Kansas City is the first team ever to win 10 of its first 13 games by seven points or fewer.
These aren’t the Kansas City Chiefs you’re used to.
Entering this weekend, the two-time defending champion Chiefs are 12-1, in first place in the AFC, and they are probably still many people’s pick to represent the conference in the Super Bowl.
That’s the normal part.
The not-so-normal part? Kansas City is winning almost every game by the skin of its teeth. The Chiefs’ wins are by such small margins that their point differential of plus-56 is closer to that of the worst team in the NFL (the Carolina Panthers) than the best (the Detroit Lions).
That’s the story of Kansas City this season. The Chiefs are feared — they’ve won three Super Bowls in five years, they have one of the game’s winningest coaches, and Patrick Mahomes, 29, could retire today and still be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
At the same time, Kansas City seems more vulnerable than ever.
Mahomes is posting the worst passer rating and yards-per-game average of his career. Instead of an offensive juggernaut that can rack up points in a hurry, the Chiefs are a defense-first team that scratches and claws its way to victory — and often not until the very final seconds. Literally!
In eight of Kansas City’s 12 wins this season, it either took the lead or made the decisive defensive stand in the final minute of regulation or overtime. The Chiefs are 10-0 in one-score games. They’re also the first team ever to win 10 of its first 13 games by seven points or fewer.
In its most recent game, Kansas City clinched its ninth straight AFC West title with a win over the Los Angeles Chargers despite having only the third-best point differential in the division. The team’s point differential of plus-56 is also the worst of all 37 teams to start a season 12-1 since 1929.
The Chiefs haven’t won a game by more than 10 points since October. Their last three games have been won by seven points combined. In their last four games, they’re 3-1 even though they’ve been outscored by two points. Kansas City’s average margin of victory since the start of November is only three points.
How does this keep happening? Well, luck has certainly been a factor.
The Baltimore Ravens had seemingly thrown a potential game-tying or go-ahead touchdown pass as time expired in Week 1, except their tight end’s heel landed a couple of inches out of bounds.
