January 14, 2023

By Fred Liggett
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It’s playoff season now in the National Football League where only 14 teams have the chance to win and advance to Super Bowl 57. Only two of the 14 teams will enjoy having a bye week before kicking off their post-season run. Those two are the NFC’s top seed Philadelphia Eagles and the #1 seed in the AFC Kansas City Chiefs.

While the action over Wild Card Weekend will be wild as it is every year the Chiefs can calmly reflect on numbers the team piled up through the 2022 regular season. The first number that strikes many fans is the 14 wins the Chiefs earned this year. That’s a two game improvement on last season’s 12-5 finish. The 14-3 mark by the Chiefs was good enough to win their seventh straight AFC West Division title.

The Chiefs finished the 2023 regular season with the NFL’s #1 offense. Another number to keep track of is awards season is rapidly approaching and it could include QB Patrick Mahomes coming away with his second MVP award.

Last week the Chiefs completed a memorable regular season with a dominating 31-13 win at division rival Las Vegas. Attracting a lot of attention is the Chiefs using a “Ring around the Rosie” formation that ended with a Chiefs touchdown but was called back on a penalty. In the end the box score showed four different players had scored against the Raiders. The defense was just impressive recording six sacks led by DE Chris Jones with 2.5.

The Chiefs open up play in the AFC playoffs next weekend in what is called the divisional round. Chiefs coaches and players await their opponent who will be determined during AFC Wild Card Weekend. There are four teams that could play the Chiefs next weekend. The Miami Dolphins, Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers all look forward to a possible trip to Kansas City.

Chiefs fans eagerly await learning who that team is and finding their way back to the home of the Chiefs on either Saturday, Jan. 21 or Sunday, Jan. 22 for a home playoff game. No matter who is next for the Chiefs the team’s impressive list of numbers put up this year will need to continue. That’s What I REID Into It for this week.