The Kansas City Chiefs became the first team in the NFL this season to clinch a playoff berth, but star quarterback Patrick Mahomes is anything but satisfied with his team's performance against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Mahomes threw for 306 yards and a record-setting touchdown in the 19-17 Black Friday win, and after the playoff-clinching victory, the three-time Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl MVP explained his thought process.
“I think you clinch a playoff spot, that’s your first goal is to get into the playoffs and give yourself a chance to go for that Super Bowl,” Mahomes said [h/t USA Today]. “But, we know we have a long ways to go. We [have] got to continue to work to get better and be a better football team going into the playoffs.”
Mahomes indicated that because the Chiefs' ultimate goal is to get back to the Super Bowl for a third consecutive season and fifth time in six seasons, improving as a team and playing an all-around game is, in some ways, just as important as winning the games.
“We just hold ourselves to such a high standard that we don’t feel like we’re playing our best football all together,” Mahomes said. “It seems like every game [our] offense does good, the defense does good, and vice versa. We [have] got to find a way to build up so we can play great as a full entire team.”
The Chiefs are now 11-1 on the season, which, regardless of the rest of the results this weekend, will be the best record in the AFC and tied for the best in the NFL. Only the NFC's top team, the Detroit Lions, has just one loss. In the AFC, the Buffalo Bills, who handed Kansas City its only defeat a few weeks ago, is the AFC's second seed currently.
While Kansas City is the first team to clinch a spot in the playoffs, they will have to finish down the stretch of the season to secure the top seed in the AFC and earn a first-round bye. The Chiefs have a 1.5-game lead on Buffalo, which hosts the San Francisco 49ers this weekend.
The Chiefs' remaining opponents are the Los Angeles Chargers, Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Denver Broncos.