Who are the KC Chiefs biggest rivals outside of the AFC West?
Historically, the rest of the AFC and the Chiefs have not been great friends.
Houston Oilers
For whatever reason, this rivalry stands out in Chiefs history as having some significant bad blood. As the Chiefs were ascending out of the abysmal stretch known as the 1980s, the Oilers were one team they simply could not seem to beat. The Chiefs lost four straight from 1990-1993. However, during the 1993 playoffs, with Joe Montana leading the way, the Chiefs upset Houston and shocked the world 28-20.
From there, the Chiefs won four straight and five of the next six games in the rivalry. Keith Cash delivered one of the more memorable Chiefs’ touchdown celebrations, spiking the ball off of a banner of Oiler head coach Buddy Ryan’s head. The games between the two franchises were always testy, always important and seemed to always have memorable moments in them. The rivalry seemed to fall off for a while after the team moved to to Tennessee, but has been re-kindled recently (more on this later).
The Chiefs were 27-17 against the Oilers, and are 30-24 all-time when factoring in since the franchise became the Titans.
Pittsburgh Steelers
It felt like the entire decade of the 1990s was a back-and-forth, tit-for-tat battle between Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer. In fact, the Chiefs and Steelers played six times during that span and split games 3-3.
For Kansas City’s part, for some reason these losses always felt like they came at huge moments for the team. Every loss felt heartbreaking.
It should not be surprising, however, despite their relative equality in the ’90s, that the Steelers have dominated the series historically. The Steelers are one of the winningest franchises in NFL history and the Chiefs were really bad for a really long time.
The Steelers lead the all-time series 23-12.
Buffalo Bills
The AFC Championship game towards the end of the 1993 season between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills was a colossal letdown for Chiefs Kingdom and was devastating in many, many ways. The Joe Montana and Marcus Allen-led Chiefs, anchored by multiple All-Pro defenders, were dominant all season. And then, just like that, the offense was non-existent following an injury to Montana, in a 30-13 loss to the Bills.
The teams’ history goes back much further than that, however. The teams played 19 times during the 1960s, and the series record was 9-9-1 during that span, including the Chiefs 31-7 defeat of the Bills in the ’66 playoffs, securing their birth in the first World Championship game, Super Bowl I.
The record between the two teams favors the Bills, 26-21-1.