Chiefs prove they are still team to beat in AFC

Ignore the standings as of Sunday. Ignore the way the Kansas City Chiefs stumbled out of the gate to start the 2025 season. Put it all in a box, bury it and then forget about it. Because all of it is irrelevant right now that the Chiefs are again starting to roll and, well, look like the Chiefs. 

They won on Sunday for the fourth time in five games to improve to 4-3 overall, completely humiliating an overmatched and overpowered Las Vegas Raiders team by a 31-0 margin.

However lopsided that final score looked, rest-assured the game was actually worse than that.

The Raiders finished the game with only three first downs and only 30 offensive snaps. The Chiefs had 30 first downs. Patrick Mahomes was out of the game by the end of the third quarter. The Chiefs were in victory formation and taking a knee on the plus-side of the two-minute warning against a team that still had timeouts remaining.

It was decisive. It was one-sided. It was emphatic. It was also a sign that the Chiefs are, in fact, back.

Chiefs make it clear the AFC is still theirs

It's not that there wasn't reason to be concerned with the Chiefs early on. Because some of the concerns were valid. The defense was showing some cracks, Mahomes was not playing like we are accustomed to seeing and the team as a whole was just struggling. 

But even with that, all three of their losses were closely contested, one-score games that could have gone either way. When you play as many one-score games as the Chiefs tend to play, you are often times putting the game in the hands of some luck, or just one or two plays going a certain way. A lot of those games go the Chiefs' way. Sometimes, they won't. 

It also cannot be ignored that the Chiefs were playing most of those games without their top two wide receivers in Xavier Worthy (injury) and Rashee Rice (suspension). 

The season turnaround began when Worthy returned at the end of September against the Baltimore Ravens. He had 121 yards from scrimmage on seven touches in that game as part of a 37-20 win. His presence alone has opened things for the rest of the offense.

On Sunday, Rice made his debut and made an immediate impact with seven catches for 42 yards and a pair of touchdowns. It may have been as simple as just getting their good players back. 

The Chiefs have been in at least the AFC Championship game in each of the first seven years Mahomes has played as the team's starter, including five Super Bowl appearances (and three championships). Their slow start — which is now a thing of the past— should not lower the expectations for what they are capable of this season. 

Until somebody in the AFC beats them when it counts, they should still be considered the clear favorites. And they are starting to play like it again.