Mahomes Magic is alive and well.
Patrick Mahomes showed he has the inside track on both the top seed in the AFC and the league MVP when he pulled off his magic act again Sunday night.
After the Chargers took a four-point lead with less than two minutes to do, it took him six plays to put together the game winning drive.
The victory pretty much wrapped up the AFC West division for the Chiefs, who are 8-2 and have a three game lead on the 5-5 Chargers.
And they have a one game lead in the battle for the top seed as Mahomes goes for his second Super Bowl win in his first six years in the league. Tom Brady won his first three in his first five years but then went nine years before he won the fourth one.
Tennessee at 7-3 also has a three game lead in the AFC South and is virtually guaranteed a division title and home playoff spot.
Six other teams are battling for the other five AFC playoff spots. The closest race is in the AFC East with Miami, which had a bye last week, and Buffalo, which beat Cleveland, both 7-3. The Buffalo game was played in Detroit because of the snowstorm in Buffalo and the Bills go back to Detroit for a Thanksgiving Day game against the Lions.
New England and the Jets are 6-4 but neither looked like a contender Sunday. They played a game in the wind that was tied 3-3 before the Patriots ran a punt back for a touchdown with five seconds left. Jets coach Robert Saleh wouldn’t commit to Zach Wilson remaining the starter.
In AFC North, Baltimore is 7-3 and Cincinnati 6-4.
That leaves eight AFC teams with four losses or fewer vying for seven spots. The Charges at 5-5 also can’t be ruled out.
In the NFC, Philadelphia stayed in top spot at 9-1 by escaping with a one point win over the Colts while Dallas seems to be emerging as their top challenger at 7-3 by crushing the Vikings, who are now 8-2 and have a four game lead in their division but don’t look like a team that can win three conference playoff games to make the Super Bowl.
The only other team besides the Eagles, Cowboys and Vikings with fewer than four losses in the NFC is the 7-3 New York Giants and they are try to hold on to wild card spot after losing to the Lions.
The rest of the NFC is a scramble and the most disappointing team is the defending champion Rams, who fell to 3-7 with a loss to the Saints. They won’t be repeating
The last team to repeat was the 2003-2004 Patriots and even Tom Brady couldn’t do it again. In the age of parity, repeating is difficult. The Steelers did it twice in a six-year span in the 1970s but those days are long gone.