KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Eric Berry made his long-awaited return to the field, Chris Jones piled up some more sacks to match an NFL record, and the Kansas City Chiefs’ maligned defense finally looked like a dominant force for a while.
Or at least, one that wouldn’t hold back their high-powered offense.
But all that was wiped away in just more than three minutes Thursday night, when Philip Rivers engineered a dramatic fourth-quarterback comeback for the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chiefs did their part with blown assignments and penalties, and rather than clinch the AFC West title and a first-round playoff bye, they left Arrowhead Stadium with a 29-28 loss and the very real possibility of hitting the road for the postseason.
Their defense had once again let them down.
“We’ve got to finish. Ain’t no differences. We beat ourselves. That’s how I feel,” Chiefs linebacker Reggie Ragland said. “Only thing that can stop us is us, and we beat ourselves.”
Not at the start, when Berry returned from a heel injury that had kept him out since the opening weeks of training camp. Steven Nelson intercepted Rivers’ pass on the second play of the game, Kendall Fuller picked off another throw in the end zone late in the first half and Berry was back in the middle of just about everything as he energized a raucous crowd that braved freezing temperatures.
Jones finished with 2 1/2 sacks, tying an NFL mark with at least one in 10 straight games.
But the plan all along was for Berry to only play a certain amount of snaps, and the Chiefs stuck to it by sitting him most of the second half.