by Bob Priddy, Missourinet Contributing Editor
(CHIEFS)—Kansas City has started its toughest three-game schedule of the year and the result is good news, more bizarre news, and potentially some bad news.
Good news: Chiefs beat the Browns 21-7 to equal a record set in 2025. The game wasn’t as close as the score might indicated. Winning against one of the worst teams in the NFL this year seemed easy compared to the Chiefs’ usual M-O. They took a 14-0 lead and even scored in the third quarter. It’s their first winning game without a field goal since they beat the 49ers 28-16 on October 20. They had no field goals in their loss to Buffalo on November 17.
Harrison Butker was back and made all three of his extra points.
But here’s the kicker to our story, so to speak. The Chiefs have not exceeded 30 points all year. They’ve gotten to 30 twice, that stopped there. CBS Sports says the last time an NFL team won 13 games in a season was 1925 when the Frankford Yellow Jackets did it.
The Chiefs appear to be headed to the playoffs but Frankford finished sixth despite winning 13 games in 1925. They were part of the American Professional Football League, which eventually morphed into the NFL. The Chicago Cardinals were declared the league champions with an 11-2-1 record, ahead of the Pottsville Maroons, who were 10-2.
The Detroit Panthers (8-2-2), the New York Giants (8-4), and the Akron Pros (4-2-2) finished ahead of the Yellow Jackets who were 13-7. Final standings were based on winning percentage.
There are only four teams in the NFL this year who have not scored more than thirty points at least once—the Chiefs, the Patriots, the Giants and the Raiders. The other three teams have only seven wins among them so far. 7-34, in fact.
The NFL schedule-makers seemed to have their own sense of weirdness this year. The Cleveland game was the first of three games in an 11-day stretch. The Chiefs play the Texans next Saturday and then have a Christmas day game against the Steelers. They get a long week to heal before their last regular-season game against the Broncos on January 5.
(CHIEFS-MAHOMES)—Not all of the news is good for Patrick Mahomes. He left the game late in the fourth quarter Sunday with what appears to be a high ankle sprain. He said afterward that he could have gone back out with his ankle taped but there was no reason to do it.
Word on Monday afternoon was that the sprain is not serious.
Although his backup is no Mahomes, he’s a capable QB. Carson Wentz finished the game for Kansas City and completed both of his passes for 20 yards. Wentz has started 93 of the 97 NFL games in which he has played. He has hit almost 63% of his passes during his NFL career. His career, however, has been interrupted by injuries.
Before Patrick Mahomes left the game in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury, he set a new NFL record for most passing touchdowns before the age of 30. He picked up two against Cleveland to move past Payton Manning, with 254 TDs. He’s done it in 75 regular season games. Manning needed 128 games.
Mahomes won’t be thirty until September 17 next year.
(CHIEFS)—The NFL’s Special Teams Player of the Week last week was Kansas City’s second-replacement kicker Matthew Wright. 
But his story is one of the “penthouse to the outhouse” stories.
On the same day Wright was recognized, the Chiefs opened a three-week practice window for Butker and on Saturday before the Cleveland game, Wright was released and Butker was activated.
Wright’s field goals have been the difference in the previous two Chiefs’ wins. He scored 26 of the team’s 38 points, the last one a game-winner against the Chargers. He’s built some pretty impressive credentials that might bode well for his future in the game.
Butker is 19/20 in field goal attempts this year and 24/25 in points after.
(TIGER FB)—The home folks are going to see a lot of their Tigers next year. The SEC has released its conference schedule for 2025 giving Missouri six straight home games and eight overall. SEC games at Faurot Field will be against South Carolina, Texas A&M, Alabama and Mississippi. They’ll open against Central Arkansas, will welcome KU back in Columbia for the first time in ages, and then take on Louisiana-Lafayette.
They’ll play Auburn on October 18, their first road game. Vanderbilt, Oklahoma and Arkansas will be their other road games.
Their bowl game is now less than two weeks away.
(TIGER ROUNDBALL)—Missouri plays Jackson State tonight and then goes against the University of Illinois five days later in St. Louis. Illinois is unranked but gave top-ranked Tennessee all it could handle before the Vols got a late basket to win 66-64.
(BASEBALL)—Neither of our MLB teams have generated anything exciting in the last week.
—and the engines are silent on the race tracks.
Soooooo, we’ll see you in this space next week.