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The Kansas City Chiefs are the winners of nine consecutive AFC West titles. 

Getting to 10 will require a miracle. 

The Denver Broncos rallied for a 22-19 win over the Chiefs on Sunday to seize command of the AFC West. With the win, the Broncos improved to 9-2 to take a two-game lead over the second-place Los Angeles Chargers (7-4) in the division. The Chiefs, meanwhile, dropped to 5-5, 3 1/2 games and a tie-breaker game behind the Broncos in third place. 

If the Chiefs are going to play in a fourth-straight Super Bowl and a sixth in seven years, it's looking increasingly likely that they'll have to do so as a wild-card team with a difficult path through the AFC playoffs on the road. And that's if they even make the postseason at all. 

The Chiefs still face a solid chance of making the playoffs. But they're 11 weeks into the season and they remain on the outside looking in at the AFC playoff picture. It's unfamiliar territory for the Chiefs and their fans.

Broncos defense holds Mahomes, sets up game-winning drive

The outcome of Sunday's pivotal game was very much up in the air until late as defense set the tone in a game that was tied at 6-6 at halftime. 

The Broncos scored the first touchdown of the game on a Jaleel McLaughlin run in the third quarter. The Chiefs tied the game at 13-13 with a Kareem Hunt run late in the quarter. Then they took their first lead of the game on a pass from Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce with 9:57 remaining.

But the Broncos blocked the extra point, allowing Wil Lutz to tied the game at 19-19 with a field goal on the other end, setting up Mahomes in a position he's been in many times before — with the ball in his hands and a chance to tie the game. 

But Denver's stifling defense did not relent with the game on the line. The Broncos forced a 3-and-out after punting the ball back to the Chiefs with 4:06 remaining in a tie game. A Ja'Quan McMillian sack of Mahomes on third down forced the punt.

That put the ball in Bo Nix's hand with his own chance to lead a game-winning drive. And he succeeded where Mahomes did not. 

Nix found Courtland Sutton for a critical third-down conversion near midfield. He then hit Troy Franklin for a 32-yard gain to set up Lutz for a game-winning field goal as time expired. 

Lutz was good from 35 yards to secure the walkoff win.

With the win, it's the Broncos who find themselves in control of the division. They're the last team besides the Chiefs to win the AFC West and are on track to secure their first division title since they won the Super Bowl with Peyton Manning after the 2015 season. 

And they're in a race with the New England Patriots (9-2) and Indianapolis Colts (8-2) for the No. 1 seed in the AFC and the conference's only first-round playoff bye.

Midnight Mode, indeed.

On the day the Rams donned black uniforms for the first and only time this season, the offense largely went dark.

Red-hot quarterback Matthew Stafford cooled. Star receivers Davante Adams and Puka Nacua struggled to consistently make the clutch plays that they often make look routine.

But safety Kamren Kinchens and the Rams’ defense managed to keep the Seattle Seahawks at bay — just barely.

Kinchens intercepted two passes, and cornerbacks Cobie Durant and Darious Williams also picked off passes as the Rams held off the Seahawks for a 21-19 victory Sunday before 75,323 at SoFi Stadium that was not secured until Seattle’s Jason Myers missed a 61-yard field goal as time expired.

The kick is NO GOOD and the Rams hang for the win! pic.twitter.com/fHPtWHfuYc

— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2025

Stafford tossed touchdown passes to Adams and tight end Colby Parkinson, and Kyren Williams rushed for a touchdown as the Rams improved to 8-2, extended their winning streak to five games and assumed sole possession of first place in the NFC West.

The Rams can thank Kinchens, a second-year safety who has six career interceptions, including four against the Seahawks. His interceptions set up Williams’ touchdown in the first quarter and Parkinson’s in the fourth.

The Rams went into the game having scored at least 34 points in each of their last three games. But that production was absent against a Seahawks team that fell to 7-3 and had its four-game winning streak end.

Stafford increased his league-leading total of touchdown passes to 27 and did not have a pass intercepted for the seventh consecutive game. But the 17th-year pro was not as sharp as he had been during a stretch that put him in the conversation for NFL most valuable player. Stafford completed 15 of 28 passes for 130 yards.

Stafford enjoyed a banner day compared to Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold.

The Rams' front pressured Darnold into multiple poor decisions, and Kinchens, Durant and Williams made him pay. Darnold completed 29 of 44 passes for 279 yards with four interceptions.

Seahawks receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who was on pace to set an NFL record for yards receiving in a season, caught nine passes for 105 yards. But he did not score.

Cooper Kupp, the former Rams star making his return to SoFi Stadium, did not have a catch in the first three quarters but had three during a late scoring drive that trimmed the Rams’ lead to two points.

The Rams led 14-9 at halftime on Williams’ one-yard touchdown run and Stafford’s one-yard touchdown pass to Adams.

It was a satisfying situation for the Rams, whose first drive ended at the Seahawks’ eight-yard line when Stafford’s fourth-down pass to tight end Tyler Higbee fell incomplete.

Kinchens’ 31-yard interception return, however, set up Williams’ touchdown. And after Myers kicked the first of three first-half field goals for the Seahawks, Stafford led a long drive that ended with Adams’ 1,000th career reception and his 10th touchdown catch of the season.

The Rams had an opportunity to seize control early in the third quarter when Durant returned an interception to the Seahawks’ 35-yard line. But two plays later, Nacua lost a fumble after making a catch.

Myers’ fourth field goal pulled the Seahawks to within 14-12 midway through the third. But Kinchens intercepted another pass late in the quarter, setting up Stafford’s six-yard touchdown pass to Parkinson for a 21-12 lead.

Still, the Rams struggled to put away the Seahawks. Kenneth Walker III’s one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter pulled the Seahawks to within 21-19 with 2:23 left.

After Ethan Evans’ punt pinned them at the one-yard line, the Seahawks got the ball back with 1:40 left and drove 56 yards in nine plays.

But Myers could not match his career-best 61-yard field goal against the Rams in 2020. This time it went wide right.

The Rams play host to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4) next Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.