By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Kansas City Chiefs were in danger of falling to the Las Vegas Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium for a second year in a row, but a botched snap by the Raiders kept that from happening, and the Chiefs held on to win 19-17 on Friday afternoon.
The game started with a low scoring first half. After the Kansas City offense started off the game driving the field, it stalled in the redzone and was forced to send Matthew Wright, filling in for the injured Spencer Shrader, out to knock through a 25 yard field goal. Early in the second quarter was when the Raiders answered with a field goal of their own, Daniel Carlson hitting a 27 yard kick.
After the Chiefs were forced to punt on the ensuing drive, in the cold weather Las Vegas attempted another field goal, but Carlson went on to miss, and Kansas City took advantage and used seven plays to drive down the field where Patrick Mahomes connected with Justin Watson on a six yard touchdown, his first receiving score of the season.
The touchdown pass was a historical one for Mahomes. It marked the 238th touchdown pass of his career, passing legendary quarterback Len Dawson for the most in franchise history. The Chiefs took a 10-3 lead into the halftime break after Wright missed a long field goal attempt to end the half.
It was more of the same in the second half with the Kansas City offense unable to complete drives, and Wright would hit two field goals in the third quarter, the first from 42 yards and the second from 35 yards, before the Raiders started their comeback, and did it quickly and efficiently.
It started when former Nebraska running back Ameer Abdullah returned the ensuing kickoff, following Wright's second field goal, 68 yards to set Las Vegas up in Chiefs territory. After a short three yard run by Sincere McCormick, and a holding penalty, quarterback Aidan O'Connell, fresh off the injured reserve list, connected with rookie tight end Brock Bowers on a 33 yard touchdown pass.
Following a Chiefs three and out, O'Connell again needed just two plays to throw another long touchdown pass, this time to Tre Tucker who burned past safety Justin Reid for a 58 yard score, putting the Raiders ahead 17-16 early into the final quarter of regulation.
Kansas City did end up taking the lead back however, after an 11 play drive that could have been worth more points. On the 10th play of the drive, Mahomes missed a wide open Travis Kelce in the endzone, and Wright marched out and knocked through his fourth field goal of the day, giving the Chiefs the lead back.
The game though did not end there, rather it ended on a series of unfortunate events for the Raiders. First it was another missed field goal by Carlson, his third miss of the game, and after a Chiefs punt gave them the ball back, came the botched snap that was recovered by Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton, to give Kansas City the victory.
With the win, for a 10th straight year, the Chiefs have clinched a berth into the playoffs. It's the 11th time in 12 years that head coach Andy Reid has gotten Kansas City to the playoffs. It's also the first time since 2019 that a team clinched a playoff berth in November.
Mahomes was 26 of 46 passing on the day for 309 yards with one touchdown. Running back Isiah Pacheco returned from injured reserve and evenly split carries with Kareem Hunt. Pacheco rushed seven times for 44 yards, his longest a 34 yard romp, while Hunt rushed seven times for 15 yards.
Deandre Hopkins (four catches, 90 yards) and Kelce (seven catches, 68 yards) led the receivers. Defensive tackle Chris Jones notched two sacks, his first since a two sack game against the Chargers on Sept. 29th. With the two sacks, Jones moved past Justin Houston for the fourth most sacks in franchise history.
Kansas City will next stay home to take on another AFC West foe, welcoming the Los Angeles Chargers to Arrowhead Stadium for Sunday Night Football. Kickoff will be at 7:20pm, pregame will be at 6pm on both KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM) and Q Country 92.7.
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