Chiefs' alternate reality: Kansas City would be 2-11 if their one-score game results were flipped in 2024

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Patrick Mahomes gets the ball, the Kansas City Chiefs drive down the field in the final seconds and win the game. 

Or how about this: the Chiefs defense comes through with a clutch fourth-down play to ice a victory. 

Andy Reid’s crew has pulled this off for the past few years, as this Chiefs team has developed into a dynasty. However, the 2024 season has been so crazy when it comes to last-second wins or close games for Kansas City, that even the head coach has to smile talking about it. 

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"It’s a unique year," Reid told reporters after his team’s latest game-winning, field-goal victory. "They’re all unique, [but] this one is unique from the standpoint that we’ve had a lot of close games. We’ve been able to battle through some things to get these victories. I’m sure we’ll continue to do that."

Ask Mahomes, Travis Kelce and others on the Chiefs, and they’ll tell you they don’t want to be in this position every single week. However, the reality of the NFL is great teams win those close games, and the Chiefs do it constantly. 

In fact, if the results were flipped this season in games the Chiefs won by one score or less, they would be 2-11 at the bottom of the barrel in the NFL standings. 

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The Chiefs just do not lose close games. After Sunday night’s win over the Chargers, when Matthew Wright doinked the game-winner off the left upright, but it somehow managed to go through, the Chiefs extended their wins-in-one-score-games streak to 15 straight, which is simply unheard of. 

It has also created this villain arc for Kansas City, which usually comes with the territory of winning a lot of games. As a matter of fact, Mahomes won his 101st game as a starter in the NFL – he has played 127 games. 

Looking back at some of these games, it’s crazy to think the Chiefs walked away victorious. 

It all started in Week 1 as Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was using Isaiah Likely on a potential game-winning drive if head coach John Harbaugh chose to go for two if they scored a touchdown. 

That’s what appeared to happen when Jackson, dancing around the pocket, lasered a pass to Likely as the clock ticked zero in the fourth quarter, and his tight end snagged it. However, after video replay, Likely’s toe – now infamous – was on the white boundary in the back of the end zone. He was ruled out and the Chiefs won 27-20. 

That next week, the Cincinnati Bengals head to GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium for the latest chapter in the Mahomes-Joe Burrow rivalry. The Bengals, coming off a bad loss to the New England Patriots in their home opener, needed a stop on 4th-and-16 with 48 seconds remaining and a two-point lead. 

Mahomes heaved a pass to Rashee Rice, and it went incomplete. However, yellow flags flew, calling safety Daijahn Anthony for pass interference, flipping the field in the Chiefs’ favor, and Harrison Butker did what he does best: kicking a game-winning field goal in the 26-25 win. 

The list goes on and on, from Week 3’s controversial no-call of defensive pass interference on Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts to the Denver Broncos having their game-winning field goal blocked in Week 10. Kansas City’s last three wins have been decided by three points or fewer, two of which ended on game-winning field goals. 

Again, this is what separates the great teams from the pack. The Chiefs have players like Mahomes, Kelce, Isiah Pacheco, DeAndre Hopkins and many others who have been battled tested and know they can win a game no matter what the clock says. 

The question now becomes whether it is sustainable as the regular season moves into the playoffs. The Chiefs clinched their ninth straight AFC West title after beating the Chargers, and just four games remain to see if they can retain that No. 1 overall seed in the AFC. 

For 15 straight games, almost a full season, it has been sustainable for these Chiefs to come through in crunch time, and they have back-to-back Lombardi Trophies to show for it. 

If they are to make it three in a row this season, which has never been done before in league history, it is more than likely one-score victories are coming their way. 

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