ATLANTA _ Facing a fourth-and-2 at their own 45-yard line early in the third quarter Sunday, Chiefs coach Andy Reid waved his offense back onto the field.
They only had a four-point lead over the Falcons at that point, but there was no point in faking the punt. It would take points to beat the league's top-scoring team, and Atlanta coach Dan Quinn knew this, too _ which is why he promptly called timeout.
What the Chiefs did next not only helped them grab momentum, it also set off a chain reaction by Quinn that ended up making the difference in a razor-thin 29-28 victory by the Chiefs.
Reid, with the Falcons now ready to play defense, instead sent his punt squad onto the field. And while he had successfully forced the Falcons to waste a timeout, a punt was not in the offing.
Instead, center James Winchester snapped it directly to receiver and Georgia State grad Albert Wilson, who sprinted through the Falcons' defense and chugged into the end zone for a 55-yard touchdown that put the Chiefs ahead 27-16.
The Falcons started chasing points after that stunning score, and that desperation came back to bite them on their next drive, when they marched down to the Chiefs' 10 and decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 instead of kicking the field goal. Quarterback Matt Ryan's pass for running back Devonta Freeman fell incomplete _ Frank Zombo had the coverage _ and the Chiefs averted an Atlanta score.
The missed points continued to haunt the Falcons even after they put together an 11-play, 80-yard scoring drive to open the fourth quarter. After Freeman's 1-yard plunge, the Falcons _ who trailed 27-22 _ decided to go for two. And Ryan's pass to Freeman again fell incomplete.
The Chiefs had a chance to put the Falcons away on their next drive, but on third-and-2, quarterback Alex Smith overshot wide-open Spencer Ware down the sideline, and the Chiefs were forced to punt.
Smith played a really nice game otherwise. He completed 21 of 25 passes for 270 yards and a touchdown. But that missed scoring opportunity came back to hurt the Chiefs, as Atlanta put together another scoring march, this one capped by a 5-yard throw from Ryan to Aldrick Robinson.
That's when the Falcons, who led 28-27 with 4:37 left, again decided to chase the points and go for two. Safety Eric Berry, the Atlanta native who played the hero on Sunday, intercepted his second pass of the day and returned it all the way for a safety that put the Chiefs ahead by 1.
That wasn't necessarily a death knell for the Falcons, provided they could force a Chiefs punt on the ensuing drive. But Smith rose to the occasion, delivering a 10-yard strike on a slant to Wilson on third-and-6. That completion, at the two-minute warning, that gave the Chiefs a first down and allowed them to run out the clock.
It was fitting, thrilling end to a game that had the makings of a track meet early, as both offenses put together touchdown marches that were culminated by short runs on their opening drives.
The Chiefs, however, had their first extra point blocked, and Atlanta took a 10-6 lead with a field goal on the ensuing drive thanks to an abundance of help from the Chiefs. Fifty-six of the Falcons' 71 yards on the drive came via penalties. The Chiefs committed 13 penalties in the game.
The Falcons continued to move the ball in the quarter, racking up 14 first downs. But the creases they continually found in the middle of the field stiffened up in the red zone, and even another field goal, they only led 13-6 early in the second quarter.
The Chiefs soon made the Falcons pay for their inability to find paydirt. Reid opened up the offense against the league's worst passing defense, and the Chiefs, who essentially played the whole game operating out of the shotgun formation, tied it on their next drive, courtesy of a 3-yard play-action throw from Smith to Ware.
But with a little less than a minute left in the half, Atlanta tried to mount one last scoring drive, only to see Berry jump Ryan's pass over the middle and return it 37 yards for his second pick-six of the season.
The Falcons managed to cut the deficit to four, at 20-16, before the break, courtesy of a franchise-long 59-yard field goal by Matt Bryant. But by then, the tone of the game had been established; if the Chiefs could keep moving the football while forcing the Falcons to settle for field goals, they would win.
A little help from their special teams wouldn't hurt either, of course. And the Chiefs got just that early in the third quarter with Wilson's fake-punt touchdown, which ultimately made the difference in a tight game.
With the victory, the Chiefs improved to 9-3 heading into a crucial Thursday night showdown against the AFC West-leading Oakland Raiders, who faced the Buffalo Bills later on Sunday.
