Everyone, take a deep breath. In arguably the most chaotic and pivotal game of the 2025 Chargers campaign, the Chargers hung their hat on two key factors to come out on top: one of the best defenses in football, and one of the best QBs in football.

Today’s Hottest Take: The Chargers Put the Nail in the Kansas City Chiefs' Season

Earlier, I called the win against the Philadelphia Eagles the most important game of the season; the lovely part about the end of an NFL season is that every new week starts to become the most important. Now, the Chargers travel to Arrowhead and take on a Chiefs team that has officially entered Win or Go Home territory. The Chargers have a chance to go into Kansas City and be the final thing the Chiefs season sees before it has to boot up Tankathon and look at draft position scenarios instead of playoff scenarios.

The Chargers opened this week as large as six-point underdogs in this matchup, and similarly to Week 1, I’m going to plant my flag and let everyone know that the Chargers will upset the Chiefs to end KC’s playoff hopes. How do they get it done?Last week, I mentioned this time as the correct time to catch both Philly and Kansas City, and that feels more true now than it did then. The Chiefs are spiraling. Patrick Mahomes is coming off one of the worst statistical performances of his career, Travis Kelce no longer looks like himself, the offensive line is extremely banged up, and the coaching staff is under fire for a litany of reasons. I expect Jesse Minter to continue to enable this defense to fly around, and the offense to do just enough to take care of business.

While the world of sports is often unpredictable, and it wouldn’t be the first time a “dynasty” had to experience the outside noise claiming that the sky is falling, this simply isn’t one of those times where the champs pick themselves up off the deck when hope is fading. There is no storybook ending for KC this go around; on Sunday the Chargers walk into Arrowhead and get the sweet satisfaction of being the ones to keep Kansas City out of playoff football for the first time in the Mahomes Era.

What You Need to Know: Justin Herbert is a Cyborg

By no means did Justin Herbert play his best football on Monday Night. He didn’t light up the stat sheet, but fittingly against an Eagles team whose fanbase loves to claim Jalen Hurts' superiority based on the fact that he “just wins” even without the numbers, Justin Herbert put on one of the gutsiest performances that, despite the rough statline, allowed a primetime audience to really understand how absurd he really is.

The plays I have replayed in my head over and over again are when Herbert made his own call to pull the ball on two separate plays on the game-tying drive at the end of regulation ... and the game-winning drive in overtime, including one when he flashed his broken hand out to stiff-arm Eagles DB Cooper DeJean.

I cannot stress how psycho it is to try stiff-arming someone with a broken hand, but it’s probably the same level of psycho that allows him to continue to play through genuine historic levels of pressure, get sacked seven times, hit 14 times, and then add to his already impressive game-winning drive total because he’s that damn good.

Before You Go: The AFC Playoff Picture

We move one week closer to those sweet, sweet clinching scenarios! Here’s a quick update on the playoff picture.

For those keeping track at home, what should you be rooting for to maximize the Bolts playoff chances? Look no further because your Week 15 Rooting Guide is pretty simple! As lovely as the Philip Rivers story is, it just happened to come at a time when every Colts loss is a big-time win for the Chargers, as their game against Seattle is the most important outside of the Chargers themselves. As far as a playoff berth is truly concerned, the Chargers all but lock one up with a win this week, thanks to the Jaguars' decisive win over Indy. All in all, these outcomes will one way or another benefit the Chargers in their path to not just making the postseason, but a possible favorable postseason matchup against whoever can squeak out the AFC North.

• The Arizona Cardinals over the Houston Texans

• The New England Patriots over the Buffalo Bills

• The Cincinnati Bengals over the Baltimore Ravens

• The Seattle Seahawks over the Indianapolis Colts

• The Green Bay Packers over the Denver Broncos

For those of you still holding out hope for the division, the Chargers currently stand at a 13% chance to win the AFC West, but that could increase to as high as 34% with a Chargers win over KC and Green Bay taking care of business against Denver.