The Kansas City Chiefs, down 20-9 to the Indianapolis Colts at the beginning of the fourth quarter, found a way to win a one-score game for the first time this season. The win puts them at 6-5 on the year and while their path to the playoffs will still be difficult, it's better than being 5-6 and below .500 this late in the year.
It has been a weird season for the Chiefs, to say the least. They were 5-5 entering Week 12 and a loss, something that was close to happening against the Colts, would have dropped them below the .500 mark, which would have been unheard of for this franchise in the Andy Reid era this late in the season.
Fortunately, K.C. picked itself up and won this game, making the other AFC teams sweat it out for at least a little while longer. Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated brought up a good point about the Chiefs following this win and it's something that the rest of the AFC is going to hate hearing.
"This is why you don't give up on the Kansas City Chiefs. And this is a battle hardened team, it's a tough team," Breer said. "As much as has gone wrong for [the Chiefs] over the course of the first three months of the season, they have this other gear and you saw it with Rashee Rice [on Sunday], you saw it with the toughness of Kareem Hunt, you saw it with the defense getting stops when they needed to get stops. They've been in these high-leverage situations before. Heart of a champion, the Kansas City Chiefs. Don't give up on them."
Albert Breer says the Chiefs just proved why the AFC can't relax yet
Breer hit the nail on the head here and this is the type of team we all expected to be watching every week this year. That's why the one-score losses stacking up have been such a weird thing to witness since the Chiefs used to be one of the most clutch teams in the league but then suddenly turned into one of the least clutch teams in those spots.
The Chiefs once used to be the team that always hung on and gritted out those close games. It's been a different story this year and it felt like we were about to see them fold for good against the Colts. But, after Kareem Hunt's fumble early in the fourth quarter, the gear that Breer discussed turned on and we were suddenly watching an entirely different team.
Breer mentioning the Chiefs' "other gear" is exactly what other fans don't want to hear as we inch closer to the playoffs. No one is going to want to see the Kansas City Chiefs get hot and find their way into the playoffs because we've seen what this team does in the postseason. All they do is win.