs.
Or maybe it just speaks to something we won’t be able to understand until we see what happens from here.
Because it’s hard to know if the Chiefs got better on Saturday. And if they are better-equipped for the playoffs than their last two games make them appear. Or whether the moral of this game is that they’re vulnerable … or resilient.
Most likely, they’re equal parts both, and thus as capable of a third straight Super Bowl run as of an anticlimactic early-round loss.
The good news is that this core group, enhanced by the likes of Ingram and Bolton and perhaps bolstered by a breakout day from Mecole Hardman, has demonstrated the DNA of being resourceful and nearly always at its best in the crucible of the playoffs.
“We’ve been in these games before, and we know how to win them,” Mahomes said. “So at the end of the game, if it’s close, I think we’re going to find a way.”
But the margin for error for the Chiefs sure seems more slim than in recent history.
Between the resurgence of several AFC foes, including Titans, Bills, Bengals and Chargers that have defeated the Chiefs this season, and the rarity of the Chiefs flourishing in all three phases of the game week to week, the only forecast for the weeks to come is … a lot of X-factors.
While the circumstances, including, presumably, sheer intensity will be different in the playoffs, the Denver game provided a new case in point.
Because until the play that changed it all, the Chiefs had been stranded on the ropes in a game that had largely turned because of one other play: a roughing the punter penalty in the first half as the Broncos were facing their second straight three and out with the Chiefs having unleashed a 17-play, 91-yard drive in between.
Now, the Chiefs were free to play defense after that penalty on Zayne Anderson, which came a week after he was nabbed for holding on what figured to have been a pivotal kickoff return for a touchdown by Byron Pringle.
Instead, that play both exposed some absence of focus and gave the Broncos the fresh air to drive to their first touchdown.
It changed the complexion of the game, and the Chiefs seemed unable to shrug it off. Or reverse its impact.
Until the momentous Ingram-Bolton combo for what ESPN reported was the longest scoop-and-score TD in the NFL this season.
And despite the enormous previous contributions of Ingram, whose acquisition effectively realigned the entire defense, and Bolton, who leads the Chiefs in tackles, the play was as improbable as it was awe-inspiring:
It was the first fumble Ingram has forced since joining the Chiefs in November and the first fumble recovery of Bolton’s career.
Not something you might have counted on, in other words.
But it also was delivered when the Chiefs had to make a play if they were going to win. And if they were going to enter the postseason with the juice of a team that had won nine of its last 10 instead of with the doubts of losing its last two.
“That really changed the landscape of the game,” Mahomes said.
It’s just hard to know what it says about the landscape ahead.
The theory here is that this indeed is a team that knows how to manufacture its own luck and can win when facing the adversity of multiple injuries.
It’s a team that’s gotten plenty better overall throughout the season and has learned much on both sides of the ball, even prospered, from its 3-4 start.
Much of the season has been about simply finding a way, enough so that you could say that’s their identity and can even call it growth.
But what comes with all that is a sense of living on the edge, which makes for great drama but not much certainty. Especially when one play can make such a difference either way.
