Chiefs win on bank-shot field goal

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Andy Reid doesn’t need to schedule a stress test anytime soon. He seems to get one every week.

The Kansas City Chiefs coach saw his third-string kicker doink a 31-yard field goal off the left upright and through for a victory that secured the Chiefs’ ninth straight AFC West title.

It was the Chiefs’ 15th straight win in a one-score game over the last two seasons.

Patrick Mahomes led the two-time defending Super Bowl champions (12-1) on a clock-killing 4 1/2-minute drive to set up Matthew Wright’s fourth field goal. The ball clanged off the upright in the latest narrow escape for Kansas City, which is 10-0 this season in one-score games.

The Chiefs have now had three different kickers make a game-winning field goal as time expired this season. No other team in NFL history has had more than one kicker do so in a single season.

After securing a first down inside of the 2-minute warning, both Mahomes and Reid were content with running out the clock for the potential game winner, rather than trying to score a touchdown and leave time on the clock for Justin Herbert and the Chargers.

“I trusted Matthew, so I was good with where we were,” Reid said. “Percentages are pretty high. I know we won a game in that same situation on the opposite end, so I get it, but he’s a solid gamer, so I wasn’t too worried about it.”

Wright said he wasn’t thinking about the game situation, instead focusing on what he had to do if it came down to his right leg. As the ball headed toward the upright and started drifting left, Wright said his thought wasn’t good.

“It’s not a good one,” he said. “I want it to just go right down the middle, obviously.”

Kansas City’s nine straight division titles are two short of the New England Patriots’ NFL record of 11.

The Chiefs led 13-0 at halftime after the Chargers (8-5) punted on their first five possessions, but LA woke up in the second half, scoring on each of its three drives. Cameron Dicker’s 37-yard field goal put the Chargers ahead 17-16 with 4:35 left.

“We just had to settle in,” said Herbert, who was 21 of 30 for 213 yards and a TD. “We didn’t make enough plays in the first half and we didn’t execute the way we wanted to. Pass game, run game, we weren’t moving the ball well. That’s on us and I praise the guys for staying in there, staying patient and making plays in the second half.”

Mahomes then went to work, hitting Xavier Worthy for 14 yards on third-and-10 and scrambling for another first down. After the two-minute warning, Mahomes scrambled, dodged a would-be tackle and lobbed a throw to a kneeling Travis Kelce that allowed the Chiefs to run the clock down to zero.

“I went through my reads,” Mahomes said. “As I was ready to run, I just saw 87 just sitting right there in the middle of the field, open. So I fired it to him.”

Mahomes says he’s not surprised that Kelce stepped up in the clutch.

“He means the world to me,” he said. “Without getting like emotional, he’s a guy that has really kind of made me who I am in my career. (He’s a) true leader on the football field. He’s someone that I can just go to at any moment, and he’s going to make a big play happen, and as he’s done throughout his career.”

Mahomes was sacked three times and has taken 13 sacks over the past three games, the most of any three-game stretch in his career.

The Chargers opened the second half with a 13-play, 79-yard drive that concluded with Gus Edwards’ 3-yard touchdown run.