KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At first glance, the Chiefs’ 20-3 loss at Seattle was humbling. But upon further review a few days later, well, maybe it was even worse. At least considering the jarring context of the offensive stats: Of Patrick Mahomes’ 153 NFL starts, including the playoffs, the Chiefs on Sunday tied for their fewest points (matched in a 27-3 loss to Tennessee in 2021), mustered their ...

Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs looks on against the Seattle Seahawks during the second quarter at Lumen Field on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, in Seattle.

Steph Chambers/Getty Images North America/TNS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At first glance, the Chiefs’ 20-3 loss at Seattle was humbling. But upon further review a few days later, well, maybe it was even worse.

At least considering the jarring context of the offensive stats:

Of Patrick Mahomes’ 153 NFL starts, including the playoffs, the Chiefs on Sunday tied for their fewest points (matched in a 27-3 loss to Tennessee in 2021), mustered their most meager number of first downs (11) and eked out their second-fewest yards of total offense (213).

All of that was punctuated by Mahomes’ own marginal production: a 58.3 passer rating, his fifth-worst, and 165 yards passing, his sixth-least productive.

To be sure, there were a lot of reasons for a performance that was disillusioning after the Chiefs started the season 5-0 and now head to Denver — which has won five of six since the Chiefs blasted the Broncos 31-10 in the opener at Arrowhead Stadium.

Start with the salty Seattle defense, which sure seemed conscious of how to stop former Seahawk Kenneth Walker III, and with the Chiefs being without their top two offensive tackles and top two receivers.

(Yes, it bears mention that one of those, tackle Josh Simmons, hasn’t played all season and now is on injured reserve. Another, receiver Tyquan Thornton, is unlikely to be back this season).

All of which was the prologue to Wednesday’s reminder of something else yet that’s special about Mahomes. His brilliance includes not only an uncanny cognizance of everything around him but remarkable self-awareness, and that helps explain how and why he has such an infectiously winning presence.

Because as frustrated as he might have been with four dropped passes, several evident miscommunications with young receivers and some porous line play, Mahomes did what he always does: checked out the mirror first.

And not in some shallow way meant to cover for others.

It’s just that those hard conversations need not be vented publicly.

And while there’s a certain obvious benefit to not publicly calling out teammates, self-criticism means more when it’s sincere and tangible — something that can only come from the self-assurance of owning his own mistakes.

In the case of the ever-winsome Mahomes, it comes off as somewhere between cathartic and therapeutic to speak publicly about where he went awry and what he has to do to get better.

It also resonates because he’s not just vaguely generalizing but explaining in ways that reassure that he’s right about what he has to refine and will make it so … yet again.

Although Wednesday was just the latest example of that habit, it was both an affirmation of the vital trait and perhaps as emphatic as he’s ever been about his own role in resetting the offense.

As he considered where it broke down offensively in Seattle, for instance, Mahomes immediately pointed to himself early in the game.

“My feet weren’t in the right spots,” he said, adding that his footwork was “rushed, and I wasn’t giving chances in the pocket to kind of make those plays happen. And that kind of spiraled into the rest of the game.”

As he thought of examples of the “stuff I missed early … (that) kind of affected the entire game,” he referenced an early third-down overthrow to Kelce.

Then he thought about a later play when he was so focused on going downfield that he rushed his feet and didn’t look to Kelce for a would-be third-down conversion.

“If you can’t hit those plays,” he said, “then usually it spirals in the wrong direction.”

He was right about the broader point there, too:

As bad and discouraging as this game was, every outing has its own dynamics built over one play at a time. The tone, momentum and overall direction often are determined by a precious few snaps, and instead of stacking breakthrough moments the Chiefs kept stalling.

And snags that get you multiple scores behind a good team — the reigning Super Bowl champions — is a recipe for exactly what happened Sunday, particularly when you enter the game with some key absences.

All of which speaks to why the NFL is understood to be a week-to-week proposition with profiles and resumes built through trials and errors over the course of the arduous season.

As Mahomes put it, “that’s how you evolve.” Meaning own it and get better.

Only one team in NFL history has gone undefeated, the 1972 Miami Dolphins, and, indeed, many of the great ones are those who stumble and get better from it.

A fine case in point is the 2019 Chiefs, who were 6-4 before winning nine in a row for their first Super Bowl triumph in 50 years.

And while the 2021 Chiefs lost the AFC championship game to Cincinnati, they won 11 of 12 after falling to 3-4 with that 27-3 clobbering by Tennessee.

Those narratives, of course, were only knowable after the fact.

This team all at once appears both sufficient to stand and free to fall, to borrow from one of the few lines of “Paradise Lost” that stuck.

These Chiefs are more or less a ball of contradictions, all the harder to process in the wake of a 6-11 season that followed five Super Bowl berths in the previous six.

The defense needs to be able to sack opposing quarterbacks more often … but is second in the league in points allowed (17.2 per game).

Harrison Butker made a 69-yard field goal in the preseason ... but has missed more kicks than anyone in the NFL the last two seasons, compelling the Chiefs to sign Justin Tucker to the practice squad.

And the offense, well, just a week ago it was leading the league in yards a game (414) and seemed reborn with Walker changing its complexion and range of options.

It looks different after the Seattle game, and no doubt the Chiefs could use reinforcements on the line and in the receiving corps — each of which figure to be bolstered this week by the probable returns of tackle Jaylon Moore and receiver Rashee Rice.

But the constant remains the indomitable Mahomes, whose zealous return from knee surgery reflects his rare competitive spirit.

That includes both his resolve and perspective, and here’s another of example of how they go together he offered when asked what still gives him faith he’ll have enough time to go through his progressions:

“After watching the film, I think I should have more confidence. Because I moved sometimes when I didn’t necessarily have to move and kind of moved myself into pressure. So I created some of those pressures.”

Speaking of pressure, which has been ratcheted up by the loss, we know by now he thrives on it.

When things look bleak, he seems to embrace the way coach Andy Reid put it after the 13-seconds game against Buffalo in the 2022 AFC divisional round. Asked what he told Mahomes before he went back out after Buffalo took the late lead, Reid put it this way:

“When it’s grim, be the Grim Reaper. And go get it. He did that. He made everybody around him better, which he’s great at.”

Starting with looking in the mirror first — a great statement in its own right, a meaningful team-building gesture and a substantial demonstration to teammates to do the same.