The Chiefs enter the fifth week of the regular season as one of only two unbeaten teams in the NFL, largely due to their ability to take or maintain the lead in the fourth quarter when games are often decided.
The Saints, who are heading to Kansas City on Monday night, are 2-2 partly because they have struggled to do the same.
New Orleans started the season strong with wins over Carolina and Dallas, but then faced tough battles against Philadelphia and Atlanta. In the Philadelphia game, they allowed Saquon Barkley to score the winning touchdown with just over a minute left, resulting in a 15-12 loss.
In the Atlanta game, Alvin Kamara scored to give the Saints the lead with a minute remaining, but the Falcons quickly set up Younghoe Koo’s 58-yard field goal to win 26-24 with only two seconds left.
These disappointments have led to discussions in the Saints’ locker room about how the easy wins in Weeks 1 and 2 mean less compared to their struggles in closer games.
“When you play a lot of football in this league, you realize that blowing people out and doing all that … it don’t matter,” Kamara said. “I don’t care if we beat a team 80-0. We’ve got way more football to play against better teams.”
This is especially true against teams like the Chiefs, who are the two-time defending Super Bowl champions.
All four of the Chiefs’ games have been tightly contested, and they have successfully finished each one. This includes their Week 1 victory over Baltimore, which was decided when a review showed that the Ravens’ Isaiah Likely caught a pass out of bounds as time ran out, preventing overtime.
Their wins also included Harrison Butker’s 51-yard field goal against the Bengals and a 22-17 victory over Atlanta, where the Chiefs’ defense made a crucial stop on fourth down with about a minute left.
