pantaloons

Yeah - it's quite bizarre. The strangest part to me is the decline of Dwayne Bowe. Just a couple of years ago (right before he signed a hefty five year deal of course) he'd been putting up some serious WR numbers and was a genuine threat. He's still our best WR, clearly, but just hasn't found his way into the endzone this year. Smith is still finding scoring targets though. When Charles isn't running it in, Smith is finding he or Davis, or TEs Fasano or Kelce for scores. Certainly, I wouldn't be recommending putting your hard-earned on us this week, but we have been nothing if not honest against good opposition this year. We've only had two poor performances this season (vs Tennessee and at Oakland) and they will likely cost us our season. I'm excited about this week. I'm not expecting a win, but I give us a 38% chance. And you're right - they've been hot and cold, with some woeful home efforts. I was happy they won yesterday for that reason.

Correct. We have to win at Pittsburgh this week AND at home against San Diego the following week. It's a simple scenario for KC: win both games and we are guaranteed a playoff spot. Lose one and to make it we are relying on a set of miracles so remote there's more chance of Halley's Comet coming early and careening into Arrowhead Stadium. I don't think we'll make it, but this week is the big one. If we can win at Pittsburgh and San Diego lose at San Fran, the Chargers will be coming to KC in week 17 with nothing to play for. Anyway, I'll get in early with some exceptionally boring picks: Philadelphia Green Bay New England

We had a touchdown taken off us that would have given us a double digit lead and pretty much ended the game for a terrible penalty against Fasano. Smith threw a pick two plays later. Late in the game we had the ball in FG range and Kelce was ruled by the video official to have fumbled despite the evidence not clearly supporting this. Whatevs. We threw our season away against Oakland. Just sucks to lose one on Monday we should never have lost. Pittsburgh Green Bay Denver

I can't ever remember being more disillusioned with the NFL than I am after yesterday. The Chiefs just blatantly had their season ruined by disgraceful officiating, and Buffalo has a similar complaint. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I'll just go with the notion of complete incompetence.

Sorry mate. You have my permission to campaign for my instant dismissal from this site if you lose. Seriously though, I'm shocked that the Rams are only 5-7. Every time I seem to look at their score they're flogging a team or beating up on one of the league's best. Actually, I'm looking at your schedule now. That is insanely difficult. With both the AFC West and NFC West strong and having to play each other, it's a tough schedule for anyone in those divisions.

San Fran Dallas St. Louis

Pretender, meet contender.

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but how good was the Frost trade taking into account draft night? Going by the AFL site's phantom draft, we effectively traded pick 23 for Frost, pick 21 and pick 25. Bonzer.

Cincy Arizona Miami. Looks like Eric Berry has lymphoma. Horrible news for the young man. Hope he makes a full recovery.

No way! Me being still alive in this week's tipping is my only reward for my team flushing it's season down the toilet in embarrassing fashion.

Season over. What a disgrace. And entirely predictable.

Yeah, since week 1 we've played really well. Smith plays an efficient, low risk game, which is backed up by Charles. We are able to maintain possession for long drives and score early, which takes the pressure off smith having to try too much with one of the league's worst WR groups. I'm very nervous about tomorrow though. I know that might be irrational, it's just a feeling. By the way, ESPN's playoff machine came out today! Good times. I feel a sense of calm now. http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/machine

Had we not thoroughly violated them earlier in the season I'd give us a very good chance, but if they see us in the playoffs they'll have a little extra incentive and I couldn't see us repeating the dose.

Green Bay Cincy Cleveland No way I'm jinxing KC this week.

Awesome - enjoy! I have a fair infatuation with disneyland (as evidenced by the profile pic) and on a visit in 2010 headed straight from LAX to the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney to watch the Chiefs claim a playoff spot. I've been to a few different ESPN Zones but the one in Anaheim is the last remaining. Safe travels. Georgiou mentioned the any given Sunday factor. I was loving that almost every single game yesterday had huge playoff ramifications. Makes for great viewing.

I'm not counting my chickens at Oakland. They're long overdue for a win and the Chiefs-Raiders rivalry ensures that games are generally close and unpredictable regardless of standing.

Also, a double thanks to Gorgoroth for the Rams win and jinxing the Seahawks.

Great game, big win. Coupled with Denver losing, it's huge. Great performance by the D today.

This is utterly infuriating. We should be absolutely slapping these fools. Two fumbles lost and a bogus penalty leading to a Seattle TD and we're down. Unbelievable. Seattle is the second easiest opponent we have left so if we lose this it's season over.

Denver Pittsburgh New England

I'll add playoff results for Dappa Dan: Wild card weekend Pittsburgh d KC Indy d Baltimore Philadelphia d Detroit Seattle d New Orleans Divisional round Denver d Pittsburgh New England d Indianapolis Seattle d Arizona Green Bay d Philadelphia Championship games Denver d New England Green Bay d Seattle Denver d Green Bay

Whoa. Dalton's stat line today: 10/33, 86 yards, 0 TDs, 3 INTs, and a QBR of 4.3! Huge win for the Browns' playoff chances.

It's fraught with danger picking this so far out, but I'll have a go. Denver, New England and Indy should win their divisions. The AFC North should be a ripping fight to the finish. Cincy leads it at the moment but I have them missing the playoffs by half a game. That said, that changes quickly with one result. I'm usually pessimistic about the Chiefs, but at the moment I've got us scraping in. We were putrid in week 1 and lost three starters for the season that week. Since then, we've been desperately unlucky at Denver, led most of the game at San Fran, and won the rest, most in floggings. The team is playing very well. I'll out my final playoff seedlings below, but there's really only a game at season' end between 5 and 10, so this could look foolish in January. 1. Denver 2. New England 3. Indianapolis 4. Pittsburgh 5. Kansas City 6. Baltimore As for the NFC, I'll give divisions to Arizona, New Orleans and Green Bay. Seattle has been poor but they're still 5-3 and surely can't play any worse. The East is up in the air with QB health a big issue. Here goes: 1. Arizona 2. Green Bay 3. Philadelphia 4. New Orleans 5. Seattle 6. Detroit If Seattle can regain some old form, it's teed up for them there.

Denver Pittsburgh Dallas Sorry for the unoriginality.

Lol. Pretty comfortable day for the Chiefs. Had to take care of business today. The game against Seattle in a couple weeks is shaping as the third easiest we have left, so we couldn't afford to slip up.