Highway robbery: Chiefs rally from 17-point deficit to stun Carolina 20-17

Eric Berry walked down the Chiefs’ sideline and sat next to Dee Ford on the bench. The two saw the scoreboard — the Chiefs were down by 14 to the defending NFC Champions just before halftime on Sunday — and had the same emotion.

Not panic. Not anger. Not frustration.

Belief. Unyielding, unwavering belief.

“It’s gon’ come, keep going,” Berry said to Ford, who relayed the story following the Chiefs’ stunning 20-17 comeback win over Carolina. “And I said ‘Yeah, we good — we been in situations like this before.’ ”

Like the season opener, for instance, when they rallied from a 21-point second-half deficit to beat San Diego and set the tone for what is increasingly setting up to be a special season.

But this win, this comeback — which improved the Chiefs’ record to 7-2 entering a home date against Tampa Bay, 4-5 — was more impressive than that. It was on the road, and it was against the defending NFC Champions, who despite their current 3-6 record, had won two straight and were gaining momentum. That momentum certainly didn’t seem likely to stop after they scored the game’s first 17 points due to a smothering defense and ball-control offense guided by the league’s reigning MVP, quarterback Cam Newton.

But the Chiefs — thanks in large part to a Berry pick-six and a Marcus Peters strip and recovery that will both end up on the season-ending highlight reel — had other plans.

“This team right here,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, “has got some character.”

A field goal just before halftime cut the Chiefs’ deficit to 14, and multiple players said a “possessed” Berry — Peters used that word to describe the Pro Bowl safety — helped stir a sense of urgency in the locker room shortly thereafter with words of encouragement that convinced them that a win was not only possible, but likely.

“You saw when he defeated cancer, you saw it here,” Reid said. “That’s just his mentality. It’s unbelievable.”

But for all their belief, the on-field performance had to change. And it started with the defense, as players resolved to execute their assignments and run fits better against the Panthers’ run-heavy, option offense, which gained 71 yards in 16 carries in the first half.

The defensive play calls did not change, but the Chiefs managed to limit Carolina to a mere 28 yards in 13 carries after the break as the 6-foot-5, 245-pound Newton, who bowled over several Chiefs for a 4-yard touchdown in the first quarter, rushed for only 11 yards in six carries in the second half. Newton finished with 54 yards in 12 carries.

“We had to hit Cam Newton,” outside linebacker Tamba Hali said. “If Cam gets going, the entire team gets going.”

And if he doesn’t? As the Panthers’ Super Bowl loss to the Broncos in February proved, Newton — who completed 23 of 38 passes for 261 yards with a touchdown and an interception — can get into a funk, which affects the whole team.

“When you don’t hit him,” Hali said, “he’s the best player in the league.”

With the Panthers’ running game suddenly quashed in the second half, the Chiefs’ assortment of pass rushers were finally allowed to hunt, as Ford likes to put it.

And appropriately enough, it was Ford — an outside linebacker whose emergence in the last four weeks has been a revelation — who helped key the comeback.

After the Chiefs’ offense stalled out again to open the second half, the Panthers were in the midst of a time-killing, soul-sucking 20-play drive when Ford picked up his 10th sack of the season on second and 11 at the Chiefs’ 21.

The sack gave the defense some life. Defensive lineman Chris Jones followed with another sack — and an enthusiastic “dab” — on third down and took the Panthers out of field-goal range.

The Chiefs used a no-huddle, shotgun-heavy approach to score on their next drive. They had to settle for a field goal after an overthrow by quarterback Alex Smith and a deflating third-down drop by tight end Ross Travis, and still trailed 17-6 with 12:02 left in the game.

That’s when Berry, the Chiefs’ emotional leader, made the play of the game. With the Panthers facing third and 6 in their own territory, defensive coordinator Bob Sutton dialed up a blitz up the middle that caused Newton to throw a wobbler off his back foot. The ball hung in the air, and Berry swooped in front of Panthers tight end Greg Olsen for the interception.

But Berry wasn’t done. He spun a few times and reversed his field, eluding tacklers, and 42 yards later he reached pay dirt for a game-changing TD that made it 17-14.

“When I got the ball,” Berry explained, “I was determined to score. I was just thinking make them miss, and make them pay.”

The Panthers, who had been dominant all day, appeared shaken. They were forced to punt on their next drive, and the Chiefs eventually tied the game at 17-17, courtesy of a six-play drive that was marked by another Smith overthrow and Cairo Santos field goal.

And though an illegal forward-pass penalty and a sack seemingly submarined any KC hopes of scoring before overtime, it was time for Peters, the Pro Bowl corner who was beaten for a 38-yard touchdown by Devin Funchess earlier in the game but always seems to make a play when the Chiefs need one, to deliver once again.

The Panthers got the ball back with about 29 seconds left, but after a completion to receiver Kelvin Benjamin, Peters ran up to the 6-foot-5, 240-pounder and ripped the ball right out of his hands, recovered the fumble and returned it to the Panthers’ 24.

“It was simple,” Peters explained. “I just took it from him.”

That should have set up a 41-yard field goal, but then Peters punted the ball into the stands — yes, it’s the second week in a row he’s done that — and was assessed a 5-yard penalty.

“I’m auditioning for second-string punter,” Peters said. “I’m not gonna do it again, though.”

Reid said after the game that he’s going “to work on” helping Peters control his displays of emotion, but this time, the penalty didn’t matter. On the very next play, Spencer Ware rushed for 11 yards to set up a 36-yard attempt by Santos that sailed through the uprights to clinch a comeback victory that occurred despite Smith’s struggles (he finished 25 of 38 for 178 yards and an interception) and the Panthers winning the yardage battle 341-256.

“It is always pretty? No,” Reid said. “But neither are Picassos, so … you find beauty with it.”

Which is exactly why a gleeful Ford could not wait to recount Berry’s halftime prediction after the game in the corner of the Chiefs’ happy locker room.

“We’re not surprised — we’re not surprised,” Ford said. “No, we didn’t know we were going to win this game. But we knew, with the players that we have, it’s real when we say ‘It’s ‘gon come.’ It’s not fake.”

This story was originally published November 13, 2016 at 3:39 PM with the headline "Highway robbery: Chiefs rally from 17-point deficit to stun Carolina 20-17."