KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As the Chiefs seemed to slog and wobble through most of a 15-2 regular season, you had to lean on testimony from the last few seasons that any win is a good win, and that what wasn’t killing them was making them stronger.

Something that said each of those survival-of-the-fittest episodes didn’t so much reveal vulnerability as they illuminated an indomitable and resourceful culture — one that had enabled four Super Bowl appearances in five seasons through endless means and escapes and the pursuit of an unprecedented threepeat.

Or … you could worry a whole lot.

No matter how you were perceiving it along the way, though, the AFC Championship Game against Buffalo on Sunday evening at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium was going to be the truth serum.

And here’s what the 32-29 instant classic victory over the poor Bills said:

These Chiefs, two overtime losses from seven straight Super Bowl berths, now stand on the cusp of one of the greatest achievements in sports history as they prepare to play Philadelphia in Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 in New Orleans.

That’s where they won Super Bowl IV, you may recall, before a 50-year hiatus from appearing in the game.

Now, they’re the first team ever to win back-to-back Super Bowls and get back in the arena for a shot at a third.

That’s a momentous feat in itself, we feel the need to remind, one that the ever-astounding Patrick Mahomes says he doesn’t take for granted — even if so far in his career he just about could.

“Glorious. Glorious …” Chiefs guard Trey Smith said. “I took a moment just to look at the confetti. I mean, that’s, like, going to be burned into my mind until I hit the grave.”

It’s more than anyone ever could have imagined, really. Or even dreamed, as chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said, as he pondered holding the trophy that bears his father and Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt’s name for the fifth time in seven years.

“The dream was to win one Lamar Hunt Trophy and win our second Lombardi Trophy” he said, smiling.

Suddenly, the Chiefs will be playing for the fifth in franchise history, which would tie Dallas and San Francisco for the second-most Super Bowl wins and be just one behind New England and Pittsburgh’s six.

When the Chiefs reached Super Bowl LIV, long-snapper James Winchester recalled three men addressing the team: Former Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson, Packers great Brett Favre and Terrell Suggs, the longtime defensive end star who joined the Chiefs that season.

They all had different messages, but a common theme came up:

Appreciate the moment.

Because it’s really hard to get back.

“You get the sense,” Winchester said, “this is very special.”

Special for the Mahomes Factor: He’s now 17-3 in playoff games, second only to Tom Brady’s 35, and has the top postseason winning percentage and quarterback ratings of any quarterback to have played in 10 or more playoff games.

Special for the Andy Reid factor: With his 301st NFL win on Sunday, Reid tied Don Shula for the second-most Super Bowl appearances (six) by a coach — three behind Bill Belichick.

Perhaps seeking to pre-empt the rumors that have proven untrue at recent Super Bowls, Hunt said, “The great news for Chiefs fans is he’s not done.”

And it’s special for organizational synergy, superstars like Travis Kelce and Chris Jones and for a defense so essential that even casual fans know defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s name.

But most of all it’s because of what Winchester pointed to:

“The strength of our team,” he said, “is the team, right?”

Or as Mahomes put it: “It’s because it’s everybody.”

Meaning in terms of contributions about anywhere you look, like Nikko Remigio’s 41-yard punt return, Kareem Hunt’s redemptive story, and emerging star Xavier Worthy. And, well, too many others to list.

But also meaning this: the living, breathing identity perhaps best embodied by linebacker Nick Bolton’s vital fourth-and-1 stop of Josh Allen in the fourth quarter.

“This came right down to an inch, literally,” Reid said. “That’s what the stop was.”

Yet another gut-wrenching scenario for a team that now has won an uncanny 17 straight one-possession games.

Luckily …

“I’ve got a lot of gut to wrench,” Reid said, smiling.

More seriously, Reid said, these Chiefs have “this personality where they know how to bear down” when it matters most.

That’s almost tangible when it comes to Mahomes, but it’s becoming more and more palpable and explainable with the team itself.

Winning those tight games, even when it seems there are some wacky indulgences of fate, tends to build some psychological muscle. Both this season and over this dynastic run.

Never mind that it didn’t always look pretty along the way.

For one thing, the Chiefs know they are working to be at their best in the postseason, not September, and arguably even have a certain intuitive pacing in their favor.

For another, there are ample other reasons the Chiefs might “struggle” during the regular season — including that they’ve effectively played an entire extra season over the last seven years (20 playoff games) and that they have become what offensive coordinator Matt Nagy recently called “Public Enemy No. 1.”

“That comes with it; it comes with being successful, right?” Jones said. “You get less attractive. The more success you have, the more people want to see you fall.”

So while we see the Chiefs winning games by centimeters or, say, on a doinked-in field goal by their third kicker of the season or a blocked field goal or a center snap off an opposing quarterback, there are other dynamics at play.

Anybody playing them sees the matchup as “kind of like a litmus test for where their organization is,” general manager Brett Veach said. “‘OK, we’re playing the Chiefs. How good are we? Well, now we’ll see.’

“So we’re getting their best every week even when we’re not at our best.”

Which Veach suggested builds character and toughness and a certain mental hardness “that when we get into these situations our guys aren’t going to flinch. I think you see that time after time.”

“When you’ve done it over and over again,” Mahomes said, “it becomes habit.”

Yet again on Sunday against the Bills, who once again beat the Chiefs during the regular season but lost to them in the playoffs for the fourth time in as many tries in the Mahomes era.

“Every time we play them,” Reid said, “it’s one to store away in the history books.”

In this case, one that has the Chiefs on the verge of writing an entirely new chapter.

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