Golf/GTI VI :: 2011 - Sluggish And Acceleration Seemed A Bit Jumpy

I picked up my first GTI about 3 months ago, a 2011 Autobahn with about 35,000 miles. I love the way it drives. I had been admiring them from a distance, and was finally able to pick one up. Unfortunately, I've run into a few issues. I'm pretty much a rookie when it comes to the inner workings of cars, but I'm eager to get into it more. My issue is below:

Over the last few weeks, the car has been consistently a little sluggish, and the acceleration has seemed a bit jumpy. I've only used premium gas, and I've been looking for simple things that might be the issue. I live in Houston, and I was wondering if maybe the extreme heat and humidity might be the reason behind the sluggish performance.

Yesterday, I decided I would clean the air intake filter. It has a K&N intake from the previous owner. After cleaning the filter and replacing it, the car wouldn't start. I may have put too much oil on the filter or the humidity may have just caused it to take longer to dry than the instructions on the cleaning kit recommend.

I called my bro-in-law who is the go-to car guy in our family. He recommended that I try starting the engine without the air filter and pull out the MAF sensor and check it out. When I took off the filter, the car started fine. I replaced the filter, then also pulled the MAF sensor to see if it needed to be cleaned. I found that the bottom of the MAF sensor was bent and slightly dented. I could also see a place where the sensor had scratched the bottom of the pipe.

This morning, the car is running a little smoother (better than before, but not as quick as I remember), but the check engine light has come one. Could the performance issues be due to the damage to the MAF sensor? With the check engine light, is that something that is automatically triggered by removing the MAF sensor? Or is there some other issue.