Chiefs rue penalties, miscues and questionable officiating in loss to Packers

The Kansas City Chiefs could put the blame for their loss in Green Bay on Sunday night on a whole lot of people.

Packers quarterback Jordan Love, who outplayed league MVP Patrick Mahomes. The Green Bay wide receivers, who made all the plays that Kansas City’s group has failed to make so much of the season.

And yes, the officials, whose questionable decisions in the final few minutes — including two pass interference penalties that were not called — might very well have altered the outcome.

Yet the Chiefs, whose 27-19 loss was their third in the past five weeks, have enough championship pedigree to carry most of the blame on their own shoulders.

Mahomes threw an interception late in the game, they were flagged five times for 50 yards as penalties continued to be a problem, and they went just 2-for-4 when they reached the red zone.

Fix those problems and those questionable decisions by referee Brad Allen’s crew might not have made a difference.

“You try to learn from it, learn from your mistakes and get better. That’s all you can do. That’s win or lose,” said Mahomes, who was just 21-of-33 for 210 yards with a touchdown and that pick.

“We haven’t dealt with a ton of losing here, but everything is out in front of you. We can still win a division, but it’s going to take us getting better and better each and every week.”

Yet as much as Mahomes wanted to immediately turn his attention to next Sunday’s game against Buffalo, it is almost impossible not to reflect on just how costly the Chiefs’ loss in Green Bay turned out to be Sunday night.

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First, there are the standings: Kansas City is 8-4 and a game behind Baltimore and Miami, and a half-game behind Jacksonville as it prepared to play Cincinnati on Monday night, which means the Chiefs have ground to make up for the No. 1 seed.

Second, there were the injuries: The Chiefs lost linebacker Drue Tranquill to a concussion. He already was replacing the injured Nick Bolton, while starting safety Bryan Cook had to be carted off the field with an ankle injury.

“We understand everything we want is still ahead of us,” Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones said. “I got the five-minute rule: You’ve got five minutes to complain, you’ve got five minutes to get it all out. We’ve got an important game coming next week to Arrowhead, so watch film, see what we can get better at and let’s take this week in practice.”

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Reporting by The Associated Press.

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