Chiefs: 10-and-7 or 11-and-6, Who Cares? -

Laddie Morse

Will you even be watching this game between our Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers tomorrow? I’m not so sure I will to tell you the truth. I suppose I’ll look into it to see who’s not playing. This game between the Chiefs and the Chargers has already been compared to a 4th preseason game. Now, does anyone really want to know who won a 4th preseason game? I didn’t think so.

USAToday has an article written by Christian D’Andrea called, “Ranking 7 games with the biggest playoff implications in Week 18” in which he says the games that really matter are:

7. New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons – depending on who wins, the NFC SOuth will be theirs.

6. Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens – Pitt is in with a win over the Ravens and help.

“Pittsburgh would need the Jacksonville Jaguars to lose to the Tennessee Titans, the Denver Broncos to beat the Las Vegas Raiders AND the Houston Texans-Indianapolis Colts game to not end in a tie.”

Plus, the Ravens will be sitting their starters so this increases the odds for Pittsburgh.

5. Chicago Bears at Green Bay Packers – Pack wins and they earn a Wildcard

4. Jacksonville Jaguars at Tennessee Titans – if Jags win they clinch the AFC South.

3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers – a Bucs win clinches the NFC South.

2. Buffalo Bills at Miami Dolphins – Buffalo wins the AFC East title and second overall seed with a win. Miami wins the AFC East title and second overall seed with a win.

1. Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts – If Texans win and earn at least a Wild Card bid (and maybe the AFC South title). Tie and they can still get in, but need help. If Colts win and earn at least a Wild Card bid (and maybe the AFC South title). Tie and they can still get in, but need help.

So, there are a load of games that matter this weekend, and as far as playoff implications… the Chiefs game carries none. That’s a grand spot to be in. The question for K.C. is: will sitting their starters help them or create rust?

Chet Gresham wrote an article for draftkings.com called, “Who might the Kansas City Chiefs play in the AFC Wild Card round?” in which he says:

“If all the favorites win in Week 18, the Chiefs will face the Miami Dolphins after they lose to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football and drop to the No. 6 seed.”

Gresham goes on to say:

“If the Bills lose to the Dolphins, that opens up a huge can of worms, but the most-likely opponent for the Chiefs would be the winner of the Texans-Colts game on Saturday night. That scenario has the Jaguars winning the AFC South by beating the Titans, who they are 5-point favorites against.”

You may recall, the Chiefs beat the Dolphins in Germany in week 9 while they lost tot he Bills in week 14. Gresham adds:

“The odds aren’t great that the Chiefs would meet the Bills in this first round, but if they did, we’d likely hear a lot about this earlier matchup. The Bills won despite a crazy lateral by Travis Kelce to Kadarius Toney for the go-ahead score late, but the touchdown was called back because Toney lined up offsides.”

Here’s a look at the play which was called back due to a penalty of Kadarius Toney being lined up offsides (0:14):