The Chiefs finally lost a game, the best thing that could’ve happened to them

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Fifteen games and 327 days since the Chiefs last lost, on Sunday at Highmark Stadium they finally got stranded in a jam they couldn’t solve or escape.

Punctuated, and nicely symbolized, by Josh Allen’s rugged 26-yard touchdown run through the Chiefs in the waning minutes, the Buffalo Bills (9-2) snuffed out the Chiefs’ 9-0 start with a 30-21 victory. In the process, the Bills put an emphatic end to one of the top 10 winning streaks in NFL history and revived the race for the top seed in the AFC. They thrilled the long-suffering fans who relished the moment and likely lent comfort and hope to the rest of the NFL, who perhaps will tell themselves that this game says the Chiefs finally were exposed.



And they surely opened the floodgates for doubters and haters of the team that has become the scourge of the league with four Super Bowl appearances and three titles in the last five seasons. But here’s what the Bills didn’t do no matter how great their fourth straight regular-season win over the Chiefs was: They didn’t demystify or purge the abiding dynamic of the Chiefs having shattered them in three straight postseason games, including the agonizing 13-second game and last season’s 27-24 defeat on this very field after Tyler Bass missed a late field-goal attempt. And they didn’t so much derail as alert the Chiefs, who are going to prosper by this loss because they didn’t suddenly go from a dynasty to dinosaurs.

That’s why fans should be exhaling instead of sighing. Not that the Chiefs wanted this result. And not that the Bills aren’t to be respected: They are really good, and maybe this is the year they get by the Chiefs in the postseason if both stay on trajectory to meet in the playoffs.

Here’s the thing, though. This mission never has been about going undefeated. After all, that’s happened just once in NFL history, as has been well-documented about the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

Halley’s Comet, last visible in 1986 and due back in 2061, comes around more often than an undefeated NFL season. And the fact that the Chiefs had taken it this far — the fourth-longest streak this century and six behind the record held by the Patriots — was only incidental to the daunting-enough real quest. No need for greed when you’re already pursuing an unprecedented Super Bowl three-peat.

“The undefeated thing was cool,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said after the game. “But that’s not our ultimate goal, so we’ll keep building towards that.” One didn’t necessarily work against the other.

But there’s a reason that the expression derived “perfect is the enemy of the good” has survived hundreds of years. And it applies here in a few ways. First and most significantly: For all the ways the Chiefs reinforced an aura of invincibility with a number of preposterous victories through the winning streak, for all the times it seemed like whatever didn’t kill them made them stronger, there was a hitch.

Maybe even a toll. Because a minuscule line separates finding a way and, well, getting away with something. So when they blocked a field goal on the last play or made one of their own or witnessed a receiver land out of bounds by inches to end another, they could keep telling themselves they were special and resilient and able to concoct their own luck when they had to.

True and real and significant as all that was, it numbed or diluted a related point. They could have been averting the constant need for late-game theatrics by playing with more discipline and sharpness sooner. This time, though, they couldn’t overcome their numerous mistakes.

Like Mahomes throwing an interception on the second play from scrimmage. And Xavier Worthy, who otherwise caught four passes for 61 yards, struggling again with his footwork on a deep pass from Mahomes that could have altered the game. And the defense being unable to muzzle Allen and the Bills, who converted nine of 15 third-down attempts to become the first team to score 30 points on the Chiefs since they beat the Eagles 38-35 in Super Bowl LVII.

It’s nice when you can win games and feel like you learn from them. But it might be surmised that it’s easy to shrug off would-be lessons without consequences for being less than your best. No way around this one, though.

As long as the Chiefs embrace that for what it is, the accompanying jolt should be what they take away from this game ...

and be a net positive in the weeks to come. When I asked Mahomes about that prospect after the game, here’s how he responded: “You don’t know; I mean, I’m hoping that it is a benefit. .

..” he said.

“I’m not going to say we were lax. But at the same time, I felt like we were just coming away with these wins at the end of games. “I think it’s going to spark us to have more urgency, especially at the start of football games, especially with the offense.

” I took the way Mahomes started — with the “You don’t know” — not so much as doubt, but as the start of a challenge to himself and teammates. A declaration that they need to be honest with themselves about why they seemingly haven’t been more intense from the get-go, and are more mistake-prone than they should be. Or as guard Trey Smith put it in the locker room after the game, “there’s going to be a lot of self-reflection on what we can do better as a team.

” The answer is plenty — both in the sense that they’ve got a lot to clean up and that they are absolutely capable of just that. Delusions of grandeur, like maybe starting to think it’s feasible to have a 20-0 season (and a 26-game overall winning streak that would go with it), weren’t going to help that any. For that matter, extending the winning streak for a few more weeks was going to have a mixed impact.

It would have pumped more fool’s gold into the proceedings. And, soon, the psychological burden of trying to stay unscathed, too. Now they’re liberated of that possibility and forced to take their flaws seriously in ways they weren’t before.

That’s fine and good for a team that has as much going for it as the Chiefs have demonstrated the last few years ...

and as they illustrated after they lost lost on Christmas 2023 to the Raiders. And it’s stuff that means one step back on Sunday should be good for two strides forward coming out of it — at least unless and until the Bills can prove otherwise by beating the Chiefs in the playoffs or if the Chiefs otherwise fall short of the ultimate goal..