The Kansas City Chiefs suffered a gut-wrenching 22-19 loss to the Denver Broncos on Sunday. It was a game they were winning with five minutes left to play. But two Will Lutz field goals, including one as time expired, put the nails in the coffin. Now, at 5-5 and looking ahead, pundits like Richard Sherman don’t see a path for the Chiefs to make it into the playoffs.
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There’s no way to sugarcoat it for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs: they’ve been mediocre to this point. They aren’t playing like a team that has gone to five of the last six Super Bowls. And because of this, the playoff picture now looks tight for them.
Sherman put it bluntly when talking about KC’s struggles.
“It’s no straight path to the playoffs for the Chiefs,” the former CB admitted on his The Richard Sherman Podcast. “You really start to get concerned when you look at the way they lost. Patrick Mahomes was under duress a lot of this game. [They] just do not look comfortable defensively.”
This is exactly why the Chiefs’ season came to an end last year in the Super Bowl. Mahomes was pressured a ton, their defense was figured out, and they were eventually mollywhopped by the Philadelphia Eagles, 40-22.
This season, though, the main issue is that the Chiefs have lost their magic in one-score games. Last season, including the playoffs, Kansas City was 12-0 in such games. This year, all five of their losses have come by one score, and none of their wins have.
With all of that being said, going through the Chiefs’ next fixtures, Sherman just can’t see them making it into the postseason.
“They’re .500 right now, and I do not see a path for them,” Sherman stated. “They’ve got a tough game against the Colts next week. They got a winnable game against the Dallas Cowboys, but who knows how they’re going to play in that game.”
Eventually, after going through it all, Sherman came to the final record prediction of 10-7 for the Chiefs. “Is that good enough to get them in the playoffs this year? I guess we’ll see. It’s going to be tight,” he added.
10-7 might be good enough to get the AFC West club into the playoffs. But like Sherman said, they’re going to need help from others to get there. Teams like the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Los Angeles Chargers would need to slip up down the stretch, which could very well happen.
But at the end of the day, it’s going to be tight like Sherman said. The Baltimore Ravens are also 5-5, have picked up steam, and are looking for a playoff spot. Furthermore, the Texans own the tiebreaker over the Chiefs currently. So, Mahomes and company are going to have to be perfect from here on out.
