National Football League

Can the Kansas City Chiefs ride their latest wave to another AFC title?

Updated Jan. 17, 2023 10:01 a.m. ET

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

A week ago, Patrick Mahomes was not happy. Offensively, he said, the Kansas City Chiefs were not playing their best football. They couldn’t execute, not as often as they wanted to.

As a competitor, he wanted to be better. Ranking 12th in QBR with his team averaging fewer than 20 points in its previous six games just wasn’t good enough, win streak notwithstanding.

Mahomes was being deliberately hard on himself, but outside of the organization, the prognosis was even less kind. Chiefs fan groups openly questioned whether their superstar could still legitimately still be considered the NFL’s best quarterback.

Media reports made much of how Mahomes was being carried by the Kansas City defense, which has been nothing short of spectacular, and wondered whether a sideline spat with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy was indicative of a deeper problem.

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So what changed? More to the point, has it really changed back permanently?

"We went out there and handled business," Mahomes said after Sunday’s resounding 48-9 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders, an emphatic enough result that it was more reminiscent of the 26-year-old’s performances the past couple of seasons than most of this one.

Even so, as the Chiefs head into Thursday's AFC West showdown (8:20 p.m. ET on FOX) against the Los Angeles Chargers, the reality remains that the offensive unit and its $500 million signal-caller are the most scrutinized part of the lineup, remarkable as that feels to write, let alone think.

"We initially wondered when the Chiefs could get back to those offensive powerhouses," the Kansas City Star’s Sam McDowell wrote. "As Thanksgiving came and went, we began instead to wonder if the Chiefs would get there at all, or at least more than a mirage in Las Vegas. They can."

Ever since he broke through as an NFL starter in 2018, Mahomes has appeared to be an unsolvable problem to opposing defenses, which was certainly the case in runs to a Super Bowl title two seasons ago and a return trip last season.

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This year, there has been a new status quo. Kansas City started 3-4, and even when the wins started coming, Mahomes was kept in check. Those patented long drives down the field, accumulated in rapid time and with sometimes embarrassing ease? Few and far between.

Those monumental feats of arm strength that always seemed to find their target? Not always so laser-guided. Those error-free games, week after week? No longer, with 12 interceptions in 2021.

It leaves divided lines of thinking. Have the offensive struggles, even taking the Las Vegas blowout into account, given cause to think the Chiefs might find it difficult to put up big enough numbers when the playoffs roll around, even after they moved into a tie for first in the AFC?

Or is it merely an ominous sign? If they are good enough to win six straight without Mahomes on song, how terrifying would the Chiefs be if he returns to something close to his best?

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"This is the most dangerous Chiefs team we’ve ever seen," FS1’s Nick Wright insisted on "First Things First." "Mahomes is rounding into form. They’ve had the toughest schedule in football. They have the best defense for the last two months. Everyone’s last choice [to meet in the Super Bowl] is the Chiefs. What else do you want to see?"

The Chiefs will be slight underdogs Thursday against the Chargers, for whom Justin Herbert is continuing to blossom into one of the league’s most outstanding young QBs, with Los Angeles priced at -118 and a 3.5-point favorite with FOX Bet.

Mahomes made his name on eye-popping performances, but what he cares most about is adding a second Super Bowl ring and capitalizing on a supremely talented Kansas City lineup. This season has not been exactly to his liking, but there is one thing — the winning streak — that he wouldn’t switch for anything.

"You’d rather win, no matter what it takes, whether it is throwing for 100 yards or 300 yards," he said. "As long as you have that ‘W’, nothing else matters."

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.