Chiefs fall short against Cowboys as playoff hopes reach critical point

Kansas City drops to 6–6 after a 31–28 Thanksgiving loss marked by injuries, penalties and defensive lapses, leaving every remaining game a must-win.

The Kansas City Chiefs’ (6-6) season is officially on the brink after getting outplayed in Dallas against the Cowboys (6-5-1) on Thanksgiving afternoon.

The needed results from here on out are very likely must-wins with all three current wild card teams, the Los Angeles Chargers, Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars all sitting at 7-4. All three also hold a head-to-head tiebreaker over Kansas City to boot.

“At the end of the day, you’ve just got to win every game now,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “I hope that’s enough. We’re going to play a lot of good ball teams coming up. If we’re going to make the playoffs, we’re going to have to win ‘em all. That’s got to be the mindset when we step into the building when we get back.”

The Chiefs’ road woes continued (1-5) as the defense could not get the stop it needed at the end of the game to give its offense one more shot at a double-digit fourth quarter comeback in back-to-back weeks, ultimately losing 31-28.

“They have a good football team,” Mahomes told reporters. “They’re playing well right now. They’re in the same desperation that we are, and they played better over four quarters than we did.”

Make no mistake about it: the Cowboys thoroughly out-executed the Chiefs in Week 13, but several self-inflicted wounds cost the three-time defending AFC Champions.

Going with the theme of the season, when the Chiefs had the ball, they had drive-stalling penalties. When the Cowboys had the ball, they induced drive-extending penalties.

Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s unit had zero pass rush, forcing zero sacks for the second consecutive game. They got pressure at times, mainly via the blitz, but quarterback Dak Prescott did what he wanted, tossing 320 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

The Chiefs’ defensive backs, including cornerback Trent McDuffie, posted their worst performance of the season to double down on the issues of the pass-rush. McDuffie allowed six receptions for 47 yards, had zero pass breakups and was called for three penalties, according to PFF.

The same site graded out cornerback Jaylen Watson with a coverage grade of 41.2, allowing seven receptions for 104 yards. Safety Chamarri Conner was the worst graded, allowing six for 108 yards.

All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb hauled in seven catches for 112 yards and a touchdown. George Pickens, who was second in the NFL in yards receiving coming into the week, did not slow down against the Chiefs, catching six passes for 88 yards. The two of them had back-breaking fourth quarter explosives for 51 and 39 yards, respectively.

It was especially tough for the Chiefs to stay physical without drawing penalties.

“I will say that they’ve got some physical receivers, big strong physical guys, and that’s the way they were playing, and in return, my guys were fighting,” head coach Andy Reid told reporters. “And to maintain leverage in that, it’s not the way I saw it, but it’s the way they saw it; the officials saw it. So they made the calls. But you’ve got to stay aggressive against those guys. No other way to do it.”

What really derailed the Chiefs’ chances, though? Despite racking up two touchdowns in both the first and the fourth quarter, they put up zeros in the middle two. As with the rest of the season, offensive consistency was not there.

It is hard to win a game punting four-straight times and going over 30 minutes of game-time between scoring.

“We’ve got to be more consistent at the end of the day,” Mahomes said. “We’ve had big plays, we’ve had runs where we can really just score at any time, but we got to be consistent for four quarters, especially when you play good football teams, and they have a good offense.”

The first two of four punts in the middle of the game ended with left tackle Josh Simmons holding penalties, coupled with third-and-long sacks. The latter two were derailed by a questionable offensive pass interference by wide receiver Xavier Worthy and an errant throw by quarterback Patrick Mahomes to Rashee Rice on third down.

The fourth punt was a questionable decision by head coach Andy Reid, who opted to send out Araiza despite a fourth-and-four from the Dallas 44. The Chiefs were 3-for-3 in fourth-down conversions on the day.

At that time, we were doing okay,” Reid told reporters. “I thought we would be able to hold onto field position, so it didn’t work out well.”

The game started just how the Chiefs wanted it to. The defense did get pressure on Prescott on the initial opening drive’s third down, forcing a poor throw that landed in the hands of Watson.

The Chiefs struck quickly after the takeaway, using just two plays to go 37 yards, ending with a 27-yard touchdown to wide receiver Rashee Rice. The Cowboys answered with a long drive that finished with Lamb’s lone touchdown before Mahomes and company marched down for a 12-play Travis Kelce touchdown drive of their own, to make it 14-7.

