Patrick Mahomes: AFC West is first goal, we have to keep building

Sunday night's game followed a familiar script for the 2024 Chiefs and the reward for pulling out another last-second win is a familiar one for the franchise.

Matthew Wright became the third kicker to make a game-winning kick for the team this year when his field goal doinked off the upright and through for a 19-17 win on the final play. The victory clinched a ninth-straight AFC West title for the Chiefs and gave the team a two-game lead in the race for the top seed in the AFC playoffs, which is something quarterback Patrick Mahomes referenced when asked about the significance of the win at his postgame press conference.

"It's our first goal every single year to win the AFC West," Mahomes said. "It's a great division. 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. To be able to win this division, to gain another game in the playoff picture — it was an important game for us against a really good football team. 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 have looked vulnerable throughout this season, but their record is 12-1 and it's hard to feel confident that any team is going to be able to find a way to keep them from a third straight Super Bowl as long as they keep finding ways to pull the rabbit out of their hats in the final moments.