Chiefs take huge lead in AFC West race with win over Chargers, who come up small again

For many years, the New England Patriots won the AFC East on a combination of their great play and their division rivals being incapable of getting their act together.

The Kansas City Chiefs are going down a similar road. The Denver Broncos and Las Vegas Raiders are terrible and a long way from competing. That leaves the Los Angeles Chargers. And we saw again Sunday that the Chargers aren’t in the Chiefs’ class.

Kansas City is three-and-a-half games ahead of the Chargers in the standings after a 31-17 win. Patrick Mahomes had a fantastic first half, Travis Kelce had a monster game with Taylor Swift looking on and the Chargers couldn’t take advantage when they did have chances in the second half.

In other words, it was like most other Chiefs-Chargers games, aside from the Swift part. The Chargers just aren’t good enough to be a serious challenger in the AFC West and that doesn’t seem to be changing. The Chiefs have won seven straight AFC West titles. It seems nobody is going to keep them from making it eight in a row.

Chiefs start out hot

The Chiefs were great in the first half. An offense that had been good but not great exploded. Mahomes had 321 yards and three touchdowns in the first half alone. The Chargers had no answers for Mahomes and Travis Kelce, which isn’t anything new. The Chiefs got points on four of their five first-half possessions.

The Chargers defense did tighten up in the second half. The problem is the Chargers offense stopped scoring too. The third quarter was scoreless. Neither team was moving the ball in the fourth quarter either until the Chargers punted with a little more than six minutes left and newly acquired Mecole Hardman had a 50-yard return. That set up an Isiah Pacheco touchdown to give Kansas City a 31-17 lead.

In a close game, the Chargers’ first four posessions of the second half were an interception and three punts. Even though the Chiefs weren’t scoring, the Chargers couldn’t do much either. Once Pacheco scored, all those missed opportunities and a 14-point deficit were staring the Chargers in the face.

Chargers can’t overcome Chiefs

The Chargers have talent. Just not as much as Kansas City. Justin Herbert is good but he’s not Mahomes. And they certainly aren’t on the same plane when it comes to coaching.

Whenever the Chargers have a chance to shine, they fail in some way. That was the case on Sunday. The Chargers were never behind by double digits until the final four minutes, but it never felt like the Chargers were in the game.

The Chiefs don’t need to worry much about division titles. Those seems like formalities given how the Chargers, Broncos and Raiders can’t seem to cut the gap. The Chiefs are thinking about Super Bowls while the rest of the division is trying to get back to .500.

It would take a huge collapse for the Chiefs to not win another division title. And even if they do collapse, the rest of the division doesn’t seem capable of taking advantage.

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