Kansas City Chiefs: How They Make The Playoffs

The Kansas City Chiefs are coming off their third win of the season over division rival, the San Diego Chargers. Grabbing that win on the road sets up the Chiefs nicely, as they now have the easiest remaining schedule in the AFC.

Kansas City has such a buzz going with the World Series in town that we’ve all put the Chiefs on the back burner. Weird, isn’t it? However, there might be something brewing right across the street in Arrowhead that could make this city proud as well.

Like I mentioned before, the Chiefs have the easiest remaining schedule in the AFC and today were going to discuss how they can make the playoffs for the second year in-a-row. First, lets look at the remaining opponents.

St. Louis Rams – Home
New York Jets – Home
Buffalo Bills – Away
Seattle Seahawks – Home
Oakland Raiders – Away
Denver Broncos – Home
Arizona Cardinals – Away
Oakland Raiders – Home
Pittsburgh Steelers – Away
San Diego Chargers – Home

When you initially look at that schedule you’re left thinking, “how in the hell do the Chiefs have the easiest remaining schedule?” Well, it’s based on opponents winning percentages with the Chiefs having six home games remaining to just four more on the road.

Breaking it down, the Chiefs having the Rams and Jets at home the next two weeks should be two wins, putting Kansas City at 5-3 on the year. Here’s where things get a little tricky, those damn Buffalo Bills.

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I hate the bills, I mean despise them. They’ve basically become a rival to the Chiefs and this makes for the third year in-a-row that the Chiefs have had to travel out there. Hey NFL scheduler guy, why don’t you send them to Arrowhead for a change? Anyway, the Bills and Chiefs has proven to be a tricky one to pick and I could see the Chiefs dropping this one on the road. For this articles sake, I’m saying they win, getting them on a four game winning streak and moving to 6-3 on the year.

Now, returning home for Seattle could be our toughest game of the season. Looking at how Seattle has been lately, you could see the Chiefs getting this one at home. However, Seattle is still one of the best teams in the NFL and I can see them coming into Arrowhead and getting that win.

They end the Chiefs winning streak and put their record at 6-4.

So looking at the remaining games following Seattle, lets just say the Chiefs beat Oakland twice, steal one from Pittsburgh on the road, and sweep San Diego on the season. That puts them at 10-6, though I’m not ruling out them beating Peyton Manning and the Broncos at home in Arrowhead. If they play as well as they did in round one, and like they did against New England on Monday Night Football, they can beat anyone.

The Chiefs could find themselves at either 10-6, or, 11-5 based on the scenarios I just laid out. They’ll likely have to fight for a wildcard spot in the AFC again this season because quite frankly, the Broncos are going to win the West again barring some big time injury to Manning or a monumental collapse. The Chiefs best bet again this season is to try and get that ten or eleven game mark.

That is how this banged up team could make their second appearance in the playoffs in as many years.

Side Note: Did you know that even after facing Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Peyton Manning, and Colin Kaepernick, the Chiefs have the number one pass defense in terms of yards allowed? Pretty crazy stat, considering they released Brandon Flowers and have been playing without All-Pro safety, Eric Berry.

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