The Kansas City Chiefs (11-4) have already punched their ticket to the playoffs for the third time in four years under head coach Andy Reid, but there's still plenty on the line for this team on Sunday afternoon in San Diego.
If the Chiefs can pick up their 11th straight win over a divisional opponent and their sixth straight over the Chargers, plus get some help from the Denver Broncos (8-7), who would need to beat the Oakland Raiders (12-3) on Sunday afternoon as well, the Chiefs could still win the AFC West division for the first time since 2010.
In this scenario, the Chiefs would also earn the AFC's No. 2 overall seed, which means at least one home playoff game and a first-round bye.
The Broncos have already been eliminated from the playoffs and the Raiders travel to Denver without their starting quarterback, Derek Carr, who was lost for the season with a broken fibula suffered last week against the Indianapolis Colts.
Just like Chiefs-Chargers, the Raiders-Broncos game kicks off at 3:25 p.m. CT.
Despite needing some outside help to earn that bye and home playoff game, the Chiefs are focused on what they can control because even if the Raiders win on Sunday, these guys want to go into the playoffs on the uptick, which began with their dominating performance last Sunday night over the Broncos.
"You can't win it unless you get in," quarterback Alex Smith explained. "You have to get a ticket to the dance. After that, you can start worrying about byes, and home fields and things like that. Obviously, the loss last weekend (against the Titans) hurt us in that situation.
"We're going to need some help, but we'll see. We have to take care of our own deal."
"We're going to go through the process and get ourselves ready to play against a team that never gives up and that's San Diego," Chiefs coach Andy Reid added. "As long as that Philip Rivers is there, man, he's something.
"That's the way they play, and their defense plays hard and aggressive, so we have to get ourselves ready to go."
The Chiefs understand the position they put themselves in with another playoff trip, but they also understand this is just the beginning.
"We're very fortunate, not a lot of teams get to make it to the playoffs," left tackle Eric Fisher added. "We're not done yet."
Here are all of the playoff scenarios around the NFL this weekend:
