Chiefs salvage victory at Texans, claim AFC West, but this game was a distressing mess

After the Chiefs seized a 27-0 lead over Denver last week and stunningly enabled the Broncos to outscore them 28-6 the rest of the way, you might reasonably have assumed they were jarred or even chastened by the experience.

Surely, enough so that a week later against an even more inferior foe they would be lasered-in on Sunday in Houston against a 1-11-1 Texans team that was minus six starters.

Not just to demonstrate the right stuff in a vacuum, though that would be nice. Or to clinch an absurd seventh straight AFC West title.

But because the prevailing mindset should have reflected not the woeful state of their opponent but the scant margin for error remaining in pursuit of the precious top playoff seed in the AFC.

Instead, they drifted to a 30-24 overtime victory that was more a distressing mess than something to treasure.

Maybe it won’t feel that way in the long run. After all, by salvaging a victory the Chiefs indeed extended their dominance of the AFC West … a fine thing and a primary baseline for more.

They also kept pace with the Bills at 11-3. That means their hopes of emerging atop the AFC and earning a bye and home-field advantage through the playoffs remain alive if the Chiefs can surpass Buffalo in the overall standings to offset the tiebreaker the Bills hold over them.

Just the same, it’s impossible to extract any upbeat takeaway from this.

Not after an increasingly suspect defense was confounded for a second straight week by one of the NFL’s worst offenses. (For the most part, that contradicts the pattern of Steve Spagnuolo’s units improving as the season goes on.)

Not after the offense committed two more turnovers to keep the Chiefs dwindling among the dregs of the league in turnover margin.

Not after the Chiefs committed a season-high-tying 10 penalties.

Or after too-often erratic kicker Harrison Butker missed a point-after touchdown attempt and a would-be game-winning 51-yard field goal at the end of regulation.

Look, you could dismiss this (and last week and several other such aimless sequences of games) as part of the psychological biorhythms of a long and arduous season.

Or the human nature aspect of sagging against lesser challenges.

This highly talented team certainly has shown a propensity for getting bored or distracted or something against teams it should clobber.

Hey, you could even say a win is a win is a win.

But even if you can nod along with that, you’re still left to wonder about this team’s ability to crank it back up for the best of the best.

If the Chiefs are going to just coast to the finish line, is there another gear to be engaged when it counts most?

For that matter, they’re actually 0-2 this season against what loom as the greatest obstacles to their third Super Bowl berth in four seasons: Buffalo and Cincinnati.

So you’ll take this win, of course. And you might be comforted by such past prologues as that of two seasons ago:

The Chiefs won seven in a row by six points or fewer (including against three teams who finished with a combined record of 14-34) before resting their starters entering the playoffs and advanced to their second straight Super Bowl.

Each season is its own story and adventure, of course, and the signature on this one waits to be written.

Instead of heeding a wakeup call on Sunday, though, the Chiefs smacked the snooze button … and got away with it.

Not what you want right about now.

Whether that’s indicative of hiccups or blips or becomes a defining trait remains to be established.

But it sure seems indicative of some kind of disconnect right now.

And it’s a vital time to rectify that tendency both in terms of what remains at stake for a playoff perch and for momentum and state of mind into the postseason.