Monday Night Football: Chiefs survive with 20-17 victory over Giants

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The Kansas City Chiefs still don’t look anything near the juggernaut they’ve been in recent seasons, but they did just enough to escape with a win over the New York Giants on Monday night.

A 34-yard field goal by Harrison Butker with 1:07 remaining lifted the Chiefs to a crucial 20-17 victory over the Giants.

With the game tied at 17-17 with 4:41 left to play, Patrick Mahomes began a drive for the go-ahead score for the Chiefs. After a mostly quiet night otherwise, Travis Kelce caught a 14-yard pass from Mahomes that moved the Chiefs across midfield when Tae Crowder was called for a phantom facemask penalty. A 24-yard tap pass from Mahomes to Mecole Hardman took the Chiefs down to the Giants 9-yard line with just over three minutes remaining.

Keion Crossen sacked Mahomes to force a field goal try and Butker’s field goal gave the Chiefs the lead.

The Giants last chance was convincingly thwarted by the Chiefs with Chris Jones and Frank Clark each notching sacks of Daniel Jones to seal away the victory.

Mahomes wasn’t brilliant against the Giants but managed to do enough to get the job done. He completed 29 of 48 passes for 275 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

A 6-yard touchdown pass from Mahomes to Tyreek Hill gave Kansas City the early 7-0 lead. Hill was the only player to have a big night offensively for Kansas City, catching 12 passes for 94 yards and a touchdown.

Kyle Rudolph‘s 1-yard touchdown from Jones got the Giants on the board in the second quarter and evened the game at 7-7.

Derrick Gore scored on a 3-yard touchdown run to put Kansas City back in front with 6:37 left in the half. The advantage would remain in the Chiefs’ favor into the break as Graham Gano‘s 23-yard field goal for New York could only cut the deficit to 14-10 at the half.

A 5-yard touchdown pass form Jones to Evan Engram gave the Giants their first and only lead of the night at 17-14 seven seconds into the fourth quarter. However, the Chiefs would put together consecutive scoring drives as Butker delivered field goals of 36 and 34 yards to put the Chiefs back out in front for good.

Jones completed 22 of 32 passes for 222 yards with two touchdowns and an interception for the Giants. Jones had to deal with a depleted receiving corps as Sterling Shepard and Dante Pettis both were knocked from the game with injuries. Kadarius Toney also was sidelined due to a thumb injury before returning to the contest in the fourth quarter.