9 Lives: Chiefs Have Seen Ball Bounce Their Way at Historic Rate

The Bears and Chargers lost fumbles in their ninth games, while the Cardinals finally lost a fumble in Game 10.

“Turnovers are terrible ,” said Andy Reid, whose 5-3 Chiefs visit the Bills (5-2) on Sunday (3:25 p.m. CT, CBS/KCTV, Channel 5, 96.5 The Fan). “I mean, you're talking about winning and losing football games. So, it's hard to overcome those.”

Really rare air

They overcame a pair of Patrick Mahomes interceptions on each of their game-opening drives in Monday’s win over Washington. But that was rarified air, the first game in his career in which each of the first two drives ended in interceptions.

In fact, it marked Kansas City’s first win in which Mahomes threw at least one interception in exactly a year, since Oct. 27, 2024, when the Raiders intercepted him in the Chiefs’ 27-20 win at Allegiant Stadium.

Since the calendar changed to November shortly after that game, the Chiefs are now 15-1 when Mahomes is interception-free, their only loss in Week 1 to the Chargers. Conversely, when he throws at least one interception over that period, Kansas City is 1-4.

What’s more, the Week 5 loss in Jacksonville was extremely odd for the Chiefs, who finished plus-one in turnover margin. Including five playoff games, Kansas City had won 39 straight when winning the turnover ratio. During Steve Spagnuolo’s tenure as defensive coordinator (2019-present), the Chiefs are now 43-2 (.956) when finishing in plus territory.

More spookiness

Here’s another spooky Halloween note. Two of the four Mahomes interceptions have painfully deflected off the hands of Travis Kelce, including Bobby Wagner’s takeaway last week. However, context is critical.

The future Hall of Fame tight end is catching 77.1 percent of his targets – the highest mark of his career.

No one needs to tell Mahomes how important turnovers are in the Buffalo series. Over his nine head-to-head meetings with Josh Allen, the Chiefs have not once won the turnover battle. The best they’ve done is a few even-margin games, but Kansas City has somehow won five of those nine meetings.

“Turnovers are one thing,” said Mahomes, who threw two interceptions in last year’s 30-21 loss at Buffalo, “but just in general, like if you don't stay locked in the entire game, they capitalize on the mistakes. And if that's even just a little missed assignment or a missed throw that you need to make, to kind of keep ahead of the chains, stuff like that.

“They get you in third-and-long, and then they come up with some type of blitz that's unscouted, and they blitz you, and all of a sudden, you give the ball back to them.”

Reid is all over it. If there’s one NFL trend that’s more venerable than the league’s winnigest active coach, it’s turnover margin.

“Every week,” Reid said Wednesday, “I give the guys the stats of the other team and win-loss, whether they've won the turnover battle or lost the turnover battle. And if you lose a turnover battle, the majority of the time you're losing the football game. That's just how it goes. You've got to take care of the football.”