KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business, including Chiefs gameday coverage, and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
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If the NFL playoffs started next weekend, the only flights the Kansas City Chiefs would be booking would be to Cancun to begin the offseason.
After a fifth straight regular-season loss against the Buffalo Bills, 28-21 on Sunday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, the Chiefs head into their bye week at 5-4 overall.
Kansas City, which has won nine straight division titles, sits third in the AFC West and eighth in the AFC pecking order overall. Only the top seven teams make the postseason.
“It’s going to be an uphill battle when we get back, but I think our guys are up to it,” Patrick Mahomes said.
The Chiefs have been to three consecutive Super Bowls and five of the last six. Qualifying for the playoffs hasn’t been a worry since Mahomes took the reins as the franchise’s quarterback with an MVP season in 2018.
In fact, Kansas City, which had never hosted a conference title game until that season, has reached seven straight AFC Championship Games, hosting six of them.
But the Chiefs would be on the outside looking in — and they have no room for error upon returning to action in Week 11.
Kansas City, whose three-game win streak was snapped at Buffalo, plays at division-leading Denver (7-2) on Nov. 16 before hosting division-leading Indianapolis (7-2) on Nov. 23.
The Chiefs then have a short week before a Thanksgiving afternoon showdown at Dallas (3-4-1) and a Sunday Night Football battle with a desperate Houston (3-5) squad on Dec. 7.
“There’s no easy game coming up and there’s no more chances that we can really take losses,” Mahomes said.
After going 12-0 in one-score games last season, Mahomes and company are 0-4 in one-score contests in 2025.
“We’ve been in a lot of these tight, close games in our history, but they’re not going our way now,” Mahomes said. “So, how can we deal with that adversity? How can we be better and learn from it? You can only learn from so many losses. You’ve got to learn from it fast.”
That will be the goal during the bye week.
“We’ve got a week off to get some guys healthy, look over this game, correct some errors and get back to it,” defensive end Chris Jones said. “… I don’t think we need to make any drastic changes. I feel like we have the guys to do it. I think more so it’s about the details — details in our work, looking ourselves in the mirror and holding ourselves accountable.”
The Chiefs seemingly had turned a corner, especially after Rashee Rice returned to the lineup from a six-game suspension, but Sunday’s dud against the Bills may have waylaid any chance at the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC.
“We’ve had great moments; we’ve had bad moments,” Mahomes said. “We’ve got to be more consistent as a team. I’ve got to be more consistent at quarterback.”
Not that Mahomes is worried about that, or a possible postseason rematch with Buffalo, at the season’s midpoint.
“We’ve got to get there first,” Mahomes said of the playoffs. “We’ve got a lot of good teams in our division and they’re playing really good football. We’re down there in third place right now, so we’ve got to get back and get ourselves right.”
It starts with a visit to the rival Broncos, where the Chiefs haven’t won since 2022.
“We’re going to come back ready to play Denver,” Jones vowed.
Mahomes added, “That’ll be a huge game for us. How can we respond this bye week, getting ourselves better and self-scouting ourselves so we can be better and go up against a tough divisional opponent?”
Hopefully, he finds some answers, but Kansas City hasn’t had them too often so far this season.
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