KC Chiefs once again fail to close out game despite big lead

The KC Chiefs barely beat the Miami Dolphins, once again allowing an opponent to stay in the game until the very end.

Sooner or later, not closing out a game is going to come back and bite the Kansas City Chiefs. Their narrow 33-27 victory over the feisty Miami Dolphins came down to the bitter end, as Harrison Butker essentially clinched it with a late field goal to put KC up by nine with a little over a minute left.

This was a very weird game for the Chiefs. They were down 10-0 in the first quarter, then rattled off 30 straight points, and then allowed the Dolphins to score two touchdowns and make a game of it. Part of the problem for the Chiefs was that their offense couldn’t hold onto the football, turning the pigskin over four times, including three interceptions by Patrick Mahomes.

Two of those interceptions came when the Chiefs were in scoring position and the fumble by Mecole Hardman was costly because the Chiefs were well on their way to scoring at that point too. Yet, each turnover continued to give the Dolphins a chance to stay in the game and they made it another nail biter.

This is now five straight games that have come down to the wire and this is going to be the KC Chiefs’ downfall in the playoffs.

I’ve been saying this for weeks now, but when it comes to putting their opponents away, the Chiefs aren’t doing it. They got up 30-10 after their miserable start and then had many opportunities to put the Dolphins away, but couldn’t execute. Some saw Hardman return the kickoff and thought that was the dagger, but nope. Chris Jones had a safety and that seemed to be the dagger, but once again, it wasn’t.

Finally, Tyreek Hill got the key first down on a 4th and 1, and rather than just fall down in bounds, Hill kept running and eventually ended up out of bounds. Had he just stayed in bounds, the clock keeps running (Miami was out of time outs) and the Chiefs can do a few kneel-downs to run out the clock.

It’s mistakes like these that are going to come back to bite the Chiefs in the playoffs. Yes, the team won and moved to 12-1 on the year, but it’s hard to be over the moon about this victory when they nearly coughed up a 20-point lead. The Chiefs can’t allow teams to hang around in the playoffs because they won’t be as lucky if that should happen.

But… With all of that said, the KC Chiefs won the AFC West for the fifth straight year and that’s definitely worth celebrating. Let’s just hope this team can finish the season strong and not continue to let these mistakes take away from how good this team can be.