KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With a Christmas Day loss, the Kansas City Chiefs’ hopes for a first-round bye as the AFC’s top seed vanished as quickly as Santa Claus up a chimney.
There was a path to the No. 1 seed — and not a ridiculous one either, given Baltimore’s schedule — but the Las Vegas Raiders ended those dreams and prevented the Chiefs from clinching a division title in the process.
“As a team, we felt like we missed an opportunity today,” linebacker Nick Bolton said.
Kansas City (9-6), which has lost four of six games since its bye week, still controls its own fate in the AFC West, but it’s getting harder for fans to see the forest through the barren, empty trees.
“As a team for us now, it’s about pushing and pulling — pulling each other together and pushing each other throughout the week, so we can get better,” said defensive tackle Chris Jones, who had a sack and three QB hits.
If Kansas City wins Sunday against Cincinnati in the home finale or Jan. 7 at the Los Angeles Chargers, it also wins an eighth straight division crown.
One loss and/or tie by both Denver and Las Vegas, who meet in Week 18, also delivers the Chiefs another AFC West title and the home playoff game that comes with it.
“We’ve just got to get through this,” coach Andy Reid said. “We get through this and we’ll be all right.”
But Kansas City can no longer catch Miami (11-4) and Baltimore (11-3), who still had to play San Francisco later Christmas night.
The Dolphins and Ravens meet in Week 17, so one team will get to 12 wins or, with a tie, they’d both avoid matching the Chiefs’ six losses.
“You’ve just got to get in,” said wide receiver Justin Watson, who won Super Bowl LV with Tampa Bay after it made the postseason as a Wild Card team. “I know people here are accustomed to all the home playoff games and the first-round bye, but we don’t care if it’s easy. Nothing this whole second half of the season has been easy. Give us a chance to play and let’s do our thing.”
The mission remains the same as last week — win a game, punch a playoff ticket.
“I still believe that we can go do what we want to do,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “It’s just — how can we correct it as quickly as possible?”
It’s a familiar refrain, but Kansas City isn’t going to stop believing that there’s still time to fix the issues that have plagued it — pre-snap discipline, decision-making in route running, focus when making the catch, creating more turnovers, etc.
“You see glimpses of it,” Mahomes said. “You see glimpses of us moving the football, you see glimpses of us scoring in the red zone. We just haven’t consistently done it enough game after game.”
If they ever do, Mahomes believes another Super Bowl is possible — even if it feels increasingly unlikely among pundits and fans.
“If we clean it up, we’ll be able to score points, but we’ve got to clean it up,” Mahomes said. “We’ve got two games left, so we have to do it. If we don’t, we’ll be going home. But if we clean it up, we can beat anybody. I truly believe that.”
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