The Chiefs had all the momentum going their way. Back-to-back wins over the Giants and Ravens made it seem like they were finally shaking off their early-season rust. Everything pointed to them being back on track, until they fell to an injury-stricken Jaguars team tonight. And when Mahomes spoke after the game, it sounded like a guy who’s running out of answers.

The Chiefs now sit at 2-3, and that’s not a record anyone in Kansas City is used to seeing. And Mahomes thinks it’s too late to get back from here.

“We’ve lost too many games already,” he said.

Well, a 2-3 record isn’t the end of the world. But for a Patrick Mahomes–led Chiefs team that was supposed to cruise to another double-digit win season, this start feels… wrong. The Chiefs aren’t built to just make the playoffs. Their standard is the Lombardi, and through five weeks, they’ve looked more like a team searching for itself than one competing for the championship.

Mahomes, as always, tried to carry everyone on his back. He threw for 318 yards, a touchdown, and a pick. He also led the team in rushing with 60 yards and another score. But that brutal 99-yard interception flipped the entire script and handed the Chiefs their third loss of the season.

Next week doesn’t get any easier. They’ve got the Detroit Lions, a team that’s been as solid as any this year. The Lions are coming off a huge win over the Bengals, and the vibes couldn’t be more different between these two locker rooms. For the Chiefs, this one’s basically must-win territory.

Why? Because the Broncos are sitting ahead of Kansas City in the AFC West at 3–2. And they’re about to face the 0–5 Jets. You can go ahead and pencil in that as a Denver win, which means if the Chiefs don’t take care of business next week, they’ll be watching the division slip right out of their hands before midseason. Patrick Mahomes knows that the Chiefs let it slip away tonight. And he made it clear.

Patrick Mahomes’ believes the locker room let the game slip away

The Chiefs let the game go at the end just like the Eagles did, and Patrick Mahomes took it hard. He put the locker room on notice after not being able to hold on to the lead. “Obviously sucks, you know, you let a game slip away. Credit to them, they played hard the entire game, and they’ve got a lot of good football players, and they closed out there at the end,” Mahomes said.

“So, it still sucks whenever you get a lead like that and you’re not able to hold it through the rest of the game,” he added. And yeah, the Chiefs had this one. They just couldn’t finish. Still, to be fair, it wasn’t all on Kansas City choking. Jacksonville flat-out earned this one.

Jaguars almost bottled it too, after Lawrence threw a pick, but they scraped out a 24–21 lead thanks to a Cam Little field goal. Mahomes threw one to make it 28–24 for the Chiefs, but Trevor Lawrence was a different animal tonight and finished the game off by setting up a two-yard Kareem Hunt touchdown.

Yes, the Chiefs blew a lead. Yes, that interception was killer. But this was more about the Jaguars’ grit than the Chiefs throwing it away.