After another close defeat for the Kansas City Chiefs, this time 31-28 against the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day, quarterback Patrick Mahomes summed up the team’s gloomy situation.
With a 6-6 record and outside the AFC playoff zone, the Chiefs’ chances of securing a postseason spot dropped. The remaining five games on the Chiefs’ schedule, starting December 7 against the Houston Texans, will be against AFC opponents. Mahomes understands that every game for the Chiefs is essentially an elimination game to keep their playoff hopes alive.We have to win every game now, and hope it’s enough.
Patrick Mahomes
Just four days ago, the Chiefs thought they had secured a fundamental victory, and the most impressive of the season, when they came back from an 11-point deficit in the last quarter to beat the Indianapolis Colts. The Chiefs even started the game well on Thursday. A Chiefs blitz on the opening possession led to cornerback Jaylen Watson intercepting quarterback Dak Prescott. The turnover set up Mahomes’ 27-yard touchdown pass to receiver Rashee Rice. In fact, in his first NFL start at AT&T Stadium, just over 100 miles from his hometown of Tyler, Texas, Mahomes threw four touchdown passes and often used his legs to escape the pocket. But Thursday was the first time in the Mahomes era, since 2018, when he became the starter, that the Chiefs fell in a game in which their quarterback threw at least four touchdown passes and did not commit an interception.We are going to play against many good teams to come. If we are going to make the playoffs, we will have to win them all. That must be the mentality when we enter the training facilities when we return.
Patrick Mahomes
For much of the second half, Mahomes operated the Chiefs’ offense without their starting right tackle (Jawaan Taylor) and left tackle (rookie Josh Simmons). Taylor, a seven-year veteran, missed the second half with a left triceps strain. And Mahomes is expected to be without Simmons, the Chiefs’ first pick, for an extended period. At the end of the third quarter, Simmons left the game with a left wrist injury. Test results showed that Simmons suffered a dislocation and a fracture in his left wrist, according to a source. The Chiefs also started the game without Trey Smith, who suffered a right ankle sprain against the Colts. However, Mahomes was still able to lead the Chiefs on two touchdown drives with Jaylon Moore as their right tackle and Wanya Morris as the left tackle.We can beat anyone, but we’ve shown that we can lose to anyone. We have to be more consistent. We’ve had great plays and we’ve had stretches where we can really score at any time, but we have to be consistent for four quarters, especially when you play against good teams and they have a good offense.
Patrick Mahomes
The Thursday game was also the third time this season that Mahomes saw the opposing offense run out the clock while leading by one point. The Chiefs’ defense struggled against the Cowboys’ potent passing attack. Prescott was never sacked, and the Chiefs’ pressure didn’t affect him much. Prescott was pressured on 36% of his pass plays, his highest pressure percentage in a game this season. But Prescott, who finished with 320 passing yards and two touchdowns, responded by completing 11 of his 14 attempts under pressure, his most completions in a game in his 10-year career. Whether defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo blitzed or not, his unit allowed a season-high nine third-down conversions, which tied for the second-most in a regular-season game under Spagnuolo, who joined the team in 2019. Watson and cornerback Trent McDuffie were unable to effectively cover CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, the Cowboys’ top two receivers.Let’s hope we can get some of these guys back and that they recover during this extended week we have.
Patrick Mahomes
Once again, in another close loss, coach Andy Reid and almost all the players in the Chiefs’ locker room mentioned a disappointing factor: penalties. The Chiefs committed 10 penalties for 119 yards, their most in a game since Week 14 of 2019 in a win over the New England Patriots (136).The pressure and the coverage have to work together, and we have to find a way to get them off the field. That depends on the defense. We have a few days off and we have to dig deep now.
George Karlaftis
The conclusion is that we are getting too many penalties, and we have to make sure we take care of that. No excuses. We will work to clean it up. The guys know it. They understand that we have to clean up some things.
Andy Reid
We have to do better as coaches. We have to do better as players. You go back to the drawing board and keep working.
Andy Reid
