Chiefs beat Chargers on walk-off field goal to clinch AFC West - ESPN

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs clinched their ninth straight AFC West championship Sunday night, but none of the first eight were quite like this one.

The 12-1 Chiefs had yet another game come down to the finish, and, as always so far in this most unusual of seasons, they made the play to win it. Third-string kicker Matthew Wright, a replacement for two injured players, made a 31-yard field goal as time ran out to allow the Chiefs to beat the Los Angeles Chargers 19-17.

Afterward, the Chiefs wore their AFC West championship hats and T-shirts, as they always do after clinching the division. Other than that, nothing about it felt familiar. The Chiefs might well see the Chargers or another division rival, the Denver Broncos, in the playoffs this time around.

«Our first goal every single year to win the AFC West, and it's a great division,'' quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. „We're in a lot of rivalries where everybody's played each other tough and three teams are going to probably make the playoffs. That speaks to the division that we play in.

“It was an important game for us. We found a way to get a win, but now we got to keep building if we want to get to our ultimate goal.''

The Chiefs' next goal is to claim the AFC's No. 1 playoff seed, which comes with a first-round playoff bye and home-field advantage in all of their postseason games before Super Bowl LIX, which will be played in New Orleans.

The Chiefs lead the Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers, both 10-3, by two games.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid called the ninth straight division title „a great achievement.'' The streak is the second longest in NFL history behind the 11 AFC East championships won by the New England Patriots from 2009 through 2019.

“It's