Kansas City Chiefs: AFC Playoff Race Week 11

The Kansas City Chiefs are in a tight race for the playoffs. After all the action on Week 11, here is how the conference currently looks.

It was a tough loss for the Kansas City Chiefs this week. The Chiefs dropped a close game at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The loss costed Kansas City their place on top of the AFC West, looking at a #2 seed in the AFC. However, the Chiefs were not alone in important games this week. Around the AFC, key games shaped how the conference playoff run is shaping up.

The biggest game of the week actually belonged to the Houston Texans and Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football. After some dubious play calling, and a complete failure to address it at the right time by Bill O’Brien, the Raiders walked away with a victory. That puts them in as the #2 seed in the NFL right now, just behind the Patriots.

We are closing in on the end of the season, which means every game matters just that much more. There is a very tight race at the top of the AFC that might very well come down to a matter of head to head match ups. That is both good and bad for the Chiefs (more on why later). However, given that the Chiefs lost this week, things played out about as well as could be hoped.

With an important stretch of games on deck, the Chiefs have to step up their play this week. Kansas City is not in a position to take any games off right now. Every single match up has to be played like the season depends on it, because it very well might. Here is how the AFC playoff race is shaping up.