FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Kansas City Chiefs clinched a fourth straight AFC West championship at a most unlikely place, New England‘s Gillette Stadium.
The Chiefs’ 23-16 victory over the Patriots, combined with the Raiders‘ earlier loss to the Tennessee Titans in Oakland, moves Kansas City to 9-4. That’s three games ahead of the 6-7 Raiders, their closest pursuers in the division.
The Chiefs would have the tiebreaker after sweeping the season series from the Raiders.
New England seemed a most unlikely venue for a Chiefs’ celebration. The Patriots had won 21 straight home games, including the playoffs.
The Chiefs had a 23-7 lead midway through the third quarter but had to hold off the Patriots on downs with the final snap coming from the 5-yard line in the final two minutes.
This division title is the 14th for the Chiefs in their 60-season history. But they had never won their division in back to back seasons until the current streak.
Quarterback Pat Mahomes said he injured his throwing hand early in the game when he landed awkwardly. He was having trouble gripping the ball and will have X-rays, but coach Andy Reid wasn’t overly concerned, saying: “We think it’s OK.”
“I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t know for sure,” Mahomes said. “And I tried to fire that next pass and it didn’t look too pretty. So I kinda just let the trainers look at it. They gave me the good-to-go; and so I went out there, battled, figured out ways to throw the ball across the middle — maybe not the long shots that I usually throw, but enough to get them back and still score touchdowns.”