Four Chiefs games featured in NFL Network’s top 10 games of 2018

By NFL Network’s reckoning, the Chiefs played in three of the season’s best games

Four Kansas City Chiefs games from the 2018 season were re-aired on NFL Network over the weekend. Why? Because the network identified those four games among the top 10 games of the year.

Here are the games NFL Network picked:

10. New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins, Week 14

This is the game the Dolphins won 34-33 with the crazy double lateral play in the game’s final seconds. And yes, we’re going to look at it again.

Down 5 points, 7 seconds left, the Dolphins needed a double lateral and a miracle to beat the Patriots

THEY GOT IT

@MiamiDolphinspic.twitter.com/M0dN3nLrOU

— SB Nation (@SBNation) December 9, 2018

9. Los Angeles Chargers at Pittsburgh Steelers, Week 13

The Chargers took a 30-23 lead early in the fourth quarter, and then the Steelers to tied the game at 30 with four minutes remaining. Thanks to penalties against the Steelers, the Chargers got three shots at a game-winning field goal, and finally won 33-30 as time expired.

8. New England Patriots vs. Los Angeles Rams, Super Bowl

Tied 3-3 as the fourth quarter began, the Patriots ultimately prevailed after a 29-yard pass to Rob Gronkowski set up the only touchdown of the game. An interception by Stephon Gilmore on the next drive sealed the 13-3 victory.

7. Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys, Week 14

After trailing for the whole game, the Eagles tied it at 23 with 1:39 left. The Cowboys’ final drive was blunted by a sack administered by Fletcher Cox and Michael Bennett with :16 left. But in overtime, the Cowboys marched down the field and won 29-23 on a 15-yard touchdown pass to Amari Cooper.

6. Los Angeles Chargers at Kansas City Chiefs, Week 15

Ugh. The next week, it was the Chargers’ turn to trail for the whole game. After trailing by 14 in the first quarter, the Chargers kept coming, ultimately scoring a touchdown to cut the Chiefs’ lead to one point with just eight seconds remaining. The Chiefs defense failed to account for Mike Williams on the two-point conversion attempt, and the Chargers won 29-28.

5. Pittsburgh Steelers at New Orleans Saints, Week 16

This game went back and forth from the opening gun. The Saints took a 17-14 lead into the locker room at halftime after a field goal with just two seconds left in the first half. The Steelers fought back, taking a 28-24 lead with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter. The Saints went back in front 31-28 with 1:25 remaining, but the Steelers’ last drive sputtered when JuJu Smith-Schuster fumbled the ball with :41 left in the game.

4. Los Angeles Rams at New Orleans Saints, NFC Championship

This was a really good football game. But this is all anybody will ever remember from it.

The sequence on the #Saints sideline after the #Rams no-call pass interference that should've ended the game is heart wrenching. pic.twitter.com/mYJ2smOObZ

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 24, 2019

3. Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots, Week 6

Ugh... again. Trailing 24-9 at halftime, the Chiefs fought back in the second half, finally taking the lead for the first time halfway through the third quarter. The teams traded scoring drives until the Chiefs tied the score at 40 on a spectacular 75-yard pass from Patrick Mahomes to Tyreek Hill with just over three minutes remaining. But that’s seldom a good situation in which to find yourself at Gillette Stadium — and this was no exception. Tom Brady hit Rob Gronkowski for a 39-yard pass with :51 left, and a 28-yard field goal just before the gun gave the Patriots a 43-40 win.

2. Kansas City Chiefs at Los Angeles Rams, Week 11

If you want to view this game in a negative light, you’ll remember it as the only game in NFL history that a team scored 50 points and lost. Or you can choose to view it in a positive light, and remember that it’s the only game in NFL history where a quarterback threw three interceptions, fumbled twice and still threw six touchdown passes. The Chiefs lost this game 54-51 when Mahomes’ final interception ended the last Chiefs drive, but the millions across the country who watched this hugely-anticipated Monday night game are far more likely to remember Mahomes’ amazing performance than the final score.

1. New England Patriots at Kansas City Chiefs, AFC Championship

Just as they had at home in the regular season, the Patriots dominated the Chiefs in the first half, running out to a 14-0 lead as the second quarter began — and again, the Chiefs fought their way back, outscoring the Patriots 24-14 in the fourth quarter, and tying the game with a clutch 39-yard Harrison Butker field goal as time expired. In overtime — after losing the coin toss — the Chiefs defense simply couldn’t stop the Patriots. They drove down the field and scored a touchdown to win 37-31.

---

if you like exciting football games, this is a pretty good list for the season. Almost every one of these games was a high-scoring game with lots of drama at the end. The only real exception is the Patriots-Rams Super Bowl, which a lot of fans found to be boring. It’s not that low-scoring defensive struggles are inherently boring — they can actually be pretty exciting — but Super Bowl LIII was pretty much a snooze-fest.

There’s a good argument the Super Bowl game should have replaced by the Kansas City Chiefs—Baltimore Ravens game in Week 14. That game had it all: a fascinating quarterback matchup between two different kinds of quarterbacks, big turnovers, missed field goals and a nail-biting overtime. And oh, yeah... the Chiefs won 27-24 in overtime.

But that just wasn’t going to happen. Unless it’s a blowout, it’s hard not to include the Super Bowl in a list of the league’s top 10 games of the season. In addition, that would have given the Chiefs five games on the list, and the world champion Patriots just three. That’s not a good look for your Super Bowl winners.

Just the same, it’s very cool that the Chiefs were involved in so many great games. It’s indeed depressing that the team was 0-4 in them, but it’s not hard to imagine that with some improvement on the defensive side of the ball, the Chiefs could have won a couple of them — if not all of them.

So that’s the goal for 2019: to dominate the choices for the best games of the year. And win them.

from Arrowhead Pride - All Posts http://bit.ly/2DQx8nO