The Kansas City Chiefs’ Week 14 matchup with the Houston Texans is truly a do-or-die game. In a battle between two playoff hopefuls, the pressure is on Kansas City to avoid a de facto elimination with a seventh loss.
The Chiefs are feeling it from the top down. In recent weeks, head coach Andy Reid has repeatedly pointed out his team’s lack of execution — and did so again in Wednesday’s press briefing
“What we need to do is take care of some of the little things, the penalty things,” he declared. “They take you out of drives, so you’re not scrambling as you go there. You have to clean that up.”
Kansas City has drawn 102 penalty flags this season, the league’s tenth-highest mark.
“[For] some of that,” continued Reid, “we have to give the guys the right plays to try to execute to their strengths. Coaching is part of it — [and] playing is part of it. We all have a piece of that pie.”
As we might expect, quarterback Patrick Mahomes assumes more than his share of the responsibility for these issues.
“More than anything, we just have to execute at a higher level,” he said. “I feel like we’ve done a lot of good things — but at the same time, we’ve made a lot of mistakes that we haven’t been able to overcome. We have to be better in those bigger moments, not make those mistakes — and at the end of the day, go prove it… I believe that’s something we can do.”
It has become a common theme in the losses: faltering in key stretches of the contest. Against the Dallas Cowboys, the Chiefs were outscored 13-0 in the second and third quarter — despite having the last drive of the first half and the opening drive of the second. In the 22-19 loss to the Denver Broncos, Kansas City managed one scoring drive in the fourth quarter, while the Broncos had three.
Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images
“If you look at every game that we’ve lost this year, we’ve been right in it up until the end,” noted Mahomes. “But we haven’t made those plays. We’re definitely close. [But] like I’ve said these last few weeks, [while] we can be close, we can’t be close for too long. You have to go out there and make it happen.”
On “Sunday Night Football,” Houston will come in with a vaunted defense that has allowed a league-low 16.5 points (and 266 total yards) per game. This battle could play out as a low-scoring brawl, which requires the Chiefs’ defense to match both the intensity and execution of the Texans.
That will take a focused effort — with higher energy — from the defenders and special teams contributors. Cornerback Trent McDuffie believes each of those phases needs to get locked in.
“I think each group — defense, offense, special teams — kind of have to clean them up on their own,” he observed. “When you look at the games where we do really good, it’s a cohesive unit. Everybody is playing on the same court — [and] everybody is doing their responsibility at a high level. We have success that way.
[But] when guys come in and one person makes a mistake — [and] then one person over here makes a mistake —it has that trickling effect. That’s sometimes when we get in trouble.”
Over the next month, the team will need consistency to return to its potential. That, however, is easier said than done. While patience is a virtue, that may not be realistic for a team with its back against the wall.
“I think it’s tough, in a sense, that we like to win,” reflected Mahomes. “We all know it’s a process — and we all know that we just have to continue to give ourselves a chance and continue to get better. [But] when you have a lot of guys that like to win, it’s tough when you lose.”
Center Creed Humphrey understands the step-by-step mentality that is now required.
“It’s about showing up every day,” he said. “It’s about coming in on game day, executing, doing your job, things like that… The ship’s not sinking or anything. We’re still right where we need to be: just making sure we’re coming in and proving it each week.”
In Kansas City, the glass is half full — and that attitude could make a world of difference as the team attempts to defy the odds.
“I think that’s one thing that makes us great: that no one is hanging their head,” said Mahomes. “Everybody is ready to go out there and prove ourselves this next week… It’s a great opportunity at Arrowhead to showcase who we think we can be the rest of this season. It starts on Sunday.”
See More:
