The champs are the champs for a reason, and you need to go deeper than the pinball-machine offense that makes the Chiefs so much fun to watch. Yes, there is that. Yes, there is Patrick Mahomes, who is so good that you can bring someone to Arrowhead Stadium from Mars and your guest would immediately say: “Wow. What’s his story?”

There is Andy Reid, who spent so much of his career making the exact wrong decision at the exact wrong time and now, lately, is on such a roll you wouldn’t flinch if he decided to hit on 19 at the blackjack table against the dealer’s 6 — and wouldn’t surprise you when the deuce came out of the dealer’s shoe.

But there is another reason why the Chiefs have become the NFL’s gold standard across the past two years, and why it’s going to take an almost perfect effort for someone to steal the title belt out of their fingertips. There were the three playoff games last year — home to Houston, home to Tennessee, in Miami against the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV — when they spotted their opponents double-digit leads before roaring back all three times to post double-digit wins.

And then there was Sunday. It felt like the Chiefs were battering the Browns in an AFC Divisional playoff game, but the scoreboard told a different story. Kansas City left some points on the field. Cleveland was stubbornly staying on the game’s fringes.

And then …

Well, then the season flashed before the eyes of the rabid consortium of Chiefs fans — and something else flashed before the eyes of fans all across Cleveland and Buffalo. Mahomes fell awkwardly running for a first down. He tried to get to his feet. And then both legs buckled like a newborn foal. Football players know this is a possibility on every play.

“It’s a violent game,” KC tight end Travis Kelce said. “That’s why we wear helmets.”

Still: this was Mahomes. It is possible — likely, even — that he won’t win the MVP award this year since it sure seems that Aaron Rodgers made a huge push late in the season. But that’s semantics. Mahomes is the single-most valuable player in the sport — maybe any sport. The Chiefs are committed to him for a tidy half-billion dollars. He is the face of the league. Even in this game, not his best, he was the best player on the field.

And now he was leaving the game. He would enter concussion protocol. There were still 7 ½ minutes left in the third quarter. The Chiefs were soon to kick a field goal to make the score 22-10. But suddenly there was hope on either end of Lake Erie — in Cleveland, which now had a chance to steal a bid in the AFC Championship game for the first time since 1989, and in Buffalo, which would host that game if the Browns could pull this off.

“When anyone goes down a team tries to rally around each other, no matter who it is,” Chiefs safety Tyrann Mathieu said. “It’s all about team.”

Now, the NFL’s best team would face a gauntlet. The Browns put together an 18-play touchdown drive to pull within 22-17. Chad Henne, the career backup subbing for Mahomes, surrendered the ball on a brutal interception (that Reid would take full responsibility for) and suddenly the champs were in trouble. Big trouble, it looked like.

“Somewhere,” Reid would say, “you have to reach down and do what you can to try to pull this out.”

The Chiefs defense held. Now it was on Henne, the ex-Michigan quarterback whose role on this team is supposed to be holding a clipboard in his hands, not the Chiefs’ hopes to repeat as champions.

“He’s a professional,” Kelce said. “He’s a competitor. We love him for it.”

Henne would need to make a play, maybe two. Instead, he made three. On third-and-4, 3:21 left, he found Darrell Williams on a 5-yard swing pass. The clock kept grinding. Later, facing third-and-14 out of the two-minute warning, he was flushed from the pocket and picked up 13 ½ yards. Fourth-and-inches. Fourth-and-the season.

“This,” Henne said, “is why I play.”

Saturday night, Mahomes, Reid and Henne had discussed what they’d do in exactly this spot. Most believed they would bleed the clock, pray for Cleveland to jump offside, then give the Browns a long field with around 70 seconds left. Maybe, with Mahomes, you try something out of the box. But Henne?

Reid called the same play. Henne dropped back to pass. He saw Tyreke Hill open 4 yards beyond the marker. He threw it perfectly. Hill caught it. The champs survived. They get another game at Arrowhead next week. Maybe Mahomes will be back. Maybe he won’t. Either way, the Bills will need to be close to perfect. The champs require that from you.