KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The past seven games between the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers have featured all manner of interesting twists, including a big comeback, a late game-winning field goal and a dramatic fourth-quarter defensive stand.
One thing ties the seven games together: The Chiefs have prevailed every time.
But never has their winning streak over the Chargers seemed as tenuous going into a game as it does heading into Saturday night’s meeting between the teams at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chargers, winners of four straight games and seven of their past nine, have most of the momentum. The Chiefs only last week snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Raiders.
The Chargers are hot at a good time. Both teams are 7-6 and tied for first place in the AFC West. The winner gets a huge edge in the division title race and will be the heavy favorite with only two regular-season games to follow for both teams.
“I think we know each other [well]," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “You have an opportunity to play each other twice a year and we’ve done it here for a few years with some of the same guys. But every game is different. It doesn’t really matter if it’s in conference or not. So you have to come up with a little wrinkle here or there.
“They have a pretty good idea of what we do by now and we have a pretty good idea of what they do," he added. "So you come up with a couple little wrinkles and then you get back down to the turnovers and field position, all of the basics and those become even more important than they normally are.”
The Chiefs beat the Chargers 24-10 in September in Los Angeles. But the teams are in different places than they were then.
The Chiefs were in the middle of a five-game winning streak then. The Chargers, in their first season in Los Angeles after the move from San Diego and with a new coaching staff, were on their way to losing their first four games.
“I think they’re playing really good football," Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith said. “They were then, too, though, especially defensively. Certainly, as a team right now, all three phases, they are playing really, really well.
“When you have this much of the season between games there is personnel stuff, injuries, things like that. There are those types of changes, but very similar to before. They were stout then and still playing really [well].”
One of the reasons the Chiefs have controlled the Chargers in recent years is that they’ve controlled L.A. quarterback Philip Rivers. In the seven-game losing streak, he threw 10 interceptions with just five touchdown passes.
“He’s time-tested," Reid said of Rivers. “He’s been doing it a long time and at a very high level. He’s got [wide receiver Keenan] Allen healthy and that’s his guy and he’s playing at a high level. So he’s in tune with the offense and his players and things are clicking for him.”
The Chiefs intercepted Rivers three times, all in the first half, in the September game.
“It’s always a combination of things," Reid said. “I’m not going to take anything away from our guys. They did a good job. I’m sure he wanted a couple of those throws back.”
When the Chiefs had the ball, they had a difficult time protecting Smith against pass-rushers Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa. The Chargers sacked Smith five times. Ingram got him three times and Bosa once.
“They’re as a tandem right now playing in my opinion probably the best in the league as far as bookend guys," Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said. “When you have two guys playing in the style that they play -- a lot of spin moves, a lot of games that they do and they create lanes by doing that and then on top of that they’re just full of energy -- they’re very successful this year.”