AFC playoff picture: Chiefs were Sunday’s big winners

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 9, 2018, 8:23 PM EST
Getty Images

What a day for the Chiefs.

Kansas City won on Sunday, and the leaders of the other three divisions in the AFC all lost. That means everything is setting up beautifully for the Chiefs to earn home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

But there’s one big game ahead: Thursday night, when the Chargers are in Kansas City. Lose that one, and the Chiefs are in danger of losing the division.

Here’s how the AFC playoff picture looks after Week 14:

LEADERS
1. Chiefs (11-2): Two more wins would earn the Chiefs home-field advantage, and let them rest in Week 17 regardless of what anyone else in the conference does.

2. Patriots (9-4): They’re still heavy favorites in the AFC East, but Sunday’s loss hurt them in the playoff seeding.

3. Texans (9-4): Still the clear division favorites, but missed a big opportunity to put the Colts away in the AFC South.

4. Steelers (7-5-1): A big loss today and a tough schedule ahead has the Steelers in trouble.

5. Chargers (10-3): Thursday night in Kansas City is their biggest game of the season.

6. Ravens (7-6): Despite today’s loss in Kansas City, they remain the top wild card team, and have a good chance of catching the Steelers in the division. The Ravens own the tiebreaker over Miami based on common games, and over Indianapolis based on AFC games.

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
7. Colts (7-6): Win the head-to-head tiebreaker over Miami and Tennessee.

8. Dolphins (7-6): Kept their playoff hopes alive with a tremendous final play.

9. Titans (7-6): Tiebreaker scenarios aren’t great for Tennessee.

10. Broncos (6-7): A loss to the 49ers probably ends their playoff hopes.

11. Browns (5-7-1): It may be too little too late, but give Cleveland credit for getting things in the right direction.

12. Bengals (5-8): Marvin Lewis can do no better than .500 this season.

13. Bills (4-9): After making the playoffs last year, they’re not even close this year.

14. Jaguars (4-9): From the AFC Championship Game to out of contention.

15. Jets (4-9): Todd Bowles’ guys are still playing hard, even though they won’t save his job.

16. Raiders (3-10): A huge upset over the Steelers.

Permalink 42 Comments Feed for comments Back to top

42 responses to “AFC playoff picture: Chiefs were Sunday’s big winners”

  3. Steelers gonna be desperate to beat the Pats and the Saints. Maybe the Texans can end up with a first round bye and the Pats will have to play an extra game.

  8. Thursday will be a great game. It’s always fun to see Philip Rivers throw a fit when he loses. And since the Chargers cant beat anyone with a winning record his tears will flow again

  9. KC should ask if they can play the playoff games on the road.
    They can’t win at home in January.

  10. Here’s how the Browns can still WIN THEIR DIVISION and make the playoffs:

    ========

    Week 15:
    CLE over DEN
    BAL over TB (or TB over BAL — doesn’t matter)
    NE over PIT

    Week 16:
    CLE over CIN
    LAC over BAL (or BAL over LAC if BAL loses to TB next week — either of these scenarios works)
    NO over PIT

    Week 17:
    CLE over BAL
    CIN over PIT

    =======

    Of all the things they need to happen, the only long shot is CIN to beat PIT in Pittsburgh in Week 17. The whole thing is a long shot but not impossible… If they win next week and Pittsburgh loses again, things will get very interesting.

  11. If Miami and the pats both end up at 10-6; Miami wins the division. That last minute loss to Miami may send the pats reeling to oblivion.
    In other words; they may not win another game; or maybe one against the Bills. Which means Miami must finish strong and as Dan Marino would famously say; “score some dam points”.
    Our defense is a bend but don’t break defense; but only when the offense steadily scores points. That red zone stand before half time shows that the defense can rise when desperately needed.

  12. The Chiefs are great – in the regular season. They have been atrocious in the playoffs. Time will tell if this year is any different.

  14. That Mahomes is for real. KC deserves a good QB and they got one. I’ll be rooting for the chiefs here on out, as my vikings are a choke pit of garbage.

  16. Also, if the scenario I laid out above were to happen, the Browns would HOST the wild card game in Cleveland, probably against the Chargers. That’s still an actual live possibility. Wow.

  17. Kansas City with home field in the playoffs is pretty scary! Thier home playoff record has been less than stellar. They beat the Steelers with Joe Montana in 1993. That’s it. Under Andy Teid 0-2 at home, so far. Maybe this year will be different. On the other hand, if they stumble against the Chargers Thursday, they probably won’t have to worry about that.

  20. That was a must win for the Patriots – Now they have 3, ‘must win games’, ahead of them if they want to secure the #2 Seed.

    BB is 100% to blame – He could of used a time out before that play to see who was on the field for the Phins and make necessary adjustments like Patterson, Gordon and your fastest Players on the field instead of Gronk.

    BB – Major Dumb Dumb Award

  22. steelcurtainn says:
    December 9, 2018 at 9:35 pm
    Steelers better get it together or there will b e no playoffs. The D is disappoinnting again!
    ———————————

    Strange day for you, going from dancing on the ceiling when New England took their usual December loss in Miami to accepting reality when your guys peed down their legs in Oakland.

