The Kansas City Chiefs might not be what we expected them to be this season, but they’re still pretty dang good and have a chance to be great in the playoffs.
Andy Reid deserves major credit for virtually securing his fourth straight AFC West crown. That happened Sunday in a stunningly easy win over the Oakland Raiders in a game with first place in the AFC West on the line.
Meanwhile, the other two teams in the division, the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos, got together. The Chargers found new ways to torment themselves and the Broncos may have begun their future.
Let’s look at the risers and fallers in the AFC West heading into Week 14 and the final quarter of the regular season:
Risers
Chiefs’ championships: There’s little chance the Chiefs won’t win the division under Reid for the fourth straight season. They are now 8-4 and the Raiders fell to 6-6. But Kansas City basically has a three-game lead in the division with four games to go because it swept Oakland this season (by a combined score of 68-19). If the Chiefs win at New England and the Tennessee Titans win at Oakland on Sunday, Kansas City will officially be division champions. The season has been bumpier than expected, but it’s still been a productive campaign in Kansas City.
Drew Lock: The second-round pick made his NFL debut and it was a big success. Lock started hot with two first-quarter touchdown passes. Naturally, he had some rocky moments. But for a second-round pick to give a winning spark to his team in rookie debut is a promising sign. Lock has a lot of talent. It gives Denver something to be excited about heading down the stretch as Lock tries to make his case to be the 2020 starter.
Chiefs’ defense: Don’t look now, but the Chiefs are starting to put together some strong defensive performances. It befuddled Oakland quarterback Derek Carr. All three layers of the Chiefs’ defense made plays. This unit doesn’t have to be great, just good, for the Chiefs to win the Super Bowl. If it comes through with another solid performance in New England, the Chiefs may be legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
Fallers
Power of point differential: The AFC West is living proof that a positive or negative point differential is unimportant. You actually may not believe what you are about to read: The Chargers are 4-8 and have a +3 point differential. Conversely, the Raiders are 6-6 and have a -87 point differential. Yes, you read that correctly. Both of those differentials are unfathomable. What does it mean? Apparently, the Chargers are very unfortunate and the Raiders have had some luck. Adding to the Chargers’ misery is that all eight defeats have been by seven points or less. Not fun.
Derek Carr: Carr was facing a couple of big career-long obstacles last week and he shrugged them off. He has traditionally been bad in cold weather games at Arrowhead Stadium. He talked about changing the ‘standard’ and then he went out in a cold weather game at Arrowhead Stadium and played terribly dropping to 0-6 at Kansas City. Carr hasn’t been terrible for most of this season, but he has struggled in the past 10 quarters, leading the Raiders to a total of 15 points. If Carr doesn’t finish strong, all the 2019 offseason speculation about head coach Jon Gruden possibly looking to replace Carr start again.
Raiders’ discipline: The Raiders were penalized 12 times at Kansas City with several coming pre-snap. Oakland has been penalized 104 times, one behind Jacksonville for the most in the NFL. Gruden continues to say this is on him. Well, it’s up to Gruden to fix it.