ATLANTA — Patrick Mahomes completed 26 of 39 passes for 217 yards to go along with two touchdowns and an interception as the Kansas City Chiefs escaped with a 22-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday night.
Carson Steele ran for 72 yards as the Chiefs (3-0) won their third one-score game to begin the season. Rashee Rice hauled in 12 receptions for 110 yards and a touchdown.
Kirk Cousins completed 20 of 29 passes for 230 yards and a touchdown for Atlanta (1-2). He was also intercepted once. Drake London caught six passes for a team-high 67 yards and a touchdown.
After trailing 14-13 at halftime, the Chiefs marched to the Falcons 1-yard line on the opening possession of the second half but were forced to settle for Harrison Butker’s 21-yard field goal with 9:40 remaining in the third quarter.
Mahomes later extended the Kansas City lead to 22-14 when he capped an 11-play, 80-yard drive with a 13-yard scoring strike to JuJu Smith-Schuster with 1:16 to go in the third. Butker missed the ensuing extra-point attempt.
Younghoe Koo’s 54-yard field goal on the next possession cut Atlanta’s deficit to 22-17 with 12:52 left in the game.
Following a Kansas City punt, the Falcons went on a 15-play, 83-yard drive, but they came up short of the end zone after back-to-back incompletions from the Chiefs 6-yard line and turned the ball over on downs.
Atlanta worked down to the Kansas City 13 on its last drive of the game, and on fourth-and-1, Bijan Robinson was stuffed for a loss of 3 yards to give the ball back to the Chiefs with 51 seconds remaining.
Cousins found London for a 14-yard score with 11:07 left in the first quarter, and Kansas City didn’t answer until there was 8:45 remaining in the second, tying things at 7 on Rice’s 13-yard touchdown reception.
Robinson rushed into the end zone from 1 yard out to put the Falcons up 14-7 with 6:37 left in the first half.
Two field goals from Butker — from 53 and 44 yards out — in the final 2:43 of the half got the visitors within 14-13 at the break.
–Jack Batten, Field Level Media
