INGRAM’S CALL HELPS CHIEFS WIN
The about-face of the Kansas City Chiefs from their 3-4 start to their seven-game winning streak can be traced to the abrupt turnaround of their defense, and that in turn can be traced to the arrival of Melvin Ingram.
Turns out the defensive end is doing more than making tackles and pressuring the quarterback, though.
It was Ingram who correctly called the pre-game coin flip against his former team Thursday night, then did the same trick at the beginning of overtime. That gave the Chiefs the ball, and Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce did the rest, driving for the winning touchdown in a 34-26 victory that kept them in first place in the AFC West.
“It’s kind of crazy. Until the moment has ended, you’re just tunneled in on the game plan,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the win. “Then when it’s over, you go, ‘Whoa!’ If I could jump, I would jump with excitement.”
The Chiefs (10-4) are now a halfgame ahead of New England and Tennessee, both of whom play this weekend, for the best record in the AFC. Perhaps more importantly, they now have a two-game edge on the Chargers (8-6) in the division race, and they wiped out the tiebreaker the Chargers had by virtue of their victory in Kansas City earlier this season.
It was a comprehensive team effort, too. That suddenly stingy defense held Justin Herbert to 236 yards passing with two touchdowns and an interception. They forced a fumble near the goal line late in the game, holding Los Angeles to 4 for 7 in the red zone. And they stopped the uber-aggressive Chargers three times on fourth down, including a couple times near the goal line.
On offense, Mahomes merely threw for 410 yards and three touchdowns. Kelce had a career-best 191 yards receiving along with the tying touchdown in regulation and the winner in overtime. Tyreek Hill added 12 catches for 148 yards and another score. And the Chiefs did just enough on the ground to keep the Chargers honest on defense.
“We didn’t win those games kind of at the early part of the year,” Mahomes said, “but we always had the confidence that we knew we had the guys in the locker room to win them. I think we’re still building on trying to become great, but I think we got the guys to do it, so I’m excited for these last few weeks and the playoffs.”
Now the Chiefs turn their attention to a tough finish. They play Pittsburgh the day after Christmas in their regular-season home finale, then head to Cincinnati and Denver, giving them three straight games against wild-card contenders.