By Josh Dubow
In a season on pace for a record number of close games, no team has been better at pulling them out late than the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs tied an NFL record last week by winning their 10th game this season by seven points or fewer — a feat accomplished only once before by the 1978 Houston Oilers — when Matthew Wright doinked in a 31-yard field goal on the final play for a 19-17 victory over the Chargers.
Kansas City has won three times on a walk-off field goal and is the only team ever to do that with three kickers. Spencer Shrader kicked a 31-yarder to beat Carolina in Week 12 and Harrison Butker made a 51-yarder to beat Cincinnati in Week 2.
That’s all part of a perfect 10-0 mark in close games for the Chiefs. Those are 10 of the 114 games that have been decided by seven points or fewer so far this season, the most ever through 14 weeks in NFL history, topping the 112 in 2016. The average scoring margin of 10.7 points per game is on pace to be the fifth-lowest in the Super Bowl era.
The tight wins have helped clinch a ninth straight AFC West title for the Chiefs, extending the second-longest division winning streak in NFL history behind the 11 AFC East crowns in a row New England won from 2009-19.
Kansas City is the 36th team to be 12-1 or better after 13 games despite outscoring the opposition by only 56 points. Only two other teams won at least 12 of the first 13 games with a scoring margin of less than 100: the 1976 Raiders (plus-89) and 1990 49ers (plus-98).
Kansas City has thrived in these situations since Mahomes took over as quarterback starting in 2018. The Chiefs are 51-19 in the regular season and playoffs with Mahomes at quarterback in games decided by fewer than seven points, the best mark ever among the 131 QBs with at least 40 starts in close games.
The other teams thriving in close games this season are Philadelphia and Minnesota, who are each 7-1, and the Detroit Lions, who have won six of seven.
The Giants have been the worst team in games decided by seven points or fewer with a 1-7 record, with the Jets, Jaguars and Bengals all having lost seven out of nine close games.
Awesome Allen
Josh Allen delivered another first in what is turning into a signature season.
A week after becoming the first quarterback credited with a passing, rushing and receiving touchdown in the same game thanks in part to a statistical quirk, Allen put together an even more prolific effort in Buffalo’s 44-42 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
Allen became the first player to have three TD passes and three TD runs in a regular-season game as he produced 424 yards to go with those scores. The only other player to pull off that version of a “double triple” was Cleveland’s Otto Graham in the 1954 NFL title game against Detroit.
Yet somehow, the Bills didn’t win. Buffalo became the second team in NFL history to score at least 42 points, commit no turnovers and lose, joining the Browns, who did it in a 47-42 loss to the Chargers in 2021. In all, teams had been 315-1 in the Super Bowl era with those stats before Buffalo’s loss.
The game was the second with at least five combined TD passes, five combined TD runs and no turnovers. Kansas City and Denver did it Dec. 19, 1965, in a 45-35 win for the Chiefs.
The 86 combined points for the Bills and Rams were the most in a game that featured no turnovers.
Grounded Jets
Even a healthy season from Aaron Rodgers couldn’t end the New York Jets’ playoff drought.
New York was eliminated from the playoffs for a 14th straight season after losing 32-26 to Miami in overtime, extending the longest active postseason drought in the NFL, NBA, NHL or MLB. The Buffalo Sabres of the NHL have missed the playoffs for 13 straight seasons.
The Jets last made the postseason in the 2010 season when they went to their second straight AFC title game under coach Rex Ryan and quarterback Mark Sanchez.
Since then, New York has gone through five head coaches and 15 starting quarterbacks without getting back to the playoffs. The 144 losses for the Jets in that span are the third-most in the NFL.
Only four NFL teams since the 1970 merger have gone longer without making the playoffs, with the Browns (17 straight, 2003-19), Bills (17, 2000-16) and Saints (17, 1970-86) having the longest droughts. The Cardinals missed the playoffs for 15 straight seasons from 1983-97.
The Jets have lost five times this season after leading in the fourth quarter. The only team in the last five seasons with more blown fourth-quarter leads was the 2022 Raiders with six.
One-sided
The first half of San Francisco’s win over Chicago in interim coach Thomas Brown’s debut for the Bears was about as one-sided as they come.
The 49ers had 319 yards of offense for the biggest output by any team in a first half this season, while the 4 yards for the Bears were the fewest by any team this year as San Francisco led 24-0 at the break.
The 305-yard differential was the ninth-biggest since 1991 as the Bears generated only one first down in the first half and had minus-3 yards passing thanks to four sacks for 37 yards.
Chicago didn’t get the interim coach bump many do, as teams had been 13-11 in their first game with an interim coach the past 10 seasons compared to a .284 winning percentage for those teams coming into the game.
The Niners won 38-13, with the 25-point loss the most lopsided for an interim coach in his debut since Denver’s Eric Studesville lost 43-13 to Arizona in 2010 in his first game after replacing Josh McDaniels.
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