Playoffs in sight

Dalton Vitt

Just a few days after elated children and overly excited adults ripped wrapping paper off their new Royals gear in a never-ending celebration of the team’s world championship run, another Kansas City team reminded its constituents of a dazzling streak of its own.

With nine straight wins, the longest active streak in the NFL, the Chiefs bookmarked themselves a seat in this season’s playoffs behind a defense that stifled a Johnny Manziel-led passing attack in its tracks during crunch time. That 17-13 win on Sunday over the Browns extended KC’s unbeaten streak and placed an ‘X’ next to its name in the NFL standings, just the third team in the AFC to clinch a playoff spot.

It hasn’t always been pretty — and really, does that even matter? — but Kansas City is in thanks to its two-month win streak and, maybe more importantly, a 9-2 record against AFC opponents that gives the Chiefs a tiebreaker over virtually every opponent in its class. (Perhaps not coincidentally, the nine-game streak began two days after the Royals won the AL pennant. Just saying.)

Kansas City’s winning ways began by scraping out a win against Landry Jones and the Steelers and were nearly halted in drag-out contests against the Bills, Chargers, and Browns, all games played inside Arrowhead Stadium that nearly tilted in the visitors’ favor. Blowout road wins against the Lions in London, San Diego, Oakland, and Baltimore gave Chiefs fans a bit less of a headache.

But style doesn’t matter.

It’s difficult to say what really changed, if anything, after the five-game skid that buried KC at 1-5 and had some fans more concerned with draft picks than playoff position.

Maybe, in reality, nothing truly changed. We scoff and cackle at coaches who stand at podiums each week and preach the importance of the turnover battle, toughness, and a will to win. Fans groan when Andy Reid prepares his congregation for another lesson in “Next Man Up,” always beginning his homily with “Now, listen …”

The fact of the matter is that the clichés are guiding KC to the Promised Land of the NFL playoffs.

In a day when fantasy football matters as much if not more than the real games themselves, fans want to hear about Jeremy Maclin’s ability to burn corners and rack up 100-plus yards, not Alex Smith’s ability to take care of the ball.

But the next time a microphone is shoved under Reid’s mustache and he starts grumbling and wheezing about turnover margin, it might be time to listen.

This isn’t to be overly cynical — fans, for the most part, do understand the importance of keeping possession and taking it from the opponent. Duh. We just don’t want to hear it played on a loop from every coach, player, and analyst alive after the final whistle.

But as much as we whine about a lack of insight from our favorite team’s representatives on Monday, the results have been astounding on Sundays. The Chiefs are second in the NFL in turnover margin at plus-15, just behind the Carolina Panthers at plus-19. Since the winning streak began in Week 7, KC’s number stands at plus-17.

The flip side of that evidence came in Week 2, when the Chiefs were the best team on the field in a 31-24 loss to division rival Denver. Five Kansas City turnovers said otherwise, and the Broncos stole a key early-season win at Arrowhead.

Those problems appear to be safely in the past, as Smith has tossed just two interceptions since Oct. 18 and reserve running backs Charcandrick West and Spencer Ware have secured the football marvelously since the loss of Jamaal Charles to an ACL tear.

What’s maybe even more amazing is this: If the NFL playoffs started today, the six starting AFC quarterbacks would be Tom Brady, Andy Dalton/AJ McCarron (depending on Dalton’s broken thumb), Brock Osweiler/Peyton Manning (depending on Manning’s broken body), Brandon Weeden, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Smith.

So, in total, you can make a pretty easy case that Smith might wind up the second-best quarterback in the AFC playoffs, depending how injuries and standings shake out. Couple that with one of the league’s premier defenses, and a path to the Super Bowl becomes shockingly clear.

The final on-field concern for the Chiefs — as for every football team that’s ever existed — comes on the injury report. Returning Justin Houston and Tamba Hali to rush the passer during playoff time will be crucial, and bringing De’Anthony Thomas back as a special teams weapon could turn a game on its head in the postseason.

A playoff game is now a certainty. A division crown is miraculously still a possibility.

With one regular-season week still left to play, we’ll find out where this team can go from here. For now, it appears the Chiefs may have returned KC minds focused on baseball back toward the pigskin.