Andy Reid doesn’t seem to need a stress test anytime soon. It feels like he gets one every week.
The Kansas City Chiefs coach watched his third-string kicker hit a 31-yard field goal off the left upright and through, securing a win that gave the Chiefs their ninth straight AFC West title.
This victory marked the Chiefs’ 15th consecutive win in a one-score game over the last two seasons.
Patrick Mahomes led the two-time defending Super Bowl champions (12-1) on a 4 1/2-minute drive to set up Matthew Wright’s fourth field goal. The ball hit the upright, but it was just enough for another narrow win for Kansas City, who is now 10-0 this season in one-score games.
The Chiefs have had three different kickers make game-winning field goals as time expired this season. No other team in NFL history has had more than one kicker do this in a single season.
After getting a first down with less than two minutes remaining, Mahomes and Reid chose to run out the clock for the potential game-winning field goal, instead of trying for a touchdown and leaving time for Justin Herbert and the Chargers.
“I trusted Matthew, so I was good with where we were,” Reid said. “Percentages are pretty high. I know we won a game in that same situation on the opposite end, so I get it, but he’s a solid gamer, so I wasn’t too worried about it.”
Wright said he wasn’t thinking about the game situation but focusing on what he needed to do with his right leg. As the ball drifted toward the upright, Wright thought, “It’s not a good one. I want it to just go right down the middle, obviously.”
Kansas City’s nine straight division titles are now two away from the New England Patriots’ NFL record of 11.
The Chiefs led 13-0 at halftime after the Chargers (8-5) punted on their first five possessions, but the Chargers came alive in the second half, scoring on each of their three drives. Cameron Dicker’s 37-yard field goal gave the Chargers a 17-16 lead with 4:35 left.
“We just had to settle in,” said Herbert, who completed 21 of 30 passes for 213 yards and a touchdown. “We didn’t make enough plays in the first half, and we didn’t execute the way we wanted to. Pass game, run game, we weren’t moving the ball well. That’s on us, and I praise the guys for staying in there, staying patient, and making plays in the second half.”
Mahomes then went to work, hitting Xavier Worthy for 14 yards on third-and-10 and scrambling for another first down. After the two-minute warning, Mahomes dodged a would-be tackle and threw a pass to a kneeling Travis Kelce, allowing the Chiefs to run down the clock.
“I went through my reads,” Mahomes said. “As I was ready to run, I just saw 87 just sitting right there in the middle of the field, open. So I fired it to him.”
Mahomes says he isn’t surprised that Kelce stepped up in the clutch.
“He means the world to me,” Mahomes said. “Without getting emotional, he’s a guy that has really kind of made me who I am in my career. (He’s a) true leader on the football field. He’s someone that I can just go to at any moment, and he’s going to make a big play happen, and as he’s done throughout his career.”
Mahomes was sacked three times and has taken 13 sacks over the past three games, the most of any three-game stretch in his career.
The Chargers opened the second half with a 13-play, 79-yard drive that ended with Gus Edwards’ 3-yard touchdown run. After a Chiefs punt, the Chargers then went 74 yards on four plays, helped by a 39-yard pass interference penalty on Justin Reid, to take a 14-13 lead. Herbert threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Quentin Johnson, the Chargers’ first TD pass in 13 quarters.
The Chiefs responded with Wright’s third field goal, this time from 50 yards after an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty against Trey Smith pushed Kansas City back.
The Chiefs settled for Wright’s 47-yard field goal on their opening drive, during which Mahomes passed Dan Marino for the most passing yards in the first eight years of a career.
Late in the second quarter, Herbert was hit by Kansas City linebacker Nick Bolton, forcing him to miss a play and leading to the Chargers’ fifth punt. The Chiefs answered with a 9-play, 77-yard drive that ended with a touchdown catch by DeAndre Hopkins.
Kansas City’s halftime lead was the largest of the season, and it shut out an opponent in the first half for the first time.
