Repeat division titles were once an unusual occurrence for the Kansas City Chiefs, who had never won back-to-back championships in their first 56 seasons. But not anymore.
The Chiefs clinched their eighth straight AFC West championship by beating the Cincinnati Bengals 25-17 at Arrowhead Stadium. Their division title streak, which began in 2016, is the second longest in NFL history behind only the New England Patriots’ 11 consecutive AFC East championships from 2009 through 2019.
Patrick Mahomes acknowledged this division title feels different. This season’s Chiefs took a different path to their 10-6 record and the top of the AFC West. They are no longer the consistently high-scoring team they had been for much of Mahomes’ time as their starting quarterback.
On Sunday, the Chiefs needed six field goals from Harrison Butker to get past the Bengals. So even if the Chiefs clinched the title with one week remaining in the regular season, this one felt like more of a struggle.
“We are not winning this in Week 12 or Week 13 [as] we have before,” Mahomes said. “We had to battle through adversity and find a way to win this game, but it’s not over. We have to continue to get better and better. We understand [the theme] of this season at the end of it has been a good game and a bad game, so how can we sustain and get stuff going and continue to build off this momentum and get that momentum going into the playoffs? Now we’re in the playoffs, it’s one game, single elimination, and I think we can go out and compete with anybody.”
The Chiefs surged to a 6-1 start this season, and at that point another division championship looked certain. But the Chiefs then lost four of six games and the Denver Broncos trimmed Kansas City’s lead in the AFC West to one game.
The Chiefs haven’t won back-to-back games since October. They had a chance to clinch the division title last week but lost to the Las Vegas Raiders, pushing great meaning onto the Bengals game.
Even on Sunday, the Chiefs fell behind 17-7 with Butker accounting for the game’s final 18 points with his kicks.
“It is definitely special,” Mahomes said. “It always is, though.
“Dealing with some adverse situations over these last few weeks and for guys to respond against a good football team and find a way to win, even when the game wasn’t going in our way at the beginning of it, it was special. I told the guys to celebrate it, enjoy it, but our goal is obviously to continue to win, so we had to continue to build off this momentum and get ready for the playoffs.”
The Chiefs didn’t make much of a show in their locker room afterward with their AFC West championship hats and T-shirts, as they usually do. But safety Justin Reid said that didn’t mean the Chiefs didn’t appreciate their accomplishment.
“Everything is earned, nothing is ever given, and it took a lot of hard work and dedication from the offseason to training camp to the preseason,” Reid said. “We battled adversity, injuries, things coming up, but to stick together as a team and the culture that we have built here is what pulled us through all of that.
“To come out on top, it feels good. We’re excited about catching some traction going into the postseason. We have everything that we need right here in Kansas City to achieve all of our goals and that’s to end up in Las Vegas in February.”
