The AFC looks like KC Chiefs’ to lose after Wild Card round

At one point this past weekend, when the San Francisco 49ers walloped the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Chargers were up 27-0 on the Jacksonville Jaguars, it looked like this might be one of the worst Wild Card weekends in NFL history.

Some of the notable games to follow, particularly in the AFC, were the Buffalo Bills vs. the Miami Dolphins with Skylar Thompson and the Cincinnati Bengals vs the Baltimore Ravens without Lamar Jackson. No one was expecting either of those to be close. Things looked rather bleak and boring about halfway through Saturday night.

Then, all hell broke loose. The Chargers pulled an all-time Chargers moment, Former Andy Reid disciple Doug Pederson prevailed, Miami nearly knocked off Buffalo as a 14-point underdog, and the Ravens probably would have won had starting quarterback Tyler Huntley not cost his team with a fumble that led to a 99-yard touchdown return by Cincinnati’s Sam Hubbard.

Kansas City Chiefs fans should feel pretty good after watching the rest of the AFC play their games in the Wild Card round.

In the end, the results were not surprising to anyone. However, the rest of the AFC looked extremely vulnerable and Chiefs fans should probably feel pretty confident that the AFC is theirs for the taking.

Right now, all that stands between the Chiefs and their 5th straight AFC Championship game appearance, is the Jacksonville Jaguars, a team that Kansas City beat this season by multiple scores despite losing the turnover battle. Granted, the Jaguars have been playing good football, but people will forget that they turned the ball over five times and quarterback Trevor Lawrence threw four interceptions. They didn’t exactly play all that well. They just happened to be playing a franchise that is notorious for choking in these types of games.

Essentially, there’s no reason for the Chiefs should lose this game. If this game is played ten times the Chiefs probably win nine times with the tenth game being one where the Chiefs turn the ball over a ton and Doug Pederson pulls it out with some shenanigans. This game will be played at Arrowhead and the Chiefs will be playing for an opportunity to get regular-season revenge on either the Bills or the Bengals. Take care of business and you’re in the AFC Championship.

As for the Bills and the Bengals, they both looked less than stellar this weekend. Josh Allen and the Bills nearly lost as a 14-point favorite at home and Josh Allen had three turnovers. Had the Bills lost, it would have been one of the most lopsided quarterback matchups where the far worse quarterback actually won in NFL history. Skylar Thompson was last in the NFL in almost every statistical category heading into this game and he possessed the league’s worst TD-INT ratio.

Despite Tony Romo calling him “Mr. January”, probably because his season always ends in January, Allen played far from great football and Buffalo is only going to go as far as he takes them. Buffalo’s No. 1 scoring defense also was getting burnt by Miami’s receivers but Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle couldn’t stop dropping passes. Despite everything, A Tua-less Dolphins almost pulled it off.

Then there’s the Bengals who escaped with a win on Sunday night. The Bengals are probably the biggest threat to Kansas City in the AFC as Mahomes and Co. is 0-3 against Joe Burrow and Cincinnati and the Chiefs are often bothered by Cincinnati’s tenacity. Anyway, the Bengals’ offense went stagnant in the second half against the Ravens and was bailed out by the defense putting six on the board. In addition, the Bengals’ defense gave up nearly 400 yards of offense to backup quarterback Tyler Huntley and the Ravens and familiar face DeMarcus Robinson cooked familiar foe Eli Apple multiple times and embarrassed the defensive back for a touchdown in the game.

Neither Buffalo nor Cincinnati looked invincible, and now, they’re going to beat up on each other before Kansas City presumable faces either of them in the AFC Championship. All in all, the AFC looks extremely winnable, and no tall task for the Kansas City Chiefs. All they have to do is play clean football.

Unfortunately, we know the Chiefs have trouble always doing so. That said, they played lazy down the stretch of the 2021 regular season as well and then flipped a switch in the playoffs. Of course, they hit a wall against Cincinnati in the AFC Championship, but maybe they can avoid that this time now that they’ve had the No. 1 seed bye and are playing one less postseason game than either Buffalo or Cincinnati if they are to make it to the AFC Championship. The conference is Kansas City’s to lose.