Arlington, Texas — After another one-point loss to kansas city chiefsthis time is falling 31-28 till dallas cowboys On Thanksgiving, quarterback patrick mahomes Summed up the team’s disappointing plight.
“You’ve got to win every game now — and hopefully that’s enough,” Mahomes said of the Chiefs’ effort to make the postseason with five games left in the regular season.
With a 6-6 record and outside the AFC playoff picture, the Chiefs’ chances of clinching a postseason berth dropped from 63% to 47% on Thursday, according to ESPN Analytics. All five remaining games on the Chiefs’ schedule begin Dec. 7 houston texansWill also be against AFC opponents. Mahomes understands that every game for the Chiefs is essentially a play-in game to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“We’re going to play a lot of good teams coming up,” Mahomes said. “If we’re going to make the playoffs, we have to win all the games. That’s the mentality we have to have when we walk into this.” [training facility] When we get back.”
Just four days earlier, the Chiefs believed they had won an important win – and their most impressive win of the season – when they overcame an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat the Chiefs. indianapolis colts,
The Chiefs also started Thursday’s game well. The Chiefs’ blitz on the opening possession led to a cornerback. jaylen watson stopping the quarterback dak prescottThe turnover set up Mahomes’ 27-yard touchdown pass to receiver Rashi RiceIn fact, in his first NFL start at AT&T Stadium, a little more than 100 miles from his hometown of Tyler, Texas, Mahomes threw four touchdown passes and frequently used his legs to escape the pocket,
But according to ESPN Research, Thursday was the first time in the Mahomes era — since 2018, when he became the starter — that the Chiefs lost a game when their quarterback threw at least four touchdown passes and no interceptions. Before Thursday, the Chiefs were 12-0 in such games.
“We can beat anybody, but we’ve shown we can lose to anybody,” Mahomes said. “We’ve got to be more consistent. We’ve had big games and we’ve had runs where we can really score at any time, but we’ve got to be consistent for four quarters, especially when you play good teams and they have a good offense.”
For most of the second half, Mahomes operated the Chiefs’ offense without his starting right tackle (young taylor) and left tackle (rookie josh simmonsTaylor, a seven-year veteran, missed the second half with a left triceps strain.
And Mahomes is expected to be without Simmons, the Chiefs’ first-round pick, for a long time. Late in the third quarter, Simmons left the game due to a left wrist injury. Simmons left the locker room with his left wrist and arm in a sling. According to a source, test results revealed that Simmons’ left wrist was dislocated and fractured.
The Chiefs also started without a game. Trey SmithWho sprained his right ankle against the Colts. However, Mahomes was still able to lead the Chiefs to two touchdown drives jaylon moore As his right tackle and vanya morris As a left tackle.
“Hopefully we can get some of these guys back and get them healthy in this extended week that we have,” Mahomes said of the 10 days the Chiefs will have to rest and recover before hosting the Texans.
Thursday’s game was the third time this season that Mahomes watched the opposing offense run out while leading by one point.
The Chiefs’ defense struggled against the Cowboys’ powerful passing attack. Prescott was never sacked, and the pressure from the Chiefs did not affect him much. According to Next Gen Stats, Prescott was pressured on 36% of his dropbacks, his third-highest pressure percentage in a game this season. But Prescott, who finished with 320 passing yards and two touchdowns, responded by completing 11 of his 14 attempts under pressure, his most completions in a game in his 10-year career.
Whether longtime defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo led the attack or not, his unit allowed a season-high nine conversions on third downs, which tied for second in a regular season game under Spagnuolo, who joined the team in 2019. Watson and fellow cornerbacks Trent McDuffie could not cover effectively cd lamb And george pickensThe Cowboys’ two best receivers.
“The rush and the coverage have to work together, and we have to figure out a way to get them off the field,” defensive end George Karlaftis Said. “It’s on defense. We’ve got a few days off and now we have to dig deep.”
Once again, in another close loss, coach Andy Reid and nearly every player in the Chiefs locker room mentioned a frustrating factor: penalties. The Chiefs committed 10 penalties for 119 yards, the most in their win in a game since Week 14 of 2019. new England Patriots (136).
“The main thing is we are giving up a lot of penalties and we have to make sure we take care of that,” Reed said. “There’s no excuses with this. We’ll work on cleaning it up. People know. They understand we’ve got to clean up some things.”
“As coaches we have to perform better. As players we have to perform better. You go back to the drawing board and keep working.”
