Arrowhead Pride
Coming off their bye week, the Kansas City Chiefs are headed west for a Week 11 matchup against the Denver Broncos. With eight regular-season games remaining, Kansas City finds itself in unfamiliar territory.
After winning nine consecutive AFC West titles, the 5-4 Chiefs are in third place behind the 8-2 Broncos and the 7-3 Los Angeles Chargers.
That’s exactly where head coach Andy Reid doesn’t want to be.
“The first goal we have that Coach Reid puts up is winning the division,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes reminded reporters before Wednesday’s practice. “We understand that it’s always a challenge. You have to go up against some really good football teams that are scouting you all year long. So, we’ve been really good at that over these last few years — and we’ve got to continue to get better and better. We have a lot of division games in front of us, so if we can go out there and handle business — and do what I think we can do — we can find a way to win this division. Everything is out in front of us. We have to go out there with the right mindset.”
In the AFC West — a division that sent three teams to the postseason in 2024 — games between these rivals are always crucial.
“It’s important that you spend time on that,” noted Reid. “The thing about our division here is it’s a strong division. Our AFC West is tremendously strong. We’re all trying to shoot for the same thing. They’re all good teams — and they’re well coached.”
Mahomes understands the importance of this week’s contest, in which a victory would leave the Chiefs largely in control of their own destiny.
“Obviously, if you lose this game,” Mahomes admitted, “with them having the tiebreaker, that would be like four games ahead of us. It’d be tough to go back and get that one, but all you can do is just handle this week. That’s all you can really worry about. We still play a lot of great football teams, but I feel like if we play our best we can beat anybody. So we have to just continue to get better and better, be more consistent throughout games — and week-to-week — and that starts with practice today.”
While the Chiefs would still be a strong contender for a playoff berth without winning the division, the obvious advantage of entering the postseason as AFC West Champions is not lost on the quarterback.
“You get the home game at Arrowhead, which I think is huge,” he observed. “We’ve proven that we can go on the road and win, but just being able to play at Arrowhead is an advantage with the noise and the atmosphere.”
Given their heightened expectations, Chiefs fans may no longer be excited about getting “AFC West Champion” apparel. But a division title is still meaningful to a squad that has advanced to five of the last six Super Bowls.
“It kind...
