The unusual season of The Kansas City Chiefs’ tight victories were extended this Black Friday day by beating the Las Vegas Raiders 19-17 thanks to a lost ball in the last seconds. The reigning NFL champions thus secured their place in the playoffs.
The Chiefs have won 14 consecutive games that have been decided by just one score, an NFL record. With a record of 11-1 on the campaign – that loss was by 9 points against Buffalo – they earned a spot in the playoffs at least as a wild card team, so They will have the opportunity to seek the three-time Super Bowl championship.
In that stretch of close wins, the Chiefs have done just enough to prevail in a variety of ways: with a late field goal, some defensive heroics or even a last-second blocked kick. This Friday against the Raiders the difference was a fumble.
The Raiders reached the Kansas City 32-yard line and were in position to win the game with a field goal with just 16 seconds remaining. But on third down and with no timeouts available, they opted to run another play instead of kicking the potential winning field goal.
The problem was that quarterback Aidan O’Connell was not yet ready to receive the ball centered by Andre James. The ball hit him in the arm and came loose, being recovered by linebacker Nick Bolton. The officials called Las Vegas’ illegal movement penalty, so the Chiefs’ recovery was validated and the game concluded with another dramatic finish in favor of Patrick Mahomes’ squad.
It is worth mentioning that Las Vegas had already missed three field goal attempts by Daniel Carlson, whose final kick would have been 49 yards. Head coach Antonio Pierce’s decision to pull another play was questionable because the Raiders would have run the risk of running out of time or committing a penalty that would take them out of the field goal zone, or worse, handing over the ball as it happened.
Chiefs will be in the playoffs for the tenth consecutive year
Mahomes had a really difficult afternoon, completing only 26 of his 46 passes and although he surpassed 300 yards, he suffered constant pressure. Mahomes was sacked five times for the second straight gamesomething that had not happened to him in his entire professional career.
But anyway, the Chiefs celebrate another trip to the postseason, the tenth in a row for the team led by coach Andy Reid and the seventh with Mahomes as the quarterback. And the celebration was great at Arrowhead Stadium, where the singer Taylor Swift was present again.
They will seek in January – and February – to become the first team in history to win three consecutive Super Bowls. In the rest of the calendar they will try to win the AFC West Division championship and secure home play in the postseason.
O’Connell threw for 340 yards and 2 touchdowns for the Raiders (2-10), who dominated most of the game but faltered at the right time.
In other games this Week 13 of the NFL, Detroit defeated Chicago 23-20, Dallas defeated NY Giants 27-20 and Green Bay defeated Miami 30-17. All three games were held on Thanksgiving Day and the home team won in all of them.
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