The Kansas City Chiefs need to have a ‘must win’ mindset

The AFC Playoff Picture

Here’s the cold hard truth for the Chiefs and their AFC playoff standings. If the Chiefs lose to the Chargers on Monday, they would, for the time being, be OUT of the playoff picture. Let me repeat that: a loss on Monday Night Football means the Chiefs would enter their bye week on the outside of the playoffs in the AFC.

How is that possible you ask? Well, its pretty simple actually.

The Patriots and Baltimore Ravens (fresh off a dominant win over the Texans) are currently the clear top two seeds in the AFC. The Colts and Texans are both at 6-4 in the AFC South. While the Colts currently own the head-to-head tie-breaker, it doesn’t really matter to the Chiefs because both teams would have the same amount of wins as K.C. and one fewer loss. Plus, both teams have a head to head win over the Chiefs which makes the the team’s position even worse.

In this instance, the Colts would get the AFC South title and the Texans would be ahead of K.C. in the wild card race. We already established that a loss on Monday would put the Raiders a half game ahead of the Chiefs in the AFC West. Then the final wild card spot would go to the Buffalo Bills who would be two full games up on K.C. with a record of 7-3.

Not a pretty picture is it? The Chiefs would be in a horrible position for a wild card spot because of how far behind Buffalo they would be and with tie breaker losses to both the Colts and Texans. It would basically make the AFC West a must win in order to make sure they made it into the playoffs.

On the other hand, if the Chiefs take care of business and win against the Chargers and the Raiders, they would not only be in the driver’s seat for their division, but they would still be in position for the third overall spot in the AFC. Then if they could get on a roll and beat the Patriots and win out they could even still get themselves a first round bye because they would have head-to-head wins over both the Patriots and Ravens. If one of those teams dropped to four losses, the Chiefs would take their spot.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though; the Chiefs need to start by just taking care of things in the division.

I know the term “must win” is overused in the NFL. I know that if the Chiefs lose tonight to the Chargers that their season isn’t over. However, I would argue that if the Kansas City Chiefs want to make a run at a Super Bowl this season, they have to win these next two division games. They have to come out on Monday with that same intensity and focus that they had when Mahomes was out. They’ve used up their wiggle room. They are now at the point where if they lose they are simply not going to be able to be a top team in the AFC anymore. They are too talented of a team to be in that position.

The Chiefs need a “must win” mindset both on Monday against the Chargers and when they face the Raiders after the bye. Let’s hope that when the game kicks off in Mexico City, we see a team that is playing like their season depends on it. Because in many ways, it does.