Patrick Mahomes fired a short pass to tight end Travis Kelce, who ran for 34 yards to end the game in overtime.
In a game defined by calculated risks, the one decision exempt from debate is Kansas City linebacker Melvin Ingram’s coin-toss choice. Ingram selected tails as his team and the Los Angeles Chargers prepared for overtime, with the score 28-28. The coin landed tails-side-up on the artificial turf at SoFi Stadium, giving Kansas City the ball. Six plays later, Travis Kelce scored a walk-off touchdown, a result that allowed Kansas City to win,34-28, and prevented Chargers coach Brandon Staley from perhaps finally winning an aggressive gamble. “My hat goes off to Melvin Ingram,” Kansas City Coach Andy Reid said with a smile at a postgame news conference. Kelce’s overtime touchdown came from a short pass Patrick Mahomes fired on an in-breaking route. After catching it, Kelce repositioned his body and then sprinted down the field 34 yards, weaving through defenders as his teammates blocked for him. Victory in hand, he lifted his arms in a celebratory shrug motion. Ingram’s luck, Kelce’s score, and second-half bursts from Mahomes and Tyreek Hill solidified Kansas City (10-4) at the top of the A.F.C. West, and also propelled them to a seventh consecutive win. For the Chargers (8-6), it raises questions about the team’s play-calling philosophy. Instead of kicking modest field goals, Staley elected to go for it five times on fourth down, converting only two of them. Had they made a field goal in even one of those instances, the Chargers very likely would have won. “That’s going to be the mind-set no matter who we play,” Staley said. “I felt really comfortable with all of those decisions.” For Kansas City, the defensive showing highlighted a resurgence for the unit that had been one of the N.F.L.’s worst in the first half of the season. At 3-4 through Week 7, the defense on average surrendered 404 yards a game, putting the offense in precarious spots that forced Mahomes to take unneeded risks. But it rebounded, and entering Thursday’s game, Kansas City had not allowed an opponent to score more than 20 points during its streak. Los Angeles presented a true barometer, though, as some of the opponents during that stretch — the Giants, Broncos and Raiders — were clearly worse teams, and the Packers and Cowboys played short-handed with key players unavailable.
