Week 12 of the NFL season is almost over and there has been a few surprises as well as disappointments.

One of the biggest disappointments so far has been the Kansas City Chiefs.

The team didn’t start out as a disappointment, as they started the season 5-0. One of those wins was a convincing one over the defending champion New England Patriots in Gillette Stadium on a Thursday night. But since the 5-0 start, the Chiefs have gone 1-6, including losses against the Buffalo Bills, New York Giants, and New York Jets.

This has caused some concern around the local area, with some vocal fans calling for the current starting quarterback of the Chiefs, Alex Smith, to be benched for a rookie 1st round draft pick, Patrick Mahomes. But while the Chiefs have been sliding, they still lead the AFC West, an overall disappointing division, due to a division tiebreaker. 

There are two teams in reach to overtake the Chiefs in the division, which are the Oakland Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers.

While the Raiders have been a disappointing team since the start of the season, they have beaten the Chiefs once already and are tied with the Chiefs for the division lead.

The Chargers have been the opposite of the Chiefs the last few weeks, going 6-2 since starting the season 0-4. A majority of the Chargers wins haven’t been particularly impressive in terms of their opponents though. They have beaten a Denver Broncos team that has virtually no offense, a Dallas Cowboys team without their star running back Ezekiel Elliott and a banged-up offensive line, and a Bills team starting an inexperienced rookie for their quarterback, who would later go on to throw 5 interceptions in 14 pass attempts, instead of their regular starter.

Nonetheless, their run has them tied with Chiefs as well and their road doesn’t seem to get any harder, with games against the Redskins and Jets next on the schedule.

The Chiefs still have three more divisional games left, while the Chargers have just two. The Week 15 game between the Chiefs and Chargers will be an important matchup for both teams. Both teams are in prime position to make the playoffs, but the bigger goal is winning the division and only one team can do that. It’s still a race and the Chiefs better hope they don’t get passed before it’s too late.