KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Since they scored 34 points in a victory over the St. Louis Rams in the last weekend of October, the Kansas City Chiefs have had trouble moving the scoreboard. In five games since, they have reached as many as 24 points only twice. Last Sunday night, they managed only 16 points in losing to the Denver Broncos.

What makes the lack of point production troubling for coach Andy Reid and his team is the Chiefs are not giving up a lot of points, so decent defensive performances are being wasted; Kansas City has allowed just 224 points on the season, tied at No. 4 in the league for fewest points given up. Only Detroit (207), Buffalo (217) and Seattle (221) have allowed fewer points.

There are two specific areas that have held back the Chiefs’ point-production all season, and those problems involve all three phases of the game.

After 12 games, the team’s wide receivers have not caught a touchdown pass. No other team has faced that type of drought from its wideouts this season, possibly ever. How bad is the problem? Houston defensive end J.J. Watt has three touchdown catches as a goal-line receiver for the Texans offense. Certainly, that’s an indication something is severely lacking in the Chiefs’ offensive attack.

All season, the Chiefs have discounted the lack of point production from their wide receivers as just a fluke.

“I don’t worry about who gets them, I’m concerned that you score them, whatever position it is,” said Reid. “We’ve needed more than what we’ve done the past couple of weeks so we’ve got to do better there.”

But after 12 games of being shut out, the lack of points from the receivers puts more pressure on the run game and the tight ends and backs to be the touchdown makers, and that narrows the Chiefs’ margin of winning at a time they should be expanding their weapons to produce winning efforts in the run to the playoffs.

“Certainly, we’re concerned about scoring points and scoring touchdowns,” said quarterback Alex Smith. “We’re not really worried about who scores; it’s just that we do score. We’ve got a lot of different guys that can do it and a lot of different ways.

“You see Jamaal (Charles) lined up as a receiver and catching the ball and there are not many backs making that kind of a play in the NFL on a starting cornerback. So that kind of will remain our focus: just spreading the ball around and hopefully everyone is getting in on the action.”

The Chiefs’ defense and special teams have contributed to that lack of point-production in recent games as well. On the season, the Chiefs have just two return touchdowns, one on defense and the other in the kicking game. Last season, they had eight return scores.

What’s killing the defense’s chances to score is their inability to take away the ball – just 10 turnovers caused in 12 games. Only the New York Jets and Oakland (eight each) have pulled away fewer interceptions and fumbles this season.

“That’s something we can work on,” Reid said of takeaways. “Sometimes when you get to this point and you haven’t had a few, you press a little bit. You saw where we had the ball in our hands a couple of more times this past week (against Denver.)

“We need to get one, and then those normally snowball in your direction. We just need to make sure that we focus in and squeeze the football.”

Right now, the Chiefs are ranked No. 15 in points scored on the season with 277. Among the 14 teams ahead of them, only two hold losing records (New Orleans and Atlanta). Only one of the 14 teams is out of serious contention for the playoffs (Houston at 6-6).

If the Chiefs hope to stay in contention for a spot in the AFC playoffs, they must find a way to score more points. It only takes one more point than the opponent on any given Sunday to produce a victory. It’s going to take a lot more than that to be position to compete in the playoffs.

SERIES HISTORY: Seventh meeting between these teams since the Cardinals relocated to Arizona from St. Louis. The Chiefs are 5-1 in those games, losing only in 2001. The last time the teams played was in November 2010, when the Chiefs grabbed a 31-13 victory at Arrowhead Stadium. The last meeting in Arizona was a Chiefs 23-20 victory in 2006 at University of Phoenix Stadium. In five games against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Chiefs held a 3-1-1 record.

NOTES: DE Allen Bailey and WR Junior Hemingway sat out Wednesday’s practice as they continue to work through the league’s concussion protocol. … OG Mike McGlynn (quadriceps contusion) also sat out Wednesday.