Kansas City Chiefs: Playoff Standings After Week 12
After a tough loss to the winless Oakland Raiders on Thursday night, the Kansas City Chiefs are still in the hunt for the playoffs. In fact, if the season ended today, the Chiefs would hold the fifth spot (first Wildcard) for the postseason.
Let’s take a look at the current AFC playoff standings.
- New England Patriots (9-2) (AFC East Leader)
- Denver Broncos (8-3) (AFC West Leader)
- Cincinnati Bengals (7-3-1) (AFC North Leader)
- Indianapolis Colts (7-4) (AFC South Leader)
- Kansas City Chiefs (7-4) (Wildcard #1)
- San Diego Chargers (7-4) (Wildcard #2)
In the hunt: Baltimore Ravens (7-4), Pittsburgh Steelers (7-4), Cleveland Browns (7-4), Miami Dolphins (6-5)
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Interesting enough, these would be the same exact teams who made it into the AFC postseason last year and almost the EXACT same seedings only the Broncos and Patriots would switch spots.
As of now, the Kansas City Chiefs would hold the first Wildcard spot. This would mean the Chiefs would travel to Indianapolis to play the Colts, like they always seem to do come playoff season.
You’re probably really confused when seeing all of those 7-4 teams so here’s a breakdown of why the Chiefs hold the fifth seed, courtesy of ESPN.
"“Wins tie break over Baltimore based on best win percentage in conference games. Division tie break was initially used to eliminate San Diego (Kansas City wins tie break over San Diego based on head-to-head win percentage). Division tie break was initially used to eliminate Cleveland (Baltimore wins tie break over Cleveland and Pittsburgh based on head-to-head win percentage). Division tie break was initially used to eliminate Pittsburgh (Baltimore wins tie break over Cleveland and Pittsburgh based on head-to-head win percentage).”"
Confused yet? Yeah me too and rightfully so.
The Chiefs still have a chance to win the AFC West, but they have to beat Denver this weekend. The Chiefs haven’t been able to take down the Broncos since Tim Tebow was the Broncos’ starting quarterback.
The game will take place on Sunday night on NBC and it should be electric at Arrowhead Stadium. Hopefully the noise gets to Peyton Manning and slows down the Denver offense.
A 10-6 record more than likely won’t merit a playoff spot this year with all the talented teams in the AFC.
As for the rest of the playoff standings, the AFC North has had it pretty easy, as they’ve faced the NFC South this year. In case you didn’t know, the NFC South is terrible so every team in the AFC North has a winning record and are all in the hunt for a playoff berth. Of course, those teams will knock each other out of contention, as the teams will face each other and narrow things down in the conference.
The AFC North’s success alone is a big enough reason for the Kansas City Chiefs to keep winning. Losing to the Raiders isn’t the end of the world, but the Chiefs can’t afford to lose more than a few games this season. With tough teams like the Broncos, Chargers, Steelers, and Arizona Cardinals on the schedule, the Chiefs can probably only afford to lose two more games tops if they want to make it into the postseason. A 10-6 record more than likely won’t merit a playoff spot this year with all the talented teams in the AFC.
So, in other words… Start with beating the Broncos this Sunday night and we’ll go from there. Deal? Deal.
Check out the NFL playoff standings at ESPN.com