KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Aidan O'Connell was scanning the field, eyeing the Kansas City Chiefs' defense for any clues to the coverage and pressure he would see on the pivotal upcoming snap.
The Las Vegas Raiders' quarterback lifted his right leg as he waited for wide receiver Jakobi Meyers to get set with 16 seconds left on the fourth-quarter clock Friday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
It was third-and-3 at the Chiefs' 32-yard line, close enough for a go-ahead field-goal try but the Raiders wanted to run a few more seconds off the clock before sending Daniel Carlson out to try and win it.
Instead, Jackson Powers-Johnson snapped the ball when O'Connell wasn’t looking. It caromed off his right arm and bounced free on the Arrowhead grass.
“I’m pretty sure he was trying to make a pre-snap check to one of his wideouts," linebacker Nick Bolton said. "They seemed to have some kind of miscommunication and hiked the ball early. The ball kind of fell on the ground. The quarterback fell on it. It kind of squirted out the back by his feet. I was in the right place at the right time and got the ball.”
Bolton, who finished with a game-high 11 tackles, won the battle for the loose ball, which allowed Kansas City to escape with a 19-17 victory.
O'Connell — who returned from injured reserve and replaced Gardner Minshew, who suffered a broken collarbone last week, in the starting lineup — took blame for the fateful sequence.
"I started clapping in my head to signal the ball and get the ball, but when I start clapping that tells Jackson to snap the ball," he said. "Jackson did exactly what he should’ve done. I clapped too early. It’s just how the football bounces sometimes. It didn’t go our way. Super tough, but there’s nobody to blame but myself. That’s the hardest part to swallow."
Officials huddled for several minutes to discuss a penalty — it wound up being an illegal shift that was declined — before awarding the Chiefs possession for a kneeldown to end it.
“I thought it was an illegal shift or illegal formation maybe,” Bolton said. “I didn’t think we were offside. I didn’t think we jumped the snap early because it was a botched snap. Honestly, I knew we had the ball pretty much, just had to wait on them for confirmation.”
Defensive tackle Chris Jones, who had two sacks and finished with six tackles, gave Chiefs Kingdom an assist for the game-deciding play.
“Listen, I praise the crowd, man — a lot of crowd noise,” he said.
Jones was never worried about the referees' powwow.
“I was talking with I think the side judge and he was like, ‘You all are going to have the ball,’ and I was like, ‘It’s over,’” Jones said.
CHIEFS CLINCH 10TH STRAIGHT POSTSEASON BERTH
The win guarantees the Chiefs (11-1) a spot in the playoffs, even if the five-game November slate — an overtime win against Tampa Bay, beating Denver on a blocked field goal, losing at Buffalo and beating Carolina on a last-second field goal before Friday's win — has felt like a slog.
“You’ve just got to find a way to win,” Bolton said. “I’m happy we’re 11-1, but there’s a lot of stuff to clean up.”
It's the 10th straight season Kansas City has reached the postseason, extending a franchise record.
The Chiefs' only other streak of more than two consecutive playoff berths came under the late Marty Schottenheimer, who led the club to six straight postseason appearances from 1990-95.
DEFENSE COMES THROUGH LATE, PART I
The Raiders blew an earlier chance to take the lead when Daniel Carlson's 58-yard go-ahead field-goal try skipped off the "H" in Chiefs in the GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
The ball had knuckled off Carlson's foot and never reached the height of a typical NFL kick as it came up well short and left of the uprights before rolling harmlessly out of bounds.
Defensive end George Karlaftis and safety Justin Reid batted down O’Connell passes on back-to-back snaps, stunting the Raiders’ momentum and forcing the long field-goal try.
HO-HUM HOLIDAY RESULTS
Justin Reid stumbled and fell at the 25-yard line, giving him the best (or worst, depending on your perspective) view of Tre Tucker’s 58-yard touchdown catch and run on the opening play of the fourth quarter.
The Chiefs suddenly found themselves in a familiarly uncomfortable position, trailing the rival Raiders in a holiday game at Arrowhead.
The extra point provided Las Vegas' first lead of the day, which proved short-lived when Kansas City answered with a short Matthew Wright field goal midway through the fourth quarter.
But the Chiefs' red-zone struggles and offensive-tackle issues prevented stretching the lead any further, but it was still preferable to the Raiders' last visit — a 20-14 win on Christmas Day last season.
Kansas City has won eight straight at home since the shock to Las Vegas, which entered Friday’s game 2-9 overall and riding a seven-game losing streak. It's now eight games, but barely.
The Raiders were 6-8 entering that Christmas Day 2023 loss.
