FIRST TAKE | Chiefs are in Danger! – Stephen A. Smith on Mahomes & KC are 6-6 after losing Cowboys

FIRST TAKE | Chiefs are in Danger! – Stephen A. Smith on Mahomes & KC are 6-6 after losing Cowboys

game now. I mean, and and hope that’s enough. So, I mean, we’re going to play a lot of good football teams um coming up. Um and if we’re going to make the playoffs, we’re going to have to win win them all. And uh that’s got to be the mindset when we step into the building um when we get back. We can beat anybody, but I mean, we’ve shown that we can lose to anybody. Um and so, we got to be more consistent. Tough road ahead for Kansas City. With the loss, the Chiefs see their playoff chances drop from 63% to 46% according to ESPN analytics. Kansas City has reached the at least the AFC Championship game in every season with Mahomes as the starting quarterback and has not missed the playoffs since 2014. Stephen A, how much trouble is this Chiefs team in? They’re in a world of trouble. There’s no doubt. And I think that Patrick Holmes said it best. They have to win every game. They can’t afford to lose another game. Yep. It’s just that simple. They can’t they can’t afford to lose another game. They knew they lose another game, they’re done. Now, here’s what I will say. The Chiefs have some elite defenses to go up against in the Texans and the Broncos. The Chargers ain’t shabby either. Tennessee and Vegas, that’s a gimme. But those three games against the Texans, the Chargers, and the Broncos, uh, that offense of the Chiefs got they they they got a bonafide defense to go up against. Yes, sir. The flip side to it, the flip side to it is that none of them are what I would label a prolific offense and be like the Dallas Cowboys, for example. So because of that, they’re still winnable games for the Chiefs and I could see them winning four of the next five. My issue is I think they need to win all five games. All five games. If they can’t afford a single loss, if the Chiefs lose one more game, I don’t think they make the playoffs. You saw the schedule there, Cam. It’s Texans, Chargers, and Raiders. Some of those harder games are at Arrowhead. So that might be the saving grace here. Do you see it the same way? Do you think they’re in this world of trouble? Uh, I don’t think that they’re in a world of trouble. I think they’re they’re sensitive to playing at a more expedited rate for them to win. Uh, all that to say, the best thing that the Kansas City Chiefs has going for themselves is they have the most got to have it pressured quarterback this game has seen since Tom Brady. It’s almost like when the going gets tough, insert a Patrick Mahomes. It’s like, oh, we got to win this. Okay, insert Patrick Mahomes. Hey, this is a must-have type of game type of down type of situ where we will start to see the greatness of him and knowing that he has to win all of the games in order for them to have a opportunity to make it to the playoffs. And even if they do, they still need some help. These are the reasons why people say and witness the greatness of Patrick Mahomes and he will not let the Kansas City Chiefs down. The question is how much trouble they’re in. Um, you kind of young, Courtney, but they’re in as much trouble as Kurt Russell was in in Little China, right? Big trouble in Little China was the name of the movie. You should look it up. I’m familiar with that one, but that’s what I want to watch on my way down to Yes, that’s actually very good. And in keeping with the the the movie themes or the TV themes, y’all remember like the first season of Stranger Things, like before everybody got bouted when Eleven was just carrying Lucas and Dustin and Mike. That’s who Patrick Mahomes is right now. He’s like Eleven in the first season where he’s trying to do everything he can and he just walking out every single game with his nose bloody because he’s straining like hell to move stuff and protect all these people while they find will. Patrick Mahomes has been playing like Cam says it the entire season from week one when they lost to the Chargers and he’s running over people looking like Cam Newton on the sideline. Patrick Mahomes been playing got to have it football. Last week against the Colts, he’s playing got to have it football. Against the Broncos when they lose and he’s outdoed by Bo Nicks late in the game, he’s playing got to have it football. Patrick Mahomes has been the player with a sense of urgency the entire season. It’s everybody else that has to raise their level of pit. I want to is how much of it’s the defense because remember remember Stephen A