Even this might not be enough. Even the Chiefs know this. They own almost none of the tiebreakers that’ll be essential a few weeks from now, when the playoff picture in the AFC really shakes out. The offense is still barely a whisper of what it used to be. Patrick Mahomes, for all the magic, seems to throw a brutal interception every week.
Still, it was hard to tell from the roar of the 73,611 faithful at Arrowhead Stadium when Harrison Butker’s 27-yard field goal sailed through the uprights at 8:03 of overtime Sunday in Kansas City. That faithful flock has grown used to things working out for the Chiefs far more often than not. One more time, in this 23-20 win over the Colts, things had worked out very well.
“The guys kept going, kept punching,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, his hoarse voice landscaped from the urgency of a 3 ½-hour search-and-recovery mission for his team’s season. “It took everybody and it took the whole game. But we got one.”
This is unfamiliar terrain for the Chiefs, who are generally easing into victory-lap mode by Thanksgiving, who are used to fighting for home games and the No. 1 seed after 11 games and 12 weeks. This year has been different. This year has been a struggle ever since a Week 1 loss to the Chargers in Brazil.