Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers played a quarterback duel on Sunday night. Mahomes got the last touchdown when he found Travis Kelce for the third time, and the Chiefs won, 30-27.
At SoFi Stadium, the AFC West rivals had a crazy fourth quarter. On a key Chargers drive, Keenan Allen, who had been out for a few weeks with a hamstring injury, lost the ball. But six plays later, Chiefs running back Jerick McKinnon did the same thing, giving Herbert a second chance to at least tie the game.
Instead, the Chargers went ahead 27-23 when Herbert threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Josh Palmer for his second touchdown of the game. But we’ve seen this story play out before: Mahomes had a little less than two minutes to play with a chance to win the game.
They wanted to go for it. Mahomes only needed six plays to move the ball 75 yards. He did this by using chunk plays to find Kelce, who raced across the field and beat Derwin James Sr. for a 17-yard touchdown. The Chiefs are now 8-2 after another comeback win led by Mahomes, while the Chargers are now 5-5.
Kelce scored three touchdowns, giving him 11 for the season. He caught six passes for 115 yards. It was his 33rd 100-yard receiving game in his career, breaking his tie with Rob Gronkowski for the most by a tight end.
At the end of the game, Mahomes would finish 20 of 34 passes for 329 yards and three touchdowns to Kelce. He also hit rookie Skyy Moore five times for 63 yards and Justin Watson three times for 67 yards.
Kadarius Toney was supposed to play a bigger role in the offense, but he had to leave the game because he hurt his hamstring, which was a problem for him with the New York Giants before he was traded. The Chiefs’ running game was also strong, led by rookie Isiah Pacheco’s 107 yards on 15 carries.
But, as the scoreboard shows, it wasn’t all Kansas City. The Chargers were ahead at halftime because they scored on four of their first five drives. On the third play of the game, Herbert threw a 50-yard pass to Palmer. Palmer led the Chargers by getting 106 yards on eight catches out of ten targets.
Even though the time was short, Herbert had enough time to set up a field goal attempt for Cameron Dicker, which would have tied the game and sent it to overtime. But Nick Bolton killed Herbert to seal the win.
Herbert finished the game by completing 23 of 30 passes for 280 yards. He threw two touchdown passes to Palmer and one pick-off. Allen caught five passes for 94 yards on his return.
Austin Ekeler also scored, giving the Chargers a 17-13 lead. It was the 11th time this season that he did so, and it was the seventh time that he did it on the ground. He ran 19 times and got 83 yards. He also caught two passes for 17 yards.
The Chiefs will play the Los Angeles Rams at home next Sunday. They want to win their fifth straight game. On the road in Glendale, the Chargers will play the Arizona Cardinals.
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