The is a results-driven business. And when the final gun sounded at the end of Sunday's thriller between the and , the defending Super Bowl champions had escaped with a 22-17 win that propelled them into the AFC Championship Game for the third consecutive season.
But while the Chiefs have now won 11 of 12 and are the first team in AFC history to host the conference title tilt in three straight seasons, this game wound up following a somewhat disquietingly similar script. Dating all the way back to a 35-9 throttling of the hapless New York Jets in Week 8, the Chiefs haven't beaten a team by more than six points since Nov.