Patrick Mahomes passed for 462 yards and three touchdowns as the defending Super Bowl champion and MVP beat six-time winner Tom Brady, who had 345 yards through the air, with three TDs and two interceptions
Monday 30 November 2020 07:31, UK
Tyreek Hill had 269 receiving yards and three touchdowns - topping 200 and scoring two TDs in the first quarter alone - as the Kansas City Chiefs got off to a flier in a 27-24 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Patrick Mahomes passed for 462 yards, as well as tossing those three touchdowns to Hill, as he got the better of Tom Brady in a battle between the defending Super Bowl champion and MVP and the six-time winner.
Mahomes and Hill got Kansas City off to a stunning start, connecting on scores of 75 and 44 yards in the first quarter. Hill's yardage was the most in the first period of a game since 2006 when Lee Evans generated 205 yards for the Buffalo Bills.
The Chiefs looked like they were about to add to their 17-0 lead early in the second quarter after driving down to the Tampa Bay eight-yard line, only to commit their first redzone turnover in 17 games - a fumble by Mahomes.
The Bucs then converted William Gholston's recovery of the sack-and-strip into an 86-yard touchdown drive, ending with Brady throwing a 37-yard touchdown pass to Ronald Jones, who escaped free down the left sideline.
Brady finished the game with 345 yards and three touchdowns, but the 43-year-old also tossed two costly interceptions on back-to-back drives in the third quarter.
The two teams had traded field goals either side of half-time to make it 20-10 to the Chiefs, who then went up 17 when Hill ran in his third touchdown of a special night on a 20-yard grab.
Brady's back-to-back pics - to Bashaud Breeland and Tyrann Mathieu - looked to have all but ended the contest, but an increasingly conservative approach from Kansas City on offence kept Tampa Bay alive.
Brady bounced back from the interceptions with a bold fourth-down score to Mike Evans with 12:44 left on the clock. He then found his receiver again for a seven yards score that pulled the Bucs to within three of the Chiefs with just over four minutes remaining.
But, fittingly, on the subsequent series, it was Hill who snagged a game-clinching eight-yard pass on the boundary for a first down that enabled Kansas City to run out the rest of the clock.
The Chiefs (10-1) have now won six-straight games as they continue to track the front-running Pittsburgh Steelers (10-0) for the top seed in the AFC playoffs. The Bucs (7-5), meanwhile, have dropped a third in four to see them precariously hanging on to a Wild Card berth in the NFC.
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