Patrick Mahomes’ Kansas City Chiefs beat the struggling Atlanta Falcons 17-22 on Sunday and remain undefeated after three games.
Two-time NFL champions for the past two years and on the hunt for a third consecutive Super Bowl, which no one has ever achieved before, the Chiefs (3-0), who have grown accustomed to suffering this season, knew how to recover from the initial surge of the Falcons (1-2) and, although they had to sweat until the end, they took a not very brilliant but undoubtedly valuable victory from Atlanta.
Mahomes had 217 yards passing on 26-of-39. He threw for a touchdown and was intercepted once.
The Chiefs star made NFL history as he earned his 77th win in 99 games and became the quarterback with the most wins in his first 100 games.
Instead, Travis Kelce had a very poor performance, managing just 30 yards on four receptions. Rashee Rice was Mahomes’ best partner with 110 yards, 12 balls in his hands and a touchdown for his personal account.
For the Falcons, Kirk Cousins had 230 yards passing on 20-of-29. He threw one touchdown pass and had one interception.
Kansas City Remount
After beating the Philadelphia Eagles in the last gasp last Monday by 21-22, the Falcons started tonight with fireworks and a practically perfect drive.
Cousins easily found receivers Darnell Mooney and Ray-Ray McCloud, Atlanta devoured the Chiefs yard by yard and in the end it was Drake London who added the first touchdown completely alone (7-0).
With running back Isiah Pacheco out of the game, the Chiefs were slow to get their offense going, so much so that Mahomes’ first long drive ended in an interception by Justin Simmons.
This is a recurring nightmare for Mahomes, as Simmons is the player who has intercepted him the most times, with six.
The Chiefs’ genius did not lose his nerve and, already in the second quarter and after another long and patient drive, he managed to tie the score through Rice (7-7).
Cousins was very confident in his response and pulled out a fabulous 50-yard pass to Kyle Pitts. Bijan Robinson only had to go one more yard to score the touchdown (14-7).
From there, the defenses became strong and Kansas City could only score two field goals before the break (14-13) while Atlanta began to have many problems on the offensive line due to injuries to Drew Dalman and Kaleb McGary.
In the restart, Mahomes tried to reactivate a Kelce who had gone completely unnoticed, but he could only connect with him sparingly.
In any case, both Rice in the air and Carson Steele on the ground offered solutions and the Chiefs finally took the lead with another field goal and a touchdown by JuJu Smith-Schuster (14-22 after Harrison Butker’s missed extra point).
The Falcons, lacking the fluidity of their start in attack, had a lot of work ahead of them in the final quarter and closed the gap with a field goal (17-22).
Atlanta did not stop trying and was just six yards from the end zone to turn the score around. But by pushing their options until the fourth down, they did not get the score and, despite some refereeing controversy, they left empty-handed with just over four minutes left to play.
Mahomes and the Chiefs were unable to maintain possession and run down the clock, giving the Falcons one last chance for the epic.
Kansas City did everything they could with several penalties on defense, but, with Nick Bolton as the hero, they finally rallied to stop Atlanta at the 13-yard line and seal the victory after many struggles.
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