Ever since their team\u2019s 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, Kansas City Chiefs fans have been in do-or-die mode. The associated mantra is that the Chiefs have to win out have a reasonable chance to get to the playoffs, and that mantra has even been repeated by Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s one little problem with all this\u2014it\u2019s not quite true. The Chiefs can still sneak into the postseason<\/a> without winning out, and Jesse Newell of The Athletic<\/a> provided a couple of intriguing scenarios as to how that might happen.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Specifically, Newell covered what happens if the Chiefs go 5-0 the rest of the way, along with a rundown of what happens if they go 4-1.<\/p>\n According to The Athletic\u2019s playoff simulator, the Chiefs would have a 98 percent chance of getting to the postseason if they win out. They\u2019d also need a loss from one of a few other AFC contenders in the coming weeks\u2014e.g., the Los Angeles Chargers or Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n Part of the reason for this optimism is that Kansas City will be facing several other playoff contenders, including the Houston Texans this Sunday, plus rematches with the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers. There\u2019s ground to be made up with tiebreakers there, which would definitely help.<\/p>\n Their odds of recapturing the AFC West title are still slim is the Chiefs go 5-0, however. According to Newell, the odds are still just 11 percent in a win-out scenario.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Even a 4-1 closing record doesn\u2019t seal them out, however. The Chiefs would have a 10-7 record if that happens, and they\u2019d still be in the hunt. This Sunday\u2019s game with the Texans becomes even more important in that scenario due to the tiebreakers, and a loss to Houston on Sunday would drop their playoff chances to 11 percent.<\/p>\n A 3-2 scenario for the rest of the year would make things especially gloomy, however. Kansas City could still make it in at 9-8, but their playoff chances max out at nine percent.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to put it all together for four quarters in this league,\u201d Mahomes said. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019ve been great at in the past \u2014 but it\u2019s not the past.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s absolutely right about that. The present involves overcoming a slew of offensive line injuries, and the Chiefs would need a comeback by Isiah Pacheco and more consistency from receiver Rashee Rice. It\u2019s not the most optimistic scenario, but it is possible, and until Kansas City is eliminated, the Chiefs and their fan base won\u2019t give up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ever since their team\u2019s 31-28 loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving, Kansas City Chiefs fans have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2063],"tags":[346,257,258,7,253,3188,51835,118,110,2438,2437,262,6,499,4000],"class_list":{"0":"post-576981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-kansas-city-chiefs","8":"tag-chiefs","9":"tag-dallas-cowboys","10":"tag-denver-broncos","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-houston-texans","13":"tag-isiah-pacheco","14":"tag-jesse-newell","15":"tag-kansas-city","16":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","17":"tag-kansascity","18":"tag-kansascitychiefs","19":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-patrick-mahomes","22":"tag-rashee-rice"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115664864164890640","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}