KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Chiefs thought a bizarre overtime fumble had secured a victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday night.
Instead, Indianapolis was given an opportunity to win — and chose to settle for a tie.
That decision gave Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs one more chance, and they made the Colts pay for it.
After the teams exchanged field goals in overtime, Mahomes leaned on a pair of strong Kenneth Walker III runs before connecting with his running back for a 22-yard completion. The play set up Harrison Butker’s 40-yard field goal as time expired, giving Kansas City a 33-30 victory. It was the second consecutive year the Chiefs defeated Indianapolis on an overtime field goal.
“I mean, I think guys were resilient, and we just strained to finish,” Mahomes said. “It wasn’t always pretty. There were times we didn’t execute at a high level. But guys continued to fight and continued to push and we found a way at the end.”
Mahomes threw for 382 yards and three touchdowns, while Walker finished with 117 rushing yards. Tight end Travis Kelce also delivered a vintage performance, catching nine passes for 101 yards and a touchdown as the Chiefs moved to 2-0.
The win simply took longer to arrive than Kansas City initially expected.
Butker had given the Chiefs a 31-yard overtime field goal lead, but the Colts responded when Jones went deep to Laquon Treadwell, who had beaten L’Jarius Snead. Treadwell appeared to bobble the ball as he went to the ground, then stood up after completing the catch before the ball was knocked loose. Kansas City recovered, seemingly ending the game.
Officials initially ruled the play a fumble, but a review determined that Treadwell was down by contact. Indianapolis was therefore given a chance to score the go-ahead touchdown, but three plays later the Colts faced fourth-and-8 and a pivotal decision.
“Had a play called. Had to love the look to run it there,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said. “We took the delay and kicked the field goal.”
It proved to be the wrong call.
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The Chiefs still had 3:11 remaining in overtime when they took possession. Walker carried three straight times to move Kansas City to midfield, but the Colts began loading the line to slow him down. Mahomes then lofted a well-timed pass to Walker, who turned it into a 22-yard gain and put Butker in position to win the game.
“We had worked throughout the week dropping it over the top,” Mahomes said. “They were in a pressure look. We were able to change the play. You get the ball in his hands, Rashee (Rice) did a great job of blocking on the perimeter. That got us in field goal range.”
It also delivered the Chiefs the victory.
“Overall we fought like crazy,” Steichen said, “but it wasn’t good enough. And then they find a way to make a play at the end.”
Indianapolis’ defense showed little improvement after a disastrous Week 1 performance against Baltimore, which the Colts had attributed to communication issues. They attempted to address the problem by having linebacker Akeem Davis-Gaither communicate the plays instead of safety Cam Bynum, but the change did not prevent Kansas City from moving the ball consistently.
The Chiefs would have scored on each of their first four drives if Butker had not missed a 51-yard field-goal attempt.
Still, the Colts matched Mahomes and the Kansas City offense throughout the first half. Tyler Warren made three catches, including a touchdown, while Josh Downs continued to exploit a Colts secondary playing without safety Chamarri Conner for the second straight game. Jonathan Taylor gained 75 of his rushing yards before halftime, highlighted by a 24-yard touchdown run that gave Indianapolis a 20-17 lead at the break.
The Chiefs allowed Denver to run for just 61 yards total in their 31-10 win last week.
“We did some good things. Thought the run game was good. Moved the ball. I thought we were pushing,” Jones said.
Kansas City finally slowed the Colts’ offense by refusing to give them the ball. The Chiefs held it for all but 2:22 of the third quarter, getting a go-ahead TD pass to Jalen Royals and setting up Butker’s field goal to start the fourth.
Indianapolis answered with an 8 1/2-minute drive that Taylor finished with his second TD run to tie it at 27l with 5:37 to go.
Neither offense could produce points down the stretch, though, leaving the game to be decided in overtime.
“It was great that the guys competed for four quarters,” Reid said. “You’re going to have this. The parity in this league is crazy. You’re going to have some once-score games. You have to bear down and and our guys did that.”