Chiefs survive self-inflicted wounds to beat Dolphins in Week 14
By Matt Conner
The Kansas City Chiefs overcame numerous turnovers and mistakes to beat the Dolphins.
The Kansas City Chiefs gave the Miami Dolphins plenty of opportunities with which to walk away with a victory, but the defending Super Bowl champs proved good enough to overcome plenty of mistakes and turnovers to still earn a 33-27 road win in South Florida in Week 14.
From the first drive of the game through the fourth quarter, the Chiefs made plenty of errors. They also put up plenty of highlights. The end result was a close road win to keep pace with the AFC’s top-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers.
On the day, Patrick Mahomes put together some MVP worthy throws, but he also threw three interceptions, including two in the first quarter, fumbled the ball once, and took a couple sacks (including one for a 30-yard loss). Still, the Chiefs came away with the win given their ability to keep the chains moving on a tough final drive that came down to a close third-and-short that resulted in a 22-yard pass to Tyreek Hill.
Mahomes had a tough day overall including a nightmare of a first quarter with three turnovers, but the Dolphins could never take full advantage. Even after the first 15 minutes, Miami was only up by a touchdown since they also missed a short field goal. The Chiefs defense, which would surrender big yards in the fourth, came up big early to keep Miami from putting up more points. By the time the Chiefs started moving offensively, the Dolphins had ruined multiple opportunities to put the Chiefs in a major hole.
When the Chiefs got rolling, they really got rolling. In the second quarter, Tyreek Hill got his first touchdown of the day with a nice 32-yard run in which he simply outran every Dolphins defender within range to give the Chiefs their first six points. Mahomes hit Travis Kelce for a six-yard touchdown pass before halftime to give the Chiefs a 14-10 lead, even after such a disastrous opening quarter.
From there, the Chiefs needed only three plays to go 75 yards to open the second half, a short drive that ended with a deep strike to Hill of 44 yards. The Chiefs defense stepped up from there and forced the Dolphins to punt when down 21-10, and then returner Mecole Hardman took the punt back 67 yards to give the Chiefs a 28-10 lead. The defense continued to dominate through the third quarter, and a Chris Jones safety of Tua Tagovailoa gave the Chiefs a 20-point lead.
From there, however, the Dolphins took over in the fourth quarter. An incredible one-handed interception by Xavien Howard gave Miami some momentum and kept the Chiefs out of the end zone. The Chiefs defense looked tired in the last quarter as the Dolphins marched down the field with one third down conversion after another. A second touchdown toss to tight end Mike Gesicki made it 30-17 early in the fourth quarter. Another long drive ended in a quarterback rush by Tagovailoa to make it a one-score game.
Unfortunately for Miami, the Chiefs were able to move the chains enough to force them to use all their timeouts late and Harrison Butker put the game out of reach with a 46-yard field goal to put the Chiefs up 33-24. A late field goal by Jason Sanders brought the Fins back within 6 points, but an onside kick attempt would fail with under a minute to go. The final score would be 33-27.
With the win, the Chiefs move to 12-1 and place more pressure on the Pittsburgh Steelers to win out in their bid to keep the No. 1 seed to themselves. Next week, the Chiefs travel to New Orleans to face the Saints.