The Kansas City Chiefs locker room was in a festive mood knowing they continue to control their own destiny after beating the Tennessee Titans 34-14 on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. While the Chiefs control their own destiny and they'll be in if they beat the Oakland Raiders at home next week.
But the Chiefs can clinch the division today if the Cincinnati Bengals beat the San Diego Chargers.
"I'm rooting for Cincinnati right now, to be honest with you," Chiefs DE Shaun Smith said after the game. "We still can't talk about the P we just have to continue to win and try to win the division by getting to 3-1."
The Chiefs of course aren't saying the P word -- playoffs. But the (at times) dominating victory over the Titans brought a few more believers on board, which The Deep Freeze recognized.
"There's going to be people jumping on the band wagon," Smith continued. "A lot of peple didn't expect us to get to 10 wins. A lot of people didn't expect us to win four games this year, all the writers and everybody. You can't worry about all the hype. You can't worry about the people that are going to jump on the bandwagon and jump off. You just have to keep the team together."
Smith later invited any bandwagon fans on the fence to hop on and stay. With the way the Chiefs played in the first half against Tennessee, they can make some noise in the playoffs.
"It's sweet," Smith said of 10 wins, "but the original sweet would be to win the AFC West. That'd be real sweet and real special. Hopefully Cincinnati can help us out and we don't have anything worry about but we still want to get to win No. 11. "
Indeed it is sweet. We should know shortly with the result of this Chargers-Bengals game just how sweet it is.