Kansas must raise form

The Kansas City Chiefs are the reigning Super Bowl champs but after a promising start to the NFL they had such an underwhelming December that hopes of retaining their title are far from certain.

At least the Chiefs’ 25-17 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday helped soothed nerves. In doing so they eliminated the Bengals from playoff contention and confirmed the Chiefs as AFC West champions for the eighth consecutive season.

Patrick Mahomes and company are the class of the division -- and even in a season where they haven’t been at their best, the Chiefs will still enter the playoffs guaranteed at least one home game after seeing off challenges from Denver Broncos, Los Angeles Chargers, and Las Vegas Raiders.

The pressure was on the Super Bowl champions after their Christmas Day defeat by the Raiders, but Mahomes’ return of 21 passes for 245 yards and a touchdown helped them overcome a difficult test in Cincinnati and bounce back in style.

Mahomes has now won the AFC West title in every one of his NFL season with the Chiefs, who uncharacteristically slumped to three defeats out of five in December.

Their star quarterback also drew widespread criticism for his furious reaction to a late offside call in their loss to the Buffalo Bills on December 10.

Mahomes said: “It’s cool to win the AFC West, but obviously, [we’ve been] dealing with some adverse situations over these last few weeks.

“For guys to respond against a good football team — and find a way to win even when the game wasn’t going our way at the beginning of it? It was special.”

Repeat division titles were once an unusual occurrence for the  Chiefs, who had never won back-to-back championships in their first 56 seasons. But not anymore.

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.

“To come out on top, it feels good,” Mahomes said. “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.”