As it turns out, the Kansas City Chiefs may continue to get away with their seasonal trend of achieving wild finishes. In Friday’s Week 13 game against the Las Vegas Raiders, the Chiefs survived another blowout when Raiders quarterback Aiden O’Connell led a late push into Chiefs territory trailing 19-17 with less than two minutes remaining Ending.

But on third-and-3, with 14 seconds left and Las Vegas threatening a possible field goal, the football gods once again worked their magic in the Chiefs’ favor. Raiders center Jackson Powers-Johnson grabbed the ball before O’Connell was ready, resulting in a fumble that Kansas City recovered to secure its 14th straight one-possession win.

“Obviously a big stop in a big moment,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said of the game-winning play. “It gave us the win there. But I think we have to perform better in the fourth quarter so that it doesn’t come to that.”

Mahomes’ comments encapsulated the team’s bittersweet feelings about the win. While the win made Kansas City the first team to clinch a playoff spot this season, Mahomes made it clear that the Chiefs are not happy with their current level of play.

“We’re not happy with where we are, even if we win football games,” Mahomes said after the game. “We know we have to get better. I think everyone in this locker knows we have to get better. We want to go out there and do that and prove that. So our goal in the last few games is to prove that we are the team that we believe we can really get into the playoffs.”

A big cause of the team’s problems today was its offensive line. First, they couldn’t get anything going on the ground, even with the return of starting running back Isiah Pacheco. Kansas City managed just 10 rushing yards at halftime and finished the game with 63 total yards on the ground.

The lack of a ground attack forced a greater emphasis on the passing game, where Mahomes threw the ball 46 times, a season-high, for 306 passing yards and a touchdown. While they were able to move the ball effectively, the problem was their lack of efficiency in the red zone.

The Chiefs settled for field goals all afternoon, scoring a touchdown on just one of their five red zone outings.

“We haven’t been great with it,” head coach Andy Reid said when asked Friday about the Chiefs’ ability to run the ball. “I felt how they played; They brought an extra man with them, so we were better off using the short passing game, which worked. We walked up and down the field. We just didn’t do particularly well in the red zone.”

A big reason for these red zone issues was the Chiefs’ pass protection. Mahomes was sacked five times and faced constant pressure throughout the game.

“In any offense, it’s disruptive when the quarterback gets hit and can’t get the ball off,” Reid explained. “That can be a problem. Now we played against some good players, but you have to do better than what we did there.”

The pass protection issues were particularly evident on the left side of the line, where starting left guard Wanya Morris had a tough time. Morris battled a bone bruise in his right knee for most of the season and was on the bench during the game as Reid shifted left guard Joe Thuney to tackle and substituted Mike Caliendo at fullback.

After Friday’s game, the Chiefs are now in first place in the AFC with a record of 11-1. They are guaranteed a spot in this year’s playoffs, but Mahomes knows they need to get a lot better to achieve their true goal of winning a third straight Super Bowl.

“We just have such high standards for ourselves that we don’t feel like we’re playing our best football overall,” Mahomes said. “It seems like every game, either on offense or defense, brings good things.

“We have to find a way to build ourselves up so that we can play great as a complete team. It’s great that we’re finding ways to get wins – ultimately that’s what you’re aiming for – but our goal is to get to the Super Bowl.

“We will try to get better and better so that hopefully we can play our best football by the end of the year.”