Oakland, Calif. ? The scenarios exist for the Kansas City Chiefs to make the playoffs. A loss by Denver, another by Jacksonville, two for Cincinnati, and it goes on.

Three straight losses have dropped the Chiefs to .500 and taken their playoff hopes out of their control. With so much help needed to make it to the postseason, the Kansas City players have pretty much given up hope even if they can win their final two games.

“Oh, 9-7 in the AFC, I don’t think that’s going to get it done,” defensive end Jared Allen said. “To tell you the truth, we’re pretty much counting ourselves out. Mathematically, I guess there’s still a chance, but that’s not really a focus around here. Just get to 9-7.”

To finish with a winning record the Chiefs (7-7) must start by beating the Oakland Raiders (2-12) tonight.

If they do win, they can settle down on their couches and try to figure out which teams to cheer for on Sunday and Monday. But none of that will matter if they can’t beat the Raiders.

“I think we kind of have to put the whole playoff thing out of the picture and just win a game,” quarterback Trent Green said. “We’ve lost three in a row and we’re frustrated by that, and it’s been tough how it has unfolded the last month.”

If the Chiefs are going to get back on the right track, they picked the perfect opponent to do it against. Of late, Kansas City has dominated its longtime rival, winning the last seven meetings. The Chiefs are looking to become the first team ever to beat the Raiders eight straight times.

Despite the recent success and Oakland’s poor record this season, Kansas City isn’t taking this game for granted. The seven wins in the streak have all been decided by seven or fewer points, one play at the end often deciding the game.

A month ago in Kansas City, Oakland quarterback Aaron Brooks was intercepted in the end zone by Jarrad Page in the final minute of a 17-13 loss.

There’s also been Larry Johnson running for the winning score on the final play of a game last year, game-winning field goals by Lawrence Tynes and Morten Andersen, and a Monday night game in 2003 that ended with Tim Brown being tackled at the one-yard line to preserve a 17-10 Kansas City victory.

“They tend to always commit a foul or do something to mess something up at the end of the game,” Allen said. “Yeah, we’re confident. We know we can beat them at the end of the game because we’ve done it the last seven times.”

The Chiefs are playing with heavy hearts following last week’s death of team owner Lamar Hunt, a longtime rival of Raiders owner Al Davis dating back to their days in the AFL. Hunt was also one of the league’s biggest proponents of expanding the playoffs from 12 to 16 teams, a move that would be a great benefit to the Chiefs this season.

Kansas City coach Herm Edwards is in favor of adding more teams because with the expansion to four divisions in 2002, only two teams can qualify as wild-card participants.

“Really we have more teams in the league so it’s more competitive,” Edwards said. “It wouldn’t water it down at all, in my estimation.”

It would take all 32 teams making the playoffs for Oakland to have any chance. The Raiders’ season was lost weeks ago, and now they’re just playing out the string hoping to accomplish a few small goals.

They’d like to avoid their second straight winless season in the division and snap a 13-game losing streak to AFC West rivals; get their first road win next week against the New York Jets; and finish with the No. 1 rated pass defense and one of the top three defenses in the NFL.

But even accomplishing that won’t erase all that went wrong in Oakland this season.