The Kansas City Chiefs’ Path To The Playoffs
The Kansas City Chiefs have some work to do if they want to make the playoffs this season. With a record of two wins and three loses coming out of their bye week the Chiefs are going to have to win the majority of their remaining games to put themselves in position to get back to the playoffs. Originally, I thought that a 9-7 record might be good enough to make the playoffs in the AFC this season. However, after six weeks there are ten teams in the AFC with a .500 record or better. That’s ten teams that are in a better position than KC to claim one of the six AFC playoff spots. Given those numbers, it seems reasonable to assume that the Chiefs probably need to get to ten wins in order to give themselves a good chance to make the playoffs. The purpose of this post isn’t to debate “if” the Chiefs will make that happen, but to lay out exactly what KC would need to do in order to make it happen.
Now, I could do an entire post on what the Chiefs need to do on the field in order to make the playoffs. That list would include things like committing to running the football every game, make the emphasis of the passing game getting the football in the hands of the playmakers (Bowe, Kelce, Charles, Davis, and DAT), continuing to apply pressure via a strong pass rush, getting Eric Berry back and healthy, and solidifying the run defense. We could easily have an in depth discussion about any and all of those points. However, what I’m looking at today is the schedule and what the Chiefs need to do in their remaining eleven games to make the playoffs.
As I see it, there are three things that need to happen when looking at KC’s schedule in order for them to make the playoffs. Failure to do any of these three things will make things difficult, if not impossible, for the Chiefs to make the playoffs. I believe that all three things are realistic, but after a 2-3 start there is little to no room for error.
Let’s start off with the easiest of the three requirements for the Chiefs to achieve.