The Kansas City Chiefs lost a heartbreaker to the Denver Broncos on Sunday, but coach Andy Reid still thinks the Chief can contend. He’s at least somewhat willing to concede the AFC West now that the Chiefs have dropped to 5-5, but he insists that it won’t take much to get them back in the playoff picture if Kansas City cleans up what he referred to as some “small things.”
“We’re not quite as negative as the outside world is,” Reid said in a story written by Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk based on Reid’s Monday videoconference. “We know what we need to clean up and we need to do it, but, the guys, they get it.
“Some of these guys have been through some pretty good seasons, and this isn’t like this one’s lost. We just got to clean up a few of these things and the urgency level, obviously, we got to make sure we take care of that now.”
In a way it’s easy to see what Reid is talking about. The Chiefs shot themselves in the foot against Denver with a few critical penalties, especially some pre-snap calls that went against the offensive line. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes just missed on a couple of deep shots early in the game, and his lone interception was based on an atypical bad decision.
Beyond that, though, it’s hard to see where Reid’s coming from with these comments. The Chiefs upcoming schedule is mostly brutal, starting with Sunday’s home showdown against the Indianapolis Colts.
After that they’ll be on the road for a Thanksgiving road game against a Dallas Cowboys team that suddenly has a defense and a pass rush. The Chiefs still have to play division games against the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers, and the only two games that feel like automatic wins are road tilts against the Tennessee Titans and Las Vegas Raiders.
Given Kansas City’s struggles in close games, is it realistic to expect the Chiefs to fare any better than 4-3 in these remaining games? That would put them at 9-8, which probably won’t get them a playoff berth, and even a 10-7 record could get them squeezed out of the playoffs if things fall the wrong way.
It’s not a lost season yet, but the Chiefs are definitely staring over the edge of the cliff. Sunday’s Colts game should reveal one of these teams as frauds, and that team could be Kansas City, which seemed unthinkable at the beginning of the season.