The Kansas City Chiefs started 5-0. Now, they are 5-2 and trail the Denver Broncos in the AFC West. A 20-3 loss to the Seattle Seahawks was followed by a 28-24 defeat in Denver, where Kansas City led by double digits in the fourth quarter and still let the game slip away.

Head coach Andy Reid says the problem is not the opponent or the scheme. He points to self-inflicted mistakes, mainly penalties, that keep stalling drives.

“I don’t like penalties. Do they upset me? Yeah, they upset me,” Reid said. “You want to make sure that you’re not taking things away from yourself. The games are too close and too hard, and that’s no more obvious than yesterday. But you learn from this. We’re a young football team, one of the youngest in the National Football League.”

The numbers back him up. Through seven games, the Chiefs have been penalized 52 times for 464 yards. Those mistakes were easier to live with early on when the team started 5-0 and won three of those games by double digits. Now, they are costing real points.

The defense has been the biggest offender, with 23 penalties for 244 yards, which is just over half of the team’s total. The offense has 17 for 146, and special teams has 12 for 74, according to NFL Penalties.

Sunday in Denver showed how much it can hurt. The Chiefs picked up 11 penalties for 105 yards, and the worst one came at the worst time. Right tackle Jaylon Moore was flagged for a false start that wiped out what would have been the game-winning touchdown.

Reid said the offense kept getting in its own way.

“Offensively, when we stalled, we normally had something that was self-inflicted, and not necessarily what they (the Broncos) did,” Reid said.

Even with two losses in a row, Reid isn’t panicking.

“I’ve got guys who know how to win games,” Reid said. “They understand that the season is long, but there’s an urgency to take care of business now. They know the reality of it. We’re sitting here at 5-2; that’s the reality of it. We’ve got to take care of the whole picture, so we’re not in the position where it comes down to the last plays of the game. We’re very capable of doing that.”

The bigger worry is that this isn’t new. The Chiefs have been flagged 361 times from 2023 through 2026, so cleaning it up will take more than one good week.

The good news is that the locker room isn’t pointing fingers elsewhere, with several players owning their part in it and aiming to do better.

Chiefs players take the blame for penalties

A flag cost Kansas City what looked like the game-winning touchdown in Denver. Patrick Mahomes found Rashee Rice for the score, but right tackle Jaylon Moore was called for a false start, and Mahomes was sacked on the final snap. Moore owned it afterward.

“Just got to look at the tape. It was called. There’s nothing else we can do about it now. So, it was on me. Just got to be better about it.”

Andy Reid wasn’t so sure the call was right.

“I didn’t see it, but that’s one man’s opinion. I saw him move his head, but I didn’t see a false start.”

Right or wrong, that flag fits a bigger pattern, and Travis Kelce knows it. Speaking with his brother Jason on Wednesday’s episode of New Heights, he also talked about penalties.

“Obviously, wish we had finished it better. Penalties will kill you in this league, and, right now, we are killing ourselves in that regard. I’m at the forefront,” Travis said on an episode of New Heights.

“I think it’s my third week in a row I’ve had a f—ing procedural penalty that’s halted the drive,” he continued. “We’re going backwards instead of going forwards. And I’m like, I’ve been doing this too long to be hurting my team like that. And, I mean, it’s just inexcusable.”

The Chiefs actually played well enough to win. They gained 399 yards to Denver’s 294, and the Broncos got six penalties for 45 yards. But the mistakes at the wrong moments cost Kansas City the game.

They do get a chance to start soon, with the 2-6 Jets coming to Arrowhead on Sunday.