Laddie Morse
At the half way point of the season — almost — the Kansas City Chiefs have doubled the win total of every other team in the AFC West and for some teams, divided more than two games in the loss column. With the Chiefs loss in Denver last Sunday, many Kingdom fans were upset and rightfully so. However, it hasn’t made musch of a difference now that we’re nearly half way through the 2023 season. Let’s take a look at each AFC West team and their prospects.
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Los Angeles Chargers
The Chargers have wins over the Vikings, Raiders and Bears who don’t figure into this year’s playoffs, plus losses to the: Chiefs, Cowboys, Titans and Dolphins, all who I believe will be making the playoffs (maybe not the Titans). If the Chargers hope to make the playoffs this season, they need to begin to win some games against teams headed somewhere after the season is over. The Chargers have already had their Bye Week in week five, so that’s the reason they’ve only played 7 games. The rest of their schedule looks like this:
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With Games against the Jets, Lions, Ravens, Bills, and Chiefs… the Chargers need to win at least one of those games, plus, all their others, to have a chance of at least finishing above .500%. I don’t think that’s going to happen for them so I’d count them out of the playoffs if I were a betting man. I’m pretty darn sure you can “forget” the Chargers making a run at post-season play… like Khalil “forgot” he was mic’d up.
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Las Vegas Raiders
The Raiders are lucky to be 3-and-5 with their three wins coming by 7 total points: 1, 3 and 3. Plus, three of their losses have been by a combined 58 points (that’s 19.3 points per game). The Raiders Bye Week is still coming up in week 13, which is pretty late in the season. The rest of their schedule looks like this:
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For the Raiders to make the Playoffs, they will likely need to win 7 of their last 9 games. They’ll need to win at least three of these games against the: Jets, Dolphins, Chiefs, Vikings (winners of 4 of their last 5), and the Chiefs again. I just don’t see it happening.
I don’t know if you heard, but Mark Davis, the Raiders owner, has fired both his Head Coach, Josh McDaniels and his GM, Dave Ziegler, just after midnight on Halloween. [Sure hope he hasn’t confused April Fools Day with Halloween!]
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Denver Broncos
The Broncos Bye Week is this week, Week Nine. The Broncos big win was against the Chiefs last Sunday which turns out to be their Super Bowl for the season. With a look at their coming schedule, they could easily lose the rest of their games.
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The most winnable games for them are against the Pats and the other AFC West teams. They likely need to win 7 out of their last 9 games and I don’t see that as a possibility.
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Kansas City Chiefs
Chiefs fans every where were down on our boys for losing to the Broncos in Denver last Sunday… along with Moi. However, their overall picture looks much better than that one loss to the Broncos. The Chiefs two losses are to the Lions on opening day, and this past weekend to the Broncos. They managed a 6 game winning streak in between those two defeats and they will likely be favored in every game they play the rest of the year. Being favored doesn’t guarantee anything so we can take that with a grain of salt. The elephant in the room has become the Chiefs play of their Wide Receivers. Or should I say, the non-play of their WRs. Here’s the rest of the Chiefs games:
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I see six (6) games out of their remaining nine (9) games as locks for Chiefs victories. That should catapult them into the playoffs. Those “must-win-games” are against the: Raiders, Packers, Patriots, Raiders, Bengals, and Chargers. Once the Chiefs make it into post-season play, anything can happen. However, that’s just to get them into post-season play. It will help them immeasurably to play all of their games at Arrowhead Stadium during the playoffs, but this year, that is not going to be a piece of cake, because the number one seed may be slipping away (K.C. is currently tied with three other teams — MIA, JAX, BAL — who also have 6-and-2 records). That’s why it may also be a “must-win-situation” that the Chiefs beat the Dolphins in Germany… especially of they hope to secure the number one seed in the AFC.
Pete Sweeney of ArrowheadPride, said just today (Tuesday) on Channel 41 News, that the Chiefs are still Super Bowl favorites, but I’m not so sure. I’m also not so sure, at this point, with their WRs playing as poorly as they have been, that any playoff win is even feasible. However, I don’t think we should over react to their recent loss to the Broncos. What do you think?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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