Whatever happened to the Chiefs winning the close ones?

AI-assisted summary
• The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Buffalo Bills 28-21, marking their fourth consecutive one-possession loss.
• For the first time in his career, quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed less than half of his passes in a game.
• The Chiefs’ loss dropped them to a 5-4 record and out of a playoff spot in the current AFC standings.

ORCHARD PARK, NY – Woe is KC.

Patrick Mahomes added another first to his distinguished NFL track record on Nov. 2, but this was one that the legendary Kansas City Chiefs quarterback can do without.

For the first time in his NFL career, Mahomes didn’t complete even half of his passes during a 28-21 loss against the Buffalo Bills – and the 15-for-34 stat line was hardly the worst of it.

Mahomes’ rough day, which included a lot of duress, too many wayward throws and just enough blown opportunities, was symbolic of a bigger picture.

“We’ve got to learn from it,” Mahomes said afterward.

He sounded testy and urgent, like you probably would if you were chased around all afternoon with few escape routes because the pocket kept collapsing. Mahomes was sacked three times and hit 15 times by a battered, undermanned unit that was supposed to be ripe to be shredded by a quarterback who came to town on a hot streak.

“We’ve got to do it now,” Mahomes added. “There’s no easy game coming up and there’s no chances where we can take losses. So, we’ve got to learn from it fast.”

While Mahomes suffered through the disconnections, his Bills counterpart, Josh Allen, could hardly miss. Allen had just three incompletions, completing 23 of 26 passes for 273 yards, with a touchdown, zero interceptions and a 123.2 passer rating. But Allen had help from a rushing attack that Mahomes lacked, as James Cook ran for 114 yards on a clock-hogging 27 carries that helped Buffalo log nearly 35 minutes of possession time.  

When someone asked if he envisioned seeing the Bills again in the AFC playoffs, given that historical pattern in the compelling rivalry, Mahomes shot back with his truth.

“I mean, we’ve got to get there first,” he said.

Wait, are Chiefs in danger of missing the NFL playoffs?

Let that sink in. The three-time defending AFC champs not in the playoffs?

Well, if the playoffs began tomorrow, the Chiefs (5-4) would be sitting at home. They left Highmark Stadium in the eighth slot in an AFC race that will take seven teams to the playoffs. The Jacksonville Jaguars, who beat the Chiefs in Week 5, currently hold down the seventh slot. And in the AFC West, the division Kansas City has won the past nine years in a row, the third-place Chiefs are looking up at the Broncos (7-2) and Chargers (6-3).

In another sense, it’s a good time for a bye. Just because. Kansas City gets two weeks to regroup before a Week 11 showdown at Denver that will have even bigger repercussions than losing again to the Bills.

Yet leave it to the Bills – Buffalo (6-2) notched a fifth consecutive regular season win against Kansas City but is 0-for-4 in the playoff meetings against Mahomes & Co. – to give the Chiefs a whole lot to think about during their bye.

Remember the team that always won the close ones? Kansas City set an NFL-record by winning 17 consecutive one-score games and was 12-0 in such close calls last season on the trek to Super Bowl 59.

Well, that streak ended with a Week 1 loss against the Chargers, 27-21, in Brazil. And Sunday marked the fourth consecutive one-possession loss by the Chiefs. They also lost 20-17 in the Week 2 Super Bowl rematch against the Eagles, which left them 0-2 for the first time with Mahomes. They fell by a 31-28 margin at Jacksonville.

“We’ve got to be able to battle,” Mahomes said. “We’ve been in a lot of these tight, close games in our history, but they’re not going our way now.

“How do we deal with adversity? How do we do be better and learn from these losses? We’ve got to learn from it fast. It’s going to be an uphill battle when we get back. But I think our guys are up to it.”

Bills defense left Mahomes scrambling, just not for yards

Remarkably, given the flow of the game, the Chiefs still had a chance for a miracle as Mahomes had two Hail Mary throws from midfield batted down near the goal line. That opportunity came when Matt Prater’s 52-yard field goal attempt caromed off the right upright.

Hey, sometimes stuff happens. Mahomes had another milestone marker of sorts earlier in the fourth quarter with a 29-yard strike to Rashee Rice on fourth-and-17 that was the longest fourth-down conversion of his career. It set up a Kareem Hunt TD run and two-yard conversion pass to Travis Kelce that made it a one-possession game.

A few minutes later, Mahomes, who had his lowest passer rating of the season (57.2), was intercepted by rookie cornerback Maxwell Hairston after flinging a deep heave toward Xavier Worthy.

Mahomes explained that he realized Worthy was covered but opted to throw rather than take a sack. It sounded like the rationale of a man who felt way too much heat.

“They did a good job of pushing the pocket,” he said of the Bills defense. “I’ve got to do a better job in the pocket, finding different lanes to step up through.”

Maybe so, but on the other side, the Bills were locked in to shutting off such lanes. Mahomes, who came into the game with more rushing first downs than any NFL quarterback, scrambled once for five yards and was sacked twice as he tried to escape the pocket. It was that kind of a workday.

Mahomes, under 50% passing. Go figure.

“I didn’t know that,” Bills edge rusher A.J. Epenesa said. “I just know he had (nearly) zero scrambling yards, which was my emphasis of the week. This year, he’s been scrambling more than he has the past four to six years, and he’s under duress. When we can add that pressure and keep him in the pocket … it makes a difference.”

With impact that reverberates across the entire NFL.

Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on  X: @JarrettBell