It’s on Chiefs to prove Denver debacle was a blip, and not the start of troubling trend

Here it is, third and 17 at the Chiefs’ 24-yard-line with one last gasp at a comeback in the thin mountain air at Mile High Stadium.

Sure, the daunting score is 24-9 Denver with just 5 minutes, 45 seconds left. But we’ve seen enough preposterous rallies engineered by Patrick Mahomes to think something could still be bubbling even amid an abominable effort by the Chiefs.

They’d beaten Denver 16 times in a row, after all, and Mahomes had never lost to the Broncos or, for that matter, in any AFC West road game.

With nothing doing as the scripted play unfolded, Mahomes did what he does so often and so uniquely well. He scrambled, pirouetted and otherwise bought time to conjure a solution some way, somehow.

“You’re just trying to make something happen,” Mahomes said.

In this case, alas, he “got caught turning too many times,” as he put it. And while the 10-yard sack officially went to Denver’s Baron Browning, the takedown really came from Mahomes slamming into Donovan Smith, his own left tackle.

Considering an interception on the desperation next play was the Chiefs’ fifth turnover of the day, the slapstick moment hardly was the most glaring and pivotal of the infinite KC blunders in this 24-9 loss.

But it sure made for an apt symbol of the futility of a day on which the Chiefs couldn’t get out of their own way.

Start with the mind-boggling turnovers, including Mecole Hardman dropping a punt he should have allowed to go into the end zone that essentially handed Denver its last touchdown.

That book-ended a 31-yard punt return to set up Denver’s first touchdown, and the Chiefs again sputtered in the red zone (one of eight in two games against the Broncos) and committed costly penalties. And, yep, they repeatedly dropped passes, including Skyy Moore on a fourth down in the end zone with a chance to cut Denver’s lead to 24-16 with 7:40 left.

If about any two of those plays go differently, the Chiefs probably win.

But you can say that about a lot of games, and that’s not really the point.

Because the good news and bad news here are entwined: While Denver absolutely earned the victory, the Chiefs lost this with self-inflicted gaffes.

Meaning that they’re obviously fixable issues. But also meaning that midway through the season you have to wonder if these are traits and trapdoors that will continue to present themselves as we get into the nitty-gritty in the weeks to come … and the postseason.

This stress test comes at an intriguing time, to be sure.

The Chiefs are 6-2, yes, but they’re about to enter a new frontier of their schedule with the high-octane Miami Dolphins up next (in Germany) and then playing host to the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowl LVII rematch.

If they get through those games unscathed, we’ll look at Sunday here as a blip.

If they don’t, we’ll see Sunday as the start of a trend. And not just because the Broncos seem to have concocted some defensive wrinkles to muzzle the Chiefs’ offense (one touchdown in two meetings) that surely will be the Next New Thing in how to try to contain Mahomes.

No, the most disturbing aspect about Sunday wasn’t so much the mistakes but a flatness we’re not used to seeing in the Mahomes Era.

It’s hard not to think some of that lethargy wasn’t related to Mahomes fighting the flu, not to mention a left-hand injury, but the Chiefs simply didn’t match the Broncos’ intensity.

As Mahomes put it, it “wasn’t enough energy for the offense.”

Hardman blamed himself for the loss, with the dropped punt, but also attributed his getting “greedy” to needing to be aggressive since “things weren’t going on. No energy. No spark.”

He wasn’t wrong … even if it’s too bad his idea went awry.

In his opening postgame remarks, coach Andy Reid made a cryptic statement that seemed related to the broader point.

“I saw things tonight, or this afternoon, that I haven’t seen before from the guys,” he said. “So that’s my responsibility to make sure they’re right, and we weren’t right today.”

Responding to follow-up questions from The Star, Reid said he just meant the five turnovers. Asked if there was something beyond the turnovers themselves to which he was referring, he said, “No, no there wasn’t. But (if) you miss off an inch in this league, and it’s a mile. (And so that) just kills you. You can’t be off. Not like this.”

Still, I couldn’t help but wonder if Reid meant something more than he wanted to say directly.

Whatever the case, if that relative inertia persists, not to mention an ongoing wonky disconnect with too many receivers, the Chiefs are facing a true comeuppance soon.

No matter how unsavory this result was, though, there are more reasons to suppose this was an anomaly than a reveal.

For context, consider some lowlights from the recent past: a 35-32 fiasco at Tennessee in 2019 that dropped the Chiefs to 6-4; a 40-32 home loss to the Raiders in 2020; a 27-3 stomping by the Titans in 2021 that left them 3-4; and last season’s unsightly 20-17 loss to the Colts (who finished the season 4-12-1).

The common denominator to those grim games?

The Chiefs advanced to the AFC Championship Game in each season (in addition to the year before), played in Super Bowls in three of them and won two.

In other words, stuff happens over the course of a season — and maybe sometimes it needs to be that way to help reset.

Certainly, it had that galvanizing impact in those seasons.

That was then, this is now, of course. But these Chiefs arguably still have many of the ingredients to be as or more complete than ever.

A defense that has been stellar all season gave up as many as three touchdowns for the first time on Sunday. But it also was dealing with short fields (their own 39, the 50 and their own 10) each time and made a series of big plays to snuff out Broncos threats (a fourth-and-2 stop, an interception and a blocked field goal).

It remained an asset, in other words, albeit one with its greatest challenge yet coming against Miami.

Meanwhile, clogged as the offense was Sunday, it’s still third in the NFL in yards per game (381.5) and in the top 10 in scoring (23.4 a game). Not what we’re used to, but also not exactly fading into oblivion.

Of course, yards don’t mean much when you turn the ball over — the most they’d done that in a game since 2018 — and can’t convert in the red zone.

“It was just a bad day for us,” Mahomes said.

It remains to be seen whether it’s the exception it appears to be, not to mention something that can trigger a run that Mahomes described as getting “the momentum back in our favor.”

But it wouldn’t be the first time the Chiefs of this era made a resounding statement after a debacle.

And Mahomes remains the kind of leader and talent whose sheer contempt for this sort of day tends to inform and infuse what’s ahead.

You could hear that in his firm response to the last question he was asked, about whether this loss could cause a domino effect.

“It won’t be,” he said.