KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — You’d be hard pressed to find anyone a couple of weeks ago that didn’t think Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs were headed for their sixth consecutive AFC West championship this season.
It would have been just as tough finding anyone who didn’t think the Los Angeles Chargers would finish right behind them.
Yet after the Chargers lost a heartbreaker to the Cowboys last weekend, and the Chiefs fumbled away a win in Baltimore on Sunday night, the longtime rivals find themselves in the most unexpected of circumstances this week: Los Angeles is headed to Kansas City for a matchup where the loser finds itself at 1-2 and in the division cellar.
“I think everybody is ready to go,” Mahomes said this week. “We lost to a really good football team. It was a really good football game. But it’s still a long season. We have an AFC West opponent, a great team, coming to town, so you have to turn the page and get on to the next opponent.”
Both teams have plenty of issues to sort out inside Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chargers struggled to stop the Dallas run, their offense couldn’t get into the end zone despite several promising drives, and self-inflected wounds — turnovers, interceptions and penalties — cost them a potentially winning touchdown.
The result was a frustrating 20-17 loss at SoFi Stadium.
“There are always things to clean up,” said Herbert, who threw two interceptions against the Cowboys, one of them in the end zone. “Whether that’s our protection plan, our routes, our run game — we have to do better with it all.”
Herbert also acknowledged the Chargers need to “put up more points,” and that’s especially true against the Chiefs, who are third in the league in scoring through the first two weeks despite their 36-35 loss to the Ravens last weekend.
That defeat exposed plenty of problems in Kansas City, too: The Chiefs couldn’t stop the run game, failed to pressure the quarterback, struggled to establish their own run game and had plenty of turnovers and penalties of their own.
“I understand the question about rallying the guys,” Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu said, “but again, it’s only two games in, and we’ve played two of the best teams in the conference.”
They’re about to play another one Sunday. And the loser will be looking up at them — along with the unbeaten Raiders and Broncos — in a division race that could end up being a lot more interesting than some people thought.
“I think that they’re still trying to find their way, just like every other NFL team is right now,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said. “I don’t think any team that is playing in the NFL is where they’re going to be in January. I think every team is kind of finding itself. But Kansas City is as good as it gets. Their record speaks for itself the last three years.”
INJURY SITUATION
While the Chiefs are mostly healthy, the Chargers have plenty of question marks. Defensive lineman Justin Jones (calf), safety Derwin James Jr. (toe), linebacker Joey Bosa (foot) and cornerback Chris Harris Jr. (shoulder) did not practice early in the week, and it’s possible that Harris could be a game-time decision.
