It’s pretty rare for the Kansas City Chiefs to be playing one of the most important games on the slate in Week 14 of a given NFL season.
This time last year, this team was 11-1 and had already punched its ticket for the 2024 NFL playoffs. This year, they’re holding on for dear life. A loss to the Houston Texans would all but guarantee that KC will miss the postseason for the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era.
This isn’t just a must-win game for the Chiefs, though. At 7-5, the Texans are also outside of the current AFC playoff picture. They have a bit more margin for error, but dropping to Kansas City would cut their chances of making the postseason to under 50 percent. This is virtually a “play-in” game for both teams. For the Chiefs, every week moving forward is essentially an elimination game.