After the Kansas City Chiefs had beaten the Raiders when Las Vegas fumbled away a chance to kick the winning field goal on the day after Thanksgiving, just about everyone wondered when the fortunes of the Super Bowl champions would take a turn for the worst.

Turns out it wasn’t this week, either.

One of the most charmed teams in the NFL — maybe NFL history — won its 15th straight one-possession game on Sunday night when Matthew Wright, already kicking in place of two other injured kickers, banged a 31-yard field goal off the left upright and through to give Kansas City another heart-stopping, 19-17 victory over the Chargers.

It was the Chiefs’ sixth win this season decided on the final play of the game.

“I’m certainly glad that we’ve ended up on the winning side of those games,” said Chiefs chairman Clark Hunt, who also was able to celebrate a ninth consecutive AFC West championship, the second-longest streak of division titles in history.

“As we’ve been going through it, I’ve thought a lot about last year, where we had a lot of close games and they tended to go the other way, particularly in November and December,” Hunt said.

“It’s a credit to the level of competition in the National Football League. All these guys are professionals, they’re very talented and you know our guys have hung in there and found ways to get the ‘W’ at the end of the game.”

It all begs the age-old question: Is it better to be good or lucky?

Maybe the Chiefs are a little bit of both.

The Chiefs (12-1) now have a two-game lead over Buffalo after the Bills lost a shootout to the Rams, and it’s hard to argue they have lucked their way into the No. 1 seed in the playoff picture. But whether it was a toe-tap out of bounds against the Ravens, or three different kickers having hit game-winning field goals, the Chiefs have been operating on razor-thin margins.

So perhaps the answer is the Chiefs are simply good enough that it takes a near-perfect performance to beat them.

Meanwhile, a little good fortune never hurts.

“Even though I feel like we could have played better, I mean that’s a good football team,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said of the Chargers, who have now lost seven straight to their biggest nemesis in the division. “As long as we have a chance to go out there and have the football and make a play happen, I feel like we’re going to make it happen.”

Barkley eyes NFL rushing record

Philadelphia Eagles fans serenaded Saquon Barkley with chants of “MVP!” after a 9-yard run gave him the team’s season rushing record.

Barkley set the record in style — passing Eagles Hall of Famers Wilbert Montgomery and record holder LeSean McCoy in a single game — as he rushed for 124 yards to push his season total to 1,623 during Sunday’s 22-16 victory over Carolina.

The total was enough for Barkley to top McCoy’s 1,607 yards in 2013.

“How cool is it that we have a team rushing record in Week 13?” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said.

Barkley also maintained his pace to break Eric Dickerson’s NFL single-season rushing record of 2,105 yards, set in 1984 with the Rams.

At his pace, Barkley should reach that milestone, even possibly ahead of the 17th game of the season that Dickerson and the NFL did not have in 1984.

Barkley captioned an Instagram post “Thankful” with a checked box next to “franchise single-season rushing yards record.”

Barkley leads the NFL in rushing with 1,623 yards, a hefty 216 yards ahead of Baltimore’s Derrick Henry at 1,407 (though the Ravens had a bye Sunday).

He is averaging 124.8 yards per game. At that pace, and with one more game to play than Dickerson had, he would become the top single-season rusher in NFL history. He needs 483 yards over the final four games to top Dickerson’s 40-year-old record. Barkley is on pace for 2,122 yards, which would put him just 17 yards beyond Dickerson’s 2,105 total.

Just on the quality of the Eagles’ remaining opponents’ defenses alone, Barkley faces little pushback down the stretch.

He feasted against a Panthers defense that was one of the worst against the run in the NFL. Barkley averaged 6.2 yards on 20 carries against Carolina and could easily expect to match that pace over at least three of the next four games.

The Steelers come to Philadelphia on Sunday and should provide the stiffest test to Barkley in his record pursuit. Pittsburgh is fourth in the NFL in run defense.

After the Steelers, Barkley could run wild.

The Eagles’ final three opponents — Washington, Dallas and the Giants — all rank near the bottom of the league against the run.

Barkley might enjoy the delicious twist of setting the record against his old team, the Giants — but surely not the 17th-game asterisk that would come with the total.

BEARS WOES

A listless showing by the Chicago Bears in a 38-13 loss at San Francisco on Sunday, stretched their losing streak to seven in their first game since Thomas Brown replaced the fired Matt Eberflus as coach.

The AP’s next-day analysis pointed to the offensive line as an area that needs help.

The Bears were dominated in the trenches and rookie quarterback Caleb Williams was sacked seven times, bringing his league-leading total to 56. It’s the most for a Chicago quarterback since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

Yes, Williams hangs onto the ball too long at times. But too often, the blockers aren’t giving him enough time.

Things were particularly bad against San Francisco. And that was against a defense missing the injured Nick Bosa.

Williams did throw two touchdown passes to Rome Odunze in the second half, but it was too late to rally the Bears. Williams finished 17 for 34 for 134 yards and lost a fumble, but had his seventh straight start without an interception.