Denver
The football rested at the 26-yard-line, and from the east sideline emerged Patrick Mahomes, jogging onto the field before stopping to snap his right chinstrap and then his left. His gait steadied as he approached the huddle and barked out a call, four minutes to play, game tied.
What more could the Chiefs want, right?
We could cite the history as evidence, even if you’re aware of it already — the three Super Bowls, the nine straight division titles and, more to this point, the 23 career game-winning drives. But Sunday underscored once more where all of that belongs.
The past.
The Broncos beat the Chiefs 22-19 here in Denver to put a stranglehold on the AFC West, but only after they put a stranglehold on Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs’ offense in the fourth quarter.
Oh-so-much went wrong in Denver — missed downfield shots early, a couple of confounding defensive play-calls late and penalties whenever and wherever — yet the Chiefs still put the ball in the hands of the best quarterback in the game, with a chance to win it and pull back into the AFC West division race.
Incomplete.
Incomplete.
Sack.
Punt.
That’s how the ensuing sequence unfolded. But that’s how it’s been unfolding this year. The Chiefs are 0-5 in one-score games, one season after rattling off a 12-0 record in them, including the playoffs. I’ll still insist that says as much about the fluky nature of stockpiling them a year ago as it does this year’s failures, but the final moments in Denver didn’t just add to the record.
It illustrated the reason for it.
The Chiefs have somehow taken one of the game’s most advantageous situations — the ball in the hands of Mahomes, his back against the wall — and erased its wizardry.
After those two incompletions late in Denver, Mahomes has completed only 21 of 47 fourth-quarter throws this year when either tied or trailing, per FTN data. There are 39 NFL quarterbacks who have thrown enough passes to qualify for that statistic. Here’s where that Mahomes completion percentage (44.7%) ranks:
39/39.
Dead last.
Mahomes has made a career out of turning his worst into his best, the trophy case to prove it. He’s compiled one of the best postseason resumes in NFL history on the backs of coming from behind. Those three Super Bowl titles required it, every last one of them.
But this year, the magician is digging deep into his bag and finding nothing but air.
And man if Sunday didn’t provide the perfect microcosm of it.
Mahomes dropped back to pass on first down with those four minutes left, and he hurried his throw to tight end Travis Kelce before he truly needed to hurry it. If there’s a play that he regrets in the game — even more than overthrowing both Xavier Worthy and Tyquan Thornton on the opening series — it’s this one.
He mentioned it twice, unprompted. Why? Well, because if he gives it a split-second longer, he believes he had Hollywood Brown breaking free at the intermediate level.
“There (are) things here and there, but I think that’s the biggest one,” Mahomes said when I asked him which part of the game would most stick with him. “That’s what you want. You want that opportunity at the end of the game, and we …”
A brief hesitation, even interruption.
“I didn’t come through.”
It’s a nice sentiment, but, no, this isn’t all on him. Not even close.
Which brings me to the third-down sack, the series-ending play that returned the ball to the Broncos, who would convert a 3rd-and-15 against an inexplicable three-man rush and then march down for the game-winning field goal as time expired.
The Chiefs broke the huddle late far too frequently against a defense that loves to bring and disguise its pressure. And after a second-down incomplete pass on that final offensive possession, the Chiefs didn’t get everyone set at the line until the play clock showed just seven seconds.
That was too late to scan the field pre-snap, and therefore too late to notice that Broncos safety Ja’Quan McMillian was inching toward the line, showing an evident blitz. McMillian came off the corner unblocked. A sack ended the drive. The Chiefs wouldn’t touch the ball again.
Their final fourth-quarter tally: 12 plays, 38 yards.
It was ugly. It’s been ugly. They have averaged less than 5 yards per play in fourth quarters this year, by far their worst-performing quarter.
All year I’ve been telling you the Chiefs are better than the record, and it has nothing to do with that championship history. It has everything to do with the present.
The Chiefs lead the NFL in yards per drive heading into Week 11; they’re second in points per drive; they punt with the second-least frequency; and only the Colts have produced fewer three-and-out drives.
Which makes it all the more confounding — frustrating, disappointing, inexcusable — they have been so bad when it matters most. The magic is still in there, somewhere. They’ve shown it. Why it’s not popping in end-of-game situations is a question they need to answer, and quickly.
The advanced metrics — the common indicators of future performance — still like this team. They suggest what this team could be. But a failure in the big moments shows what they are: a .500 football team that as of Sunday is no longer fighting for the division and instead for its playoff future. The Chiefs are 0-4 against the teams they are chasing in the AFC standings.
Who are they really?
They had 14 days to sit on that, 14 to sit in the stink they created in Buffalo, 14 days to stare at the standings displaying them on the wrong side of the playoff picture … and they played a sloppy game on the other end of it.
They thrived in the sloppy games a year ago — because they thrived when the game was on the line. Nobody executed the small details better.
But a dynasty built on a team unfazed by the big moments has yet to respond to in-game adversity in the same way.
It’s instead been swallowed by it.
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Sam McDowell
The Kansas City Star
Sam McDowell is a columnist for The Star who has covered Kansas City sports for more than a decade. He has won national awards for columns, features and enterprise work. The Headliner Awards named him the 2024 national sports columnist of the year.
