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Adam Teicher, ESPN Staff Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The celebration over the Kansas City Chiefs‘ latest final-play-of-the-game victory had barely died down when coach Andy Reid provided an unemotional look at how his team survived so many close calls.
“We’ve been given opportunities and we’ve taken advantage of them, and then we’ve made a few opportunities ourselves with some good plays,” Reid said Monday, about 24 hours after the Chiefs blocked a field goal attempt on the last play to preserve a 16-14 win over the Denver Broncos. “You’d probably say that [the Broncos] outplayed us and then they end up not winning the game.
“You give credit to your locker room and your coaches just for being mentally tough and sticking with it.”
The Chiefs have done just that in running their record to 9-0, the NFL’s last unbeaten team.
But many of their numbers say they’re an unconventional 9-0 team. Their point differential of plus-58 is the worst for any of the 13 teams that started 9-0 since 2000. They’ve trailed in eight games. Their opponents have scored first in six of them. They’ve led by fewer minutes and trailed by more minutes during games than any of the other 9-0 predecessors.
As Reid said, Kansas City does deserve credit for battling in numerous close games and making the plays to win. The Chiefs have won seven games by seven points or fewer, including four that were decided on the final play.
But is that sustainable? Or, if it continues, are they headed for a fall?
The answer could come when they play at the 8-2 Buffalo Bills on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, CBS). Quarterback Patrick Mahomes is among the Chiefs aware they need to play better this week than they did against the Broncos.
“We know it’s going to be a great challenge this next week,” Mahomes said. “Buffalo’s playing great football. They’ve played great football for a while now, and we understand what it takes to go into an environment like that and have to give it everything you have in order to get a win. We know they’ll be fiery and they’re going to be trying to beat us so we’re going to have to execute at a higher level in order to win.”
Their once-powerful offense hasn’t been as productive, but the Chiefs are 10th in yards (346.7 per game) and 11th in points (24.3). Their defense isn’t strangling opponents but is fourth in yards (289.9) and fifth in points (17.9) allowed.
What the Chiefs have done is find a variety of ways to win. They held the Baltimore Ravens, the NFL’s top scoring team, to 20 points in the season opener, their lowest total of the season. They returned a fumble for a defensive touchdown in a one-point win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Against the Atlanta Falcons, the Chiefs stopped them twice on downs inside the 15 in the fourth quarter to preserve a five-point win. They held the Los Angeles Chargers without a score on their final eight possessions. Mahomes threw for a season-high 331 yards against the New Orleans Saints. They rushed for 182 yards against the San Francisco 49ers.
Against the Las Vegas Raiders, they were 12-of-16 on third down and 3-of-4 in the red zone. They scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns and another in overtime against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Finally, perhaps most dramatically of all, linebacker Leo Chenal blocked the field goal against the Broncos.
“We’re a really good football team and a team that whatever it takes that day, guys are going to step up and make the play,” Mahomes said. “If it’s defense, if it’s offense, if it’s special teams and each individual in those situations, they’re going to … make that play whenever their number is called.
“To be able to go in each and every week knowing that whatever it takes, we’re going to find a way to win the football game, it comes with experience and it comes with a great culture that we’ve built here.”
Kansas City has been lucky at times. Baltimore’s Isaiah Likely appeared to score a touchdown on the final play of the season opener that would have allowed the Ravens to take the game to overtime or win it with a successful 2-point conversion. But a replay review showed Likely had a toe on the line beyond the end zone, and the touchdown was taken away.
Against the Bucs, the Chiefs won the overtime coin flip and proceeded to score a touchdown, not giving Tampa Bay a chance with the ball.
The blocked field goal was anything but lucky. The Chiefs believed the Broncos would pay attention to safety Justin Reid coming off the edge on Denver’s left side but leave an opening closer to the center. So they crashed that area with multiple players and Chenal got a hand on it, the ball harmlessly drifting over to the sideline, where Chiefs cornerback Josh Williams recovered.
Chenal also blocked a point after touchdown last year in the Super Bowl, a game the Chiefs went on to win over the 49ers in overtime.
“Of course we have a lot of talented players and a lot of talented guys to come in but I think it speaks to the system, the culture we get throughout the week,” Williams said. “I’m telling you, [the coaches] don’t miss a beat. They don’t miss a single thing. You’ll get coached up on everything and [that] got us to this undefeated record so far. It allows us to win in all three phases.”
The Chiefs planned to return to the big-play passing game they had in Mahomes’ early seasons after signing free agent wide receiver Hollywood Brown and drafting wideout Xavier Worthy in the first round this year.
But after losing Brown in the preseason and last season’s leading wide receiver Rashee Rice early in the season, the Chiefs pivoted to an offense that relies heavily on the running game. Kansas City is 11th in rushing attempts. It wasn’t above 20th in rushing attempts in any of the previous seasons.
Kareem Hunt, who didn’t play for the Chiefs until Week 4 against the Chargers, had two 100-yard games and is tied with Worthy for the team lead in touchdowns with five.
“The last several weeks we’ve been running the ball a lot,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “I feel like there’s a little bit of an identity that’s being created here.
“It hasn’t been the fantasy numbers on offense, [but] the one thing is we’re winning games and I think we’re learning how to win games in different ways. That’s so important when you get down the road in other games.”
The Chiefs have been 9-0 once before under Reid: in 2013, his first season as their head coach. But from there, things collapsed and they went 2-5 to finish the season. In the wild-card round, they wasted a 28-point lead and lost to the Indianapolis Colts.
The 2013 Chiefs took advantage of an easy opening schedule. They played one game against an eventual playoff team in their first nine games but played five playoff teams after that. They lost all five.
This year’s Chiefs have played four games against teams that would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. They have five such games remaining.
It seems improbable the Chiefs can get to 17-0 and finish an NFL regular season undefeated for the first time since the New England Patriots in 2007. But it also seems improbable they could get to 9-0 with their margins being so narrow and they’re more than halfway there.
“Our ability with the injuries we’ve had to just plug in pieces and keep it moving, it kind of shows the genius of what Coach Reid can do and what his offense can do and how we’ve shifted to more of a run-first team,” running back Samaje Perine said. “People are used to seeing Pat just air it out but that’s not who we are right now.
“But we continue to find ways to win.”