Chiefs wrap up AFC West with win

The Kansas City Chiefs pulled off a rare feat on Monday night. It’s not even Halloween yet, and the Chiefs have all but officially clinched their division by beating the Denver Broncos, 29-19, at Arrowhead Stadium.

With the victory, Kansas City moves to 6-2 on the season. Incredibly, a division once thought to be the best in the league doesn’t have another team even at the .500 mark, with the Broncos holding down second place at 3-4. Denver is also reeling, losers of three straight and now set for a week of quarterback conversation after Trevor Siemian threw three interceptions, two of which were comically bad.

For Kansas City, this season was never just about winning the AFC West. For sure, the first step on its mission was to take the division for a second consecutive year, but the goal is to advance further than the AFC Divisional round, a place its season has ended in the last two years. The Chiefs are at least well-positioned heading into November, with a 6-2 mark and one of the league’s easiest schedules the rest of the way.

In fact, the Chiefs only play three teams the rest of the way with winning records, and two of them are the Dallas Cowboys this coming week, and the Miami Dolphins on Christmas Eve at Arrowhead. In other words, the only team more than a single game over .500 remaining on Kansas City’s docket is the Buffalo Bills, who visit the midwest a month from now.

As for the West, the Chiefs might as well start printing up the banner and wearing the shirts and hats around town. The Broncos have the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots over the next two weeks, both games that stand to be losses regardless of who is under center. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Chargers and Oakland Raiders are both three games off the pace at 3-5.

Oakland still has road or neutral site games with the Eagles, Patriots and Chiefs, not too mention rematches with the Chargers and Broncos. Los Angeles has a trip to Arrowhead waiting in December, along with a Thanksgiving Day jaunt to Dallas for a date with the Cowboys. If the Chiefs finished 8-8, they would win the West. As it stands, barring a furious push from anybody in the AFC South (and Kansas City owns the tiebreaker on the Houston Texans), the Chiefs are almost guaranteed the third seed — at the worst.

The season is only at its midway point, but Kansas City has a leg up on everybody in its division and a very forgiving schedule the rest of the way.