Kansas City, Mo. ? If things break just right for Kansas City, the Chiefs will return home Sunday night from California as champs of the AFC West.

They would be the first team in the NFL to lock up their division title, and one step closer to capturing the precious home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

But around Arrowhead Stadium these days, breathing a word beyond next week’s game is considered impolite. It’s one cliche the Chiefs are taking to the extreme.

Playing them one at a time, the Chiefs believe, is a big reason they own the best record in the NFL (10-1), and neither coach Dick Vermeil nor any of his assistants or players seem inclined to even suggest the team may be thinking long term.

“We focus on one week at a time, as corny as it sounds,” Vermeil said Monday. “Overall, our team has done as good a job as anybody in football in focusing on one week at a time.”

Nevertheless, Sunday’s 27-24 thriller against Oakland gave the Chiefs a four-game lead over Denver (6-5) in the AFC West with five to play.

A victory at San Diego this week, combined with a Broncos loss at Oakland, would give the Chiefs their first AFC West title since the 1997 team went 13-3 under Marty Schottenheimer, who now is coach of the Chargers.

“It’s a target,” Vermeil said. “The San Diego Chargers are a target.”

Behind closed doors in the executive suites at Arrowhead Stadium, however, the No. 1 target has become home-field advantage. The Chiefs have tied their franchise record with 11 straight wins at Arrowhead, which is reputed to be the loudest outdoor stadium in the NFL.

Staying home for the playoffs, Vermeil admitted, would be “a huge advantage.”

“There have been wild-card teams that didn’t have home-field advantage that went (to the Super Bowl). But the odds are in your favor if you have it,” Vermeil said.

All four leading contenders for home-field in the AFC struggled to win Sunday. The Chiefs, who got their tiebreaking, game-winning field goal from Morten Andersen with 4 seconds to play, were the only contender who did not have to come from behind.

Tennessee (9-2) had to overcome a 21-0 deficit at Atlanta, Indianapolis (9-2) rallied in the fourth quarter to beat Buffalo and New England (9-2) needed a 28-yard field goal from Adam Vinatieri to beat Houston in overtime.

And all that, Vermeil said, is Exhibit A in the case against looking ahead.

“It is tough. That’s the National Football League,” he said. “Those teams are getting better and some teams look up to those teams with good records and play harder than they have been playing. It makes you very much aware how much emotional preparation is, how critical it is in football games, especially when you get a real fine football team that starts thinking they can control the tempo with which they play to win.

“As soon as you start gauging how hard you have to play to win because it’s this opponent or that opponent, you get embarrassed.”