For the Kansas City Chiefs, it must be hard to believe that it was less than two years ago that they were standing on a makeshift podium, covered in confetti, in the middle of Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, on Feb. 11, 2024, celebrating their second straight Super Bowl victory and third in five years.
Those jubilant times are just a distant memory now, especially after the Chiefs lost their seventh game of the season on Sunday, falling to the Houston Texans 20-10, after allowing 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
The loss was Kansas Cityâs second in a row and fourth in their past five games, dropping their record below .500 at 6-7, leaving their hopes of making the playoffs at all â much less winning another Super Bowl â on life support.
But that dispiriting defeat was not even the worst news to hit the Chiefs in Week 14. The news got even uglier the following night, when the results from the weekâs Monday Night Football showdown drove another nail into the Chiefsâ coffin, even as they get ready to face the Los Angeles Chargers in what amounts to a must-win game on Sunday.
Chargers Somehow Win on MNF
The Chargers faced the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night, and in a bizarre and sloppy game that featured an astonishing eight turnovers â five by Philadelphia, three for the Chargers â Los Angeles somehow came away with a 22-19 overtime win when Chargers kicker Cameron Dickerâs 54-yard field goal was followed, by the fourth interception of the night thrown by Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, ending the game.
And with that interception by Chargers 11-year veteran safety Tony Jefferson, the Chiefs saw their playoff hopes smothered.
The Chiefs finish Week 14 in 10th place in the AFC standings, by virtue of a tiebreaker over the Miami Dolphins, whose record also stands at 6-7.
Chiefs Must Defeat Chargers on Sunday
The win jumped the Chargers to the No. 5 slot, leaving the Chiefs almost no hope of catching them in the AFC West â even if they somehow defeat Los Angeles at Arrowhead Stadium in a 1 p.m. Eastern game on Sunday, to be televised by CBS.
But the worst news from the Chargers Monday win is that the Chiefs absolutely must win Sunday’s game to save their hopes of grabbing a wild-card spot in the conference from dropping below 1 percent, according to the Athleticâs playoff predictor, which ran about 100,000 computer simulations of the remainder of the season to arrive at that estimate.
However, if the Chiefs can defeat the Chargers, their chance of making the playoffs rises from 12 percent where it stands now, to 19 percent, according to the Athletic statistical model. Thatâs about a one-in-five chanceânot great, but not impossible either.
Chiefs Tough Playoff Outlook
With six wins and four games remaining on the schedule, obviously the Chiefs can finish the season with a maximum of 10 wins. To make the playoffs, they of course need to win all four games.
If they somehow pull that feat off, they also need the Houston Texans to win no more than one game of their last four. If the Chiefs and Texans finish tied at 10 wins, Houston prevails based on Sundayâs head-to-head win. If the Buffalo Bills, now 9-4, finish with only 10 wins, they also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over Kansas City based on a 28-21 victory in Week 9.
The Chiefsâ best hope, albeit a distant one, is to beat the Chargers Sunday and hope that Los Angeles wins no more than one more game. That way, the tiebreaker would go to the team with the better record against common opponents.
In a scenario that sees the Chiefs win four in a row, and the Chargers finish 1-3, Los Angeles could do no better than a 6-4 record against the two teamsâ common opponents. But the Chiefs would finish at 7-3, giving them the edge over the Chargers.
The Chiefs would also need Houston to lose at least three of its last four games, however. Otherwise the Chiefs finish an ugly season by missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014.
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