{"id":37960,"date":"2025-11-19T12:03:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=37960"},"modified":"2025-11-19T12:03:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T12:03:18","slug":"breaking-news-the-2025-chiefs-are-trending-to-be-one-of-the-most-unclutch-nfl-teams-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=37960","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS : The 2025 Chiefs are trending to be one of the most unclutch NFL teams ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2025\/11\/19001858\/GettyImages-2247037598-scaled-e1763530628196.jpg\" alt=\"The 2025 Chiefs are trending to be one of the most unclutch NFL teams ever  - The Athletic\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Kansas City Chiefs are certainly defying the odds with their 5-5 start.<\/p>\n<p>As <em>The Athletic<\/em>\u2019s Mike Sando pointed out in his recent column, Kansas City is well off its win-loss pace from last year\u2019s 15-2 season despite posting better marks in numerous major statistical categories, including points scored and allowed per game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Also in the Pick Six this column, we touch on the much improved <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/chiefs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#chiefs<\/a> \ud83d\ude09 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZfoG8bL1bB\">pic.twitter.com\/ZfoG8bL1bB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mike Sando (@SandoNFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SandoNFL\/status\/1990480186815779184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s going on? How have the Chiefs still lost so much, leaving them fighting for their playoff lives through 10 games?<\/p>\n<p>One of the answers, it turns out, doesn\u2019t show up in the down-by-down numbers. Instead, it has revealed itself during the most clutch moments of games.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where the Chiefs haven\u2019t just been bad this year \u2014 they\u2019ve been almost historically inept.<\/p>\n<h2>An un-Mahomes-like trend<\/h2>\n<p>Coming into this season, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, for good reason, had established himself as one of the greatest big-moment QBs of all time.<\/p>\n<p>K.C. rallied from double-digit deficits, for instance, in all three of Mahomes\u2019 Super Bowl wins. Last year provided more evidence, as the Chiefs went 12-0 in one-score games, including the playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s that backdrop that has made this year so \u2026 strange.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs are 0-5 this season in one-score games, and a deeper dive only illuminates the immense issues they\u2019ve had in high-leverage moments.<\/p>\n<p>TruMedia provides the data. The service allows us to search for regular-season plays with the following criteria this season:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 When the score was within 8 points either way<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The final five minutes of regulation<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Only non-kneeldown snaps<\/p>\n<p>Last season, the Chiefs were just fine in these gotta-have-it moments. Their 43 percent offensive success rate ranked 13th among NFL teams, and they also completed 57 percent of their passes.<\/p>\n<p>This season? Saying it\u2019s been rough might not be strong enough.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a small sample, yes. But these are the exact times when making one play could help secure a victory \u2014 and they\u2019re the type of snaps that end up mattering more than others earlier in the game.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs offense has had 11 snaps with the \u201cclose-and-late\u201d scenario detailed above. On those plays, Mahomes is 2-for-10 passing for 29 yards while also taking a sack.<\/p>\n<p>Another way to look at it? Add a delay-of-game penalty, and the Chiefs\u2019 11 combined snaps here have resulted in a net of 13 yards.<\/p>\n<p>This sort of situation was Mahomes\u2019 biggest regret from Sunday\u2019s road loss to the Denver Broncos. After getting the ball back with 4:05 left in a tie game, the Chiefs followed with an incompletion, incompletion and sack before turning it over to the Broncos offense.<\/p>\n<p>To be fair, Mahomes and the Chiefs have faced some difficult circumstances under this umbrella. Late drives against the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars, for instance, required some desperation throws because of clock considerations.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Mahomes has thrived in these back-against-the-wall situations before, including his heroics in the famous \u201c13 seconds\u201d playoff game against Buffalo, when he marched the Chiefs 44 yards on two plays to get his team into field goal range.<\/p>\n<p>Even recognizing the above caveats, we can still say that almost no offense has performed as this much of an outlier. The Chiefs\u2019 offensive success rate of 18 percent in this late scenario (two out of 11 plays) is the lowest of any NFL team over the last eight seasons. Among teams with at least 10 snaps, it\u2019s also the worst mark of any team in the last decade.<\/p>\n<h2>A more specific issue for the defense<\/h2>\n<p>The Chiefs defense, meanwhile, has had its own personal kryptonite this season: getting off the field.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s go back to TruMedia. Keeping all the filters above (the score within 8 points either way, the final five minutes of regulation, only non-kneeldown snaps), let\u2019s take into account only third- and fourth-down plays.<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs have faced seven downs that fit that criteria in 2025. Those have resulted in:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Six opponent first downs on seven attempts<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 4-for-4 passing for 69 yards<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 Conversions on one third-and-15, another third-and-14 and two third-and-7s<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nix to Sutton!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Broncos?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@Broncos<\/a> convert a 3rd-and-15 \ud83d\ude2e<\/p>\n<p>KCvsDEN on CBS\/Paramount+<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HkKw7uXnxV\">https:\/\/t.co\/HkKw7uXnxV<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IGe3A47UCA\">pic.twitter.com\/IGe3A47UCA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; NFL (@NFL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NFL\/status\/1990215175505363332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 17, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs\u2019 only \u201cstop,\u201d in fact, was limiting Bills running back James Cook to a 1-yard run on a late third-and-7. Even that deserves an asterisk, though, as the Bills mainly were looking to run the clock with a 7-point lead and 1:11 left (the Chiefs had no timeouts remaining).<\/p>\n<p>These types of defensive results, as one might expect, are extreme.<\/p>\n<p>Again, it\u2019s a small sample. But the Chiefs\u2019 14 percent defensive success rate in this situation (1-for-7) is tied for the worst NFL mark ever by a team in the 26 seasons that TruMedia has been tracking the data.<\/p>\n<p>K.C.\u2019s 13 yards allowed per play, meanwhile, are tied for the seventh-worst mark over the past decade.<\/p>\n<p>It doesn\u2019t make much sense, especially considering the team\u2019s most recent season. Last year, when facing nine snaps in these clutch situations, the Chiefs defense was excellent, providing 0.52 expected points per play.<\/p>\n<p>That mark ranked No. 1 out of all NFL defenses.<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n<p>The bottom line is that no matter how unclutch the Chiefs have been so far, this level seems unlikely to continue.<\/p>\n<p>For now, though, it has been a primary reason the team hasn\u2019t been able to get out of its season-long slump in competitive games.<\/p>\n<p>K.C. is at roughly 56 percent to make the postseason, according to The Athletic\u2019s playoff simulator, and we can likely say this much looking ahead:<\/p>\n<p>The Chiefs\u2019 season won\u2019t end up where they\u2019d like if they can\u2019t change their results in the season\u2019s biggest moments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chiefs \u2014 in one stat \u2014\u00a0are performing as poorly as any NFL team in the last quarter-decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-37960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-kansas-city-chiefs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - 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