– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
Follow @Koiki_Sport Follow @ALOST_Official
CHARLOTTE — Today’s thrill-a-minute contest in the Queen City was the perfect advert for parity in the National Football League; a matchup between the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, who remain well on-course for an unprecedented three-peat, and a young, struggling franchise who won just one game over the first two months of the season turned into one of the most competitive, captivating, edge-of-your-seat contests with myriads of juicy storylines to match.
On many occasions, the perfect ad agency needs the perfect pitchman and face of the business, and the league, especially the Kansas City Chiefs, continue to count their lucky starts that Patrick Mahomes, the three-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (and counting?), keeps producing the right jingle , especially when it is needed the most.
Mahomes led a game-winning drive in the final two minutes of a contest, and again used his legs on a clutch play to set up the winning score, a Spencer Shrader 31-yard field goal as time expired, as the Chiefs pulled another game out of the fire in a 30-27 victory over the Carolina Panthers inside Bank of America Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
While the Chiefs stand at a healthy 10-1 in the standings and sit atop the AFC, their propensity of having to pull out nail-biters time and again to pad their gaudy record continues, as today marked the eighth win this season that came by a one-score margin. Of that octet of victories, five have been decided in the final seconds.
“You always want to have some blowouts and be a little calmer in the fourth quarter, but I’ve always said it could be a good thing when you get to the playoffs later in the season knowing that you have been in those moments before, and knowing how to attack it play by play [and] not making it too big of a moment,” Mahomes said, later adding, “But I would say this more than anybody, I would love to win a game not by the very last play.”
Including the postseason, Mahomes now has 27 game-winning drives in the final two minutes of regulation or one in overtime during his career, and similar to last February’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the biggest threat he posed to Carolina in the final stages came from his legs. Appearing to head out of bounds on a scramble to the left, Mahomes planted his foot and steamed up the left sideline for a 32-yard run that put Kansas City in comfortable field goal range for their new kicker, Shrader, on the team after veteran Harrison Butker was put on injured reserve a few weeks ago.
“At that point, yards are more important than getting out of bounds,” Mahomes said. “With three timeouts, I just tried to just cut through and [Chiefs wide receiver] Justin Watson had a great block and was able to get down the field and get out of bounds.”
Unsurprisingly, Mahomes had an efficient day in going 27-of-37 passing for 269 yards and three touchdowns as the Chiefs scored on six of their eight possessions on the afternoon. What was unexpected for many was that Mahomes opposite number, Panthers quarterback Bryce Young, would almost match him throw-for-throw. The 2023 No. 1 overall draft pick, who was benched after the first two games of this season for ineffective play before reclaiming his starting job late last month, went 21-of-35 passing for 262 yards and a third-quarter touchdown to David Moore from one yard out to pull Carolina to within 20-16.
Carolina was down 27-16 in the fourth — a result of a 3-yard scoring pass from Mahomes to DeAndre Hopkins late in the third — before Young led two scoring drives in the final quarter. The drive after the Hopkins score resulted in an Eddy Piñiero 33-yard field goal, and then Young led a 51-yard touchdown drive that included a fourth-down conversion on a 13-yard pass to Adam Thielen against the blitz to move the ball inside Kansas City’s 30-yard line. After Thielen drew a pass interference penalty in the end zone on the following play, Chuba Hubbard ran the ball in from one yard out — then scored on another one-yard run on the two-point conversion — to tie the score.
“Bryce is certainly making the most of his opportunities,” Panthers head coach Dave Canales said. “And he is making a statement to all of us. Showing us he can make plays in critical areas. He did a great job extending today.”
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Sunday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Michael R. Smith. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 29 pictures in total.
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