Chiefs Win AFC West For Ninth Straight Season on Walk-Off Field Goal
Matthew Wright’s 31-yard kick came as close to missing as possible, but when the ball caromed off the left upright and snuck back inside the right one, the Kansas City Chiefs had another win and another AFC West title.
The Chiefs claimed the division crown for the ninth straight season with a 19-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday night. The win moves the Chiefs to 12-1 on the season.
Wright’s heroics capped off a 14-play drive that ate up the final 4:35 on the game clock after Chargers kicker Cameron Dicker had put the visitors in front with a 37-yarder of his own. The key play on the game-sealing drive was a Patrick Mahomes completion to Travis Kelce for nine yards on a third-and-seven from the Chargers 20 yard line on the first play after the two minute warning. With the Chargers having called all their timeouts, the Chiefs were able to kneel the clock down to one second and set up the winning kick.
Mahomes also converted a third-and-ten with a 14-yard pass to Xavier Worthy and had a 10-yard run on the winning drive, capping off a night that saw him physically battered by a Charger defense that sacked him three times and hit him 13 others. He finished with 210 yards on 24-for-37 passing, with a touchdown pass to DeAndre Hopkins late in the first half. That score gave the Chiefs a 13-0 lead into the locker room after a dominant 30 minutes on both sides of the ball, but the Chargers turned the game on its ear in the third quarter with back-to-back touchdown drives. Justin Herbert’s four-yard scoring pass to Quentin Johnston with 3:30 left in the third gave the Chargers their first lead at 14-13.
The Chiefs responded with a field goal drive, Wright making a 50-yarder with 13:04 left in the game. The Chargers would then embark on a 14-play drive that took nearly nine full minutes, ending in Dicker’s go-ahead kick and setting the stage for more Chiefs late-game magic.
Kansas City is back in action next Sunday at Cleveland.