Until Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs are eliminated from playoff contention, the other teams in striking distance won’t be resting easy. It felt like Mahomes and the Chiefs were close to seeing their dynastic run come to an end, but they found a way to gut out a win over the Colts in overtime and now sit at 6-5.

They’re still not in a great position moving forward, as Next Gen Stats gives them a 55% chance of making the playoffs but hey, that’s better than the 28% chance they’d have had if they had lost to Indy. This win didn’t just keep Kansas City’s playoff hopes alive but it might have ignited this team, which is exactly what Mahomes confirmed in his postgame press conference.

“This is exactly what we needed,” Mahomes said following the Chiefs’ overtime victory over the Colts. “To win against a really good football team when things aren’t going your way… We could have folded… We needed a win like this… Now let’s try to win off this.”

Patrick Mahomes confirms what Chiefs rivals feared might be coming

It didn’t look good for Mahomes and the Chiefs entering the fourth quarter, as they trailed 20-9 and looked lifeless offensively. The defense settled in, however, and completely shut down the Colts offense and that allowed the offense to get the team back into the game and send it to overtime where, well, the rest is history.

Mahomes’ comments are exactly what opponents don’t want to hear as we enter crunch time in the regular season. Mahomes and the Chiefs catching fire and sneaking into the playoffs on a big win-streak would be worst-case scenario for all of the AFC opponents because who is going to want to play a red-hot Chiefs team in the playoffs? Nobody, that’s who.

Mahomes saying point blank that this win proves to him and the rest of his teammates that they can bounce back when things aren’t going their way is nightmare fuel for everyone else. It’s not even like they did it against a bad team either, they did it against the 8-2 (now 8-3) Colts, who are vying for the top seed in the playoffs.

Mahomes is right. This win was exactly what he and the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs needed because now they know they’re capable of bouncing back when things aren’t going their way. Now they know they still have some of that dynasty magic left in them. For the other potential AFC hopefuls, that is downright terrifying.