It took place on Sunday evening Kansas City Chiefs They got their twelfth win of the season with a last-second field goal, defeating the Los Angeles Chargers in their second straight 19-17 victory. Kansas City secured its ninth consecutive AFC West championship.

Here are some early takeaways from another backwards night at Arrowhead:

Once again, just enough Is enough.

The way this season has unfolded for the Chiefs is worth examining.

It seems like every week the team finds a new way to make things interesting, but (almost) they manage to emerge victorious every week. On Sunday night, Kansas City took a 13-0 lead, but gave it up in the second half due to a shaky defense and a stagnant offense.

But again – somehow, somehow — the Chiefs did Only enough to give yourself a chance to win in the end. In this week’s edition, the Chargers made a crucial error on a kickoff that put Patrick Mahomes on the 40.

Rookie Xavier Worthy caught perhaps the most important ball of his young professional career on third down, leading to a now familiar sight: Mahomes struggling to get the team into field goal position – Substitute Substitute Kicker Matthew Wright hit a 31-yarder off the left post to seal the win.

How does this keep happening? Is it sustainable?

How can you say it is so? But how could you say it like that? is not?

The team’s obvious weaknesses remained.

The main storyline in this week’s game was the insertion of veteran DJ Humphries at the left tackle position – but for much of the game the result appeared to be the same: Mahomes had little time to act.

Humphries seemed to settle in a bit in the second half. But then he suffered a thigh injury; Wanya Morris came in to end the game. Depending on the severity of the injury, one has to wonder if the Chiefs will sign another veteran.

In the first quarter, it appeared that head coach Andy Reid wanted to establish the run, but then seemed to abandon it altogether midway through the game. Reid only returned to the run when the team played from behind – which is usually the complete opposite of what you would expect. The running game helped the Chiefs stay in the game – and ultimately win it.

It’s worth repeating: Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s stated goal is to allow 17 points or fewer in every game, which he accomplished again on Sunday night. But the almost explosive plays of the first half turned into explosive plays in the second; The play of the cornerbacks and safeties continues to be a problem.

The defensive backs don’t get any help either. The front four can’t generate consistent pressure without sending a blitzer – and with that extra time, especially against a good quarterback, a performance from the opponent is inevitable.

Kudos to defensive tackle Turk Wharton, who scored twice – including the final drive to force Los Angeles out of the end zone. Without his big plays – both early and late – the outcome might have been different.

Officials called eight penalties against the Chiefs for nearly 100 yards; At some point, such numbers could come back and weigh on you.

The urgently needed place on the route.

After getting their win against the Chargers, the Chiefs can talk about it – because it’s real: Before Kansas City took the field for “Sunday Night Football,” the Buffalo Bills dropped their Week 14 game against the Los Angeles Rams and lost two games behind the Chiefs for number 1 in the AFC.

That’s helpful because the issues we saw on Sunday could very well lead to Kansas City losing a game. With the cushion that Buffalo’s loss provides, a single loss has no impact on playoff positioning. That’s because Buffalo beat Kansas City. It owns the tiebreaker – and now a draw would require two losses.

The Chiefs had their weaknesses last season. But you could always point to their elite defense as the reason they were able to achieve their ultimate goal. I’m not sure there’s anything elite about this Kansas City team – but their record says something different week after week.

At least for now, that’s all that matters.