How worried should Chiefs be after narrowly beating Falcons?

The Chiefs are playing with fire, but are they really just bored?

Does an NFL football team get bored? Is this really something we should be talking about?

Well, just a few weeks out from hosting a divisional playoff game, the Chiefs looked rather human against the Atlanta Falcons at Arrowhead on Sunday. Such has been the theme for Patrick Mahomes and Co. against inferior competition.

Kansas City hasn’t won a game by double-digits since Nov. 1 against the lowly Jets. Since then, they’ve turned on the jets when necessary, specifically offensively, scoring in bunches to keep their stranglehold on the No. 1 seed in the AFC. It’s a dangerous trend, but one the Chiefs seem comfortable employing.

When at their best, the Chiefs are unbeatable

But that’s the worry, really. What if the Chiefs play their ‘C’ game, and can’t merely turn it on late to avoid disaster? Come playoff time, the teams they’ll be playing will be far superior than the Atlanta Falcons or even Las Vegas Raiders. Should the Bills, Titans or even Steelers (assuming their offense is truly back) play up to their potential, and the Chiefs fail to take such competition seriously, might it result in a catastrophic result for the home side?

All of this is a series of what ifs. As we saw in the postseason last year, the Chiefs have a tendency for incomplete performances. Yet, a team as stacked as Kansas City need not concern themselves with one bad quarter, or even a bad half. They frequently play to the level of their competition, and that’s precisely what’s happening now.

The Chiefs have reached the mountaintop. In fact, that’s where they’ll remain until someone knocks them off of it. KC is a team full of veterans that, come the divisional round, will be ready for whatever awaits them. Despite the fact that they frustrate us in the regular season, struggles against inferior competition aren’t a sign of quality.

Like the Patriots before them, the Chiefs are gearing up for a dynasty. Sometimes, that involves a few slip-ups.