Chiefs overcome lousy offense, keep rolling up wins

“It’s good to come out on top”.

The Chiefs were also 2 of 12 on third down, continuing a two-week trend in the wrong direction, and came up empty on three trips to the red zone – a recipe that usually results in defeat. They’ll never have an easy place to start than this game with the woeful 49ers, losers of seven in a row. Looking ahead, it will be hard for the Chiefs to win many games dragging their offense along for the ride, as they had to against the Panthers.

Santos booted his first career walk-off kick when his 37-yard field goal on the last play gave the Chiefs a 20-17 victory over the Carolina Panthers. Kudos to defensive coordinator Bob Sutton and his players. “No”, Reid said. “But neither are Picassos, so … you find beauty with it”. He tossed a short pass to Benjamin, who caught it even with Peters in coverage. But all those misses taught me a lot of things. “But he’s not a punter”.

He’s proving correct the pundits who said before the season that he didn’t deserve to be a tier-one quarterback. He spun a few times and reversed his field, eluding tacklers, and 42 yards later reached for a game-changing TD that made it 17-14.

It shouldn’t happen. But it did, and drives like it have happened too many times this season, enough that it feels like nearly a weekly day-after-the-game ritual to ask offensive coordinator Mike Shula about a sack Newton took that took the Panthers out of field goal position.

“You’re talking about two emotional guys”, Reid said of Kelce and Peters. “So I just tried to use their momentum against them”. “I should’ve made a play on that ball, too”. That isn’t including the number of times Newton has been sacked on other downs to take Carolina out of field goal range. Newton has 5 rushes for 44 yards with one touchdown and a long run of 28 yards. The Panthers are only allowing 3.4 yards per carry on the season and they clearly were keyed in on stopping the run. Kansas City limited him to 26 more on 11 carries after that. He totaled only 39 yards rushing, and generally when that happens the Panthers are on the losing end of the scoreboard as we witnessed yesterday.

“Coach kept calling my number”, Newton said.

I don’t want to beat a dead horse but how much more would Rod Streater be helping this offense with Maclin out compared to Albert Wilson? Both defenses stood tough and forced each team to punt on the next two possessions.

The most receiving yards by a Panthers wide receiver against the Chiefs was by Steve Smith, who racked up 120 yards in 2012. “I think every ref threw a flag on the play”.

CENTER OF ATTENTION: Keep an eye on the Panthers’ center situation.

When Andy Lee went down in the first quarter with a sore hamstring it left a huge hole in the team’s ability to control field position. “Even if you get the 15-yarder (penalty), you’re still defenseless to get teed-off on”.

Denver (+3) over NEW ORLEANS – Drew Brees over Trevor Siemian gives New Orleans a big edge at quarterback, but that is negated by the superiority of the Denver defense.

Kicker Graham Gano punted four times Sunday for a 45.0-yard average. Ajayi has rushed for 529 yards in those wins, and a similar effort here keeps the unsafe Philip Rivers on the sidelines for long stretches at a time.