ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The 2024 Kansas City Chiefs are a whole different brand of annoying.
Bad enough for other NFL teams that the Chiefs have won the past two Super Bowls and feature all-world talent, but now they’re winning in ways Walt Disney couldn’t have dreamt and fellow Kansas City native Sylvia Brown couldn’t have foreseen.
Kansas City never has looked so vulnerable. Patrick Mahomes is having his worst season. Travis Kelce hasn’t been this pedestrian in a decade. If you drafted a few Chiefs for your fantasy team, then you probably have a losing record. Seven games have been decided by seven points or fewer. Four’ve come down to the final play.
Even so, the Chiefs are 9-0 and still betting favorites to win a third straight Lombardi Trophy.
One loss along the way, and the Buffalo Bills would take over first place in the AFC with a victory Sunday in Highmark Stadium.
But the Chiefs refuse to lose. On opening night, it took an overturned touchdown after Baltimore Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely’s toenail touched the end line as time expired. A week later, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker made a 51-yard field goal to beat the Cincinnati Bengals on the final snap. Two weeks ago, Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt scored in sudden death to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who fortuitously for the victors opted not to try a two-point conversion to win in regulation.
Then came a real groaner for the rest of the league and its fans. The Chiefs blocked a 35-yard field goal to reject the Denver Broncos’ last-second celebration. The Chiefs won despite posting a negative EPA on offense and defense, a combination that, entering Sunday, produced a 1-54 record this year.
“They’re just winners,” Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins said. “They’re consistent, and as a competitor, you have to respect that.
“Whatever you want to say about Mahomes and Kelce and anybody on their team, it’s not shocking they find ways to win because when you’re a Super Bowl-winning team, obviously, that’s just what happens.”
Sunday will be only the fifth matchup since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger when opponents with at least eight wins meet by Week 11.
The Chiefs have won 15 straight, including last year’s postseason, and can become the first team since the 1990 San Francisco 49ers to begin a season 10-0 after winning consecutive Super Bowls. Those 49ers, however, failed in their three-peat bid. They were knocked off by the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game after beating them in the regular season.
Bills defensive tackle DaQuan Jones acknowledged Sunday’s game likely will be the first of two games against the Chiefs this campaign. There’ve been three Buffalo-Kansas City playoff rematches in the past four seasons.
“You’d be taking the fool’s view to try to deny it,” Jones said. “They’re the team you’ve got to beat if you want to go to the Super Bowl. Even if we beat this team Sunday, we’re going to see them again down the road.”
Folks are pondering whether the Chiefs can run the table if they can get past the Bills. The schedule looks promising for the two-time defending champs, but their flaws are reflected in comparisons to the most famous undefeated teams. As pointed out by The Athletic’s Mike Sando, the 1972 Miami Dolphins and 2007 New England Patriots combined to win seven regular-season games — same number the 2024 Chiefs already have needed — by seven or fewer points.
Mahomes this year is posting his lowest passer rating, lowest touchdown percentage, highest interception percentage and highest sack percentage since he became the Chiefs’ starting quarterback in 2018. Mahomes is averaging 50.8 fewer yards per game than his career output entering the season. He already has been sacked 20 times, eight away from his career-high with eight games to go.
Kelce’s 60 receptions have gone for just 499 yards and two touchdowns. He never has averaged so few yards per catch in his life. The last time Kelce generated fewer yards per game was in 2015, his third NFL season.
Offense has been so hard to muster that Hunt leads them with 565 scrimmage yards despite playing only six games, and receiver Rashee Rice still ranks third with 289 scrimmage yards despite suffering a season-ending knee injury after four games.
So how on earth are the Chiefs undefeated? Did they strike a deal with Roger Goodell at the crossroads? Are referees in the bag like opposing fans insist?
“I would never say anything is accidental in this league,” Bills edge rusher A.J. Epenesa said. “It’s so hard to win. If anything, it’s crazy that they’re able to get to 9-0 because it’s a tough feat no matter what, but I stay out of the pile that, ‘Oh, the refs are helping them out,’ or ‘They got lucky.’ As a player, those are excuses.
“They just do a lot of tough s—, and we’ve got to stop them. They have a lot of talented people and make things hard with a lot of different looks, but nothing we can’t stop.”
Kansas City has been winning with terrific defense while its usual luminaries sort through their issues. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s crew has held five opponents to 18 points and under and three opponents to 14 points or less.
The offense isn’t shabby either. Although below its standard, Kansas City ranks 10th in offensive DVOA, fourth in defensive DVOA and 18th in special teams DVOA for a team ranking of third. (Buffalo is sixth on offense, ninth on defense and 25th on special teams for a team DVOA of sixth.)
For fans of any other team, it’s disgusting, really, how the Chiefs keep finding ways to win when they’re clearly not as good as normal.
“They’re just really good,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “It’s a hard code to crack as everyone knows — all the teams that they’ve played to this point, the teams they’ve played last year in the playoffs, us being one of them. They’re extremely well-coached. They adjust through the course of a game. They execute at a high level.
“You can only control so much.”
The Bills better hope they have some semblance of control on Sunday. So far this season, Chiefs opponents have been helpless at their expiring time of need.
Unless you’re a spoiled Chiefs fan, it doesn’t get much more annoying than that.
(Top photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)
