Joe Burrow passed for 286 yards and two touchdowns and also rushed for a score to lead the Cincinnati Bengals to a 27-24 victory over the visiting Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.
Chris Evans caught the go-ahead 8-yard touchdown pass with 8:54 remaining as Burrow outdueled Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes for the third time in 11-plus months. Cincinnati beat Kansas City 34-31 in the regular season last January and notched a 27-24 overtime victory in the AFC Championship Game four weeks later.
Samaje Perine rushed for 106 yards while Tee Higgins also caught a touchdown pass for the Bengals (8-4), who won their fourth straight game and eighth in their past 10. Ja’Marr Chase had seven receptions for 97 yards after missing the previous four games due to a hip injury.
Mahomes was 16-of-27 passing for 223 yards and one touchdown for the Chiefs (9-3), who had a five-game winning streak halted. Travis Kelce had just four receptions for 56 yards and lost a fumble prior to the Bengals’ decisive score.
Isiah Pacheco rushed for a touchdown and Jerick McKinnon had a scoring reception for Kansas City.
Cincinnati has won seven of its past eight games against Kansas City, counting the postseason.
Bengals running back Joe Mixon (concussion) missed his second straight game.
Kansas City opened the second half with a seven-play, 77-yard drive to take the lead for the first time at 17-14. Pacheco ended the excursion with an 8-yard run.
Evan McPherson booted a 36-yarder midway through the quarter to tie the score. But the Chiefs went back ahead at 24-17 on a 3-yard, fourth-down scamper by Mahomes with 3:49 left as the quarterback was ruled to have broken the plane of the goal line with the football before losing it due to a hit from Cam Taylor-Britt.
McPherson tacked on a field goal 13 seconds into the fourth quarter to cut Kansas City’s lead to four.
Kelce was stripped of the football by Cincinnati’s Germaine Pratt on the Chiefs’ next drive and Pratt also recovered it. That set up a 10-play, 53-yard drive in which Burrow hit the wide-open Evans with the 8-yard scoring pass to give the Bengals the 27-24 lead.
Kansas City stalled on its next drive and Harrison Butker’s 55-yard field-goal attempt was wide right with 3:19 to play.
With just under two minutes remaining, Burrow teamed with Higgins for a 14-yard completion on third-and-11 to seal it.
Earlier, Burrow scored the game’s first touchdown on a 4-yard run with 8:49 left in the first quarter. The Chiefs got on the board on Butker’s 26-yard field goal with 3:56 left in the period.
Cincinnati increased its lead to 14-3 on Burrow’s 12-yard scoring pass to Higgins with 13:33 left in the half. McKinnon scored from the 2 as the Chiefs moved within four with 2:23 remaining.
–Field Level Media