  23. I laugh now when I look back at my preseason picks—Steelers vs. Packers—for the Super Bowl LIII contenders. I didn’t see that Pats advancing deep in the playoffs, primarily because I thought their defense would be a liability (as it was in Super Bowl LII). Sadly, at least that part of my prediction may well turn out to be the case this season. Today’s disappointing loss shouldn’t be placed at the feet of “Gronk,” or even “The Hoodie.” Sure, in retrospect, it might well have been better having Josh “Flash” Gordon playing safety rather than “Gronk.” But, unlike some, I look at games in their entirety, rather than the last play—even a decisive one. Considering that the Pats’ run defense was virtually non-existent during today’s first half, the Fins’ “desperado” play was a fitting punctuation mark to end a game which may be yet another flashing yellow light on the Pats’ road through the 2018 playoffs.

    P.S. Congrats to the G.O.A.T. for today’s most career passing TDs in NFL history. At 41 years young, he’s still throwing darts. Amazing.

  24. Not 100% sold on KC. They are scary, but their D is bad and Andy Reid will always Andy Reid in the Playoffs. Pittsburgh looks like they are done. While my Pats look like this may be one of their worst teams: Special teams, Defense, coaching, mental mistakes, since their nearly two decade run. Houston possibly? Dare I say, Indy? Houston has a Plus D, Plus O, Solid Coaching, but something always seems missing. Indy has the QB that can beat almost anyone and a D that is young and getting better each week.

  28. At least the Steelers don’t have to worry about tie breaking scenarios. They’ll know soon enough that they’re out of the playoffs. Big talking fans will be real quiet real soon. Serves them right. They’re so obnoxious.

  29. Dan Marino is the greatest QB ever because he re-wrote the record books and his records were not broken until the rules were CHANGED in favor of the QBs and WRs!
    Dan Marino also face Joe Montana again when Montana had been traded to the Chiefs; in the playoffs; and Dan-the-Man defeated Montana in the playoffs. That is when I knew for a certainty that Dan Marino is the greatest QB EVER!!!!!!!!!!
    BEST 10 QBs EVER: Not by titles; but by ability to score in the shortest amount of time; and bring their team back and win no matter how many points that they need; and no matter the odds. In other words, the game was not over until they said the game was over!
    (1) Dan Marino
    (2) Joe Montana
    (3) John Elway
    (4) Jim Kelly
    (5) Warren Moon
    (6) Tom Brady
    (7) Steve Young
    (8) Peyton Manning
    (9) Drew Breeze
    (10) Dan Fouts

  30. Miami Miracle. Ha! These guys are celebrating getting to 7-6, like they’ve grabbed their division by the throat. They’re still trailing the Pats in the standings.

  33. campcouch says:
    December 10, 2018 at 12:09 am
    Miami Miracle. Ha! These guys are celebrating getting to 7-6, like they’ve grabbed their division by the throat. They’re still trailing the Pats in the standings.
    ——————————–
    lol, they’re celebrating winning a game that should have been a loss. Winning a game like they did on the last play of the game was awesome.
    When you have 2 punts blocked and the other team puts up 33 points on you, with this offense the way it has played, you don’t expect to be on the winning end of it.

  34. The Ravens and Steelers will both make the playoffs easily because the Dolphins, Colts, and Titans will all choke and lose games they shouldn’t have lost.

  35. wib22 says:
    December 9, 2018 at 11:07 pm
    Patsies will be one and done.

    Andy Reid owns Belichick

    ————-
    Mans yet BB and the Pats beat Reid this season and in a SB. In what universe is that “owned”?

  37. Some of these comments are hysterically funny. Dolphins winning the AFC East, LMAO. One week doesn’t mean Jack in this league. The only thing that isn’t set is the seed order. Pats, Texans, Chiefs, Chargers, Steelers will all be in the playoffs no matter how bad or how good they’ve looked lately and they ALL look beatable. In the NFC it’s the Rams, Saints and everyone else…..don’t let some fluke losses blind you from reality.

  38. Steelers are done.

    If Bell had shown up they likely would be in contention for a bye.

    —–

    This statement is based on…nothing. The Steelers don’t do any better offensively when Bell is in the lineup versus when he is not.

  39. I agree with the guy who said Marino isnthe best of all time. I judge by the “eye test” and he did more with less every single year. That said, i don’t agree with his Top 10 at all. Also, Colts seem destined to lose to Dallas or The Giants these next 2 weeks (mayne both). Would I like for them to.win? Yes. Do they struggle against premier running backs? Yes. Unless their offense is on fire, i can’t see them winning out.

  41. The Chiefs choke in the playoffs, because they haven’t had a quarterback that was a true game changer since Joe Montana was here. The one year they might have won something was the year that Schottenheimer stupidly took Gannon out, and put Grbac back in at quarterback, despite Grbac having been out a long time due to injury.

    Well, now they have a bonafide game changing quarterback, so hopefully the results are different.

  42. Home field advantage doesn’t seem to help the Chiefs. Since Arrowhead Stadium opened in 1972 the Colts have won just as many playoff games there as the Chiefs – two!

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to leave a comment. Not a member? Register now!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.