A familiar script was playing out again Sunday afternoon in Denver.
Trailing 28-24 with 4 seconds to play and the ball at the 1-yard line, Kansas City put the ball in the hands of quarterback Patrick Mahomes expecting the type of late comeback victory on which he has built a career.
Mahomes threw for a go-ahead touchdown — until a flag for a false start was thrown just as his receiver, Rashee Rice, caught the would-be game-winning pass.
Backed up 5 yards and given a final play to decide the AFC West showdown, Mahomes dropped back to pass but this time was sacked to send the Chiefs to 5-2 and the Broncos to 6-2.
The ending was particularly nail-biting. But it was just one close game in a season full of them. It was the 71st game of this season decided by one score or less — tying the record for the most through Week 8 since the 1970 merger.
The spotlight will all be on the final three plays. Before the game-ending sack, Denver stuffed star Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III on a short attempt from the 1-yard line, leading to the play on which a flinch by offensive tackle Jaylon Moore earned a false-start flag and negated Kansas City’s go-ahead touchdown.
“I didn’t see it,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I saw him move his head, but I didn’t see” a penalty.
The narrow outcome also will spark more debate about the job security of Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker.
When Butker, Kansas City’s kicker since 2017, signed a four-year contract reported to be worth more than $25 million in 2024, he’d made 89.1% of his field goal attempts while helping the Chiefs win three Super Bowls.
In three years since then, his accuracy had fallen to 82%, including just 9 of 19 on attempts of 50-plus yards. This season, he’d made 11 of his 16 tries overall, and he was 2 for 6 from 50-plus yards. His accuracy was concerning enough that Kansas City last week signed veteran kicker Justin Tucker to its practice squad as a not-so-subtle way to increase the competition on Butker, even though Tucker hadn’t played in more than a year following suspension for his off-field conduct.
Butker had made a 45-yard attempt earlier in the game, but with Kansas City leading 24-21 with 2:36 left in regulation, he missed a 54-yard attempt that would have padded the lead.
Denver then drove 56 yards in just two plays to go ahead 28-24, leaving Kansas City 116 seconds for a comeback.
When Denver’s goal-line stand held firm after it sacked Mahomes on the final play, the game became the 35th of this season with a game-winning score in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter or in overtime. (The NFL record through eight weeks is 36.)
Perhaps the ending, as wild as it was, should have been expected.
Over the past two seasons, Denver’s 16-2 record in one-score games is the league’s best.
“It has to come from we’ve done it before,” Broncos coach Sean Payton said.
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