Dallas’ big second quarter gave them a 17-14 lead heading into the half after a Brandon Aubrey field goal and a breakaway 43-yard touchdown rush by Malik Davis.

Kansas City took the first possession of the second half, ultimately doing nothing with it for the entire third quarter, but they held serve, allowing only another Aubrey field goal.

Seconds into the fourth quarter, the Chiefs took a 21-20 lead after Rice high-pointed a ball in the end zone for his second touchdown of the day. Rice led the Chiefs in receiving with eight catches for 92 yards to go along with his two-touchdown day.

The Cowboys offense took over the game from there, scoring 11 unanswered after a running back Jevonte Williams touchdown that was capped off by a Pickens successful two-point conversion and another field goal by Aubrey.

Those scoring drives were sandwiched with another Matt Araiza punt, his fifth of the day, leaving the Chiefs down 31-21 with 5:16 to go.

The Chiefs’ offense marched down the field quickly for a seven-play drive that lasted under two minutes. A back of the end zone toe-tap touchdown by Hollywood Brown made it a three-point game with three and a half minutes left.

Following Mahomes’ fourth touchdown of the day, Kansas City still had all three of its timeouts left, leaving margin for one more possession, should the Chiefs get a stop.

Two penalties and three first downs later, that proved too much for the Chiefs’ defense to handle. Prescott and the offense were able to end the game in victory formation with three-straight kneel downs.

Statistically speaking, it was actually an extremely efficient and effective day for Mahomes. He went 23-of-34 for 276 yards, four touchdowns and zero interceptions. Three of his four touchdowns were tightly contested windows. He was just a little wrestless from the pocket, for good reason.

In terms of where the middle of the game inconsistencies came from, look no further than what was happening along the offensive line. Bookend tackles Josh Simmons (wrist) and Jawaan Taylor (tricep) both exited this game. On top of that, right guard Trey Smith never started it, leaving Wanya Morris, Mike Caliendo and Jaylon Moore finishing this one out.

The stats backed up the eye-test, too. Mahomes’ line allowed by far their most pressures in a single game, with Moore allowing six, Caliendo allowing five and Morris allowing two in just 17 opportunities, according to PFF.

“We go to next man up and try to make it work,” Reid told reporters. “Our pass game was a little off. He (Mahomes) had to move around quite a little bit. But the guys battled, they did the best they could.”

Outside of Rice, it was Worthy and Kelce who stepped up for Mahomes when they were putting drives together. Worthy caught four passes for 61 yards, while Kelce finished with five for 45 and a touchdown.

For the second-straight week, Reid was effective in calling run plays as well. Four days after getting 30 carries, running back Kareem Hunt took 14 for 58 yards. Isiah Pacheco carried in three times for 16 yards in his first action since week 8, and Mahomes added 30 yards on three carries himself.

This was both an offensive and defensive issue, but you cannot undermine enough how penalties once again haunted Kansas City. It was 10 penalties for 119 yards this time after committing seven against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 12 and 10 again against the Denver Broncos in Week 11.

“Penalties killed some drives. That’s the stuff that we’ve got to be better at,” Mahomes told reporters. “That’s the kind of stuff that we’ve done all year long -- you get penalties, you get behind the sticks, and then you don’t get first downs.”

The Chiefs committed five penalties on their five punting drives, and they committed five penalties that gave the Cowboys first downs.

After forcing four straight three-and-outs against the Colts last week, the Chiefs’ defense just flat out could not get off the field this week. Aside from the penalties, they allowed the Cowboys’ offense to convert 9 of 16 third downs and gain 457 yards.

Linebacker Nick Bolton led the Chiefs with 11 tackles and two pass defenses, while defensive tackle Chris Jones and Ashton Gillote tallied the only two tackles for loss.

Defensive tackle Chris Jones had a two-word message to reporters and fans after the game.

“We’ll respond,” Jones told reporters.

With zero room for error and five games left, we will see if Jones, the other 52 and the coaching staff can make good on that message.

INJURIES

Safety Bryan Cook (ankle), left tackle Josh Simmons (wrist) and Jawaan Taylor (biceps) all exited the game and were ruled out.

UP NEXT

The Chiefs will have 10 days’ rest to prepare for a must-win Week 14 game against the Houston Texans (6-5) at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday Night Football.