Late Turnover Lifts Chiefs to 20-17 Win Over Panthers

It was the type of game the defending NFC champions consistently closed out a year ago.

Not panic. Not anger. Even much of that production cam with under two minutes to play when the Chiefs rallied for a late field goal to cut the team’s deficit to 17-3. The Falcons and New Orleans lost Sunday, but Tampa Bay won. The Chiefs limited star quarterback Cam Newton to a mere 104 yards in 19 passing attempts after the break as their improved run defense allowed them to get after the reigning NFL MVP.

“You can’t even describe it”, Benjamin said.

But for all their belief, the on-field performance had to change.

The Panthers have been beating themselves all season, and Newton has played a major role in that. His longest checked in at 54 yards. Social media went insane bringing back all kinds of old GIFs and pictures of the once famous “dab” move. Good teams don’t turn the ball over at the wrong time.

And if he doesn’t? He threw a awful pass off of his back foot into double coverage that former Atlanta high school rival Eric Berry returned 42 yards for a touchdown. Sometimes I wonder if he finds a way to steal the opposing team’s playbook every week, because his ability to know the play pre-snap is unmatched. Both the defense and offense were rolling at this time.

The sack gave the defense some life.

Ford got his sack of Newton in the third quarter on a second-down snap from the Kansas City 21-yard line, dropping the Carolina QB for a 7-yard loss.

The Chiefs used a no-huddle, shotgun-heavy approach to score on their next drive. Santos’ third field goal tied it with 4:25 left.

Ford and Newton were among the 17 former Auburn players who got on the field on the 10th Sunday of the National Football League season.

“What we have done is put our backs completely against the wall”, Rivera said of Carolina’s playoff hopes. That record came on a 9-yard completion to tight end Greg Olsen in the first quarter.

But Berry wasn’t done. There’s no possible way they run the table to go 10-6. “I was just kind of waiting for overtime when Marcus stripped that ball”.

The Panthers, who had been dominant all day, appeared shaken. Unofficially, it was an assist of the Chiefs’ game-winning field goal. The second turnover was Benjamin getting the ball ripped away by Peters in the dying seconds of the game.

When it’s all said it done, Eric Berry and Marcus Peters stepped up.

I had him at Extremely Optimistic until the fumble at the end of the game. “I’m not gonna do it again, though”. The Panthers fell to 1-4 in games decided by three points or fewer. In addition to Smith, the Chiefs could see the return of RB Spencer Ware, their leading rusher in 2016.

“It is always pretty?”

“Things don’t go your way sometimes”, Berry said. The same goes for the offensive line, which surrendered three sacks and seven quarterback pressures. Things happen. There’s no need to grieve over something that we all understand it just happens.