KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs head into the fifth week of the regular season as one of two unbeaten teams in the NFL, and a big reason why is their ability to hold or take the lead in the fourth quarter, when games often are on the line.
The Saints, who head to Kansas City on Monday night, are 2-2 in part because of their inability to do the same thing.
New Orleans opened the season with blowouts of Carolina and Dallas, then found themselves in four-quarter tussles against Philadelphia and Atlanta. In the former, they allowed Saquon Barkley to score the go-ahead touchdown with 1:01 left in an eventual 15-12 loss. And in the latter, Alvin Kamara gave the Saints the lead with his TD run with a minute to go, only to watch the Falcons set up Younghoe Koo's 58-yard field goal with two seconds left in a 26-24 defeat.
Those letdowns are why the theme in the Saints’ locker room this week has been that the style points from victories in Weeks 1 and 2 say less about the club than their failures in trying to close out more competitive contests.
“When you play a lot of football in this league, you realize that blowing people out and doing all that ... it don’t matter,” Kamara said. “I don’t care if we beat a team 80-0. We’ve got way more football to play against better teams.”
Teams like the Chiefs, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions.
All four of their games have come down to the wire, and all four times Patrick Mahomes and Co. finished the job. That includes a Week 1 win over Baltimore that was decided only when a review showed the Ravens' Isaiah Likely caught a pass out of bounds as time expired that could have forced overtime. It continued with Harrison Butker's 51-yard winner against the Bengals, and in a 22-17 win in Atlanta that the Chiefs' defense preserved with a fourth-down stop with about a minute to go.
Last week in Los Angeles, the Chiefs overcame the loss of star wide receiver Rashee Rice to a knee injury by rallying from a 10-0 deficit, ultimately getting the go-ahead touchdown from Samaje Perine with six minutes to go in their 17-10 victory.
“You just know that it's all on the line right here,” Mahomes said. “But at the same time, you have to go to your normal process.”
Mahomes knows how to do that, because the Chiefs have plenty of experience with it. Six of their past seven playoff wins have been by a touchdown or less, including their Super Bowl triumphs over Philadelphia and San Francisco.
“I think having the experiences of being in those games, it makes it where it’s not too big, where it’s like, I’m not trying to make a crazy play happen,” Mahomes said. “I’ve learned from my experiences, the good and the bad, and knowing how to have success in those moments and not making it bigger than what it is.
"All you can do is focus on that one play and then try to figure out a way to make it happen.”
The Chiefs will be playing without leading wide receiver Rashee Rice for the first time on Monday night. He hurt his knee last week in Los Angeles when Mahomes dived into it while trying to make a tackle following an interception. The Chiefs will look to JuJu Smith-Schuster and Justin Watson to help fill the void.
The Raven's Derrick Henry, Zack Moss of the Bengals, Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and J.K. Dobbins of the Chargers have combined to run 55 times for just 143 yards against Kansas City. That's an average of 2.6 yards per attempt. Next up is Kamara, who is averaging 4.5 yards per carry, and who poses an additional threat catching the ball.
There will be plenty of eyes glued to cellphones between plays Monday night as the Royals play the Yankees in Game 2 of their AL Division Series in New York. First pitch is scheduled for about an hour before kickoff. Arrowhead Stadium is a couple of hundred yards from Kauffman Stadium, the home of the Royals, where Game 3 and Game 4 (if needed) will take place.
The presence of tight end and former QB Taysom Hill has helped the Saints keep opposing defenses off balance, particularly in short-yardage situations. But Hill has left two of their four games with upper-body injuries, including the latest after scoring two TDs against Atlanta, and his status against Kansas City was uncertain this week. The Saints scored only 10 more points against the Falcons after Hill left, and they failed to score on a first-and-goal situation.
“I certainly feel like we’re affected when we don’t have him available to us,” Saints coach Dennis Allen began, before adding: “I still think we have the ability to be an effective offense.”
