For the last 19 weeks of NFL football, the Kansas City Chiefs offense had been the worst Patrick Mahomes-led offense we had ever seen. Despite still being in the top ten of NFL offenses statistically, Kansas City had one of the worst turnover differentials in the league and the Chiefs' receivers led the NFL in drops.
The offense was probably at its lowest when the Chiefs lost to Aidan O'Connell and the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas day when O'Connell didn't complete a pass for three quarters and the Chiefs' offense gave up more points than the defense.
At that point, a lot of fans had lost patience with this group. It felt as if the offense just didn't have it this year and no matter how good the defense was, the offense wasn't going to score enough points to beat anyone with a pulse in January.
The KC Chiefs offense is starting to figure it out at the right time.
Everyone kept insisting that this team would figure it out and that there was too much talent on this team and too much knowledge on this coaching staff not to. As time went on, that answer started to become old and fans simply wanted to see this team do it out on the field.
Following two playoff victories over the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills, the Kansas City Chiefs scored 53 combined points which is good for an average of 26.5 points. For perspective, the Chiefs only averaged 21.8 points for the entirety of the regular season and they only scored 24 points or more 6 times in 2023 which is the lowest amount in the Patrick Mahomes era.
The crazy thing is that if Kansas City had simply averaged 26 points per game this season, they would've won every game on their schedule with how dominant their defense was. The most frustrating part about this team was that they didn't need to score 30 or 40 points a game anymore to win. They just needed to be a little bit better than they were.
Against Miami and Buffalo, the Chiefs have been. The Miami game was a step in the right direction because the offense showed an improved ability to move the ball efficiently, they just came up short in the red zone too often but it didn't matter because the defense played essentially lights out.
The Buffalo game was even more impressive. Everyone knew that the offense was going to have to step up to beat Josh Allen and the Bills, but everyone also thought that the defense was going to play its game. That didn't end up happening. The defense gave up more than 20 points for the first time in six games and they allowed Buffalo to rack up 368 total yards of offense. The stops weren't very often, and when Buffalo marched down the field and scored a touchdown right before the half to make it 17-13, you got the vibe that if this was going to turn into a shootout, it wasn't going to favor Kansas City.
When the camera panned over to Patrick Mahomes on the bench, he looked like he knew what he was going to have to do for the Chiefs to win this game and he led Kansas City to an offensive performance that we hadn't seen for the last 19 weeks. Kansas City averaged an absurd 7.7 yards per play which was a season high. Patrick Mahomes was surgical against the Bills' defense. He navigated through pressure many times to find open downfield and Isiah Pacheco complimented him by averaging 6.5 yards per carry. Despite only converting one third down on offense, Kansas City only had five third down attempts because of how much damage they did on early downs. Buffalo's defense struggled to get Kansas City into third down all night long.
Sure, the Bills defense had some injuries, but Kansas City had gone up against a lot of bad defenses this year and barely managed to crack 20 points against those teams. What the Chiefs did against the Bills seemed unthinkable just a few weeks ago with how things were looking. Let's be honest, too, Kansas City should've run away with this one. They were just inches away from making it 34-24 if not for Mecole Hardman fumbling a ball through the back of the end zone that we can thankfully forget.
Kansas City's offense was called on to step up and they answered that call. Patrick Mahomes was Patrick Mahomes and a lot of us may have forgotten what he can do even if the cast around him isn't what we wanted it to be. There was some doubt if this team had a switch to flip or if they could scrape together enough drives that ended in points, but they went on the road and dominated Buffalo's defense in Mahomes' first true road playoff game to knock off Josh Allen and the Bills in the postseason for the third time now.
So, maybe the optimists were right. Maybe this offense is figuring it out at just the right time. Players who struggled earlier on such as Marquez Valdes-Scantling are now making plays and Rashee Rice has found a second gear to give another dimension to the Chiefs' offense. This was all Chiefs fans were asking for all season long and now we're starting to see it.
There was some luck in the end with Buffalo kicker Tyler Bass missing a game-tying field goal, but the offensive improvement is why Kansas City is heading to a sixth straight AFC Championship game. Additionally, there's a very good chance the Chiefs would have just marched down the field with under two minutes left and ripped Buffalo's heart out again if Bass makes it anyway.
If Kansas City manages to win the AFCCG and go on to play the Super Bowl, this late-season turnaround orchestrated by Patrick Mahomes and company needs to be remembered.