Third-down struggles help sink Chiefs late in loss to Bengals

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As Patrick Mahomes limped to the sideline and slammed his helmet on the turf, Harrison Butker trotted onto the field with 3 1/2 minutes left in the Kansas City Chiefs’ 27-24 loss Sunday against the Bengals at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.

Chiefs coach Andy Reid wasn’t in the mood to gamble on fourth-and-7, preferring instead to gamble on a 55-yard field goal try.

“I thought we had a chance to make the field goal,” Reid said

A chance? Sure, but the snap was low and Butker, who had been perfect on three tries from 50-plus yards this season, pushed the attempt wide right.

The next time Mahomes saw the field was to hug and congratulate his counterpart, Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow, on a third win against Kansas City this calendar year.

“That’s within his range,” Reid said. “We’ve got to get the combination of the snap a little higher and the kick a little stronger and you’ve got a good thing going, but it didn’t happen.”

Reid said after the game that Mahomes’ foot injury didn’t play a role in the fourth-down decision.

“No, he’s OK; he was alright,” Reid said.

Mahomes didn’t quibble — at least not publicly — with the decision, which analytics say hurt the Chiefs’ chances to beat the Bengals.

“I’m ready for whatever coach decides,” Mahomes said. “If we want to kick the field goal, I believe we have one of the best kickers in the league. I’m going to give him a chance to kick the field goal.”

It’s fair to question whether Reid should have had more faith in a slightly hobbled Mahomes or a struggling Buker, who missed four weeks early in the season and is enduring the worst season of his NFL career.

But the reality is that it was a series of key third downs late in the fourth quarter that arguably mattered more than Reid’s final fourth-down choice.

Facing a three-man Bengals rush on the snap before Butker’s miss, left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. set too deep and whiffed when he reached to block defensive end Joseph Ossai.

Mahomes made Ossai miss on the first pass and started to scramble, but Brown never re-engaged Ossai, who chased the Chiefs’ QB down from behind for a 4-yard sack.

Third-and-3 suddenly became fourth-and-7 with protection issues, which almost certainly weighed into Reid’s thought process.

“We had a third down on the offensive side that we had a chance to fix, and we didn’t do a good job on that either,” Reid said.

Kansas City still had a chance if its defense could stop Cincinnati, which tried to help the Chiefs with some odd playcalling.

But the defense wasn’t up to the task — or perhaps the Bengals are just better.

Facing third-on-5 on the ensuing drive with nearly 3 minutes left, Burrow flipped a quick pass to Ja’Marr Chase in the flats, where he made safety Juan Thornhill miss and cornerback Trent McDuffie wasn’t able to bring him down before he reached the sticks.

Facing third-and-11 on the first play after the two-minute warning, Tee Higgins beat rookie cornerback Joshua Williams on a slant.

With Chris Jones collapsing the pocket to his left and Mike Danna bearing down from his right, Burrow hung in the pocket and delivered a strike for a 14-yard gain to ice the game.

"I changed the play call probably three times and, ultimately, that’s as simple as a play as it gets," Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. "It’s whether or not our guys go win one-on-ones, and that’s what they did."

Those were hard lessons for McDuffie, a first-round pick last April, and Williams, a fourth-pick last April, to learn, but they also helped deliver a Cincinnati win and snapped Kansas City’s five-game win streak.

“They competed, and they’re going to be better from that,” Reid said. “This game here, they’ll be better for it and they can learn from this. It’s very important that we learn from this game as a team and for those young guys.”

That’s always the hope, and the Chiefs still have a decent chance to secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC, and with it a Wild Card weekend bye.

But it’ll take better performances on third down, gutsy decisions on fourth down or, at the very least, a return to form for Butker.

“We paid Butker, and we have one of the best kickers in the league,” Mahomes said. “We trust in him in those moments, and he’s made a lot of big kicks. This one didn’t go our way, but if we’re in that moment again, I trust that he’ll make it.”

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