Week 17 in Cincinnati was a tale of two halves that began with two potent offenses going blow for blow and ended with Kansas City holding the Bengals at the one-yard line. Still, after seven consecutive stops, penalty trouble by the Chiefs allowed Cincy to run the clock and send kicker Evan McPherson to nail home the game-winning field goal to clinch Cincinnati its first AFC North title since 2015.
Quarterback Joe Burrow torched Kansas City’s secondary, completing 30 out of 39 passing attempts for a remarkable 446 yards and four touchdowns. His biggest target was college teammate Jamar Chase, who finished with 11 catches for 266 yards and three scores.
Meanwhile, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense had the buzz saw running full speed in the first half before grinding to a halt in the second, scoring only three points late in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 31 apiece.
Mahomes leaves Cincinnati with 26 completions out of 35 passes for 259 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Tight end Travis Kelce finished with five catches for 25 yards and a score, wide receiver Demarcus Robinson had two catches for 33 yards and a touchdown. Tyreek Hill broke the team’s single-season receiving record with 110 catches on the year after he caught six passes for 40 yards.
Kansas City opened up the scoring in the first half with two consecutive touchdown drives, going up by seven with a 29-yard pass to receiver Demarcus Robinson in the end zone first. Then after a six-play stop by K.C.’s defense, Mahomes finds Tyreek Hill on 2nd-and-three for a 17-yard completion from the Chiefs’ 44-yard line to the Bengal 39.
Mahomes hits Travis Kelce deep for 19 yards on the next play, but a holding call on tight end Blake Bell erases what would’ve been first down inside the red zone—backing them up 10 yards to the Bengals side at mid-field.
On first-and-twenty, with 5:02 in the first quarter, Mahomes rifles a pass to Blake Bell, who secures it at the 25-yard line for a 24 yard gain and a new set of downs. On the very next play, Mahomes hands off to running back Derrick Gore, who glides 24 yards to the two-yard line to set up first-and-goal.
Two plays later, Mahomes throws a short pass to Travis Kelce on the goal line to put Kansas City up by 14.
With the ball back in his hands and 2:13 left to work within the first quarter, Joe Burrow threw a quick slant to Jamar Chase and let the receiver’s speed to the rest as the rookie receiver outran everyone on the Chiefs defense for a 72-yard touchdown to bring the game back it within one score after just two plays.
However, Kansas City retook their two-score lead with another touchdown drive. Mahomes led his offense 75 yards in eleven plays, including a 53-yard bomb that receiver Mecole Hardman caught to convert on 3rd-and-10 at the Chiefs 36-yard line with 14:56 in the second quarter.
Three plays later, Mahomes hands it to Darrel Williams, who tumbles into the endzone for the one-yard score.
Both clubs continued to light it up on the following three drives in the second quarter. First, Burrow leads his offense 75 yards downfield in 11 plays before fading, passing to Jamar Chase for an 18-yard score at the 7:46 mark.
Then, Mahomes puts Kansas City up 28-14 after an eleven-play drive that traveled 73 yards and ended with Darrel Williams scoring his second rushing touchdown of the game.
At the 2:18 mark in the first half, Burrow led the Bengals on another 13-play drive to put kicker Evan McPherson in position to slip in a field goal before halftime to make it a 28-17 ball game.
In the third quarter, Burrow and the Bengals’ offense pressed harder on the gas peddle and opened up the second half with a touchdown drive that only lasted five plays and traveled 75 yards. On 3rd-and-4 at Cincinnati 31-yard line, Burrow threw a bomb to Jamar Chase for a 69-yard touchdown pass in single coverage.
Kansas City would fail to score on their next two offensive drives, which opened the gate for Cincinnati to take the lead with a five-yard pass from Burrow to receiver Tee Higgins in the end zone to cap off an eleven-play, 72-yard drive going into the fourth quarter.
Down 31-28, Kansas City tried to put together a much-needed scoring drive; however, after twelve plays, the offense stalls at the Bengals’ 16-yard line, and Harrison Butker is sent to drive in a 34-yard field goal to tie the game at 31.
With 6:01 left in the fourth, Burrow and the Bengal offense retook possession at their own 25, and in eleven plays, they make it to the one-yard line. On first-and-goal, Burrow hands off to running back Joe Mixon, who gets shut down at the line by defensive tackles Jarren Reed and Derrick Nnadi.
Joe Burrow tries to take it himself on a QB sneak, but Reed is there again to stuff the play on the next play. Next, on 3rd-and-goal with 1:46 on the clock, the Bengals try to send Mixon back up the middle, but this time, Daniel Sorensen is there to stuff the play at the line of scrimmage.
On fourth down, Bengals Head Coach Zach Taylor decides to keep his offense on the field and give Mixon another go at the touchdown but is shut down once again by Sorensen, which would have turned the ball over on downs. However, off-setting holding fouls by both teams erased the result of the play and gave Cincinnati another shot on fourth down.
This time, Burrow attempts a pass to Tee Higgins in the end zone, but it gets batted away by safety Tyrann Mathieu. However, that play gets erased due to a penalty on cornerback L’Jarius Sneed for illegal use of hands, which sets the Bengals up with a new set of downs at the one-yard line.
Since Kansas City didn’t have any more timeouts, the Bengals called a kneel-down to run the clock down before calling a spike with 0:02 left. Thus, sending out kicker Evan McPherson to drive in an easy 20-yard chip shot to give Kansas City their first loss of the season since October 24.
The loss, unfortunately, drops Kansas City down to the second seed in the AFC playoff picture while Tennessee resumes the top spot due to tie-breakers over the Chiefs. Kansas City will now depend on a Titans loss coupled with a win over the Denver Broncos in Week 18 to clinch home-field advantage.
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