Chiefs’ struggles continue, with injuries and inconsistency contributing to 5-4 first half of season

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs have proven this season that they can beat just about anybody when they’re playing their best.

They can lose quite easily when they are not.

It’s a marked difference from past years, when Kansas City could overcome penalties, dropped passes and other miscues to win anyway. The Chiefs went 15-2 last season largely because they were able to stay in games they had no business winning, but the good fortune has not carried over; they find themselves 5-4 after a 28-21 loss in Buffalo on Sunday.

“We’ve had great moments and we’ve had bad moments,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “We’ve got to be more consistent as a team. I’ve got to be more consistent at quarterback. We’ve got to be able to battle.

“We’ve been in a lot of these types of close games in our history, and they are not going our way now. So how can we deal with that adversity? How can we be better and learn from it? You can only learn from so many losses.”

The game against the Bills marked a fitting bookend to the first half of the season for Kansas City, because it bared a close resemblance to its season opener in Brazil. In that one, the Chiefs played similarly poorly, had to deal with injuries that popped up during the game and still had a chance at the end, only for their defense to come up short when it needed a stop.

Indeed, health is becoming a problem for the Chiefs again, especially along the offensive line.

They hope to get first-round draft pick Josh Simmons back at some point, but the talented left tackle has been away from the team to deal with a family situation for several weeks. Then, against Buffalo, right tackle Jawaan Taylor hurt his ankle, and for a moment, left guard Kingsley Suamataia also left the game, leaving Kansas City with a patchwork offensive line.

Throw in a sprained knee ligament that sidelined running back Isiah Pacheco, and it was hardly a surprise that the Chiefs only managed to match their second-lowest point total this season; they scored 17 in a loss against Philadelphia.

“We’ve got to do a little better than that, obviously, when we’re playing a good football team,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “It starts with me, doing my job better, putting guys in good position there to make some plays.”

Now the Chiefs are in a strange position: If the playoffs happened this week, they would be on the outside looking in.

Instead of fighting for the No. 1 seed down the stretch, they are forced to fight for any seed they can get.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle when we get back,” Mahomes said, “but I think our guys are up to it.”

What’s working

The Chiefs are getting what they hoped from their wide receiver triumvirate of Rashee Rice, Xavier Worthy and Marquise Brown.

Worthy missed time after hurting his shoulder in the opener against the Chargers, and Rice missed six games while serving an NFL suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy. But since the three of them have been available, they have managed to kick-start an offense that until this past Sunday had begun to resemble the Reid-and-Mahomes offenses of yesteryear.

What needs help

The Kansas City defensive line has been pushed around far too often this season, and it may have had its worst game yet against the Bills, when James Cook ran for 114 yards and Josh Allen kept sneaking into the end zone for touchdowns.

Stock up

Defensive back Trent McDuffie is going to cost the Chiefs a fortune when the two sides agree to a contract extension. He’s been the best player on defense all season, and he capped the first half of the year with 12 tackles and a sack against Buffalo.

Stock down

Defensive tackle Chris Jones has just two sacks through nine games, putting one of the NFL’s highest-paid players on pace for his least-productive season in that department since his rookie year, when he was a part-time starter in 2016.

Injuries

The Chiefs hope to get Pacheco and Taylor back after the bye.

Key number

5 — That’s the number of losses in six regular-season games against Buffalo that Mahomes has started since the 2019 season. It also is the number of losses combined that Kansas City has in 35 games against the AFC West.

Next steps

The Chiefs have a week to get healthy before visiting Denver on Nov. 16. They are just 1-3 on the road this season.

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