The Early Years Tournament: Round 1, Heat 32.
 

This is the final heat of Round 1, and we have a couple of doozies here to decide between. Both games went to overtime before we beat down the opponent.

2020 - Week 2 - W 23-20 over LAC
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...2009200sdg.htm
Chiefs 1-0 / Chargers 1-0

Oh, I remember this game. To start with, it was the other team's quarterback's first start (Herbert). The witch doctor on the Chargers sideline apparently injected Tyrod Taylor with rancid monkey brains or something. Trivia: who got the first-ever interception of Justin Herbert? Answer: L'Jarius Sneed, at 8:20 of the highlights. At 3:58 you'll see a great bull rush by Chris Jones, even though the QB got away and ended up blasting Damien Wilson into another plane of existence (though Wilson somehow came back later). At 8:57 of the highlights you'll see one of the prettiest long-bomb Mahomes-to-Tyreek touchdowns ever to tie up the game. It was 54 yards of beauty. (Come for the touchdown, stay for the awesome two-point conversion.) In the third quarter, Butker kicked an impressive 58-yard field goal, and this is what is known in the business as foreshadowing. This was a pretty epic ending. The Chargers had a ten-minute drive, stopped by a goal-line stand and Taco Charlton sack, and they kicked a field goal to take the lead with a little over two minutes left. And speaking of Charlton, he was all over the field in perhaps his greatest game as a Chiefs. Anyway, back to the game, and you know what happens next. Mahomes marched the Chiefs downfield, including running for a first down on third and 20, and Butker tied it up as time expired. In overtime, the defense held and Mahomes got the ball back. Darwin Thompson made a critical 4th and 1 run to keep the drive going. The drive stalled and Butker kicked a 53-yard field goal to win the game, but wait! Penalty called on the Chiefs. So Butker kicked a 58-yard field goal to win the game, but wait! The Chargers called a time out. So Butker came back and kicked his third 58-yard field goal to win the game.

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2022 - Week 9 - W 20-17 over TEN
https://www.pro-football-reference.c...2211060kan.htm
Chiefs 5-2 / Titans 5-2

The Titans trotted Malik Willis out against us, and I bet they won't do that again. He ended up with 80 passing yards and lost 23 of that back in sacks, and 48 of his yards came on a tight end screen. They ran well with 172 yards rushing at 5+ ypc, but that translated into 9 total first downs. On our side of the ball, Patrick Mahomes rolled us up and down the field, producing 509 yards of offense (446 passing, 63 rushing). The leading yardage guys were Kelce (106), Juju (88), and Mecole (79). Setting aside Mahomes' effective rushing, our running backs produced 14 yards on 12 carries, so it was one of those types of game. On defense, Carlos Dunlap had 1.5 sacks, and Khalen Saunders was our leading tackler with 6, plus a huge overtime sack. And while it won't show up in the stats, Justin Reid made two touchdown-saving tackles by chasing guys down who were unfettered to the end zone. This was an oddly low-scoring game where we trailed at halftime and were trailing by 8 partway through the fourth quarter. But we have Mahomes, of course. He executed a great drive that included utter humilitation of some scrubby troublemaker named Jeffery Simmons by running by him to convert a 3rd and 17. Then he juked the Simmons guy out of his socks on a 13-yard touchdown run that tied it up. Haha, screw you, Simmons. Then Mahomes ran in the two-point conversion. We embarked on an incredibly long drive in overtime, and at 14:19 of the highlights, you'll see a fantastic play in overtime where Mahomes completely juked a pass rusher and launched a long ball that Noah Gray caught twice before hauling it in for a key 26 yard gain on third down. Butker had had a rough day with two missed kicks, so we went for a fourth and one and made it, then stalled and Butker came through for a field goal, of course. It was up to the defense, and Malik Willis didn't stand a chance The Chiefs defense actually pushed the Titans back from their 26 to their own 9 on the Titans' final drive, with two gang sacks on the confused rookie.

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This is a really tough heat. I thoroughly enjoyed Butker's heroics at the end of the Chargers game, and it was a great comeback win to teach Herbert that he'll never win his division. But the final drive against Tennessee was Mahomes taking over the game, including the two point conversion, and I enjoyed the defense overwhelming the Titans in overtime.

I'll go Titans, but it's really close.

What Butker did at the end of that Charger game was one of the most bad ass kicker moments in NFL history.