The AFC West is beating up on each other this year, indicated by the Kansas City Chiefs’ last second loss to the Oakland Raiders last Thursday. The division is all over the place at the moment.
Coming into the 2017 season, it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that the AFC West was head and shoulders above the rest of the league. After seven weeks of the season, however, this division doesn’t exactly scare anyone anymore after the AFC West has been beating up on each other all season long to this point.
Here is how the division looks at the moment:
- Kansas City Chiefs (5-2)
- Denver Broncos (3-3)
- Los Angeles Chargers (3-4)
- Oakland Raiders (3-4)
The Chiefs still have a nice lead in the division, but they’ve dropped two straight games and one of those came against a division rival. If the Chiefs lose to Denver on Monday, they’ll be 1-2 in the division.
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What’s made the Chiefs so frightening in years past is how good they’ve been against their AFC West foes. In 2015, they went 5-1 in the division, with the one loss coming to the Broncos early in the year. Last year Kansas City didn’t lose a game in their division, so for them to already be 1-1 against the AFC West is a weird feeling.
As mentioned before, the Chiefs and Broncos face each other this weekend while the Raiders travel to Buffalo and the Chargers host the Patriots. The AFC West has been beating up on each other with the Chiefs and Broncos both beating the Chargers, but the Chargers beating Denver in the second game and defeating Oakland while the Raiders knocked off the Chiefs. It really has been a circle of defeats in the west.
While the Chiefs should still be the favorites to win the AFC West, they have to take care against their divisional opponents first. Beating the Broncos on Monday night would be the best way to give the fan base faith that this team is still good and it’d put the team back above .500 with their division record.
Kansas City has had the misfortune of playing teams in need of wins and now they themselves are in that same boat. Lose to Denver on Monday and sure, they’re 5-3, but that’d be three straight losses with two coming to AFC West foes. This division might still be good, but the Kansas City Chiefs are the best in the West and that shouldn’t be able to be disputed.
Let’s get a win on Monday and then we won’t have to talk about it.