KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You just knew they were going to win. The Chiefs knew they were going to win. The fans inside Arrowhead Stadium knew it. Perhaps most of the millions of people watching “Sunday Night Football” on NBC did, too.
Whether you love them or hate them — or are just tired of them — the Chiefs won, yet again, in another close game that left their opponent, this time the Los Angeles Chargers, shaking their heads.
The Chiefs are a high-wire circus act. They don’t just execute the trick of winning one-score game after one-score game. No. They must increase the danger, decrease their odds of a successful landing and find a new way to escape embarrassment.
“As long as we have a chance to go out there and have the ball and make a play happen, I feel like we’re going to make it happen,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said.
Instead of a comfortable, dominant win over a divisional rival, the Chiefs blew a 13-point lead in the second half before Mahomes became a magician in the game’s most critical moments to once again lead his teammates to a dramatic comeback win, 19-17. over the Chargers.
Mahomes, though, didn’t score the game-winning points. Coach Andy Reid decided to have Mahomes, once he drove the offense into the red zone, kneel twice before calling a timeout with one second left on the clock to set up a game-winning field goal for Matthew Wright, the Chiefs’ third-string. kicker. Then Reid decided not to watch Wright attempt his 31-yard kick. Reid kept his face forward as if staring into a void. The joke was on Reidwho had to be told that the ball hit the inside of the left upright before going through. The moment led starting kicker Harrison Butker — out with a left knee injury — to smile and laugh.
“I wanted it to go right down the middle, obviously,” Wright said. “I’m just happy it went in. … I don’t like to think about hitting the upright.”
Unreal🤯 pic.twitter.com/Wx4a3YhaR1
— NFL (@NFL) December 9, 2024
Within minutes of his game-winning doink, Wright was on the field for NBC’s postgame interview next to Mahomes and pass rusher Chris Jones. Wright, who joined the Chiefs two weeks ago, was one of the first players to don a crisp new black ballcap, the commemorative item in honor of the team being crowned as champion of the AFC West for the ninth consecutive season.
The Chiefs entered Sunday with 14 consecutive victories in games decided by one score, the longest streak in NFL history.
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But as the Chiefs aim to capture an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl victory, this season has been about the team’s last-second victories, each one seemingly weirder than the last. Including Sunday, half of the Chiefs’ 12 victories this season have been decided on the final play — Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely’s right big toe being out of bounds instead of a touchdown as time expired, Butker’s game-winning kick over the Bengals, running back Kareem Hunt’s touchdown in overtime over the Buccaneers, linebacker Leo Chenal’s diving block in the win over the Broncos and kicker Spencer Shrader’s field goal over the Panthers.
“I’d much rather it be like this — and win games and find new ways to win — than to be losing them,” tight end Travis Kelce said. “Looking at it from last year, one of the biggest things was being able to calm the storm that’s around us and focus on us and keep getting better. This is just another version of that, trying to find ways to win and keep finding ways to get better, so at the end of the season we’re playing our best ball.”
This “How ’bout those Chiefs!” means even more 🏆 pic.twitter.com/huqt8s9QKh
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) December 9, 2024
The Chiefs offense still isn’t humming. For the second consecutive week, the Chiefs scored only one touchdown. Inserting veteran DJ Humphries at left tackle didn’t fix the offensive issues. Humphries did his best to help stabilize the offensive line, but Mahomes was hit a season-high 13 times by the Chargers. Given the circumstances, Mahomes was still brilliant when necessary, especially when he was hit or about to get hit.
“We’ve played a lot of good defenses,” Mahomes said. “That’s the one bad thing when you win the Super Bowl: You play the best schedule. We’ve played a lot of good defensive ends, defensive linemen. For myself, it’s just finding the soft spot in the pocket. On some of the early third downs, I was kind of running into (pressure). I thought I did better as the game went on.”
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The Chiefs’ final drive began with less than five minutes left. Mahomes was put at a disadvantage: He would be forced to pass the ball over and over again and the Chargers knew they would have plenty of opportunities to rush him in hopes of generating a negative player or a game-winning turnover.
Then Mahomes was at his slippery best. On third-and-10 from the Chiefs’ 4o-yard line, Mahomes evaded three defenders in the pocket, moved to his left and jumped to complete a 14-yard pass to rookie Xavier Worthy.
Mahomes things 🤷♂️ pic.twitter.com/fFF1YhaamM
— NFL (@NFL) December 9, 2024
On third- and fourth-down plays this season, Mahomes has generated 50 total expected points added, according to TruMedia. No other quarterback has more than 33 total expected points added (Buffalo’s Josh Allen).
But after the next snap, the difficulty increased for Mahomes: Humphries left the game with a hamstring injury. He was replaced by Wanya Morris, a second-year player who allowed 11 pressures on 48 pass-blocking snaps the previous week in the Chiefs’ win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
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“I wanted to show why I was there in the first place and why this team trusted me,” Morris said. “It’s definitely good to put last week behind me, but not to forget that embarrassment that I felt. I feel that’s very essential to me growing.”
Mahomes’ final third-down snap began at the Chargers’ 20-yard line after the two-minute warning. With the Chargers having exhausted their timeouts, some teams would’ve elected to run the ball to keep the clock running. Before the Chiefs’ third-and-7 snap, Mahomes said one sentence to Reid to help convince him to call a pass play.
“I’ll make something happen,” Mahomes told Reid.
When the play needs to be made, 1️⃣5️⃣ makes the play. pic.twitter.com/TIEKFwmPgk
— NFL (@NFL) December 9, 2024
Mahomes made sure the Chargers never got the ball again. He rolled to his right and waited long enough — and avoiding linebacker Daiyan Henley — to find Kelce for a 9-yard completion.
“I thought the Chargers did a nice job,” Reid said. “They zoned us off. That’s more of a (play against man-to-man coverage). They had been playing man up to that point. If they would have done that, it would have been a great call.”
Not surprisingly, Mahomes was assisted by his wild card of a teammate in Kelce, who improvised his route.
“He’s supposed to run a corner route,” Mahomes said of Kelce with a blank expression. “It is what it is. I went through my reads. As I went to get ready to run, I just saw (No.) 87 just sitting right there in the middle of the field.”
Kelce didn’t reveal what led him to change his route or how he did it to surprise the Chargers. Kelce did share that, unlike Reid, he watched Wright make the winning kick.
“Oh, yeah, I saw it hit the upright,” Kelce said. “The bank is open on Sundays, man.”
(Photo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce: Jamie Squire / Getty Images)