As much as the Chiefs have steadied themselves since the opener, the run game still hasn’t found its footing. That was hard to miss in Sunday’s loss to Denver. And when head coach Andy Reid was pressed on why Kansas City’s ground attack keeps disappearing, he pointed towards quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Reid insisted the runs are being called, they just don’t always stay that way.

“So, I know you know all this, but we’re calling quite a few of the RPOs,” Reid said.

“So, yesterday they were giving us opportunities to throw the football, so we utilized the opportunities there. And those things end up being as good as a run for either. We’re getting four-plus yards, and you go with it, but the runs are being called. It’s just, you know, sometimes they get turned into passes in today’s world,” the head coach added.

It’s the truth of the modern Chiefs offense: when you give Patrick Mahomes a choice, he’s going to throw it. And honestly, that’s rarely a bad thing. But against a Denver defense that’s been the league’s best for the past two months, a little more commitment to the ground might’ve helped.

Kansas City ran 70 plays. With Isiah Pacheco sidelined by a knee injury, Kareem Hunt was the only running back to touch the ball, logging 13 carries for 59 yards and a touchdown. Meanwhile, Mahomes dropped back 45 times and ran just once for three yards. For context, he threw for 276 yards. That’s a lopsided ratio.

You could feel the lopsidedness in real time, and the numbers back it up.

The Chiefs sit ninth in scoring (25.4 per game), sixth in total offense (377.8), and fourth in passing yards (262.5). But the run game? Middle of the pack at 16th, hovering at 115.3 yards per game. Not terrible. Not threatening, either.

Kansas City doesn’t need to become a sledgehammer on the ground. When you have Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Andy Reid, the offense is always going to lean pass-first. But imagine how unstoppable they’d be if the run game consistently met them halfway.

Well, Patrick Mahomes had his own analysis of the game. And he called out a coaching mistake.

Patrick Mahomes wanted Chiefs to take the safer route

Patrick Mahomes reflected on his interception, explaining that choosing a field goal would have been a much safer option than risking a pick.

“At the end of the day, I got 29 to go to me, cause he was guarding them. And I didn’t throw it high enough. He jumped up and made a good play. So, I’ve made that throw before. But at the same time, the type of football game we’re in, don’t put the ball in harm’s way; take the three points and move on to the next possession,” the quarterback said.

He’s not wrong. With the Chiefs in the red zone and Mahomes scrambling, all he had to do was throw it away and set up Harrison Butker for a chip shot. Instead, he tried to squeeze one to Elijah Mitchell, and Broncos corner Ja’Quan McMillian undercut it. And if his words tell us anything, it wasn’t his call.

In a 22-19 game against a defense playing at a historic level, you take the points. You don’t give them away, especially not on the road, and especially not when every drive feels like a marathon. A field goal there might’ve flipped the outcome.

Instead, it flipped the tone of the night and dragged Kansas City deeper into a division race they no longer control.

The AFC West isn’t gone, not mathematically. But after Sunday, the grip they held for nearly a decade has loosened. The Broncos aren’t slipping. The Chargers are hanging around. And the Chiefs suddenly look like a team that can’t afford any more losses.