KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes wasn’t constructive the Kansas City Chiefs might block the sphere purpose strive with one 2d final that might have given the Denver Broncos a victory on Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium.
But Mahomes was comforted by means of one fact: The Chiefs this season had gained three different games on the closing play, so he didn’t close his thoughts to the opportunity.
“If all and sundry’s going to do it, this group’s going to have a designed rush or designed way to get a hand on it,” Mahomes said. “You’re obviously involved. It’s out of your manipulate, however on the equal time, I’ve relied on my teammates that they’re going to go out there and make a play.”
Sure enough, linebacker Leo Chenal got a hand on Wil Lutz’s 35-yard try, blocking it to present the Chiefs a 16-14 win and preserve their undefeated season. The Chiefs will take their nine-0 file to Buffalo for a sport against the Bills on Nov. 17.
The Chiefs weren’t surprised it was Chenal who got here up with the massive play. He blocked a factor-after-landing try in Super Bowl LVIII, a sport the Chiefs went directly to win in overtime.
In some approaches, Chenal stated, Sunday’s block changed into bigger with the end result of the sport relying on it.
“The moment is heavy,” he stated. “You sense the burden of the moment.”
He said the Chiefs crashed the center of Denver’s line thinking the Broncos might deliver a whole lot of interest to teammate Justin Reid, who become speeding from the threshold. Chenal became one in all a gang of Chiefs who broke through up the middle, and he blocked it with the palm of his left hand.
“A lot of instances they may exit there and leave openings down the middle,” Chenal stated. “We’ve been speaking approximately it for awhile and we did it in a huge second.”
Andy Reid, in his twenty sixth season as an NFL head instruct, stated he has in no way gained a sport with a blocked kick at the final play.
“We paintings on that block like loopy but it would not normally paintings like that,” Reid said.
Chenal, the Chiefs’ third-round draft pick in 2022, has crammed a variety of roles in Kansas City. In addition to gambling linebacker, he is covered up as a protecting lineman and as a blocker on offense.
Mahomes said Chenal is one of the strongest gamers on the Chiefs.
“You do not want to be that guy when he is running out,” Mahomes stated. “We call him John Cena.”
Chenal’s blocked kick did not hide the truth that the Broncos for a whole lot of the sport outplayed the Chiefs. Denver scored a landing early within the 2d area to take a 7-0 lead and held a bonus until Harrison Butker’s 1/3 field purpose of the sport positioned the Chiefs in advance sixteen-14 with six minutes left.
“We outplayed them,” Broncos train Sean Payton stated.
Mahomes did not disagree. The Chiefs performed two similar, low-scoring video games against the Broncos remaining season wherein they scored a complete of one touchdown and 28 points.
“They play extremely difficult,” Mahomes said. “They’re nicely coached. They do an awesome task of mixing coverages after which they make you execute at some point of the entire discipline.
“There are possibilities, however if you do not hit the ones, the drives stall out. They hold to play difficult and so that you’ve were given to execute on those possibilities so one can beat an excellent football crew. We failed to do this today and we were given fortunate and found a manner to get the win in the long run anyway.”
The Chiefs also had stroll-off wins this season towards the Baltimore Ravens in Week 1, Cincinnati Bengals in Week 2 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 9. Mahomes said the Chiefs would alternatively win all in their games in a extra cushty manner, but they’ll gladly undergo the extra drama to get the W.
“You live for those moments,” he stated. “When you grow up playing soccer, you stay for the stroll-off, anything it’s far.”
