The Falcons keep the train rolling in AFC play with a date against the Kansas City Chiefs before the bye week. These teams have not met each other often due to the difference in conferences, but in the games where they have faced off, KC has often come out on top with an 8-3 advantage in the head to head record.
The matchups have been more balanced in recent years, but in the early days KC always came out on top, winning the first four matchups, the latter three of those by double digits. These teams
only met those four times over a 28 year period between 1972 and 1999.
In 2000, the Falcons finally registered their first victory against the Chiefs, doing it behind Chris Chandler in a quarterback matchup against Elvis Grbac, whose one passing touchdown in the game went to a young Tony Gonzalez. The Chiefs got revenge and then some in the next meeting, in 2004, securing a 56-10 victory in a game where Priest Holmes and Derrick Blaylock each had four rushing touchdowns.
Atlanta finally started settling some scores behind Matt Ryan, who led the Birds to blowout wins in 2008 and 2012, but recent history has things looking a lot more like pre-2000 with three consecutive wins for a Chiefs team that has built a dynasty since their last defeat to Atlanta.
When these teams met last
The Kansas City Chiefs were the best team in the league, coming off of back to back Super Bowl titles and on the hunt for a three peat when they went to Atlanta for a date on Sunday Night Football. The upstart Falcons were in the midst of Raheem Morris’ first season at the helm and had new quarterback Kirk Cousins leading them.
Things got off to a perfect start for the Falcons when Cousins connected with Drake London for an opening drive touchdown. Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs on a methodical 17-play drive which ate up over eight minutes, but he was then intercepted by Justin Simmons (who made a habit of picking off Mahomes in his career) in the red zone.
The Chiefs and Falcons traded touchdowns to begin the second quarter before Atlanta’s offense went quiet. Atlanta’s next three drives were a 3 and out, interception and another 3 and out as KC kicked three field goals and found the end zone via a Juju Smith-Schuster touchdown before the Falcons finally got something going and put up a field goal of their own to make it a one score game again, at 22-17.
From there the defense tightened up, forcing two 3 and outs against the prolific Mahomes, while the offense put together two very long drives that reached the Chief red zone, but they came away with no points turning it over on downs both times. Controversy ensued when it looked like Kyle Pitts was interfered with in the end zone on a 3rd and goal on the first of those drives with no call made. The comeback attempt fell short.
