Welp… at least we ate well.

On Thanksgiving Day, the Kansas City Chiefs managed to take another step back in the AFC playoff race with a 31-28 road loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Here are a few Chiefs who stood out on a very rough day.

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Quarterback Patrick Mahomes: The guy continues to make plays, even when they don’t result in a win. He’s not perfect, but he’s still dragging his team to the cusp of victory each week. Unfortunately, his teammates don’t always come through for him.

Tight end Jared Wiley: The box score only has one catch for four yards — but the tight end was impactful as a blocker, taking over tight end Noah Gray’s duties admirably.

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Special teamer Kevin Knowles II and punter Matt Araiza: The punter dropped four of his five punts (and nearly the fifth one) inside the 20-yard line. On consecutive failed offensive drives, Araiza had near-perfect punts — and Knowles was right there to down each of them inside the 5-yard line. Field position matters — and on Thursday, these guys did what they could to flip the field in Kansas City’s favor.

Wide receiver Rashee Rice and tight end Travis Kelce: They combined for eight catches, 137 yards and three touchdowns. The team’s No. 1 wide receiver and history’s No. 1 tight end continue to be the offense’s most reliable playmakers. They generated half of the team’s passing yards, along with 75% of the scores.

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Wide receiver Rashee Rice and tight end Travis Kelce: Yes, the wide receiver and tight end are making a rare double-list appearance. For all of their production, each has had critical drops in multiple games this season, which seems to derail a drive like little else can. Down a touchdown against the Cowboys with 11 minutes to go, the Chiefs had a golden opportunity. A good punt return by Nikko Remigio set up a drive that should have tied the score with plenty of time left. Instead, two drops — and a penalty charged to guard Mike Caliendo — led to what was, effectively, a three-and-out. That allowed Dallas to get a two-score lead on its next drive.

Running back Brashard Smith: After making some plays last week, there was hope that the running back was finding his role in the offense. But against Dallas, he was in for only four offensive plays — and never touched the ball. While he did show off his speed on a kick return, the coaches need to find a logical way to use him. Yes.., running back Isiah Pacheco was back in the lineup, so there were fewer snaps to go around. But that shouldn’t mean that one of Kansas City’s fastest playmakers should be sidelined.

Head coach Andy Reid: The offense punted on both second-quarter drives and both third-quarter drives. All four of those punts were between the Kansas City 49-yard line and the Dallas 35-yard line. After sacks and penalties pushed them to longer yardage, Reid shouldn’t necessarily have tried to convert every one of these fourth downs, but at least one might have been feasible. In these situations, the Chiefs aren’t putting playmakers in position to do what they do best (for example: wide receiver Xavier Worthy’s stop-motion carry for a loss). The penalties were maddening — 10 for 119 yards — and that’s on the coaches, too. On game day, the head coach’s job includes adjustments, creativity, good decisions and the right personnel in the right places. On Thursday, Reid’s performance just wasn’t good enough.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo: Speaking of the right personnel in the right places… we need to keep calling out the defense’s boss until the rotation of his defensive backs makes more sense. Nohl Williams might be the best outside cover corner on the squad — so of course, he got only six snaps against the Dallas passing attack. Cornerback Trent McDuffie is the team’s best inside/slot corner. He literally has only one weakness: receivers like the Cowboys’ wideouts George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. So why would Kansas City have him follow Lamb around the field, picking up pass-interference calls along the way?

Cornerback Trent McDuffie: Let me be clear: I do not blame the cornerback for how he performed on Thursday. As soon as it became clear the officials would penalize McDuffie whenever the big receivers manhandled him, the coaching staff should have adjusted the plan. Teams usually don’t target McDuffie because his guy usually isn’t open — but with Lamb and Pickens playing like that, open didn’t matter. It was a bad matchup for the All-Pro corner, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a great player. He deserves to be paid this offseason — but after what we saw on Thanksgiving, his price may have gone down a bit. He gave up more catches, yards, touchdowns and pass-interference calls than ever before in his pro career.

Defensive back Chamarri Conner: If we don’t blame McDuffie for being put in a bad spot by the coaching staff, we should extend that same courtesy to Conner. He has a couple of things he does really well — including tackling and blitzing. But he’s become an easy target in coverage, allowing a 140.1 passer rating when targeted. It reminds me of the situation with former safety Dan Sorensen: when Kansas City blitzed, it had to send him. If Conner is left in coverage — just like with Sorensen — it’s an easy completion for opposing offenses.

Chiefs’ offensive line depth: Coming into this game on a short week without guard Trey Smith? That wasn’t ideal. But to then lose both starting tackles during the game? That put the group into a terrible place. It feels like they can get by with either Caliendo, center Hunter Nourzad or tackle Wanya Morris on the field — but with all three playing at once, the offense became ineffective, subjecting Mahomes to far too many hits and sacks. Yes… a couple of those sacks were insanely late in the play (indicating nobody was open and the quarterback was trying to keep it alive), but many pressures were quick and disruptive — and some running plays were doomed from the snap. The trainers will be working overtime this week, but losing tackle Josh Simmons (likely for the season) means we may have to see more of the deep depth.

Defensive end George Karlaftis: Defensive tackle Chris Jones was fighting, but he can’t do it alone. At some point, Karlaftis has to get some one-on-one wins — or the pass rush will never be good enough to get off the field on third-and-long. Over the past couple of seasons, he’s shown flashes of improvement, which led the team to pay him $22 million per year until 2030. But the production has to improve. There isn’t some magical pass rusher who will join this team and change its fate. It has to come from Karlaftis.

Please note: the labels “winners” and “losers” are not judgments of talent or character. They simply reflect single-game performance. No disrespect is intended.