One ironclad truism about sports is that all streaks eventually come to an end. That doesn’t matter if it’s of the winning or losing variety.
It’s way too early to say if the Chiefs will win a 10th straight AFC West title this season or if the streak will end, but we do know the results of Sunday’s games boosted their chances.
Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis earlier this week was on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” on SiriusXM’s Mad Dog Sports Radio channel, and he talked about the competition in the West.
“It’s a tough division. It was a tough division last year,” Karlaftis said. “Three of the four teams made it to the playoffs. So that should tell you all you need to know. But when we played, I mean, we beat the Broncos once (last season), lost to them once, and when we beat them, it was off of a blocked kick in the last second. And then with the Chargers, we beat them on a last second field goal. So they’re all tight games.
“Even with the Raiders, too, like tight games all around. It’s a tough division. And it’s most important, we gotta win all the games in our division or as many as we can. It’s a tough division, just like I keep saying. We got a lot of respect for the teams in our division. They’re great coaches, great players. It’s gonna be tough. And we’re good with that.”
The Chiefs have lost the only division game they’ve played this season, when the Chargers beat them in Brazil in the season-opener. The Chiefs dropped their first two games, and some pundits wondered if Kansas City was in for a down season.
But the Chiefs have won their last two games by double-digit margins, first beating the Giants and then the Ravens last Sunday.
Karlaftis didn’t make an excuse for how the season started.
“Flat out, I could just say that we just weren’t good enough those first couple games,” Karlaftis said. “We found our rhythm in New York, and then we continued that on to the next week … and we’ll continue that on. But just didn’t start off hot, and coach (Andy) Reid and the staff challenged us as players to be better. And there was adversity. And there are two things that you could do: You could lay down or you could step up and come to the plate, and that’s what we did.”
The Chiefs played their most complete game of the season in Sunday’s 37-20 rout of the Ravens at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
While there still may be doubters, Karlaftis said the Chiefs only have one thing to prove.
“I think that the sky’s the limit for us as a team. The only thing we have to prove to people is that we could win,” he said. “We could prove that to ourselves every single day. And that’s a heck of a football team we beat (Sunday). We have a lot of respect for them. We’ve seen them, and it’s been close games every time we’ve played them the past couple years. So, we feel good.
“After watching tape, there’s a lot of stuff we can improve and get better on, kind of moving forward. And we’re feeling good right now, but we know that there’s a lot of work to be done.”