we talked so much about those one-sore games 11 and0 last year and one score games they’re one and six in one score games this year. That’s true. That that’s true. But the problem is is that even though even though the defense hasn’t been exceptional they’ve been good enough. You’ve given Patrick Mahome Mahomes the ball on several occasions in one score games and they came up short. We can’t ignore that. Okay. They were 12-0 last year. They got like a one and six or something like that this year. Okay, so that’s a problem. That’s number one. Number two, Cam and RC. You got to remember the Chiefs have already lost to the Bills and the Jaguars. So the tiebreaker goes to those two teams, right? So, you know, you you you’re looking at you already lost to them and they’re expected to be wild card teams in all likelihood, right? You got a game coming up against the Texans. Now, they got the Colts first, but you got a game coming up against the Texans. You got to win that game. you got the Chargers ahead of you. You got to win that game. These are the It’s like it’s right there for Kansas City to win, but it’s also right there for them to lose. There’s some control of their own destiny, but it’s for that very, very, very last postseason spot because you got the division winners and then you’ve got two wild card teams that they’ve already lost to. So, the tiebreaker will go to them. And then you got the Chargers and the Texans, at least at this particular moment in time, that are ahead of them. and they’re both on Kansas City schedule. That’s why Patch Mahomes said, “We can’t lose a game. We can’t lose another game because the team that you lose to in all likelihood will be one of the teams you’re battling for for that last wild card playoff spot. They can’t afford to lose a game.” Cam, do you think that the AFC being as open as it is? Like there’s no dominant team this year the way it’s been before. Does that help or hurt Kansas City? Oh, it helps them for sure. I think the thing when when when watching Kansas City play in each of the last three or five games is these are the three things that we are not used to seeing in a collective effort in games. It’s penalties, it’s mishaps, and it’s turnovers. Those that that is a death wish for any type of team to try to have at least one way to win or to have ways to win. We’ve seen uh uh the Kansas City Chiefs have those blemishes on their efforts to try to win. So now if they eliminate that, if you start to get back to the Kansas City Chiefs game uh team that play complimentary football in all three phases, if you start to give guys opportunities, it’s not just going to be on on Travis Kelce. It’s not just going to be on Patrick Mahomes. It’s not just going to be on the defense. These guys have opportunities that they’re are not capitalizing on. And in order for them to move forward, especially going up against the Texans, we know what they’re capable of doing obviously, but it’s going to take a collective effort that we’ve always seen the Kansas City Chiefs display moving forward. Yeah. 10 penalties for 119 yards yesterday, Stephen A. That is uncharacteristic of what we know this Kansas City team to be. Final word here. How do you see it? I I just think that, you know, listen, I got my eye on the Texans. Um I’m looking at a defense that’s top two in points allowed. Number one in yards allowed, number three uh in rush yards, in rush yards allowed, top five in pass yards. These brothers are something to behold. I’m just saying I’m watching their defense right now and I’m saying, you know what, you Kansas City, you going to beat them? CJ Strad is coming back. You You going to beat them? You going to beat them? I’m looking at everybody else on the schedule. But that Texans game is what I’m watching out for right there because Texans obviously in third place in the South behind Indie and Jacksonville and they’re trying to creep up. Make no mistake about it. That’s going to be an incredibly incredibly pivotal game a week from this Sunday. But first, obviously, they got to handle their business against the Colts. All right, we’ll leave this here. Plenty to get into from the Thanksgiving Day slate, including Jordan Love shining when it mattered the most yesterday against the Lions. How concerned should the NFC be about the Green Bay Packers? Plus, Lamar Jackson had another rough outing on Thursday, while Joe Cool returned in a big way. Wait until you hear what Stephen A has to say about both QBs. That’s next.

FIRST TAKE | Chiefs are in Danger! – Stephen A. Smith on Mahomes & KC are 6-6 after losing Cowboys