“We were struggling at times,” is what Andy Reid admitted after the Black Friday duel against their sworn rivals, the Las Vegas Raiders, unfolded. Mahomes and his crew somehow made it out of the GEHA Field with a win. But the Chiefs quarterback didn’t go unscathed. Mahomes took plenty of sacks and the head coach is not having it.

Reid was at the podium after the game and the reporter didn’t hesitate to call out the struggling offense that somehow made it out with a 19-17 win. Mahomes failed to capitalize on 3 touchdown passes and Reid called out the O-Line for not handling their business properly.

“It’s disruptive to any offense if the quarterback is getting hit and not able to get the ball off. And so, that can be a problem. Now listen, he’s playing against a couple of good players. But you’ve got to do better than what we did there,” Andy Reid said in the post-game. Where do we even start with the offensive struggles?

The Raiders kind of exposed the Chiefs tonight (not that the KC team hasn’t already been exposed). Mahomes was sacked 5 times. And that’s proof enough that the O-Line has their work cut out for them. Then there was the play in the last quarter with 2:09 remaining on the clock. Mahomes tried to throw a deep pass to Xavier Worthy on a 3 and 2 and the receiver couldn’t get in position on time and dropped the pass. That play saw Mahomes get hit and go down due to more O-Line struggles.

On the same play, Travis Kelce made a half-hearted effort to block the pass rusher. But he was still able to get to the QB and hit him. Things got so bad that Andy Reid had to bench Wanya Morris in the fourth quarter. That was following Mahomes getting sacked nearly half a dozen times. “Wanya, he was struggling a little bit. So we moved (left guard) Joe (Thuney) over there and (Mike) Caliendo in at guard,” Reid explained.

The head coach spoke to Andy Heck, the O-Line coach, and both were in agreement to bench Morris. For the first time in his career, Mahomes has taken a total of 10 sacks in back-to-back games. But on a side note, the Chiefs became the earliest team to score a playoff berth since 1970. But despite all that, the Chiefs’ struggles continued.

Andy Reid’s team clinches a playoff berth but has a lot to work on

The 3x Super Bowl-winning QB recorded his 238 touchdown pass in the game. Thus he became an all-time leader in the Kansas City Chiefs history, even passing HoF Len Dawson. Sadly, that’s about it as far as breaking barriers is concerned. We can’t help but recall how Mahomes took a hit on the only touchdown pass he threw in the game.

The Raiders hate the red. That became apparent when Mahomes threw a 6-yard pass to Justin Watson and got hit as soon as he let go of the ball. Again, it would be futile to point out that the O-Line needs to do a better job at protecting the quarterback. Understandably, this was an ugly win. It didn’t really feel like the one that helped them clinch a playoff berth. But the defense wasn’t something to talk about either.

Chris Jones, who signed a massive 5-year $158.75 million extension in March, has recorded only two sacks since Week 4, which is uncharacteristic of him. The Raiders put together back-to-back scoring drives and took the lead, but fumbled the ball in the end. That saved the Chiefs. The KC team blew up a 16-3 lead and if that isn’t bad, we don’t know what is. In the end, the officials charged the Raiders with a false start after the fumble recovery by the Chiefs, and that saved the KC team.

Mahomes was a bit dejected even after winning the game. He knows they need to make many improvements. “When you clinch a playoff spot, that’s your first goal, to get into the playoffs and give yourself a chance to go for that Super Bowl,” Mahomes said. “But we know we have a long way to go. We got to continue to work to get better, to continue to be a better football team.”

They are up against the Chargers next and if they lose, it won’t be surprising.