Chiefs clinch playoff spot with 'ugly win' over Raiders
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The Chiefs secured a playoff spot for the 10th straight season with their 19-17 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders on Friday, but to some of the players, this clinching didn't necessarily feel like the others.
The Chiefs had to go to the wire to outlast the 2-10 Raiders, with the game being decided when Kansas City recovered a Las Vegas fumble with 11 seconds remaining. The Chiefs then ran out the clock with one snap to secure another victory.
They are 11-1, but five of their wins weren't settled until the final snap.
"It's not perfect, and we've had a lot of games this year where we didn't play the way we wanted to play,'' Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie said. "The thing about a championship team is games like this where things aren't perfect. You're thankful that you won, but you know that you've set the standard. And when we have games like this and don't feel like we've played to the standard that we've set, it's always a little disappointing, a little frustrating.''
The Chiefs can clinch a ninth straight AFC West title by beating the Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 8 at Arrowhead Stadium. They padded their lead over the 9-2 Buffalo Bills -- the lone team to beat them -- for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
They had many anxious moments in getting there. The Chiefs held what looked to be a comfortable 16-3 lead late in the third quarter.
The Raiders put together back-to-back touchdown drives to take the lead. The Chiefs grabbed it back with a field goal, only to see the Raiders reach the edge of field goal range at the Kansas City 32-yard-line when they fumbled in what turned out to be their eighth straight loss.
"When you clinch a playoff spot, that's your first goal, to get into the playoffs and give yourself a chance to go for that Super Bowl,'' quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. "But we know we have a long ways to go. We got to continue to work to get better, to continue to be a better football team.
"It keeps you hungry. You're not satisfied with where we're at even though we're winning football games and so we know we have to get better. I think everybody in the locker room knows we have to get better, but we want to go out there and do that and prove that.''
Last week, the Chiefs survived in a similar manner against another sub-.500 opponent. They led the Carolina Panthers by 14 points late in the first half but needed a walk-off field goal to deliver one of those last-play victories.
Defensive tackle Chris Jones had two sacks, his first since Week 4. He said the Chiefs would remember the many things they did wrong against the Raiders -- allowing two long touchdown passes, his two offside penalties, yielding 434 yards -- as much as what they accomplished.
He also indicated that yet another narrow finish would be good for Kansas City.
"When you look at the playoffs, most games are close, down-to-the-wire type of games, so there's a lot we can build from this as a team overall,'' Jones said. "We're just going to keep on winning, keep on winning. You can learn a lot from winning.
"It is better to win than have a pretty loss. We'll take an ugly win, build from it and continue to get better.''