The Chiefs failed to clinch the AFC West on Christmas Day, falling, 20-14, to Las Vegas after the Raiders turned two first-half turnovers into touchdowns, which was enough at least to delay an eighth straight division title for Kansas City.
The performance, in which the Chiefs outgained Vegas 308 to 205, and the defense held Aiden O'Connell to 62 yards on 9-of-21 passing, was another uneven one by Andy Reid's standards. All season long, Kansas City hasn't found consistency with its offense. Whether it's been drops, penalties or, this week, turnovers, something seems to plague the group each week.
With two weeks left in the regular season, Patrick Mahomes believes there's still time to correct the problems.
"You see glimpses of it," Mahomes said, via ESPN. "You see glimpses of us moving the football, you see glimpses of us scoring in the red zone. It's just we haven't consistently done it enough game in and game out at this end of the season. We kind of had one good game, one bad game, one good game, one bad game, but we have to be more consistent because when you get to the playoffs, you have to string some together."
The defeat dropped K.C. to 9-6, the most losses by the Chiefs in a season since 2017 (Alex Smith was 9-6 as starting QB; Mahomes went 1-0 that season). It's not just that the Chiefs are losing games. It's how they've done so, scoring their fewest points per contest (22.2) and totaling their fewest yards per game (355.4) since Mahomes took over under center.
"I still believe that we can go do what we want to do," Mahomes said. "It's just how can we correct it as quickly as possible. We're two games left that are guaranteed and then you talk about the playoffs and so all you can do is move on to that next day, get better then and try to be better the next time we step on the field."
Following Monday's loss, defensive tackle Chris Jones wouldn't put the loss on the offense, noting that the defense couldn't get a late stop after Mahomes led a TD drive to close within six points.
"We need to be better overall as a team, collectively," Jones said. "It's not just one group. I think special teams, defense, we had an opportunity to stop them, give the offense the chance to get the ball back and score, but we didn't. We weren't successful."
The Chiefs finish the season with a home game against the Jake Browning-led Cincinnati Bengals in Week 17 and travel to Los Angeles to face the Chargers in Week 18.
"If we clean it up, we'll be able to score points," Mahomes said. "It's just [that] we've got to clean it up. We're two games left. You have to do it and if we don't, we'll be going home.
"If we clean it up, we can beat anybody. I truly believe that, but we got to prove that we can do it."
