With control of the AFC West on the line, the Kansas City Chiefs found about 100 different ways to not win Sunday afternoon's football game in Mile High Stadium against the rival Denver Broncos.
Whether it be Steve Spagnuolo's defense's inability to crush the pocket on Bo Nix on crucial plays, their lack of cohesive and communicative play on the back end, and two separate touchdowns allowed to the Broncos on fourth down inside the five-yard line, the defense did not do their part for all 60 minutes of this football game.
Nor did the offense, and perhaps even more so. Despite being one yard shy of 400 total yards on offense, the Chiefs could not pick up the extra one or two yards when it mattered most. On multiple occasions. And the bulk of it lies at the feet of Andy Reid.
Andy Reid deserves the bulk of the blame for a back-and-forth Chiefs loss
Kansas City, which in the past prided itself on being one of the more disciplined teams in the NFL, accounted for over 100 yards of penalties on 11 flags. The most costly one was a false start called on right tackle Jaylon Moore with the game on the line, just before Mahomes tossed what would have been the game-winning touchdown pass to Rashee Rice as the clock expired.
It wiped away the score, backed the Chiefs up five yards, and led to a frantic play in which Mahomes was sacked for the first time in the entire contest, ending the game and giving Denver the lead in the division.
Questions will be asked, and rightfully so, about Reid's late-game management of that drive and why, with a timeout in his pocket and time to spare, he did not just bring the big guys out and run the ball down Denver's throat. Or, better yet, just ran a QB sneak.
Look, Andy, I get it. Mahomes dislocated his kneecap seven years ago in a playoff game on a QB sneak. But it is just indefensible that in a situation like that, the Chiefs choose not to run the most obvious play that 31 other teams would have called and probably had a close to 90% chance of scoring.
But that wasn't the only mismanaged coaching decision by the highly decorated Reid. Another came the drive before, when he trotted out the much-maligned and, frankly, horribly performing for years now Harrison Butker to kick a 54-yard field goal in the rain to put the Chiefs up six.
He rather could have punted the ball, pinned Denver inside their own 10 and made Bo Nix, a famously sheepish quarterback drive the length of the field with two minutes left. Instead, he chose to trust the guy who has yet to make a 50-plus yard kick this year, and to nobody's surpsie but his, Butker wasn't even close.
This loss will stain the Chiefs for the rest of the season. It has major division implications, as well as playoff seeding complications, as the once one-seed Chiefs now fall to a Wild Card spot. It's a game that was there for the taking, and Reid and his team blew it. A very clear, indefensible loss by Kansas City, who now travel back to Arrowhead on a two-game losing streak and in search of answers on multiple fronts.
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