Kansas City, Mo. - The Kansas City Chiefs have played in the last two Super Bowls and have their sights set on attending another one this season.
That doesn't mean quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his teammates and coaches won't take moments to applaud their sixth straight AFC West title, which they won with a 36-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
"I do 100%, as always this year," said Mahomes, applauding another division championship.
Mahomes said that greater appreciation for this season's title stemmed from the way the Chiefs started the campaign. They were 3–4 at the end of October, and looked difficult to make the playoffs as the only wild-card entry, much less securing a bid for the tournament via a division championship.
"You look at AFC West [and] every team is still battling for a place in the playoffs," Mahomes said. "It's a tough divide. We have more goals we'd like to achieve, but this was the first one."
No team had won six consecutive AFC West titles before Sunday. The Raiders won five straight in the 1970s, as did the Denver Broncos from 2011 to 2015. Meanwhile, the Chiefs had never won back-to-back division championships until their current streak.
Clark Hunt, who became Chiefs president in 2006, said, "I remember those early years being excited any year when we were in the running to win the division." "I never thought about winning the division five or six times in a row."
The Chiefs face the Steelers without Travis Kelce, who is on the reserve/COVID-19 list. And they lost two key players during the win, trailing defensive backs Tyrann Matthews and Clyde Edwards-Heller. Matthew had a quad injury. The Chiefs initially declared a collarbone injury to Edwards-Heller, but coach Andy Reid said he injured his shoulder.
They were still cruising for an easy win.
The Chiefs took a 30-0 lead in the third quarter before the Steelers scored. Mahomes was 23-for 30 for 258 yards and three touchdowns before being dropped from the game in the fourth quarter.
In Kelce's absence, he spread the ball to nine different receivers. Reserve wide receiver Byron Pringle caught a pair of touchdown passes.
The 11-4 Chiefs, who won their eighth straight game, are one game ahead of the Tennessee Titans in the race for the AFC's top playoff seed.
This will be the next big prize for the chiefs. For now, they will be content celebrating the earnings they earned on Sunday. Players were given division-champion hats and T-shirts after the game, and at least some were wearing new apparel.
"We don't take any of these experiences lightly at all," Reid said. "It takes a lot of sweat, a lot of effort. ... I'm proud of my people, how they handled it. I'm proud of my coaches, how they handled it."