One: I truthfully can not believe it.
With their loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs were officially eliminated from playoff contention. Honestly, I had to read the headline about five or six times, I just wasn’t able to comprehend it.
Kansas City’s decade-long run of success has finally come to an end. The Chiefs have made the playoffs every year since 2014. Patrick Mahomes has played in every AFC Championship game since he became a starter in the NFL. His team has been to three straight Super Bowls.
No one has played more football than them over the last few years. They’ve formed the closest thing to a dynasty we’ve seen in the NFL.
And for now, it’s all over. The Chiefs are 6-8 and have no chance to even scrape in as a wild card team.
Two: Perhaps there was nothing more symbolic to Kansas City’s playoff run ending than the dying minutes of their loss to the Chargers.
Mahomes, while escaping pressure and trying to extend the play with his legs, was brought down from behind Da’Shawn Hand. Mahomes went grabbing for is knee, looking in pretty obvious discomfort after the play was over. His injury was later reported as a season-ending ACL one.
In comes backup Gardner Minshew to try and save the game, and the season, for the Chiefs. With a little under two minutes to go, Minshew hit three short completions to help get Kansas City closer into potential field goal range. But on his fifth and final pass attempt, Minshew was intercepted by Derwin James to end it.
Meanwhile, as Minshew’s pick sealed the fate of the Chiefs, an injured Mahomes was helped down the hallway and into the locker room.
Quite the scene for how it all ends for Kansas City.
Three: Here’s what I really wonder, though.
This season is over for Kansas City. But how do they respond to that in 2026? Do they bounce back and remind us all why we thought they would be right back in the Super Bowl mix this season? Or does this season kickstart a slow, lengthy spiral back down to earth.
Obviously, it’s question that we won’t know the answer to for a long time. But, sometimes it’s hard to pinpoint exactly when an empire starts to crumble. If the kingdom of Kansas City has finally reached that point, I wonder if we look back on this season, and that loss against the Chargers, as the one moment when it all started to go south for the Chiefs.
Time will tell on that one. Of course, they could make all of this moot at this same time next year.
Four: Well, it happened: the return we were all waiting for.
I should have added a blurb about Rivers working out with the Colts last week, but I published that week’s edition before he officially signed with the team. I’ll be honest, I also didn’t fully believe it was going to happen.
But that’s on me. With how crazy this NFL season has been, I should have believed that the Rivers reunion was in not only possible, it was in fact happening. After a week of working out with the team in practice, he stepped back out onto an NFL field for the first time in five years. And he almost came away with the win!
Rivers went 18-of-27 for 120 yards. He was about as much of a game manager as he could be at his age, with a touchdown pass to Josh Downs and getting the Colts within field goal range to take a 16-15 lead with 52 seconds to go.
Seattle would strike back with a field goal of their own with 11 seconds to go, giving Rivers one last chance to make a heroic play. Unfortunately for him, his final attempt of the game was a game-ending interception.
It’s just a shame this game wasn’t available to all…
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