Chiefs

Question: What did the Chiefs lose in Denver? Answer: First place in the AFC West, after the Broncos erased a 24-13 fourth-quarter lead and then stopped five plays inside the 4-yard line. The 28-24 loss was Kansas City’s second straight, and the kind that reveals a team rather than merely beating it. Before Sunday, the Chiefs were 80-2 under Patrick Mahomes when leading by ten or more in the fourth quarter, including the playoffs. That is the number Denver broke. The Broncos scored the last fifteen points, held the ball for two long drives, and then survived a finish that will be replayed in Kansas City for as long as the division race stays close. ...

Question: What does the Chiefs’ offense look like when the offensive line cannot hold? Answer: Three points, 213 yards, no snaps in the red zone, and eleven games to decide whether the fix is already on the roster. Kansas City lost 20-3 at Seattle on Sunday night, its first defeat of the season, and the shape of the game was plain. The Chiefs ran 50 plays and gained 213 yards, 4.3 a play. They held the ball for 24 minutes and 9 seconds. They never reached the red zone, which had not happened in any start of Patrick Mahomes’ career. ...

Question: What does 5-0 look like on a day the quarterback throws for 272 yards and no touchdowns? Answer: Like 22-6, a hundredth win, four sacks, and an offensive line that will decide what comes next. Kansas City beat the Los Angeles Chargers 22-6 at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday and moved to 5-0, the only unbeaten team in the AFC. Patrick Mahomes won his hundredth regular-season game in his 131st start, matching Tom Brady for the fewest starts needed to reach 100 wins in the NFL since 1950. Brady finished with 251 wins and seven championships. The comparison is about pace, not destiny. ...

Question: What did the Chiefs do with a week off and two receivers in the training room? Answer: They filled the hole with a name they already knew. Justin Watson is back on the practice squad, Tyquan Thornton is on injured reserve, and the reunion the league spent a week waiting for did not happen. The bye week Kansas City did not play in Week 5. There is no score to weigh and no fourth quarter to take apart, which after the Raiders game is its own kind of relief. What the bye gave the Chiefs was time to answer the question that game left them: what does this offense do when both of the receivers around whom it was built go down in the same afternoon? ...

Question: What did the Chiefs’ best afternoon of the season cost them? Answer: Both of the receivers who made it work. Kansas City is 4-0 and alone atop the AFC going into its bye, with Tyquan Thornton’s season in doubt, Rashee Rice’s hamstring unresolved, and the name Tyreek Hill back in the conversation. The game just played The Chiefs beat the Raiders 30-27 at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday to move to 4-0, and it was the narrowest win of their season and the least comfortable. ...

Question: What has a 3-0 start bought the Chiefs? Answer: An October game that decides the AFC West. Kansas City and Las Vegas are both unbeaten, they have scored exactly the same number of points, and they meet Sunday with the Chiefs’ left tackle still missing. The game just played The Chiefs beat the Dolphins 24-10 at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, and the fourteen-point margin overstated them. Kansas City scored touchdowns on each of its first two possessions. Kenneth Walker III ran one in from 10 yards, then caught a 5-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes, and the game looked like the mismatch the records promised. Miami arrived 0-2, without a sack of its own and having allowed nine. ...

Question: What is the most consequential thing the Chiefs have to manage at 2-0? Answer: Kenneth Walker III. He is the reason they are unbeaten, he leads the league in carries and rushing yards, and Andy Reid spent the week saying the Chiefs have to use him less. This is the first of these reports. It runs on a Thursday rather than the Tuesday slot the weekly schedule will use, because it was written while the job that produces it was being built and verified. ...