Can the Chiefs actually go undefeated this season?

The Kansas City Chiefs are the NFL’s lone remaining undefeated team following their 27-20 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. 

They have also already made two big in-season trades to get wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and edge rusher Josh Uche.

Now that we are approaching the league’s halfway point, it is probably time to start asking the question we always ask for teams that remain unbeaten for this long — can they actually go undefeated?

Given NFL history, the answer to that question is very likely to be a resounding “no.” 

Only two teams in the modern era have ever finished an entire regular season without losing a game (the 1972 Miami Dolphins and the 2007 New England Patriots), while only one of them (the Dolphins) remained perfect through a Super Bowl run.

It is nearly impossible to go unbeaten, and chances are somebody along the way is going to get the Chiefs. Probably more than one team. 

But which team could that possibly be?

Of their remaining nine games, five opponents currently have a winning record, a list that includes Buffalo, Los Angeles (Chargers), Houston, Pittsburgh and Denver.

Three of those games (Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Denver) are on the road and figure to be extremely difficult games. Buffalo will be a challenge because the Bills and Chiefs always play tight games and the Bills have an MVP front-runner in quarterback Josh Allen. 

The Steelers and Broncos both boast elite defenses, with the Steelers now finding some consistency on offense with the arrival of veteran quarterback Russell Wilson. 

Aside from the schedule, there is another key point to make here. For as good as the Chiefs record is, and even though they are the back-to-back Super Bowl champions, they have not really looked the way we have come to expect them to look, especially on offense. 

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has more interceptions than touchdowns, their wide receiver room has been hit hard by injuries and they are not scoring points like a typical Andy Reid team.

As true as that all might be, the Chiefs have completely re-invented themselves as a football team in recent years and no longer rely on a high-powered, pass-first offense to simply outscore teams. They win with a dominant defense led by defensive lineman Chris Jones, they run the ball effectively, and they keep the game close enough to give Mahomes a chance to win it late. That formula worked well for them a year ago, and it has been working the same way this season.

There is a lot to be said for a team that can shut down any opposing offense and let an all-time great quarterback make big plays at the end when needed. The Chiefs are excellent at it, and the sooner football fans accept this is how they win now, the sooner everybody can be more reasonable about the way they are playing.

They are not playing poorly. They are just a different type of team that wins in a different way. It is working. 

Whether or not it works well enough to keep them undefeated remains to be seen.