The Kansas City Chiefs’ biggest strength has become one of their biggest weaknesses

From the start of the 2023 season through last January’s AFC championship game, the Kansas City Chiefs were especially elite in one particular area: winning one-score games

From the start of the 2023 season through last January’s AFC championship game, the Kansas City Chiefs were especially elite in one particular area: winning one-score games.

In that period, the Chiefs won 17 straight games that were decided by one score. During last year’s regular season alone, Kansas City was 11-0 in games decided by eight points or less — often not pulling out a win until the final minute of the fourth quarter.

It was the Chiefs’ usual brilliance in tight moments that made Monday’s 31-28 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars extra painful. Kansas City fell to 2-3 with the defeat, and in a complete reversal from its previous dominance, fell to 0-3 this season in one-score games.

“We have the guys and we’ve executed at certain points in games and looked really good, but we crush ourselves with penalties and mistakes,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said postgame. “We’ve done that to ourselves all season long.”

He added: “We’ve got to be better. We’ve lost too many games already.”