Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs are dominating the AFC West
By Matt Conner
Five years into his tenure with the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s clear that no one is coming close to even touching them within the AFC West anytime soon.
It was a common topic last year, Andy Reid’s dominance. The Kansas City Chiefs finished 12-4 last season and won their first AFC West title in several years in the process, leading to the oft-quoted stat that the Chiefs had swept the entire West at home and on the road that season.
This year, that sort of stat (or even a broader look at the Chiefs’ dominance) has been lost. It certainly would have come up if K.C. had been able to continue its winning ways after Week 5. Unfortunately, a losing skid with six losses in seven games pushed the Chiefs out of any conversation with the word “dominant” involved. In fact, we’re only now getting used to winning again.
Despite the midseason dip, however, and the fact that the Chiefs could actually still finish 8-8 on the year, Andy Reid has the team in a very dominant position when it comes to viewing them through the lens of their AFC West competitors.
If the #Chiefs beat the Broncos in Week 17, Andy Reid will have 16 wins in his last 17 games against AFC West opponents.
— Matt Conner (@MattConnerAA) December 18, 2017
In case you refuse to read Tweets, let me repeat this insane fact: Andy Reid has won 15 of his last 16 games against AFC West opponents and the season-ending game against Denver certainly looks like an easy one, even if some back-ups play more than normal. If so, that would be 16 of 17 games.
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The current streak stretches all the way back to the midway point of the 2015 campaign. If you remember, the Chiefs began that season in the worst way possible, with a 1-5 record that had everyone clamoring for answers that weren’t there. The losing streak even started with a home loss to the Denver Broncos. Then came the record-setting streak.
That 2015 team went on to win 11 games in a row, including a playoff game over the Houston Texans, before the New England Patriots brought them back to earth. The next year was the 12-4 campaign and the AFC West sweep. This year, the only blemish on the record is a controversial loss to the Oakland Raiders in which pass interference calls were apparently not relevant.
The bottom line is this: the Chiefs have been near-perfect against the teams that matter most, and the ones who get to see more of Andy Reid’s schemes than anyone else are the absolute worst at figuring him out.
It’s a streak that will likely continue into next year when the Chiefs likely unveil their quarterback of the future and give him the league’s best tight end, the NFL’s fastest wide receiver and the reigning offensive Rookie of the Year.