Kansas City Chiefs Clinch AFC West, Prove They Can Win Ugly in Super Bowl Quest

We’ve reached the point where tuning into a Kansas City Chiefs game three hours after kickoff is sensible, knowing good and well the contest won’t be decided until the final minutes.

My strategy paid off once again Sunday night. 

This time it came down to the final snap, with backup-to-the-backup kicker Matthew Wright banking in a 31-yard field goal off the left upright and through as time expired to lift the Chiefs to a 19-17 home win over the Los Angeles Chargers. 

Wright’s dramatic kick capped the latest nail-biting victory for a Kansas City squad that improved to 12-1 and locked up its ninth straight AFC West title with a two-game edge over the Buffalo Bills for homefield advantage in the conference. 

It also reaffirmed why I still believe the Chiefs are well-positioned to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls: 

This team knows how to win ugly.

Sunday’s last-second victory marked Kansas City’s fifth win this season by three points or fewer. Heck, each of its last four wins have come that way. All but two of the Chiefs’ victories have been decided by a single possession, and none have come by more than 13 points.

I won’t argue that Kansas City’s luck this season has been disproportionately favorable, though.

It started in Week 1, when the Chiefs held on for a 27-20 win after Baltimore’s Isaiah Likely landed with a toe out of bounds on what would have been a touchdown on the final play of regulation. 

Two weeks later, Kansas City escaped Atlanta with a 22-17 victory following a controversial no-call on what looked like defensive pass interference in the end zone with the Falcons driving late in the fourth quarter.

And then came perhaps the wackiest of them all in Week 13, when Las Vegas was within range of a potential game-winning field goal before a botched shotgun snap helped the Chiefs prevail 19-17.

Sure, Kansas City should probably have at least three or four losses at this point. But a handful of its wins have also come from a pristine poise that few, if any, other teams have. 

Take Week 10 against Denver, when the Chiefs exploited a soft spot in the Broncos’ field-goal unit and blocked what would have been the game-winning 35-yard kick as time expired for an improbable 16-14 victory.

Or at Carolina in Week 12, when Patrick Mahomes calmly directed Kansas City 57 yards in just under two minutes to set up Spencer Shrader’s 31-yard field goal at the gun, giving the Chiefs a 30-27 win.

Then there was Sunday night, with Mahomes converting two critical third downs on Kansas City’s final drive to set up Wright’s nerve-racking winner.

The Chiefs aren’t blowing teams out like they used to, but that perhaps makes them even scarier. It’s hard to imagine a team flat-out dominating Kansas City, and the Chiefs have repeatedly proven that they won’t burst when the pressure peaks. 

On top of that, look at their last two playoff runs. Aside from that 19-point home win in last year’s wild-card game against the Dolphins (who had no business competing in those frigid conditions), Kansas City has won six of its last seven postseason games by one possession.

The Chiefs still have four regular-season games remaining to find another gear, but even if they don’t, they’re still guaranteed at least one home playoff contest.

Kansas City has done just enough to hold the AFC’s best record entering the final four weeks, and we all know Mahomes is capable of shredding a defense to help ignite a Chiefs rout that seems long overdue.

Teams like Buffalo and Pittsburgh have emerged as Kansas City’s probable top challengers in the conference, but the playoffs are a different beast.

Every snap is magnified, and mistakes can prove fatal. 

It’s easy to panic and abandon your identity when the game isn’t going as planned. But the Chiefs are adept at staying the course, no matter how bumpy it may get.

It may not be the sexiest way to win, but Kansas City’s knack for remaining calm could soon deliver another Super Bowl ring bearing the sparkle that has been mostly missing from the Chiefs’ success this season.