The Green Bay Packers have crashed the playoff picture in the NFC thanks to their 27-19 victory over the Chiefs on Sunday night. It's the Packers' third win in a row and fourth in five weeks, which has them at 6-6 and currently one of the wild card teams in the conference.
Matt LaFleur's team came out swinging against the defending champions as they scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of the evening. Jordan Love carried the momentum from his stellar outing on Thanksgiving in the win over Detroit with another strong performance. He completed his first nine passes of the night for 100 yards and a touchdown and was efficient throughout the game.
Love also came up in the clutch, particularly in the second half. On the team's first possession of the third quarter and facing a fourth-and-1 situation from the K.C. 44-yard line, LaFleur decided to keep his offense on the field and was rewarded with a 33-yard conversion by Romeo Doubs and eventual touchdown by Christian Watson to go up by two scores. That helped keep Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense at bay en route to the comeback.
Meanwhile, Kansas City struggled to get into much of a rhythm offensively, particularly at pushing the football down the field. They did, however, log back-to-back touchdown drives to get within two points of the Packers. Later in the fourth quarter, the defense then forced Green Bay to settle for a field goal giving the offense an opportunity to march down the field and take the lead for the first time all night, but Mahomes threw an interception to corner Keisean Nixon that led to an field goal that extended the lead to eight, which helped put the game on ice.
Love finished 25 of 36 passing for 267 yards and three touchdowns. Watson was the most targeted receiver on the night, seeing nine throws from Love and catching seven for 71 yards and two touchdowns. Mahomes completed 21 of his 33 passes for 210 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Isiah Pacheco -- who was ejected from the game for a late penalty -- finished with 110 rushing yards and a touchdown in the loss.
For a more detailed breakdown of how this game unfolded, check out our takeaways below.
Green Bay took control of the game from the opening kickoff. They put together back-to-back 75-yard touchdown drives while the defense kept the Chiefs out of the end zone and settled for field goals during that same stretch. Even when they were unable to put up points in the first half, the special teams unit came up clutch and downed the ball at the K.C. 3-yard line to eliminate any last-second scoring. It was about as pristine of an opening half that Matt LaFleur could've asked for, and his Packers followed it up with some clutch play in the second half.
They converted a monumental fourth-and-1 attempt in the third quarter (more on that below) that led to a touchdown drive and kept the Chiefs at an arm's distance as they started to push for a comeback. Defensively, Keisean Nixon picked off Mahomes, which came right after the Chiefs moved into Green Bay territory and trailing by five. That turnover helped eliminate what could've been a scoring opportunity for K.C. to take the lead and helped them chew off key time remaining in regulation.
The offense continues to look a bit lost. They sputtered out on back-to-back red zone trips to begin the game and had to settle for field goals while the Packers were marching down the field and converting for touchdowns. That set them up playing from behind for the entirety of the game. Specifically, the offense seemed to struggle to push the ball down the field as most of Mahomes attempts were at or around the line of scrimmage. One key instance where the deep passing game failed K.C. was on a missed connection between Mahomes and Marquez Valdes-Scantling in the fourth quarter. Valdes-Scantling was open down the field but got turned around on the ball from Mahomes and what would've been a big game simply fell incomplete and helped result in a three-and-out for the Chiefs at arguably one of the most critical moments in the game.
Even on the interception by Mahomes, Skyy Moore seemed to slow down while running his route, which opened the door for Nixon to make the key turnover.
That lack of cohesion remains one of the biggest questions in Kansas City's hopes to repeat.
It was a gutsy call by LaFleur to keep his offense on the field, but it proved to be the right decision. The Chiefs had just opened the second half with a 75-yard touchdown drive to pull within two points of the Packers. Instead of giving the ball back to a Mahomes-led offense that was starting to find its rhythm, Green Bay stayed on the field and Love somehow was able to find Romeo Doubs for a 33-yard gain that not only moved the chains but put the Packers inside the red zone.
Carrying the momentum from that conversion from Doubs was a stellar touchdown catch by Christian Watson. He extended over his defender, spun back toward the line of scrimmage, and was somehow able to get both feet in bounds for the score. Not only was it a great reception by Watson, but the touchdown also pushed Green Bay's lead to two possessions.
From here, the Packers will be in prime time once again as they head out on the road for a "Monday Night Football" matchup against the New York Giants to wrap up Week 14. As for the Chiefs, they'll be back at Arrowhead Stadium where they'll await the Buffalo Bills.
Packers play the Giants next week on Monday Night Football, then they get the Bucs, Panthers, Vikings, and Bears down the stretch. Chiefs play the Bills next week, then Patriots, Raiders, Bengals, and Chargers.
That'll do it. 27-19 Packers. Green Bay improves to 6-6 and keeps pace in the NFC wild card race. Kansas City drops to 8-4 and loses control of the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
And now it looked like MVS was going backward when he went out of bounds here. The clock should probably be running. The officials are not covering themselves in glory here.
On the other hand, that definitely looked like pass interference. Basically tackled MVS just before the ball got there.
I think this is going to come back because Rice looked like he was down.
That... does not look like it should have been a flag. Mahomes was still inbounds.
There's the kick and now it's an 8-point lead. Chiefs need a touchdown and 2-point conversion to tie the game.
That is a BAD sack for Jordan Love to take. The Packers can still go up by 8 here, but it's a deep kick now. Stopping the clock would have been bad, too, but if they miss here, the Chiefs will have a short field.
Oh no. I thought Christian Watson was going down to keep the clock running but it looks like he's hurt.
Green Bay's receivers have done a really good job creating yards after the catch. 3.06 yards after catch per reception, according to Tru Media.
...and then KeiSean Nixon comes away with a pick on Mahomes. Wow. Really not a good throw at all.
The call came late but that was definitely pass interference. Corey Ballentine had a full grab on Rice's arm.
Green Bay kicking a field goal to go up by 5 points is the kind of thing that would normally be considered extremely dangerous against the Chiefs. It hasn't necessarily been that way this year, but we'll see what happens here.
Love fired that one in there to Malik Heath but it ended in a drop. AJ Dillon made up for it, though. Packers are on the move deep in Chiefs territory.
MVS got turned around by that deep ball. That needs to be caught.
Christian Watson is following up his breakout game last week with another big performance. He went 7-94-1 on Thanksgiving and has 6-61-2 tonight.
Nice design on that touchdown. It looked like a pick route for Kelce to get open over the middle, but Noah Gray snapped his route off to turn back inside and caught the score.
The Chiefs tried to go to one of their classic fancy low red zone plays and it almost ended in disaster.
Kansas City is at least making an effort to get Rashee Rice more involved. It's almost all screens and not in the flow of the offense, but they need the juice he brings as an after-catch creator.
CHRISTIAN WATSON!!!!! He just Mossed Joshua Williams in the back of the end zone.
It looked like a few Chiefs had a chance to either intercept that ball or at least knock it out of the air, but it landed right in the arms of Romeo Doubs.
WOAH! What a conversion from the Packers on fourth-and-1.
Now KC has lost Drue Tranquil and Bryan Cook. The defense has been excellent this season but is now losing some key players.
Cart's coming out for Chiefs safety Bryan Cook.
