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Everyone has fallen in love with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Second-year quarterback Patrick Mahomes lights up lives with his powerful arm, sense of timing and athleticism. The Chiefs (11-2) not only lead the NFL in scoring (471 points), but are the only team close to having surpassed 400 – as they approach 500. They’re captivating to watch and worthy of the hype (though that defense springs some leaks and can create adventures in their would-be paradise).

You hear less about the Los Angeles Chargers. They will be the second tenant in the new Los Angeles stadium in 2020, more or less the co-stars of the Los Angeles Rams. They currently play in a soccer stadium that seats about 30,000, roughly half (if full) of a normal NFL crowd. How a team owned by a developer could not reach a deal to build a stadium in its longtime home of San Diego remains one of life’s great mysteries.

The Chargers (10-3) get a grand opportunity on Thursday night to overthrow the expected order in the AFC West when they play the Chiefs in Kansas City (8:20 p.m. ET., Fox, NFL Network, Amazon Prime Video). The Chiefs can clinch the division and a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs with a victory; the Chargers earn no less than a playoff berth if they beat or tie the Chiefs.

Kansas City is a town that loves it meat, and here the stakes are rare indeed (sorry).

Watch this game. This is what it’s all about. Two fine teams in the same division, with a rivalry dating to the earliest days of the old AFL, and two standout quarterbacks – one being the young Mahomes, the other the 15-year veteran Philip Rivers, who has done everything in a sterling career but get his team to a Super Bowl.

Rivers has thrown 29 touchdown passes and only 6 interceptions this season; Mahomes has 43 TD passes and 11 INTs. Expect the ball to travel by air. Points will be scored.

As always, this blog will complain that the Chargers get penalized with a short week of practice and a long trip to play the game. But he Chargers will not feel sorry for themselves.

This is where they must be on Thursday night, and they surely know what they must do.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman