Bengals 25, Chiefs 26
Laddie Morse
The Kansas City Chiefs hosted the Cincinnati Bengals and from the beginning, as they won the toss and deferred, that should have been a good omen of favorable results to come. Harrison Butker hit on a 51-yard Field Goal with no time left on the clock to pull the Chiefs ahead 26-to-25, securing the victory. Everything else matters little. The Chiefs won and that’s what matters most.
If I had told you before the game that Travis Kelce would only have 5 yards receiving in this game and Patrick Mahomes would have two interceptions but the Chiefs would still come away victorious… you likely wouldn’t believe me. However, that exactly what happened.
Perhaps ESPN’s Chiefs beat writer Adam Teicher said it best:
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You may, or may not, like Harrison Butker’s stance on other issues, but you have to agree he’s one of the best kickers to ever put on a pair of football cleats. The Chiefs have a number of first ballot future Hall of Famers and you can soon add Harrison Butker’s name to that list.
Looking back at the game stats what appears most impressive is that the Chiefs started the second half with a 13 play drive that ended up in a TD ( to, Tackle eligible, Wayna Morris) and ended up the second half with a 9-play drive that won the game… a 51 yard FG by Harrison Butker with only three second left on the clock (which were all used up on his successful FG try).
In an article written by Michael David Smith for NBC Sports, he said:
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“A wild game in Kansas City went down to the final
play today, as the Chiefs beat the Bengals 26-25
when Harrison Butker hit a 51-yard field goal as time
expired. Butker’s field goal represented the fifth lead
change of the second half in a game that had plenty
of mistakes, penalties and turnovers….”
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Five lead changes. Wow. In the second half alone. Double Wow! The Bengals and the Chiefs started the game by exchanging Field Goals, so it was a close one from start to finish.
I should mention that there was a penalty which helped set up the 51 yard field goal by Butker:
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Here’s another look at it (0:10):
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The howling Chiefs misanthropes can still be heard of you listen hard enough. There are many who believe the Chiefs get all the calls by the refs. Yes, 8 – Penalties by the Bengals and 4- Penalties by the Chiefs were called in this game and that may have something to do with their negative sentiment. However, if you look at the above play there’s no denying that the Bengals’ DB hit the Chiefs WR Rashee Rice early, long before the ball arrived. Indeed, it should have been a Penalty, as it was called.
Play of the Game I
While it’s hard to pick one play over the other, Rashee Rice’s long TD catch may have been the most important in sending a message to other teams that they’ll always need to keep a Safety deep to guard against the Chiefs speed. BTW, Rice beat Cameron Taylor-Britt, on this play, the Bengal who was shooting off his mouth this week (0:11).
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Play of the Game II
Yes, picking one play of the game doesn’t seem right with some of the game deciding FGs kicked by Harrison Butker (0:13):
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Here’s the play by play call from Mitch Holthus (0:49):
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Quote of the Game
Here’s QB Patrick Mahomes talking about the end of the game and his offensive output:
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“We’ve been in these situations before. We have
full confidence no matter how the game is going,
we’re going to do enough to win. That’s what we
did today… we’re going to have to learn from this.
We didn’t play our best on the offensive side of
the ball [so] we’re going to have to get better.”
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Tweet of the Game
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One huge positive takeaway is that RT Jawaan Taylor didn’t have any penalties in this game. Another big positive is that Isiah Pacheco (Pop) had 19 rushes for 90 yards and a 4.7 YPC average. On top of that, Pop equaled Rashee Rice for the most catches on the team with 5. He had 21 yards on those catches so… his overall day was 111 total yards from scrimmage. Another positive was that the Chiefs defense held the Bengals rushing attack to 74 yards while the Chiefs rushers gained 149 yards total.
Let’s not miss out on Wanya Morris’ TD catch (0:13):
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Wanya also had comments on his TD catch experience, after the game with Nate Taylor (0:50):
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Here’s the call of Mitch Holthus on Wanya Morris’ TD catch (0:28):
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Comment of the Game
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Our Comment of the Game comes to us from tm1946:
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In Other Good News
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In other good news across the league, the Raiders beat the Ravens, 26-to-23 to force the Ravens to a 0-and-2 record. This may be the one and only time I cheered for the Raiders as its more important to me to see the Ravens lose than the Raiders lose. Also, the Broncos fell to the Steelers 13-to-6 at Home to go to 0-and-2 on the season. Broncos rookie QB Bo Nix threw two more INTs in the game against the Steelers and now has zero TDs and 4 INTs for the year.
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I don’t know when this changed, but ESPN is reporting that Wanya Morris is the Chiefs starting Left Tackle, and Kingsley Suamataia is the backup. It wasn’t that way earlier, so it happened sometime on Sunday. Any ideas?
What do you think? Should K.C. go out and try to trade for a WR?
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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne
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