The Kansas City Chiefs have been walking a tightrope all season, and on Black Friday they pulled another rabbit out of the hat with a wild and crazy victory over the division rival Las Vegas Raiders.
Kansas City didn’t need one, not two, but three missed field goals by Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson, plus another absurd end-of-game sequence to take the win. Up by two with less than two minutes left on the game clock, the Chiefs allowed Aidan O’Connell to drive the Raiders into Kansas City territory, eventually reaching the 32-yard line.
On third-and-3 with 15 seconds left, Jackson Powers-Johnson snapped the ball before O’Connell was ready to do so. He fell to the ground and was recovered by Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton. But the play was also apparently ruined by a false start, only for the penalty to be changed to an illegal shift, which the Chiefs rejected because doing so gave them the ball and the ability to kneel off the clock.
Here is the sequence:
It was just the latest one-score victory for the Chiefs in a season that has been full of them, and many of those wins came on the final possession or with some controversy along the way.
In Week 1, Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely’s foot fell just inches out of bounds on what would have been a game-tying touchdown pass on Baltimore’s final drive. In Week 2, Kansas City took advantage of a fourth-and-16 opportunity against the Bengals with a pass interference call and ultimately ended that drive with the game-winning field goal as time expired.
In Week 3, the Chiefs allowed the Falcons to drive to their 13-yard line with less than a minute left and trailing by five points, only to fail on a fourth-and-1 attempt. Kansas City gave up a game-tying drive to the Buccaneers with just 27 seconds left in Week 9. The Bucs elected not to go for two and instead kicked the extra point to send the game to overtime, and the Chiefs quickly scored the winning goal. touchdown in the extra frame.
The following week, it looked like the Broncos were preparing to hand Kansas City its first loss of the season, but Wil Lutz’s 35-yard field goal attempt was blocked as time expired. In Week 12, the Chiefs nearly gave up another game-tying drive, this time to Bryce Young and the Panthers; but Carolina couldn’t convert the two-point attempt and the Chiefs ran out of time.
Add up all those games, plus today’s Raiders win, with their Super Bowl win over the 49ers, their AFC title game win over the Ravens, their divisional round win over the Bills, and their wins in Weeks 17 and 18 over the Bengals and Chargers, and the Chiefs have won a record 14 consecutive one-score games dating back to last December. (Naturally, the last game they lost was against the Raiders last Christmas.)
That total breaks the record previously held by the 2003 and 2004 Patriots, because of course that’s what it is.
Kansas City is now 11-1 on the season and still in first place in the AFC. The Chiefs’ remaining games are against the Chargers (who they also beat by one score earlier this year), Browns, Texans, Steelers (aka the Voodoo Magic Bowl), and Broncos. If the way things have gone this season is any indication, we’re in for several more outrageous, close finishes, mostly resulting in Chiefs wins.
