The Kansas City Chiefs slumped to their second consecutive loss, this time to the Denver Broncos 22-19 at Empower Field, which all but ends hopes of a 10th straight AFC West title.
Not only that, but at 5-5, the Chiefs' playoff hopes are now in serious danger given the rest of the results on Sunday.
That is foreign territory for Kansas City, and there is no easy fix with the Indianapolis Colts coming into Arrowhead Stadium in Week 12, so the road forward doesn't get any easier, and with the margin for error now gone, a winning streak is what the Chiefs will be all that is needed.
But make no mistake about it, Patrick Mahomes knows exactly how big a hole his team is in now.
"It sucks, don't get me wrong, you got to feel that," Mahomes said. "But you got to be able to use that energy and push it to the next week and the rest of the season. All you can focus on is the next game, get another opportunity to go out there and prove yourself.
Obviously, we've been losing these close games recently, but we've played some good football in spurts, it's about being more consistent."
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Chiefs' one-score games flipped from 2024
Last season, the Chiefs were bulletproof in one-score games, going 12-0, but this season? Oh, the script has flipped.
Kansas City is 0-5 in one-score games as the magic that was surrounding the team last season is no longer there.
The Chiefs, for so long, made "the" play late in games, but for whatever reason, this year, that has not been the case, and considering that all of Kansas City's losses have been by one score, had just a couple gone the other way, who knows where this team could potentially be.
Perhaps they used up all their luck last year, because the football gods have clearly decided that the Chiefs' dominance in one-score games was going to come to an end in 2025.
And it might be a big reason why Kansas City might miss the playoffs for the first time in the Mahomes era.
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