Patrick Mahomes makes history in Chiefs' dominant win against Raiders

Anyone who's been watching Patrick Mahomes or the AFC West this season have seen the Chiefs building toward a blowout of the Raiders on Sunday Night Football over the last few weeks. The Chiefs didn't disappoint. With their win over the Raiders, any questions about the Chiefs' abilities have been answered.

Patrick Mahomes makes history... again

Receivers were open, the defense played well, and Mahomes did Mahomes-like things. In the win, he matched a feat he's only been able to do once before. According to Jeff Kerr, only 15 quarterbacks have had a night like Mahomes had against the Raiders. Sunday night was the second time in his career that Mahomes had 400 yards, five touchdowns, and zero interceptions.

The NFL's schedule-makers deserve a round of applause for what they did in the AFC West in 2021. The Chiefs had a painfully tough schedule to kick off the first half of the season. Meanwhile, teams like the Broncos have had one of the easiest schedules to kick off the season. This sets up a "surprising" narrative that the Chiefs appear to have fallen off while the other teams have beaten their easier opponents.

In their first seven games, the Chiefs faced five teams that are currently .500 or better, including the Browns, Ravens, Chargers, Bills, and Titans. Meanwhile, Denver faced three teams in September that are now multiple games under .500, including the Giants, Jaguars, and Jets.

As a result, Mahomes and the Chiefs were set up to start slow while lower teams like the Broncos were set up to succeed. However, the Chiefs' opponents are set in stone, and the schedule makers had to give the Chiefs the easier games at some point. Over the last seven games, the Chiefs have faced three easier opponents in the Giants, Eagles, and Washington Football Team.

Had the Chiefs started off against those teams, they would have won in spades while the rest of the division started slow. That has been the pattern for the division over the last few years. To keep interest high for as long as possible, the schedule-makers stacked the Chiefs' sequence of games to make it tough while taking it easier on the rest of the league.

Also, while holding most of the divisional games until later in the year, the schedule-makers elongated the season for the rest of the AFC West, who fans expected to be out of the race by now. However, as December comes into focus, every team in the AFC West is close because there have been few divisional matchups, where gaps widen in the standings.

Kansas City Chiefs v Las Vegas Raiders

Put simply, the schedule-makers did everything in their power to keep Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs down to keep fans of the other teams interested as long as possible. However, over the next six weeks, it will be clear that nothing has changed in the AFC West and the Chiefs still own the division. It would have been clearer earlier if there had been more divisional games and a fairer schedule.

Of course, anyone who has watched Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs this season knows that something is wrong after struggling against easier opponents. However, it's not nearly as bad as it seems, and the team is still the class of the division. Sunday Night Football was only the beginning of a return to form for the AFC West.

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