The Chiefs have sailed close to real trouble before righting the ship and advancing to the Super Bowl in more than one recent season. But this year they’ve encountered the choppiest waters yet as they sit at 6-6 and need to rip off four or five wins down the stretch in order to secure a ticket to the postseason.
Football is a game of inches, the NFL has never had more parity, and it feels like more than half of any team’s contests are decided by one or two plays. Unfortunately for Kansas City, all of the good breaks have broken bad and they’re making fewer winning plays. A year after going an almost unbelievable 11-0 in one-score games, the Chiefs are 0-5 this season in one-score games.
This is an incredibly frustrating development, and the inablity to close games at the end may ultimately prove fatal for their season. Yet Travis Kelce is looking at things with a glass half-full. Or doing some bargaining, based on comments he made on the most recent episode of New Heights.
“I’m sure everyone is sick of us saying it, but we’re a few plays away from being a one seed in my mind,” Kelce said of his team’s close calls.
“All of the losses are within one score, and there’s a handful of plays within those games that are determining the outcome,” he continued. “It’s hard, it’s plays like my drop against the Eagles, it’s penalties that are keeping us behind the sticks, it’s coming away with three points instead of touchdowns in some games, it’s crazy that you watch the film and you see what’s real, and what’s real is we’re f–ing this close, man, we’re this f–ing close.”
He’s not wrong. Kansas City, in a slightly different world, could be challenging the Patriots for the No. 1 seed and homefield throughout the playoffs. But so could a lot of other teams. What he’s talking about is the difference between winning and losing, the whole reason for playing the games. There are no prizes for being close. And losing a lot of close football games might be a pretty good sign that you’re on a mediocre football team.
It’s going to be really entertaining to see Kelce and the Chiefs try to mount a late-season rally and keep their dynasty alive. Their ultimate fate, like ever year, is going to come down to a few plays. If they can get back to the business of making them, then we’ll look back at their slow start as just another detour on the path to the Super Bowl. If not, Kelce and his teammates will have plenty of time for the what-ifs.
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