Beauty Is in the Details for Chiefs’ Final Stretch of 2022 Season
After Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Kansas City Chiefs sit atop the AFC West with a 9-3 record. That's good enough for the No. 2 seed in the AFC with five games remaining in the regular season. In a sense, however, the season is essentially over for the Chiefs. They still need to take care of business as they are still in contention for the top overall seed and a first-round playoff bye, but nothing that happens in the next five weeks should change the overarching outlook on this team.
The remaining five games for the Chiefs are at the Denver Broncos, at the Houston Texans, at home against the Seattle Seahawks, at home against Denver and then at the Las Vegas Raiders. Those remaining opponents are a combined 19-40-1 (.325 winning percentage. That is the easiest remaining schedule in the NFL, and the Chiefs should go 5-0 to close the season. Because none of these teams are the caliber of opponent the Chiefs will face in the playoffs, these outings shouldn't have an impact on how anyone views the team.
Dec 4, 2022; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco (10) breaks away to the outside in the fourth quarter of a Week 13 NFL game at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit:Sam Greene-USA TODAY Sports
Kansas City has faced one of the toughest schedules in NFL history up to this point in the season. The team already played its two top adversaries in the AFC, the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals. Though the Chiefs lost both games, it was by a combined seven points. With a different play call or bounce of the ball somewhere, they could have ended up winning both.
During the next five weeks, the focus should be on cleaning up mental mistakes and figuring out how to start games faster. Too often, the Chiefs find themselves down early in games and have to claw their way back. A 17-7 deficit to the Chargers, 17-0 to the Raiders, 10-0 to the 49ers, and then 14-3 to the Bengals this past week are all examples of that. They ended up coming back and winning those first three games, but it’s not sustainable. The Chiefs should want to get out in front of a team and force their opponents to become one-dimensional. They haven’t done that much.
Also, this team is young and mistakes were expected coming into the season. However, the Chiefs are making more mental errors now than earlier in the year. Whether it’s drops, missed assignments or turnovers, it costs this team — especially against the best opponents. There may not be a team that can match the Chiefs when they are at their best, but we haven’t seen them at their best often because of their undisciplined nature of making costly mistakes.
Dec 4, 2022; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) reacts after scoring a touchdown against the Cincinnati Bengals in the second half at Paycor Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Katie Stratman-USA TODAY Sports
The Chiefs have been the class of the NFL since Patrick Mahomes became the starting quarterback in 2018. They are once again a Super Bowl-caliber team. They have shown that throughout the season, even with all the changes made this offseason. Beating the Houston Texans by three or 20-plus isn’t going to matter in the long run. In 2020, the Chiefs won seven straight games by one score heading into the playoffs. Folks became concerned that this was not the dominant force they once thought it to be. Then Kansas City went into the playoffs and rolled through the AFC en route to the Super Bowl.
The Chiefs should still put their best foot forward in every game and play to win so they can get that coveted one-seed and bye. However, their most important things are staying healthy, correcting costly mistakes and continuing to jell as a team. A fully healthy Chiefs team heading into the playoffs has the ability to beat anyone, anywhere at any time.
