RM CHIEFS CLING TO PLAYOFF HOPES: Mahomes Says Kansas City Must Win Out After Thanksgiving Loss to Dallas

Since Patrick Mahomes became the Kansas City Chiefs’ starting quarterback, his lowest point had previously been an overtime defeat in the AFC Championship Game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
It has now happened twice — and this season could sink even further.

Five of Mahomes’ seven seasons as a starter have ended in Super Bowl appearances, but after a 31–28 Thanksgiving loss to the Cowboys, the once–Super Bowl-favored Chiefs are suddenly facing the possibility of missing the postseason entirely.

Kansas City sits at 6–6 with five games remaining — and virtually no room for mistakes.

“We’ve got to win every single one from here on out and hope it’s enough,” Mahomes said. “We’re about to face a lot of tough teams, and if we want to get into the playoffs, we’ve got to beat all of them. That has to be the mentality when we walk back into the building.”

The season began skidding off course with a Week 1 loss to the Chargers in São Paulo, Brazil. A narrow defeat in a Super Bowl LIX rematch with Philadelphia made things worse, and a Monday night loss in Jacksonville in Week 5 pushed the team further into trouble.

The Chiefs briefly revived their season with three straight wins — dominant showings against Detroit and Washington surrounding a shutout of Las Vegas — but dropping three of the last four has left Kansas City in a dangerous spot in the AFC race.

“We’ll bounce back,” defensive tackle Chris Jones insisted.

A dramatic overtime win over Indianapolis before the Week 10 bye was supposed to be the spark the team needed. Instead, the Thanksgiving loss — leaving Kansas City 1–6 in one-score games — showed more of the same inconsistency.

“We’ve got to be better as coaches and players,” head coach Andy Reid said. “You go back, study it, and keep working. We were close, but we gave away too many chances. When two good teams play, you can’t afford that.”

Kansas City opened strong, and Mahomes delivered a spectacular fourth quarter, but Dallas outplayed them 13–0 across the middle two quarters.

“Offense, defense, special teams — we have to put together four full quarters,” Mahomes said after throwing for 261 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. “We’ve done that in the past, but this isn’t the past. This is now, and you have to do it every week.”

The loss marked the first time since defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo arrived in 2019 that the Chiefs were defeated in a game where Mahomes threw at least four touchdown passes.

“Our ceiling is the Super Bowl,” Mahomes said. “We can beat anyone — but we’ve also shown we can lose to anyone. Consistency has to improve, and it starts with me.”

The Cowboys were arguably the toughest opponent remaining on Kansas City’s schedule — a short week on the road against a team surging at the trade deadline with an explosive passing attack.

The Chiefs’ final five games include three home matchups against winning teams: the Texans (Dec. 7), Chargers (Dec. 14), and Broncos (Dec. 25). Meanwhile, road trips to Tennessee (1–10) and Las Vegas (2–9) appear far more manageable.

“These next five are huge for us,” Jones said. “We’ve got to execute in all three phases. The upside is we’re back at Arrowhead for most of them.”

But Kansas City has another problem — even running the table might not be enough. The Chiefs are 3–4 in the AFC and 1–2 in the division, and they’ve already lost to all three teams currently holding AFC Wild Card positions. At 11–6, tiebreakers could easily work against them.

“We just have to keep believing in each other,” defensive end Mike Danna said.