KC Chiefs play with fire but win 7th consecutive division title

The Kansas City Chiefs needed last-minute heroics to edge a bad Houston Texans team missing a ton of key offensive and defensive personnel.

Teams that aspire to win the Super Bowl should be playing their best football when the month of December starts. Such has not been the case for the Kansas City Chiefs.

In a game where they found a way to win against the Houston Texans and secure their seventh-straight division title, there’s not much to hang your hat on concerning their performance.  The Chiefs were heavy favorites coming into the game with several Texans players sidelined by injuries. I never thumb my nose at a narrow victory, but the way Kansas City won is discomforting.

In the NFL, you simply aren’t going to boat-race every inferior team. This league is comprised of prideful professionals. There’s no shame in a six-point win over the Texans. The issue here is the fact that the Chiefs are still playing a sloppy brand of football this late into the regular season. The offense committed a pair of turnovers again today. Coaching decisions in key situations were questionable. The defense struggled to contain an offense without Brandin Cooks, Nico Collins, and rookie standout Dameon Pierce.

Kansas City ultimately needed a late fumble recovery by linebacker Willie Gay to put themselves in a position to win in overtime. There’s no good reason why the Chiefs needed the extra frame. They got the ball into Texans’ territory with two minutes remaining in regulation. For some ungodly reason, they recoiled into a conservative shell and settled for a Harrison Butker 51-yard field goal try. He ultimately pushed the kick right and the game went to overtime.

This decision was made in perhaps Patrick Mahomes’ most efficient game of the season. That’s an unforgivable offense when you have the league’s best player. That kind of gutless decision-making is absurd at this point in the season. Play to win the game. Sans a heads-up play by defensive end Frank Clark to strip David Mills of the football, the Chiefs might’ve lost this game.

Questionable calls weren’t the only problem for Kansas City today. The Chiefs made a number of mistakes that put them in bad situations. Rookie Isiah Pacheco fumbled the football deep in K.C.’s own territory. Kadarius Toney fair caught a punt at the Chiefs’ five-yard line. L’Jarius Sneed hooked Texans receiver Chris Moore on 3rd-and-6 pass that would’ve fallen incomplete anyway. Patrick Mahomes missed a wide-open Marquez Valdes-Scantling on their opening drive.

It was encouraging that Jerick McKinnon had another 120+ yard, two touchdown day. Mahomes had one of his best outings of the season. He was 36-for-41 with two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, and a 117.1 rating. Pacheco did have one turnover, but averaged 5.7 yards per carry and posted 97 yards from scrimmage. JuJu Smith-Schuster was targeted 10 times on Sunday, hauling in all 10 passes for 88 yards.

They say a win is a win, but this isn’t one the Chiefs should feel good about. They should be tuning up for a forthcoming postseason tournament. Instead, they continue to play mistake-filled football that allows inferior teams to hang around. Heading into Week 16, the Buffalo Bills are still the AFC’s No. 1 seed. If the Chiefs have any hopes of regaining the top spot in the conference, they must take care of business in these games they’re heavily favored to win.

There are only three weeks left in the regular season and the window of opportunity to clean things up is getting more and more narrow. Their Week 16 opponent—the Seattle Seahawks—will probably be the stiffest test over the last three weeks of the regular season schedule. If the Chiefs aren’t careful, these slow starts are going to cost them a shot at home-field advantage. Two of the final three games are against bitter divisional rivals that would love nothing more than to play spoiler. It’s time to lock in and put your best product on the field.