This game had it all.
First a little context. Here's Mahomes record coming into the game vs AFC West teams. Typically, divisional games are close. You're familiar with each other so it's hard to catch anyone off guard.
The Raiders have beaten Mahomes once. The Chargers twice. The Broncos never.
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The beginning of this game was all Raiders. Still without Butker, the Chiefs missed a 41-yard field goal and it was 17-0 Raiders early. Vegas was dominating on the line on both sides of the ball.
At 14-0, Raiders had a 4th and 1 from the KC 34. They lined up to go for it. I was praying for a momentum-changing stop. Instead they kicked the field goal, making it a three-score game.
But in a sense, that was a 3rd down stop by the defense. An opening for the offense. 75-yard drive capped off by a throw to Kelce. 17-7 in the second quarter.
Ensuing drive, is the momentum-changing play of the game. Carr is strip-sacked on 3rd and 8.
Here's the video. The Chiefs will have the ball on the Raiders 40 with over a minute to go. From here you expect the Chiefs to go into halftime either at 17-14 or 17-10. Instead, the refs call a roughing the passer penalty.
It provokes the loudest and most sustained booing from a crowd that I've ever heard.
The Raiders end up kicking a field goal with 17 seconds left in the half, 20-7.
The Bills learned in January that 13 seconds is too much time for Mahomes. The Raiders learned tonight that 17 is also too much time for Mahomes.
20-10 at the half.
Three drives later it's 24-20 Chiefs. Ever since the terrible call on Chris Jones, the crowd was into it, the refs were shook, and the Chiefs were cruising.
At 30-23, the Chiefs were celebrating Kelce's record 4th TD and were a 2-point conversion away from making it a two-score game with 7 minutes to go. At this point, the game seemed like a party.
KC had scored on 5 straight possessions. But that might not be enough.
Adams burned the KC secondary again and all of a sudden it's 30-29 with about 4 minutes left.
KC finally punts and the Raiders have 2:30 left and only need a field goal. Not feeling confident in the defense.
On a 3rd and 1, the ruling on the field was Adams caught a 15 yard pass to put LV in field goal range. But the replay showed he didn't have possession until he was out of bounds.
So that brings up 4th and 1. This game is on a razor's edge. Carr throws up a deep ball and there's a moment where it's possible for Adams to maybe get to it. And then this happens:
I had to make this gif because I will never get tired of watching it.
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Absolutely wild that Mahomes is now 23-3 against division opponents. What a great feeling to have every team in the division living in fear of you.
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One more layer to this. Back in 2019, a writer for the Athletic pointed out how Mahomes was on pace to crush Aikman's career TD totals. Aikman didn't like that and replied:
Of course, that very season Mahomes would win a Super Bowl.
Well, last night Mahomes passed Aikman for career touchdowns, while not yet reaching half the number of games played. And who was calling the game? Buck and Aikman. They did not acknowledge the milestone.
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On a night where Kelce got me a big fantasy win and is setting franchise TE records, and Mahomes is passing Aikman for TDs, it would have been a real shame to lose at the end and tarnish the night.
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Going to bed last night, I once again reflected on how lucky/fortunate I am as a sports fan now and what an absolute turn around it's been.
For decades sports just seemed like one of those "we'll get 'em next year" things where I'm just always going to live with pain and "what ifs." And then the Chiefs get Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. And the Avalanche win the Cup. And even Illinois is doing well in football and basketball at the moment, and it's just wild to see.
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This MNF game immediately goes in the books as one of my favorites. Which got me thinking, there have been a lot of favorites since we got Mahomes (see previous paragraph). Since I can't have double digit favorites, I'll just refer to them as Elite Wins, ones that really made my whole week or month. Let's go back and identify some of these.
Elite Wins since 2016
