KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs are accustomed to playing in high-profile games that could ultimately define their entire season.
They aren’t used to playing them in Week 6.
Yet the Chiefs find themselves in a precarious position after losing three of their first five games. They have the streaking Detroit Lions coming into Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night, and another loss on the heels of their penalty-filled disaster last Monday night in Jacksonville would leave them trying to dig out of a 2-4 hole the rest of the way.
Those high-profile playoff games that have come to define their seasons in the past?
Well, the Chiefs need to worry about getting to the playoffs first.
“This is extremely important. There’s no way around it,” said Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who will be navigating one more game before wide receiver Rashee Rice returns from his six-game suspension. “This is a really good football team. They play extremely hard. We have to match their intensity. We have to match that mentality.”
There is hope for Kansas City, of course. The Chiefs started 2-3 as recently as 2021 and still made the AFC title game, where they lost to the Cincinnati Bengals. That also was the last time their season ended short of the Super Bowl.
There is also this reason to hope: So many of the Chiefs’ shortcomings have been of their own making. Last week, it was the 99-yard pick-six that turned the momentum of their game against the Jaguars, to say nothing of 13 penalties for 109 yards.
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