Five devastating moments that quietly reveal how the Chiefs’ 2025 season unraveled in real time.QQ
Now that the Chiefs are officially eliminated from playoff contention, it’s easy to go back and say “what if” about every loss, but there are a very select number of plays that actually created the downfall of the Chiefs’ 2025 season in their own ways.
For the first time since 2014, the NFL playoffs will not feature Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs. This has brought widespread panic among Chiefs Kingdom, served as the lead subject on almost every sports television and radio show for days, and caused fans and analysts alike to take a magnifying glass to the entirety of the 2025 season to see where it all fell apart.
No matter what people want to use as an excuse—scheme, play-calling, personnel—there are a few key moments in a few big games that would eventually lead to the losses that ultimately kept the Chiefs from hosting the AFC Championship Game or even traveling for a playoff game for the first time since Patrick Mahomes became the starter.
One can argue about the importance of every single play in a game, especially since the sport is a game of inches. However, these plays all seem like the entire loss hinged on them, regardless of how early or late in the game they occurred. Let’s count down the five plays most responsible for the Chiefs’ collapse.
1. Chris Jones just stands and watches
The fifth game of the season was supposed to be the first time that Kansas City climbed above .500 this year. After starting 2-2, Mahomes and the offense actually had a decent game, scoring 28 points largely thanks to big plays from Kareem Hunt and Tyquan Thornton.
Sadly, the game came down to the Chiefs’ defense, and the final play for the Jaguars saw Kansas City’s second-highest-paid player, Chris Jones, just standing around while Trevor Lawrence pulled a circus play out of the pocket for a game-winning scrambling touchdown.
Jones admitted after the game that he believed Lawrence was down and stated, “We had multiple guys there that we just got to finish that play … it was a fluke play.”
On any other day, in any other game, Jones and the defense might have found a way to pin a stumbling, falling Lawrence to the ground. However, on that particular Monday night, it was simply a lack of effort that led to Kansas City’s third loss in five games.
That loss sent the Chiefs to 2-3, kept them below .500, and kick-started the Jaguars’ ascension. Unfortunately for Jones, this will not be his only mention in this story.
2-3. Kelce’s drop turns into huge interception (Parts 1 & 2)
Week 2 for the Chiefs was supposed to be a revenge game set against the backdrop of Arrowhead’s home crowd, reminding Philadelphia that this is a new season. In the end, that would not be the case, leaving KC with an 0-2 record on the season and an 0-2 record against Philly within the span of three games.
There were plenty of big plays in this game that swung both teams’ direction, but none bigger than Travis Kelce’s dropped pass on the goal line that would then be picked off by Andrew Mukuba.
Weirdly enough, this would not be Kelce’s only instance of this in 2025, which has led some to believe it might be time for the future first-ballot Hall of Famer to pack it up in three weeks. But, in true star quarterback fashion, Mahomes would take the blame for the interception, and Kelce could only lament his play on his New Heights podcast later on in the week:
“Gotta catch the ball,” Kelce said on his podcast. “The ball was where it needed to be when it needed to be there. I just have to get my head around out of the break.”
No matter who took the blame—or who should—the game ended in a 20-17 home opener loss that could have easily been a 24-20 victory to start the season 1-1. Kelce’s similar drop-turned-interception in last week’s loss to the Texans (below) was just one of many drive-ending plays that the superstar tight end was responsible for this year.
4. A fourth-down attempt vs. Houston
As the past few weeks have come and gone, each has had its own “must-win” feel to it, but it all really heated up against Houston just two games ago on Sunday night. That game featured quite a few mishaps for Reid’s offense, but none more detrimental to the game and the season than the fourth-down attempt late in the game.
With just over 10 minutes to go in the game, the score tied 10-10, Kansas City’s offense was on its own 31-yard line and only needed one yard to convert. This was prime territory for Kareem Hunt, who has become a sure thing in short-yardage situations.
