The Kansas City Chiefs are back at .500 after a 30-17 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday night.
The Chiefs put together their finest performance of the season to improve to 3-3, holding the high-powered Lions offense to its lowest scoring total since Week 1 while racking up 354 yards on offense for their first win against a winning opponent.
Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes rebounded from a Week 5 loss with his highest passer rating of the year, 132.2. He completed 22 of 30 passes for 257 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 34 yards and another score.
“We handled business,” Mahomes told NBC’s Melissa Stark.
Detroit quarterback Jared Goff threw for 203 yards and two touchdowns for the Lions, who fell to 4-2 and had their four-game winning streak snapped.
Goff and Detroit started hot, driving all the way to Kansas City’s 1-yard line on the game’s opening possession. He appeared to catch a touchdown pass on a trick play on 4th-and-goal, but a penalty nullified the score, and Detroit settled for a field goal. The teams then traded touchdowns before they traded failed fourth-down conversions.
Once again, the Lions committed a costly error on a fourth-down play, as receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown dropped a pass that would have given Detroit a first down in Chiefs territory late in the second quarter. Instead, Kansas City needed only eight plays to go 55 yards to score a touchdown following the failed attempt, changing the tenor of the game.
The Chiefs then came out of halftime with another touchdown drive, and with the lead, their defense tightened up. In the second half, Kansas City forced two punts and had another fourth-down stop, helping maintain a two-score lead for much of the final 30 minutes.
Detroit’s self-inflicted wounds certainly played a role in the loss.
The Lions committed four penalties for 38 yards. In addition to the Goff blunder in the first quarter, a late hit by Aiden Hutchinson in the fourth quarter greatly aided a Chiefs touchdown drive.
Between the miscues and an injury-laden defense that forced only one punt, Detroit couldn’t come up with a winning effort.
Kansas City, meanwhile, is 3-1 in its last four games after an 0-2 start to the season. The Chiefs are also only one game behind both the Los Angeles Chargers and the Denver Broncos in the AFC West despite their slow start to the season.
Perhaps as a sign of how badly each team wanted to win Sunday’s game, there was a scuffle when the game ended after Lions safety Brian Branch ignored a handshake attempt from Mahomes. Juju Smith-Schuster took offense to the gesture and confronted Branch, who responded by shoving Smith-Schuster.
“We play the game in between the whistles. They can do all the extracurricular stuff they want to do,” Mahomes said.
He added, on the importance of the win: “That’s a good football team. It shows what we can do. We’ll try to carry this momentum into the next game.”
FINAL: Chiefs defeat Lions 30-17
Detroit’s four-game winning streak is over after a road loss to Kansas City. Patrick Mahomes had a monster performance, completing 22 of 30 passes for 257 yards and three scores. His counterpart, the Lions’ Jared Goff, was 23 of 29 for 203 yards with two touchdowns.
The Chiefs improved to 3-3 while the Lions fell to 4-2.
Chiefs pad lead
Harrison Butker hit a 33-yard field goal, his first of the night, to put the Chiefsd up 30-17 with just over 2 minutes remaining in the game.
Lions go three-and-out
That may do it, honestly.
On 3rd-and-10 from his own 26, Jared Goff was sacked and the Lions punted.
The Chiefs have the ball and a 10-point lead with only 7:12 to go.
The Lions’ first drive is playing a major role right now
A big factor in this game right now is the penalty on Jared Goff from the Lions’ first drive of the game.
The illegal motion penalty on Goff wiped out a touchdown, and led to Detroit kicking a field goal on fourth down.
As a result, the Lions are down two scores with under 10 minutes to go as opposed to being in position to take the lead with a touchdown.
With how Kansas City’s offense has played tonight, it’s going to be very tricky for Detroit to have enough time to make up this deficit.
Mahomes reaches career milestone
Earlier tonight, Patrick Mahomes became the fastest quarterback to ever reach 300 career touchdown passes. Mahomes is playing in his 139th career game, including playoffs; the previous record-holder was Aaron Rodgers, who did it in 147 games. Before Rodgers, Dan Marino had done it in 152 games, per NBC Sports research.
Mahomes is now the 17th quarterback in history to pass that threshold.
Kansas City, touchdown!
Hollywood Brown catches his second touchdown of the game, a short drag route across the middle of the field that left him uncovered in the end zone for Patrick Mahomes to find. The Chiefs lead 27-17 with 9:30 to go in the fourth quarter.
Brown now has four catches for 45 yards, while Mahomes is up to 245 yards and three TD passes.
Lions’ latest penalty is a very costly one
Aiden Hutchinson hit Patrick Mahomes late for a roughing the passer penalty, the Lions’ fourth penalty of the night.
Instead of a 3rd-and-7, the Chiefs were given a fresh set of downs and now Kansas City is already driving deep inside Detroit territory.
Touchdown, Lions!
It’s a one-score game again!
What a catch by Sam LaPorta on 2nd-and-Goal from the 4, as he climbed the ladder in the back of the end zone to make a one-handed grab before he toe-tapped to secure the score.
The Chiefs’ lead is now 20-17.
End of 3rd: Chiefs 20, Lions 10
The Chiefs opened the quarter with a touchdown before the two sides traded punts.
Now the Lions are driving inside Kansas City’s 10-yard line as we head to the fourth quarter.
Both offenses have executed well for large swaths of this game. This final quarter could come down to which defense can make a key stop.
Detroit desperately needed that stop
The Chiefs’ punt on their last drive was their first of the game. The Lions’ only other stop tonight came on a 4th-down inside the redzone.
