The Kansas City Chiefs suffered their second loss in a row in a frustrating road trip to face the Seattle Seahawks in Week 16.
The Kansas City Chiefs missed a major opportunity on Sunday night to control the AFC through the rest of the playoffs. Instead of locking up home-field advantage and the AFC West title on Sunday night with a win over the Seattle Seahawks, they come limping home with a second straight defeat after suffering the 38-31 loss.
Given that the Ravens topping the Chargers on Saturday night and the Eagles downed the Texans earlier on Sunday afternoon, a win in Seattle would have sealed the deal for all postseason hopes. Now they must beat the Oakland Raiders in Week 17 instead of enjoying some time off to rest.
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While the Chiefs stalled on the first possession of the game, the Seattle Seahawks went on an 11 play, 78-yard drive early that was capped off with Chris Carson running four yards into the end zone. Earlier on that drive, Russell Wilson used his legs to pick up a third and 13 to extend the drive and allow the Seahawks to take their early lead.
The Chiefs second offensive attempt was not much better than their first. They picked up the first down, but an eight-play 40-yard drive ended with a Harrison Butker field goal.
After a missed field goal by the Seahawks, Damien Williams caught a touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes from two yards out to give the Chiefs their first lead of the game with 11 minutes to play in the first half. That drive lasted 10 plays for 74 yards. The Seahawks answered back with a touchdown of their own on a 21-yard drive thanks to a Chiefs fumble. Wilson found Nick Vannett for the score to regain the lead for Seattle, 14-10.
In the second half, the Seahawks started the scoring with a 28-yard field goal. Mahomes knotted the contest up at 17 with a mobile strike to Charcandrick West from 25 yards out. That capped off a beautiful 7-play, 83-yard drive. The Seahawks wasted no time regaining the lead again with an eight-play drive ending in Wilson finding Doug Baldwin for a tough touchdown grab.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Chiefs trailed by seven. Harrison Butker nailed a 30-yard field goal to pull the Chiefs within four with a little over 10 minutes to play making the score 24-20. The Seahawks drove right down the field and on third and goal Russell Wilson’s pass fell incomplete, but the most penalized team in the NFL could not help but bail out the stalled Seahawks offense with a defensive holding.
That flag allowed the Seahawks to get into the end zone via an Ed Dickson touchdown. Rolling to his right, Wilson flipped it to Dickson, and that was all she wrote with seven minutes left. Mahomes responded by threading the needle for a perfect pass to Demarcus Robinson. The Chiefs went for two, and Mahomes ran it in to make it 31-28, Seahawks.
While the touchdown was exciting, the Chiefs still needed their lowly defense to step up. That, of course, did not happen. Carson powered his way into the end zone to finish off a two-minute drive, leaving the Chiefs offense two and a half minutes to try to score twice. Butker nailed a field goal with 1:20 left to pull the Chiefs within seven, but an onside miracle never happened.
The Chiefs can still lock up the division and the conference against the Raiders next week. As for the Seahawks, they will take on the Arizona Cardinals in Week 17 but have already clinched their postseason berth and have nothing more at stake.