Chiefs Clinch AFC West Division with Win Over Bengals
While the Kansas City Chiefs have not been the incredible team lately, they have been known for being the last few seasons, they were still able to claim an AFC West division title for the eighth season in a row with their 25-17 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Kansas City today. With this win the Chiefs improved to 10-6 on the season and currently sit third overall in the AFC standings. With this loss, the Bengals fall to a mediocre 8-8 on the season and have officially been eliminated from playoff contention. The Kansas City Chiefs will look to get one more win next week as they head to California to take on their divisional rival Los Angeles Chargers while the Bengals will head back to Cincinnati to take on the Cleveland Browns as they look forward to a fresh start next season with a hopefully healthy quarterback Joe Burrow. Let’s take a look at how the Chiefs won this game.
The Cincinnati Bengals would be the first team to score in this game as their offense was able to set up a 34-yard field goal attempt for kicker Evan McPherson which was good to make the score of the game 3-0 early. The Kansas City Chiefs would respond to this early score by Cincinnati with the first touchdown of the game as quarterback Patrick Mahomes connected with running back Isiah Pacheco for an 8-yard touchdown and after kicker Harrison Butker made the extra point the score of the game was 7-3 Kansas City.
The Bengals would score their first touchdown of the game when they got the ball back as quarterback Jake Browning connected with running back Joe Mixon for a 7-yard touchdown to put Cincinnati up 10-7. The Bengals would get the ball back sooner than expected as their defense was able to sack Mahomes and force him to fumble on Kansas City’s third play of their new drive. The fumble was forced by Cincinnati defensive end Trey Hendrickson and recovered by Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard. The Bengals' offense would be able to turn this great play by their defense into offense as Browning ran in the endzone for a 1-yard touchdown to put Cincinnati up 17-7. Unfortunately for the Bengals though these would be the last seven points they would score in the game. Butker would make two more field goals, one from 54 yards out and the other from 43 yards out, for Kansas City before halftime to make the score of the game 17-13 Cincinnati as both teams headed into the locker room.
The second half would consist of Cincinnati’s offense accomplishing absolutely nothing and Butker making field goal after field goal for the Chiefs as he made 27, 24, 48, and 46-yard field goals scoring twelve points for Kansas City combined between the third and fourth quarters of the game to put this game out of reach for Cincinnati and help the Chiefs win this one on a nice New Year’s Eve evening.
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes went twenty-one for twenty-nine on his pass attempts in the game, throwing for 245 yards and one touchdown. Running back Isiah Pacheco had eighteen carries for 130 yards and the Chiefs' only receiving touchdown in the game, while wide receiver Rashee Rice had five receptions for 127 yards. Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jake Browning completed nineteen of his thirty-three pass attempts in the game, finishing having thrown for 197 yards and one passing touchdown. He also had the Bengals only rushing touchdown in the game, while running back Joe Mixon had the Bengals only receiving touchdown in the game.
