Patrick Mahomes says the Kansas City Chiefs are struggling with the schedule after the defending champions narrowly limped past the Carolina Panthers (3-8) on Sunday, November 24 in Week 12 of the 2024/25 NFL season.

A late field goal by Spencer Shrader saw the visitors run out 30-27 winners at the Bank of America Stadium after they seemed poised to crumble to a late rally when Chubba Hubbard scored a touchdown with 1:46 on the clock.

Despite being 10-1 for the season, with the only loss being to the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs have had to endure a lot of hard-fought contests with eight of those victories being one-score games or less.

Dealing with injuries to key personnel such as Hollywood Brown, Rashee Rice and Isiah Pacheco as well as an out-of-sorts Travis Kelce, Mahomes suggested their struggles are actually down to a different reason.

“Mahomes told us last week,” CBS Sports’ Tracy Wolfson wrote to X.com (formerly Twitter). “Those 1pm games are a struggle.

“Felt like they were sleeping through the Denver and struggled today. They have three more 1pm ET coming up!”

Is Mahomes correct?

The Chiefs are due to take on the Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans and Pittsburgh Steelers in all of those games with just one on their home turf, and they all come consecutively too, in what could be a critical part of the season.

Otherwise, they take on the Las Vegas Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers at times other than noon whilst their final regular season game on January 4/5 is yet to be confirmed against the Denver Broncos.

Whilst the Chiefs have only played twice at 12:00 sharp, they have played three more games at 13:25 as they continue to be selected for prime time television slots so the 29-year-old quarterback may have a point about the scheduling.

Regardless, they still maintain control of the AFC West by three wins and they still lead the AFC Conference by one win from the Bills, who are currently on their bye week.