The Halloween night game on Monday Night Football between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Diego Chargers featured all the components of a good horror movie – heroes and villians, thrills and spills, and even a surprise ending. But ultimately the Chiefs prevailed in overtime to defeat the Chargers 23-20.
The win marks a huge turnaround for the Chiefs, who started the season 0-3 and were outscored 109 to 27 in those three games. They looked like a team that was going to be competing for the top pick in the draft rather than a division title. Now after four consecutive wins, the Chiefs are 4-3 and in a three-way tie for the division lead with the Chargers and Raiders.
“Our guys battled all night, and we didn’t know what the turnout was going to be, but we continued to battle,” Chiefs QB Matt Cassel said. “Now we’re all tied up for first.”
The spills were evident in the 8 turnovers between the two teams, four a piece. The thrills came in the form of a late rally by the Chargers, which tied the game and put them on the verge of winning the game outright, but ultimately led to overtime. Running back Curtis Brinkley emerged as one of the heroes for the Chargers in their fourth quarter rally. And unfortunately his teammate Philip Rivers emerged as the villain as the game literally slipped through his fingers.
The Chiefs had built up a 13-3 half time lead before the Chargers rallied back with 3 third quarter field goals to cut the lead to 13-12. San Diego was able to move the ball well all night, winning the yardage battle by 447 to 341 for the Chiefs, but turnovers and settling for field goals rather than touchdowns ultimately cost them.
Kansas City pushed their lead back out to 8 points early in the fourth quarter on a 1-yard TD run by Jackie Battle to take the lead 20-12. That’s when the high drama really arrived.
Philip Rivers put together the game tying drive. Brinkley, who prior to last night had 2 carries for 11 yards in his entire two-year career, rode in ride in on a white horse to rally the Chargers on three successive plays. First, he caught his first NFL pass for 20 yards on a brilliant diving catch down to the 2-yard line. On the very next play, he punched the ball in from the 2-yard line for his first NFL touchdown, cutting the Chief’s lead to 2 points. Then on the next play, he caught the two point conversion and fought off a defender to break the plane of the end zone and tie the game.
After the Chargers defense held the Chiefs to a 3-and-out, the Chargers got the ball back with 4:59 to play, and great field position starting at the Chiefs 48 thanks to a 31-yard punt return by Patrick Crayton.
Rivers marched his team down the field on what looked to be the game winning drive. He converted a key third-and-18 with a 19-yard completion to Crayton. Brinkley pounded the ball into the red zone with four consecutive runs totaling 21 yards, eating up the clock and providing them a first down on the 15-yard line with under a minute to go.
The stage was set for the Chargers’ victory – all they had to do was kneel down to run the clock down to 10 seconds and win the game with a chip-shot field goal, not even allowing the Chiefs the opportunity to touch the ball again. That was when the game literally slipped through Rivers’ fingers.
Rivers mishandled the first down snap and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Chiefs’ linebacker Andy Studebaker, killing the drive in the shadow of the goalposts.
Time expired in regulation and the game went to overtime, where the Chiefs won on a 30-yard field goal by Ryan Succop.
It was a heart-breaker for Philip Rivers and the Chargers. Looking ahead to next week only makes it worse for the Chargers, who have dropped back-to-back games after a 4-1 start. They are coming off the short week, due to the Monday night game, to face the defending champion Green Bay Packers, who are currently 7-0 and well-rested coming off their bye week.
On the other hand, the Chiefs have extended their winning streak to four games and next week they meet the winless Miami Dolphins. Ultimately, it wasn’t pretty, but it was a great victory for the Chiefs, and a lesson about perseverance and composure.
As Cassel said after the game, “I think that’s what football is about, it’s about not panicking, it’s about staying focused, it’s about maintaining your composure even though stuff around you is going crazy.”
