Lions, Chiefs among those strugglining to finish line

December football is all about separating the contenders from the rest of the pack. The cream rises to the top, while the other playoff hopefuls duke it out for a chance to maybe win a Wild Card game before being sent home.

Week 14 gave us a taste of that process sorting itself out as the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs suffered painful losses of different flavors.

The Lions took a beating from the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. It was a roller coaster affair that started with the Lions surrendering 10 unanswered points before scoring 13 themselves heading into halftime. Then the Bears took over the game in the second half, an effort that included shutting out the Lions for two quarters and quarterback Justin Fields converting a fourth-and-13 with a touchdown throw to DJ Moore. Humbling loss, to say the least.

For the Chiefs, losing to the Buffalo Bills was less humbling and more frustrating. A season’s worth of turnover problems, poor receiver play and mind-numbing penalties all boiled over at the worst moment. The Chiefs battled the Bills to the very end despite all their inconsistencies on offense, but a Kadarius Toney offensive offsides call erased a lateral pass touchdown from Travis Kelce to Toney in the final minutes, allowing the Bills to ice the game.

Neither the Lions nor the Chiefs are secretly bad teams, but they are flawed teams, and the losses they suffered on Sunday capture that. We’re getting to the point with both teams where it’s easy to imagine those flaws being too great, too cumbersome to overcome when we get to elimination football in January.

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