KC Chiefs: AFC West is suddenly up for grabs after loss to Titans

By Leigh Oleszczak | Nov 12, 2019

Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs (Photo by Wesley Hitt/Getty Images) /

The KC Chiefs shot themselves in the foot on Sunday in Nashville, leading by five with two minutes to go, and losing in epic fashion. With the loss, a fourth straight division title is no longer a foregone conclusion.

I don’t know if the Oakland Raiders are a good team, but what I do know is that they’re playing better football than the Kansas City Chiefs are right now, and that could be the difference when it comes to who is wearing the “2019 AFC West Champions” t-shirts and hats at the end of the season.

Yes, the Chiefs have the head-to-head over the Raiders for beating them in week two, but they’ll meet again in week 13 at Arrowhead Stadium. The Raiders have struggled there over the last half decade, but this doesn’t look like the same Raider team we’ve seen waltz into Arrowhead Stadium in the past few years.

The Chiefs are trending down and the Raiders are trending up and that might only continue to be the case because of the two teams’ schedules. Let’s compare, shall we?

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The Chiefs’ schedule looks like this:

Week 11 – at Chargers (Mexico City)
Week 12 – BYE
Week 13 – Raiders
Week 14 – at Patriots
Week 15 – Broncos
Week 16 – at Bears
Week 17 – Chargers

The Raiders’ schedule looks like this:

Week 11 – Bengals
Week 12 – at Jets
Week 13 – at Chiefs
Week 14 – Titans
Week 15 – Jaguars
Week 16 – at Chargers
Week 17 – at Broncos

So, the Chiefs have to play in Mexico City against the Chargers, New England and Chicago while hosting the rest of their AFC West foes to close out the year while the Raiders play two of the worst teams in the league. They’ll also face the Titans and Jaguars while playing at each of their AFC West foes’ home stadiums.

By the time the Chiefs and Raiders meet up in week 13, Oakland could be 7-4 while the Chiefs, best case scenario are also 7-4. If KC loses to the Chargers next week, the Raiders would be atop the division and that game could become a hell of a lot more meaningful than we all anticipated prior to the season.

The fact of the matter is that the Chiefs might not be the best team in the division. They have the best quarterback and the best coach (put your pitch forks away, Andy Reid haters), but that doesn’t always mean they have the best team or the best results on the field. We saw that point blank on Sunday in the loss to the Titans.

The AFC West looked like a joke after the first month of the season, but things are getting interesting now. Don’t be surprised if the Raiders give KC a run for their money or, worse yet, take the title from them this year. It could certainly happen.

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