RUN-GAME RUT
The Chiefs only had eight carries for 10 yards in the first half, but Isiah Pacheco finally popped off early in the second half.
Making his first appearance since Week 2, when he suffered a broken leg near his ankle against Cincinnati, Pacheco burst through the line for a 34-yard gain — a rare highlight on the ground for Kansas City.
Any notion that the Chiefs’ run game would be overpowering with Pacheco back alongside Kareem Hunt in the running back stable disappeared against a Raiders rushing defense that is good but hardly dominant.
Pacheco finished with seven carries for 44 yards in his return and Hunt managed only 15 yards on seven carries, leaving the heavy lifting to a passing game that allowed five sacks for the second straight week.
Kansas City finished with 16 carries for 63 yards, while Patrick Mahomes finished 26 of 46 for 306 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.
“We weren’t doing too good with it,” Andy Reid said of the running game. “They were bringing an extra guy, so I felt like we were better off with the short passing game, which was working. We were going up and down the field; we just weren’t doing very good in the red zone.”
The Chiefs only scored a touchdown on one of its five trips inside the Las Vegas 20-yard line.
JONES ENDS TWO-MONTH SACK DROUGHT
The CEO of Sack Nation, defensive tackle Chris Jones, had gone two months without a sack, but that drought ended early in the second quarter.
The Raiders had driven into the red zone, before Jones tracked down Aidan O’Connell from behind for a third-down sack that forced a game-tying field-goal try.
Jones sacked Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson in the season opener and corralled Justin Herbert twice in a Sept. 29 win at the Los Angeles Chargers, but he’d gone seven straight games without a sack in the two months since.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying. Jones led Kansas City with 26 pressures and 14 hurries on the season, ranking second with nine knockdowns behind only George Karlaftis.
Jones took sacks broke a tie with Justin Houston on the Chiefs' all-time list. He now stands alone in fourth place with 80/5 career sacks — trailing Derrick Thomas (126.5), Tamba Hali (89.5) and Neil Smith (86.5).
WILLIAMS STEPS IN AT CB
With Jaylen Watson on injured reserve and Nazeeh Johnson struggling, Joshua Williams took over as the Chiefs' second cornerback.
Williams, who started a Week 9 game against Tampa Bay, has appeared in 52 career games, including the playoffs with seven starts.
Kansas City picked five defensive backs — Williams, Watson, Johnson, cornerback Trent McDuffie and safety Bryan Cook — in the 2022 draft.
THE WRIGHT STUFF
Matthew Wright capped Kansas City’s first drive with a 25-yard field goal, but Andy Reid opted against having him give it a go from 56 yards out on the second drive.
Wright came up well short on a 59-yard attempt on the final play of the first half, but he delivered the Chiefs' first two-score lead with a 42-yard field goal midway through the third quarter.
In fairness, Wright had connected on a career-long 59-yard boot two years ago when he filled in for Harrison Butker during the 2022 season.
He added a 35-yard field goal late in the third quarter and, after Kansas City blew a 10-point second-half lead, put the Chiefs back in front with a 32-yard field goal at the 9:53 mark in the fourth quarter.
This time, Wright was filling in for Spencer Shrader, who was ruled out with a hamstring injury. Shrader kicked the last two weeks in place of Butker, who had surgery on his left knee to repair a meniscus tear.
UP NEXT
Kansas City has one of its last two home games next week.
The Chiefs, who finish with three of four games on the road, host another division opponent, the Los Angeles Chargers (7-4), on Sunday Night Football.
Kansas City will take no worse than a three-game lead into the 7:20 p.m. kickoff on Dec. 8 and may have a chance to sew up a ninth straight AFC West crown with a win, depending on the rest of the Week 13 results.
“The guys get a little bit of rest here, which is a good thing coming off the short week,” Andy Reid said.
WAS TAYLOR SWIFT AT THE GAME?
Taylor Swift kept up her perfect attendance for Chiefs home games this season.
With The Eras Tour on hiatus until it wraps up with three shows Dec. 6-8 in Vancouver, Swift arrived in a flowy red quarter-zip with black pants alongside Donna Kelce for the Black Friday showdown against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Swift started dating Travis Kelce, Donna’s son, last summer and has attended all of the Chiefs’ home games this season — including wins against Baltimore, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Tampa Bay and Denver before the Vegas game.
She has yet to appear at a road game in 2024.
Donna Kelce makes an appearance in the forthcoming Hallmark movie, “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story,” which premieres Saturday night in Kansas City.
The Chiefs are 16-3 during the last two seasons with Swift in attendance, including a 11-game win streak dating back to late last season.
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