ATLANTA — Patrick Mahomes is aware of he should get higher.
To not fear.
Because of a few stifling stands from Kansas Metropolis’s protection, the two-time reigning Tremendous Bowl champs are nonetheless unbeaten.
Mahomes shook off one other interception to throw a pair of landing passes and the Chiefs protection stopped Atlanta twice on fourth down within the closing minutes, preserving a 22-17 victory over the Falcons on Sunday evening.
“It helps when you’ve a protection that’s been in these moments earlier than and is ready to make these massive performs,” Mahomes stated. “It’s a crew sport and we’re successful video games and I really feel like we’re gonna begin getting higher and higher each week.”
The Chiefs (3-0) have been removed from excellent, that’s for positive — Mahomes factors to himself greater than anybody — however their file has remained unblemished by a mixed 13 factors.
Coming off an upset victory at Philadelphia, the Falcons (1-2) had a few photographs on the go-ahead landing within the closing minutes.
Kirk Cousins threw a pair of incompletions in the long run zone from the Chiefs 6 after the Falcons handed up a shot at a subject purpose with simply over 4 minute remaining.
Atlanta received the ball again, drove down the sector with assist from a few penalties, and had third-and-1 on the Kansas Metropolis 13. Tyler Allgeier was stuffed for no acquire and Bijan Robinson was thrown for a 3-yard loss by Nick Bolton on fourth down with lower than a minute remaining.
Bolton stated he acknowledged what play the Falcons have been working earlier than they snapped the ball.
“Belief my keys, belief my eyes, belief the play name we had,” he stated. “I already knew the place I used to be going.”
Mahomes threw for 217 yards, together with scoring throws to Rashee Rice and JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Harrison Butker booted three subject objectives for the Chiefs.
Cousins was 20 of 29 for 230 yards with a 13-yard landing cross to Drake London and a 50-yard completion to Kyle Pitts that arrange Robinson’s 1-yard scoring run.
“I really feel like we’ve left quite a lot of alternatives on the market on the sector,” Cousins stated. “I look ahead to getting higher.”
Using the momentum from their last-minute stunner at Philadelphia, the Falcons took the opening kickoff and shortly drove 70 yards for a landing.
Cousins accomplished all 5 of his passes for 66 yards, together with a 14-yard scoring toss to Drake London — who additionally caught the successful rating in opposition to the Eagles. London wound up on their lonesome in the long run zone on a busted protection by the Chiefs.
Mahomes bounced again from his fourth interception of the season to take Kansas Metropolis on a 13-play, 79-yard drive that ended with a 13-yard landing cross to Rice.
The Falcons reclaimed the lead on Robinson’s 1-yard landing run, which was arrange by Cousins’ 50-yard cross to Kyle Pitts.
However Atlanta’s offensive line took a pair of hits when proper deal with Kaleb McGary and middle Drew Dalman each went out with accidents. With a pair of backups becoming a member of their ranks, the fellows up from struggled to maintain the stress off Cousins, who was sacked twice and hit 10 extra instances as he threw, spending a lot of the evening selecting himself off the turf at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
A type of hits resulted in a wobbly cross that was picked off by Chamarri Conner, organising Butker’s 44-yard subject purpose that sliced the Falcons’ edge to 14-13 at halftime.
Butker put the Chiefs forward to remain on a 21-yard chip shot within the third quarter, and Kansas Metropolis stretched the lead on Mahomes’ 13-yard landing cross to Smith-Schuster late within the third quarter.
For the third sport in a row, Travis Kelce was not a lot of an element. The star tight finish had 4 catches for 30 yards.