By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Chiefs closed out the regular season in a shootout, falling to the Las Vegas Raiders 14-12 in what potentially could have been the final game of tight end Travis Kelce’s career.
In the loss, Kelce did hit another milestone in his illustrious and more than likely future Hall of Fame career, eclipsing 13,000 receiving yards, becoming the fastest to reach the mark and just the third tight end ever to achieve the milestone, joining former Chief Tony Gonzalez and legendary Cowboys tight end Jason Witten.
The game itself consisted of field goals, and a safety for both teams, with Daniel Carlson, a pending free agent, knocking through a game winning kick that might have earned himself a contract either with the Raiders or another NFL team.
Carlson made a career-long 60-yard field goal with eight seconds left to give Las Vegas the victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday and end the Raiders’ 10-game losing streak. His previous long was 57 yards. Carlson and Harrison Butker each made four field goals, with Butker hitting a 41-yarder with 1:01 left to give the Chiefs a short-lived 12-11 lead.
Butker’s 36 yard field goal in the opening quarter gave the Chiefs an initial lead, before Carlson hit field goals of 32 and 23 yards before halftime to give the Raiders a 6-3 lead at the break. Butker tied the game in the third quarter with 40 yard field goal, but in the fourth Carlson gave Las Vegas the lead again on a 55 yard field goal, a lead that was eventually extended as Shane Buechele was sacked in the endzone by Tyree Wilson for a safety. Butker knocked through a 47 yard field goal to cut the lead to two, before hitting the go ahead field goal later in the fourth.
Chris Oladokun started for the Chiefs and completed 11 of 17 passes for 58 yards before giving way to Buechele in the second half who was 7 of 14 for 88 yards. Brashard Smith carried the ball 12 times for 56 yards, while Hollywood Brown was the leading receiver with three cathches for 64 yards. Noah Gray had three catches as well for 30 yards, while Kareem Hunt had three catches for 21 yards, and Kelce had three catches for 12 yards. Chris Jones recorded two sacks to give him 86 1/2 for third most in Chiefs history.
The Chiefs finish the season 6-11, their first losing season since 2012. With the season wrapped up attention will turn to the NFL Draft being held in Pittsburgh at the end of April, where Kansas City will pick ninth, their highest pick since 2017, when they traded up to pick 10 and took Patrick Mahomes.
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