Around the AFC West: Wrapping up the regular season edition

Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs hosted their season finale on Sunday and, boy, was it a great game. The Chiefs needed to win to keep their hopes of a first round bye alive. They also needed the New England Patriots to lose. Guess what, it happened! If you haven’t heard the Kevin Harlan call, check it out. Chills.

The game was highlighted by a 104-yard kickoff return from Mecole Hardman, an 84-yard run from Damian Williams, and a game-sealing touchdown also from Williams. Combine that with interceptions from Tyrann Mathieu and Daniel Sorensen (he really likes to pick off Rivers) and this game was sealed.

While the Chiefs were sealing their win, the Patriots were crashing and burning. They dropped their finale to the Miami Dolphins (hail to the Dolphins) led by Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Fitzmagic that handed the Chiefs the No. 2 seed in the AFC and a first round bye.

This is great news as it allows the Chiefs to rest and get healthy and find a solution to the hole left by the loss of rookie safety Juan Thornhill. Thornhill’s torn ACL will force him to miss the playoffs and likely some of next season given the timing. This is a big loss, but the hope is that with the extra time, Steve Spagnolo can figure out a solution to cover in his absence.

Next weekend, the Chiefs will comfortably sit at home and watch to see which team they will host in the Divisional Round of the playoffs. We know it will be one of the following: New England Patriots, Houston Texans, or Buffalo Bills. Here’s hoping the Chiefs get healthy and mentally prepared for a deep playoff run that ends in the Lombardi.