The sense of urgency is spreading in the Chiefs locker room. Many players have this feeling that they aren’t able to do on the field what they want to. DT Chris Jones is one of them. He had a 7 game run without any sacks from week 4 against the Chargers. During the week 13 game against the Raiders on Black Friday, he made 2 sacks. But instead of getting happy, he was stressed at the post game conference.

While talking to the reporters after the game, Jones said, “We’ve got to fix a lot of things. Flags, self-inflicted wounds. Offsides, PI, false starts.” That’s right. HC Andy Reid will be eager to watch the film. They allowed two long touchdown passes for the Raiders to get ahead of them in the 4th quarter with 9 minutes left to go.

Jones also had 2 offside penalties during the matchup. They had 7 penalties for 40 yards. The Raiders’ defense kept coming at them, not letting them complete their passes. It affected on their third down efficiency, completing only 7 of 16 attempts (43.8%). Even in the red zone, they were able to score 1 touchdown from 5 passes with an efficiency of only 20%.

The Raiders had the ball for more time, 31:12 minutes, compared to 28:48 by the Chiefs. But it ended well for Kansas City. The DT was also happy with the outcome. And he was confident that Andy Reid’s Chiefs will continue to win. His words, “It is better to win than have a pretty loss. We’ll take an ugly win, build from it and continue to get better,” clearly reflect their mindset going into the playoffs. Well, after the game, CB Trent McDuffie had some points for the HC.

Trent McDuffie gives heads up to Andy Reid after the Raiders win

In the first play of the third quarter, the game officials gave a pass interference (PI) penalty on the cornerback Trent McDuffie. But he continued on his approach to win the game and ended with 4 tackles. However, he also noticed a key problem.

While talking about the game, the CB said, “I mean communication is always the biggest thing. I think a big thing happened in the last two minutes of the game, a little miscommunication.” That’s something Andy Reid would like to talk about with McDuffie. It becomes more important as the CB later praised his teammates and added, “The communication isn’t that bad.”

Having become the first team to qualify for the playoffs, the Chiefs are pumped up. They have to be. The interesting times are coming when winning becomes the utmost necessary. They had enough practice during the regular season by winning the close games. For now, the Chiefdom is waiting for their next games.