Five moments in final minutes that flipped Chiefs’ victory into crushing defeat
With four minutes remaining and trailing the Chiefs by two touchdowns, the Los Angeles Chargers faced a fourth-and-goal from the 3. Fail here and the game is over.
But a series of bad plays and poor decisions led to an improbable rally that resulted in a 29-28 victory for the Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium.
How improbable? According to ESPN Stats, teams that trailed by 14 or more points in the final five minutes of games this season were 0-88 before Thursday.
Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers was 0-20 in his career in those situations.
Andy Reid’s Chiefs were 39-0 in those situations, the most victories without a loss in the NFL since 2013.
Many things went wrong for the Chiefs over the final few minutes. Let’s identify five, starting with the fourth-and-goal.
1. Tyrell Williams set out for the corner of the end zone on a fade. He got a grasp on the ball from Rivers but couldn’t hold on. He didn’t need to. Cornerback Steve Nelson was called for holding, and the Chargers pushed in a touchdown from the 1 with 3:49 to play to make it 28-21.
The flag was among the 10 accepted penalties against the Chiefs on Thursday night, four by members of the secondary for holding or pass interference. The Chiefs entered the game as the NFL’s most-penalized team. That’s not likely to change by the end of the weekend.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with penalties,” Reid said. “That’s both sides of the ball and special teams.”
2. The Chiefs now needed the league’s top offense to seal the game by collecting two first downs. But a short kickoff return became even worse field position because of a block in the back penalty by Charvarius Ward. The Chiefs started from their own 11, went backward in part because of a Demetrius Harris false start penalty, and Dustin Colquitt punted from his own end zone.
“When you don’t execute and you get penalties that stalls out drives,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “When we needed to move the ball we didn’t execute.”
3. Chargers’ return man Desmond King muffed the punt but fell on it, and the Chargers were in business with 2:37 to play. They faced a fourth-and-7 from the Chiefs’ 36. Arrowhead Stadium was rocking, players asked for more noise.
But Rivers wasn’t bothered. He found Travis Benjamin for a 26-yard completion. The Chargers’ spirits were lifted. Thirty-nine seconds remained.
“As a defense we’ve got to do better, especially at the end of the game,” said defensive end Chris Jones. “We’ve got to step up and make the plays, get off the field. We gave up some big passes. Big plays killed is in the second half.”
4. The clock was down to 13 seconds. The Chargers had the ball at the 10 with no timeouts. Rivers overthrew Mike Williams in the back of the end zone, but KC corner Kendall Fuller was called for pass interference.
From the 1, Rivers hit Williams with a touchdown pass to make it 28-27. The Charger were down one point now.
Rivers wasn’t sure if his team would go for two, and initially the kicking team came out. But as the replay confirmed the touchdown, Chargers coach Anthony Lynn changed his mind and decided to play for the victory.
“We were ready for them to do that,” Reid said. “We just have to cover the guys.”
5. On the two-point conversion, Williams took advantage of busted coverage and broke free in the right side of the end zone.
The Chargers led for four seconds on Thursday. The last four. The only four that mattered.
“Just miscommunication,” Fuller said. “That’s the thing about being a (defensive back). You’ve got to be sharp every single play. One play can cost you the game.”
On this night, it was several plays in the final few minutes that doomed the Chiefs.
This story was originally published December 14, 2018 at 12:34 AM.