Kansas City Chiefs earn lucky win over Atlanta Falcons in Week 16

The Chiefs put away the Falcons in Week 16 with ease to clinch the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

The Kansas City Chiefs needed some luck to overcome the surprising Atlanta Falcons on Sunday in a surprising Week 16 game that was much closer than anyone could have expected. In the end, the Chiefs overcame a strong Falcons defense, a dropped interception of Mahomes, and a missed field goal in the last seconds by Younghoe Koo to win 17-14 at home.

The Chiefs have won a string of close games—this makes seven straight by six points or less—but this was the luckiest by far. Still the win gives the Chiefs the top overall seed in the AFC with one week left to play—a home game against the L.A. Chargers in Week 17—which means Andy Reid has some decisions to make regarding playing time in the final week of the season. The Chiefs also earned the lone first-round bye in the entire conference.

The Chiefs offense looked surprisingly out of sync all afternoon against the Falcons. The Chiefs have turned in multiple drives in each of their last several games that looked this way, but eventually Mahomes and company find a way to move the chains with some regularity. Last week, however, Mahomes set a new career low with only 5.4 yards per pass attempt and he averaged 5.4 once again through the entire third quarter and into the fourth. At multiple points, Mahomes overthrew receivers and seemed to be on the wrong page with several players.

That said, the Chiefs also moved the chains enough to put the game away yet failed to come away with points. Mahomes threw one official interception on the day and it came right on the goal line to Foyesade Oluokun. Sammy Watkins also threw an interception—yes, you read that right—when the Chiefs opted for some gimmickry instead of taking the points.

Fortunately for the Chiefs, the team’s defense was up to the task of largely putting away the Falcons, although Matt Ryan deserves credit for taking what he was given and moving the chains as well as he could. Still, the Chiefs got after the veteran quarterback all day 12 hits, 5 tackles for loss, and 4 sacks. Frank Clark and Chris Jones both had three hits on Ryan apiece. L’Jarius Sneed also had a solid day with good coverage for most of the afternoon and an impressive sack in the first half.

Mahomes ended the day with one of the most pedestrian stat lines of his career by completing only 24 of his 44 passing attempts on the day—good for a 54.5 percent completion rate. He finished with 278 passing yards and 2 touchdowns to go with his one interception. However, the team was fortunate that Falcons defensive back A.J. Terrell dropped a clear interception that would have given the Falcons the ball with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter and a four-point lead.

From there, Mahomes made the Falcons pay for their lack of execution by finding Demarcus Robinson on a long touchdown strike of 25 yards to give the Chiefs a three-point lead.

It didn’t help that the Chiefs were missing several key players at various points. The losses along the offensive line coming into the game were well known—although the Chiefs did get back Mike Remmers at right tackle on Sunday—as was the fact that the Chiefs also played without Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the backfield. However, they lost wide receiver Sammy Watkins late in the game to a calf injury and then Austin Reiter was also forced to leave late. Tyreek Hill came into the game with a hamstring concern, and even Travis Kelce left the field limping for a moment only to return almost immediately.

Despite the frustrating offensive play, the Chiefs are now 14-1 with some very real time to figure things out before they play another meaningful game. They have Week 17 and the first week of the postseason in order to rest and retool for whoever awaits them in the second round of the NFL playoffs.