KANSAS CITY, Mo. — They fly home now in an 0-2 hole and the abyss beckons. Of course you are entitled to talk about all the teams we know that dropped the first two games of the World Series and came storming back — whether your team is the 1996 Yankees or the ’86 Mets or the ’55 Dodgers.

That’s absolutely how you have to play this now.

The problem: What may be the far more relevant example are the ’15 Cubs. Because the Mets are walking and talking very much like the team the they just swept out of the NLCS — a team of pride and confidence that got itself good and steamrolled once it became apparently, abundantly clear it would be a terrible matchup for them.

When the Cubs were where the Mets are, Chicago manager Joe Maddon already was spouting platitudes, smart ones, talking about a series of one-game winning streaks. His players followed suit. They spoke of holding serve at home. They insisted the disparity wasn’t as great. But the eyes told a different tale.

And so did their words. Which sound awfully familiar to what the Mets were saying in the aftermath of a disheartening, 7-1 loss to the Royals in which the Mets barely looked like co-stars on the grandest stage in baseball.

“It’s not so much what we haven’t done,” David Wright insisted. “It’s what they’ve done.”

“The Royals have a good team,” manager Terry Collins said. “We’ve got to start playing better.”

Honestly, there’s little else any of them could say. Despite Wednesday’s thrashing, this series still is far closer to Tuesday’s epic 14-inning Game 1 struggle. But there are three things the Mets do especially well that would give them an advantage against just about any of the 29 other teams in baseball.

Just not this one.

They are carried by their hard-throwing starters, but in Game 1 Matt Harvey struck out just two hitters, and on Wednesday Jacob deGrom got just three swings-and-misses among his 94 pitches — none against fastballs, a staggering number. The back end of the bullpen has been untouchable, or was until Alex Gordon touched Jeurys Familia for a game-tying ninth-inning homer.

The Mets haven’t encountered a harder team to put away than this one. And the Mets’ own resilience, which mostly has mirrored the Royals, takes a significant hit when you see the roster of elite relievers K.C. can put on a treadmill every night.

Look, none of that means the Mets can’t make an immediate spin move and carry this series back the other way once Citi Field gets involved starting Friday night. None of this means you should expect the Mets to fall into the tuck position and go quietly into that great good night.

“It’s going to be crazy for Game 3, that much I’m sure of,” Wright said.

But is it likely?

More to the point: Is it possible?

The ’96 Yankees were a team that had been together as a core for most of the year, had learned to rely on each other, and they fed off the confidence of manager Joe Torre — who, after dropping two at home to the Braves, immediately sought out George Steinbrenner, famously declared Atlanta was “my town” and assured the Boss the Yankees would win three straight in Georgia then finish things off in Game 6. Which is what happened.

The ’86 Mets were a different breed of cat entirely, unfazed by hardship and poor play. They almost took it as a pound-your-chest challenge to rescue themselves in Boston once they fell behind 0-2 to the Sox. And did, with a little extra drama built into it.

Even in ’55, when Next Year finally arrived in Brooklyn, the core of the Dodgers already had faced the core of the Yankees so often — five ties between 1941 and 1953 — that there were no mysteries between the clubs. The Dodgers simply pounded out three wins at Ebbets Field, famously held on through the adventures of Game 7.

“We have to treat every game the rest of the way as an elimination game,” Wright said.

The way the Royals play is perfect for Kauffman Stadium. It is also a good way to play at Citi Field, too, by the way.

Going by the letter of the law, Wright is wrong: Friday won’t be must-win, not yet. But we can be honest with each other. The abyss awaits them. They aren’t coming back from 3-0. As it is, coming back from 2-0 might be too much to ask. And probably is.