Kansas City Chiefs’ psyche amid possibility of missing NFL playoffs | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

The next three opponents for the Cowboys have different types of desperation. The Eagles in a fight for the one seed in the NFC with the Rams. You’ve got the Lions the last game the Cowboys will be playing in that three-pack thinking, “What the hell’s going on in the NFC North? We have to get our act together.” And then you have the Chiefs like, you know, the Chiefs may miss the playoffs. We have to now consider the possibility that at five and five the Chiefs will miss the playoffs. And the reason they’ll miss the playoffs, Devin, is that stupid Trevor Lawrence fell down, got up, scored the touchdown in the week six Monday night game. Because if those are the last two teams tied for the number seven seed, that play puts the Jaguars in and the Chiefs out. And right now, the Chiefs are essentially two games behind the Jaguars cuz they’re one game behind in the standings, but they have to pass them because if they’re tied with them and only them, a three-way tie gets more complicated. But if they’re tied with only them, they go home and the Jaguars move on. And that that possibility of the Chiefs not even being in the 17 playoff field is incomprehensible still, but it’s more possible after Sunday’s loss in Denver than anyone could have imagined coming into the season. Yeah. I mean, again, I I got to play all 13 years in New England. And that feeling when you get to that point and I remember in 2019 of playing in the wild card which sounds crazy. It’s my first time ever playing in the wild card in the playoffs. Was my 10th year in the NFL was the first time ever. And I just remember of sitting there and and I think overall for our team because other than Brady like that whole wave of guys had been divisional straight to divi divisional straight to AFC championship like that was our road and I remember our last game of the year and we go in and like all right we’re in the wild card. It was like the somebody had just told us our season was over. I remember my brother had this emotional speech uh in the locker room of like guys like we’re in the playoffs and it was like it felt like such a failure playing in the wild card and I I’m I’m really wondering like what’s going on the psyche of the Chiefs right now as they’re trying to battle to get in. And I think their season, you know, different than our season. We started off undefeated. think this season’s been a lot of adversity that I think they’re just like, man, getting in would be a relief. But I think for that team and the guys that have been on that team, they haven’t experienced much adversity when it comes to getting into the playoffs. So, I I’m very interested watching them down the stretch, how they respond to each one of these games, each one of these situations, these moments within the game, because they’re going to have to be at their best because these games are not easy as they go down the stretch and try to kind of run the table to finish the season. And the other side of it too, Devin, and I don’t know how much of this crept into your mind or any of the other players in New England as you got to that 2019 wildard game, but for the Chiefs as they face this gauntlet down the stretch and have to try to just scratch and claw to get in, I think at some point, at some point it will be tempting to just say, you know what, I got a bunch of rings. We’ve been playing three straight years in the Super Bowl. It’s a physical toll. It’s a mental toll. If this just isn’t our year, like we’re not going back to the Super Bowl this year. Like, who cares if we miss the play? I like I don’t know how much of that flickers into someone’s brain, but just almost like an acceptance that you can’t win them all. And what’s the point? like just that little edge that can be the difference when you’re facing a team that number one is playing for, you know, everything arrows pointing up and we have a chance to to stick it to the Chiefs and we’ve been waiting for that the past eight years. And you throw all that together, it’s going to make it hard. The Chiefs are going to have to be more focused, more determined than maybe they’ve ever been because it’s a different kind of a dynamic that they’re now going to be experiencing as they go down the stretch. You know, like for just the Cowboys game on Thanksgiving, I mean, the the Cowboys, especially if they should somehow beat the Eagles on Sunday, which isn’t impossible, they’re going to be feeling really good and they’re going to be feeling really encouraged. And right now, if you’re a member of the Chief’s organization, it has to be very difficult to fight that natural human inclination to be discouraged by everything that’s happened. No doubt about it. And I think what they don’t have in their favor this time around is they’re not just super talented. They don’t have that much more talent than the teams that they’re going to play against. So now when you’re not on the mark and you don’t have all of the same guys that you’ve had over the years, you don’t have guys like Joe Joe Tuni who came in from New England and been a part of that core nucleus. Like you lose certain guys like that Justin Reed who had came in and became a big part of this team. Those are the guys who are desperately playing for what they’ve built there. Some of the other guys you start to get within that dynasty, they came into it soon as they got there. was like, “Oh, we just win. We just end up in a Super Bowl.” So, they have this expectation. So, now you have to start to rally those guys that when it gets tough, they’re like, “Maybe it’s just not our year, man. Maybe next year. May like some of those young guys, they don’t realize how hard this is because you’ve just been on that run.” And I remember talking to Coach Bellich about that being in New England. He’s like, “Man, we got some of these athles who’ve been here and they’ve just gone to Super Bowls year in and year out. They don’t know what it actually takes. They’ve never had that true adversity of not making it because they just got to come in and kind of reap the benefits of what the other guys have done before them. So, it is going to be a key part for them because they’re going to need everybody in that building. Everybody that’s on the field to kind of buy into something that’s a little different than years past when you just ran the AFC West, showed up, played, found a way to win games. No matter how poorly you’ve played within that game, that’s not happening this year. So, uh, I can’t wait to watch that down the stretch. Hi, it’s Mike Florio. Thanks for watching PFT on YouTube.

Mike Florio and Devin McCourty explore the possibility that the Chiefs don’t make the playoffs and note their loss to the Jaguars could come back to bite them. #NBCSports #NFL #ProFootballTalk
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Kansas City Chiefs’ psyche amid possibility of missing NFL playoffs | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC
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23 comments

  18. With the decline of the KC Chiefs led by Patrick Mahomes, is it time to pass the torch to Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen both of whom have never even yet gotten to the Superbowl? Well if that's the case, they both have a lot of catching up to do as Patrick Mahomes has been to football's biggest stage 5 times and winning 3 of them and winning 3 Superbowl MVPs. This huge disparity is currently mind boggling and only time will tell if Lamar or Josh can at least get a piece of the vast glory Patrick Mahomes already has. This disparity in glory is similar to Fran Tarkenton going 0-3 in Superbowls vs Terry Bradshaw going 4-0 in Superbowls in the 1970's.

  20. All these crybaby children sobbing about the refs still? Even in a down year for KC? 😂😂 Pathetic..

    As a long time Chiefs fan, I'm actually okay with the parity in the league. If the Chiefs aren't gonna win it, at least there's a ton of teams out there who could. It's an excellent year for that this year.

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