KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The most effective running back in the NFL this season tucked the football into this right arm, and for a brief moment, it looked like he had an angle to the pylon.

He came up just a single yard short.

The play that won the Chiefs a Super Bowl, a walk-off touchdown to become the league’s first repeat champions in two decades, came next on the play sheet. But wouldn’t you know it, the Broncos have seen it a time or two.

The pass was incomplete.

The running back who has forced more broken tackles than any other in the league this year got the football next, in need of that one final yard.

He gained zero.

Patrick Mahomes lined up in shotgun formation for a final try, needing just one completion to give the Chiefs a mountain of separation in the AFC West on Sunday afternoon at Empower Field at Mile High.

A faint false start.

Then an incomplete pass.

The Chiefs fell one yard shy — one painstaking yard shy — of a win here in Denver, a 28-24 loss instead, in a result that will turn up the heat in the AFC West.

The race is on — because the Chiefs couldn’t reach out and touch the finish line.

There was a moment in time — or several moments, actually — when the Chiefs’ late-game magic felt inevitable. But moments are fleeting, apparently. The talk of the Chiefs producing those kinds of game-winning drives is based on history. And it’s looking more and more like it’s based on ancient history.

Get this: From the 2018-22 seasons, when the Chiefs trailed by a margin of 4-7 points (more than a field goal but within a touchdown) in the final 14 minutes of a game, they scored touchdowns on eight of 14 drives, a rate of 57.1%.

Since the start of the 2023 season, the Chiefs have seen a similar opportunity — trailing by 4-7 points with less than 13 minutes to go — at the onset of 11 drives.

Their touchdown total: Zero.

Guess how many of those photo-finish games they’ve won? The same big ol’ fat goose egg.

There are several things responsible for the latest late-game disappointment, and we’re not going to let hardly any of them go unmentioned. But for whatever unfolded in the previous 59-plus minutes, the Chiefs had the ball one yard shy of the end zone, with a lights-out running back and built-for-the-moment quarterback.

And, poof, the magic just disappeared.

The truth is that this game in Denver is not a diagnosis of the Chiefs. It wasn’t on the Seattle trip. It wasn’t 2025 again.

They bounced back nicely. Mahomes responded after a horrible outing. The offensive line protected him better. And Rashee Rice’s return made a difference.

But that flight home from Colorado should’ve been even more upsetting — because they outplayed the Broncos. They out-gained Denver by 100 yards and were nearly 1 yard per play better. They didn’t turn the ball over. It’s a game they should have won.

So why didn’t they? Why are we back to talking about games the Chiefs should have won?

My gosh, the late-game mistakes. It’s difficult to pick where to start.

Their best chance to win the game came with the football nestled inside the 5-yard line for four tries, with three of those tries from the 1. But there were others.

The Chiefs led by 11 points in the fourth quarter, and here’s the most important part: They had possession of the football. There’s their initial chance to end the game. Long before their last chance required just one yard, this one required two yards.

Or, uh, maybe it was just two feet.

The Chiefs punted — but only because the referees initially spotted the ball more than two yards shy of the sticks, before they reassessed the spot and moved the ball within only a few inches of the first-down marker. But that change came so late that the Chiefs couldn’t possibly return their offense to the field in time to run a play and go for it on fourth down.

In the era of replay assist, which Broncos head coach Sean Payton would effectively later invoke all by his lonesome, it’s a baffling error.

Oh, but the Chiefs would have another turn to put the game away — and they have to wear all the blame for squashing it. They still led by three points with three minutes left, in plus territory, when Mahomes inexplicably took a third-down sack that lost six yards.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid compounded that mistake by making one of his own. He sent a struggling field-goal kicker out to try a 54-yard field goal, despite that decision guaranteeing the Broncos a chance to win the game.

Reid should’ve left the offense on the field, when a first down could all but ice it, but Mahomes first should have given his head coach a better reason to leave the offense on the field.

For all of that, the Chiefs could have won the game if the defense, which allowed 19 yards on nine third-quarter plays, got just one stop in the fourth.

There is plenty of blame to be shared. Which is the point: That kind of list better resembles a team still learning to win, not one that has won the Super Bowl three times in a five-year stretch. They made a living forcing other teams to unravel, and now we’re pulling on the thread of their own mistakes.

The Chiefs are 5-2. They’re still tied in the loss column in the AFC West. They played pretty good football for pretty long stretches. There was a lot to like.

The worry is the familiarity of the ending. As much as it seems like they’ve moved on from 2025, they can’t shake one quality.

Their fourth-quarter magic is gone, replaced by fourth-quarter illusions.

____

©2026 The Kansas City Star. Visit kansascity.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.