The Kansas City Chiefs’ playoff hopes are on life support.After losing to the Houston Texans on Sunday Night Football to fall to 6–7, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs now have roughly a 15% chance to reach the postseason. In other words, it’s all but over.The sun is setting on Kansas City’s playoff chancesGettyThey’ll need to win their final four games against the Los Angeles Chargers, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders just to have a chance. They’ll also need both the Chargers and the Indianapolis Colts to stumble down the stretch.Mahomes understands the reality of the situation he’s in — a new reality, and one that is staring him directly in the face for the first time in his career: missing the postseason.After his lackluster performance on SNF, he wasn’t shying away from the position in which the Chiefs now find themselves.“We know the chances are getting lower and lower, but I know the guys on this team are going to give everything they have every opportunity they get,” Mahomes said.“You’re just getting late in the season, and you’re not going to get these opportunities back. That’s a good team, but we had chances. We didn’t execute at the right time to win it.”Mahomes connected on only 14 of 33 passes for 160 yards, with no touchdowns and three interceptions.It was the roughest outing of Mahomes’ career, and while Houston’s defense deserves plenty of credit, he also had to deal with six crucial drops and a revolving door of offensive linemen in front of him.His completion rate (42.4%) and passer rating (19.8), and his 0–3 touchdown-to-interception line were a new low.Kansas City hadn’t seen a quarterback finish a game with zero touchdowns and three picks since Tyler Palko back in Week 12 of 2011.Palko started four games for the Chiefs that season, going 1–3 in mostly rough outings. Any time Mahomes is mentioned in the same breath as Palko, it’s safe to say something went horribly wrong.Mahomes was harassed all night by arguably the best defense in the leagueGettyKansas City is looking like they will be on the couch come JanuaryGettyNo offense, Palko.Now at 6–7, the Chiefs are below .500 after 13 games for the first time since 2012, a season they finished 2-14, just one year before Andy Reid arrived and changed the franchise forever.That isn’t happening this year.Reid came under fire for choosing to go for it on fourth-and-1 at his own 31-yard line with the game tied 10-10 and 10:18 remaining.“I put the guys offensively in a tough position with the fourth downs. I tried to stay aggressive with it (and) I take full responsibility for that,” Reid said after the game.“I thought we could get it, that was the decision. I was confident we could do that. It’s important that you take advantage of opportunities (and) I thought it was an opportunity. I was wrong, no?NFL's Greatest......Ranking the top 10......Quarterbacks of all-time – Can anyone better Tom Brady?Wide receivers of all-time – Does Randy Moss or Jerry Rice come out on top?Running backs of all-time – Stacking Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, Walter Payton, Emmitt Smith and moreTight ends of all-time – How does Travis Kelce compare?“I mean, hindsight, it was wrong. We’ve been pretty good on fourth downs. I messed that one up.”The fourth-down debacle reflected the team’s season as a whole: falling just short when it mattered, a stark contrast to last year’s Chiefs.Now they sit outside the playoff picture for the first time in what feels like forever—since 2014. They aren’t out of it yet, but it certainly feels like a foregone conclusion that there will be no January football for Mahomes and company.And that’s a striking reality.Stay up to date with the latest from the NFL across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more