Recent History Of The AFC West

Last week, I didn’t have a Chiefs game to watch. I was sitting on my couch with NFL Sunday Ticket pulled up on my Xbox scrolling through all the games trying to figure out which one I wanted to watch (side note, if you don’t have Sunday Ticket, I suggest you get it, it’s awesome).

I eventually settled on the Chargers vs. Raiders game. I have Philip Rivers on my fantasy team, and I thought to myself, “I can just watch the Chargers beat up on the Raiders.”

Oct 12, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; San Diego Chargers running back Branden Oliver (43) rushes for a first down during the fourth quarter against the Oakland Raiders at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Bob Stanton-USA TODAY Sports

That’s when the most wonderful thing happened. The (4-1) Chargers didn’t destroy the (0-4) Raiders. In fact the Raiders almost won and it was one of the best games of the week to watch.

Now, most of you are probably wondering why I just went on about how great that game was, right? Well it got me thinking, and I have come to the more-than-likely biased conclusion that the AFC West is the best division in football. No, not because it necessarily has the best teams in it at the moment in terms of winning percentages. But rather because it has the best teams in terms of competition.

No matter the year, no matter what each of the four teams’ records are inside and outside of the division. The games between the Chiefs, Chargers, Broncos and Raiders always seem to have some kind of special flare to them. Anybody could come out on top in any given game. The players on these teams get so fired up to play against each other, and the fans get so fired up for these rivalries, it’s kind of crazy.

Now most people would probably say, “That’s just how every division is”, and “that’s how all rivalry games are.” However, maybe just because I’m a Chiefs fan, there’s something special about facing those other three teams in our division that I just know it’s going to be an amazing game to watch. So I wanted to take a look at some of the more notably good games in the past couple of years between the teams in our division.