The Kansas City Chiefs met with their fair share of adversity in a Monday night clash with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Super Bowl champs overcame rainy conditions, an injury scare to their MVP quarterback and a feisty Buccaneers team to take a 30-24 overtime win and improve to a perfect 8-0 on the season.
The back-to-back NFL champions got off to a sloppy start at a rain-soaked Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs found themselves trailing 17-10 after three quarters, but come-from-behind wins are nothing new for this bunch.
In the early seconds of the fourth quarter, Patrick Mahomes flipped a nifty seven-yard pass to running back Samaje Perine to tie the game up. But celebration turned to panic in Chiefs Kingdom as Mahomes went down awkwardly on the play with an apparent non-contact injury.
Mahomes laid on the turf clutching his left ankle and eventually had to be helped off the field by team trainers. But a few minutes later, he stepped out of the medical tent and jogged up and down the Chiefs’ sideline, drawing a roar of approval from the home crowd.
Mahomes wouldn’t miss a snap and later linked up with DeAndre Hopkins for the wide receiver’s second touchdown of the game to give the Chiefs a 24-17 lead.
Mahomes finished the game 34 of 44 passing for 291 yards and three touchdowns.
“I kind of committed to running the football, then at the last second saw Samaje and kind of awkwardly rolled the ankle a little bit,” Mahomes said after the game describing the injury.
“Definitely scary. I think it hurt more because it was the same ankle I rolled last week. So it scared me a little bit, but once I took my breath and kind of calmed down a little bit, it ended up not being too bad.”
The Bucs, plagued by their own rash of recent injuries, would not go quietly into the rainy Kansas City night, however. In the two-minute offense, quarterback Baker Mayfield led a brilliant 71-yard touchdown drive, capped by a 1-yard scoring pass to Ryan Miller.
Tampa Bay opted to kick the extra point to tie the game at 24 rather than attempt a two-point conversion to take the lead, and the game headed to overtime.
Mayfield and Mahomes met at midfield for the overtime coin toss, where Mayfield called tails but the coin came up heads, sealing the Buccaneers’ fate.
Just as he has countless times before, Mahomes calmly orchestrated a game-winning drive. The two-time NFL MVP led the Chiefs 70 yards down field, culminating in a 2-yard touchdown plunge from running back Kareem Hunt to deliver the clinching score.
In addition to extending their perfect start as the league’s only remaining undefeated team to 8-0, the Chiefs have more reason to feel optimistic after Monday’s triumph.
After a slow start to the season, All-Pro tight end Travis Kelce turned in his second consecutive big game. Kelce had a regular season career-high 14 receptions for 100 yards on the night with his global megastar girlfriend Taylor Swift in attendance cheering him on.
The Chiefs will look to extend their undefeated start to the season in Week 10 against the division rival Denver Broncos. The Buccaneers return home, where they hope to snap a three-game losing streak as they face the San Francisco 49ers.