Kansas City, Mo. ? What must happen for the barely breathing Kansas City Chiefs to get into the playoffs?

For starters, they must go on the road Saturday and beat Oakland, possibly the best team in the AFC. Then on Sunday, Denver must lose at home to (or tie) Arizona, possibly the worst team in the NFC.

If that happens, according to league calculations, a few other, less improbable, events have to fall into place for the Chiefs to escape what would become a five-year playoff drought.

One would be a New England loss or tie at home to Miami.

Another would be for Indianapolis to beat or tie Jacksonville and for Green Bay to beat or tie the New York Jets.

Still another would be an Indianapolis loss plus a Jets win plus a Cleveland win over Atlanta plus a Pittsburgh win over Baltimore.

Heck, as far as that goes, the Chiefs (8-7) don’t even have to beat the Raiders (10-5), whose reward for beating Kansas City would be home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

In the most improbable scenario of all, the Chiefs could still make the Super Bowl tournament if they tie the Raiders for an 8-7-1 record while Denver, New England and the Jets all lose and Cleveland and San Diego both lose or tie.

It would have been a whole lot simpler if the Chiefs hadn’t blown double-digit leads in the fourth quarter against San Diego and Denver earlier in this wacky season.

“If you want to be critical, we probably lost our opportunity for the playoffs the first half of the season,” coach Dick Vermeil said.

Nevertheless, a gutsy 24-22 victory over the Chargers on Sunday — capping a 6-2 home season — kept the injury-riddled Chiefs in the hunt in the final regular-season week, which is more than they managed in a 6-10 campaign a year ago.

“We’re not out of it. We wanted to be playing meaningful football in December and we’re going to the last week,” Vermeil said. “What are our chances? I don’t know. But we’re going with the right group. I know what they’ll do in terms of effort. I know what kind of commitment they’ll make.”

The biggest question mark surrounding the Chiefs is the availability of running back Priest Holmes, who sat out Sunday’s game — and subsequently lost his lead for the NFL rushing title — with a hip injury.

Holmes, who was on crutches Sunday, walked into general manager Carl Peterson’s office Monday and said he thought he would be ready for the Raiders. But Vermeil still was not sure.

“Priest still is very, very doubtful,” Vermeil said. “If he’s right, that would make it nice. But I think we have to list him as very doubtful.

Holmes still needs just two touchdowns to tie the NFL record of 26.

Vermeil said it may come down to a doctor’s decision because the Chiefs want to take no chances on making the injury worse.

“I think he wants to play badly. When he didn’t get to play Sunday, he felt it,” Vermeil said. “Sometimes you don’t know how much you enjoy doing something until you can’t do it. I’m just not optimistic. I wouldn’t, nor would he want to do anything to jeopardize injuring it further.”

Safety Greg Wesley, who injured a hamstring in the fourth quarter Sunday, is also unlikely to be ready for Oakland, Vermeil said.