Instead, Coach Reid calls a play that puts Mahomes alone in shotgun with Hunt on the line and four receivers to his right in a bunch formation. After Hollywood Brown moves into the backfield in motion, Mahomes feels pressure from his right and, in a crumbling pocket, darts a low pass to Rashee Rice, who could never get a good hand on it.
The play never looked like it was going to work, and with the defense that Houston kept bringing to Mahomes’ face, it never really had a chance anyway. In the end, it led to the Texans’ second touchdown of the night in a game that saw KC fall to 6-7 by a score of 20-10.
Reid eventually took the blame for the play call and the decision itself, stating, “I take full responsibility for that. I thought we could get it. It’s important that you take advantage of opportunities. In hindsight, it was wrong. I messed that one up.”
While this play not only showed the inept play-calling that Chiefs Kingdom has gotten tired of, it also gave the Texans instant points, as they were already well within field goal range after the turnover on downs. But Houston did even better and scored a touchdown a few minutes later.
This play did more than give the Texans seven points. It showed that Mahomes doesn’t audible out of bad play calls like many believe he could and should do more often. Perhaps it’s fear of angering Reid or Matt Nagy, but a player like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady would have seen the defense, seen the yardage left to gain, and seen Hunt convert that 100 times already, and audibled into a play that could have actually worked.
5. Chris Jones takes a bad Brazilian angle
For the Chiefs to be eliminated from playoff contention this early in the season, they had to lose games early and often. And that was the case all the way back in Week One, when Kansas City met the Chargers in Brazil to begin the season on a Friday night.
Down 27-21 with just over two minutes to go, the Chiefs’ defense just needed one more stop on 3rd-and-14 to give Mahomes a chance to do what he’s done countless times before. Instead, Justin Herbert sees Jones flying toward him from the inside of the line, which allows him to roll outside and ice the game on a 19-yard run.
This play deflated the Chiefs’ season from the beginning, and it showed multiple teams around the league that Kansas City’s defense is very “boom or bust” with its defensive line packages.
Jones once again took responsibility for the loss, calling the game-sealing play by Herbert (who is not typically a great runner) his fault: “I kind of took the inside move,” Jones said after the game. “I put the blame on me, I could have contained better.”
Honorable Mentions:
A disastrous INT at Mile High (Week 11)
A collapsing pocket (what else is new?) forces Mahomes to run out of the pocket and make a poor decision near the goal line that nearly ends in a 95-yard pick-six. Rather than getting at least three, it ends in zero points because the offensive line can’t keep Mahomes clean for two seconds.
Chiefs defense drops an easy INT (Week 5)
Nick Bolton has the easiest interception opportunity of his career, and it’s ruined by Drue Tranquill not realizing who is in front of him. If just one of the two had called “ball” while in the air, it could have been returned for serious yardage and given Mahomes a chance to go up 21-0 before halftime. Instead, the Jaguars score and go into the locker room down 14-7.
This play still gives me nightmares. Could’ve given Mahomes a chance to go up 21-0 at half on a VERY good Jaguars team. Instead it’s dropped and Chiefs lose this game later on by 3 points.
The Worthy-Kelce collision (Week 1)
Three plays into the season, Xavier Worthy suffered an injury that sidelined him for the next month after crossing routes led to a collision with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Worthy would go on to miss the next three weeks with a shoulder injury.
As previously stated, one could look at any and all of the Chiefs’ losses this season and chalk them up to one or two plays, but this handful of plays truly epitomizes the entirety of the season. The easy fixes, the constant mistakes, the lack of effort, the drops—all of them united to create the worst season Chiefs fans have seen since before Mahomes left Texas Tech.
The true feeling of the season can also be felt in all these plays: the optimism that turns to dread instantly, the chaos inside the pocket that forces uncharacteristic errors. All of it is a product of multiple problems both on the sideline and between the hashes, and all of them can be looked at as the reason the Chiefs are sitting at home in January this year instead of hoisting another Lombardi Trophy.
