CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ There comes a point in every team's season when it's tested by an opponent of championship caliber. Sometimes this happens earlier in the season; other times, later. For the Chiefs, that moment came on Sunday.
And there's no question they rose to the occasion.
The defending NFC champion Carolina Panthers entered their game against the Chiefs on Sunday with a 3-5 record that might have been explained, at least somewhat, by a Super Bowl hangover. But they were winners of two straight entering the contest, and after a dominant first half they appeared to be well on their way to their third straight victory.
But the Chiefs refused to go down without a fight. And by doing so, they forced two remarkable Carolina turnovers, which jump-started a once-stagnant offense as the Chiefs rallied to score 20 unanswered points and improve to 7-2 after a 20-17 comeback before a stunned crowd at Bank of America Stadium.
It was a crazy finish, one that included an Eric Berry pick-6 and a Marcus Peters strip and recovery that will both end up on the Chiefs' season-ending highlight reel. But it was hard to imagine any comeback in the first quarter, when the Panthers successfully managed to set the tone against a shaky KC run defense.
On their very first drive, the Panthers dialed up some power sets and ran the football, with most of the yardage coming on a long Cam Newton bootleg run against a 4-4 defensive front.
The drive ended with a field goal, and although the Chiefs' first drive ended with an interception _ safety Tre Boston tracked a deep ball intended for Tyreek Hill over the middle _ each defense stiffened and the teams spent the rest of the first quarter punting the ball away to each other.
The Panthers changed that, however, at the start of the second quarter with a classic, old-school drive. Carolina drove 80 yards in 11 plays, as the Panthers pounded the ball, mixed in a few short passes and put seven points on the board. Newton _ who stands 6 foot 5 and weighs 245 pounds _ plowed through the interior of the Chiefs' defense, ran through some tackles and rolled into the end zone for a 4-yard score that put the Panthers ahead 10-0 with 9:12 left in the half.
The Chiefs' next drive stalled out around midfield, and Newton again went to work. The Panthers went shotgun, no-huddle on their next drive to set up their next score, a 38-yard strike to Devin Funchess _ who beat Marcus Peters on a post route _ to take a 17-point lead.
The Chiefs bounced back a little on their next drive, which covered 46 yards in 12 plays and ended with a 47-yard field goal that cut the deficit to 14 points, 17-3, entering the break.
It did not look like things would get much better for the Chiefs in the second half, at least initially. The offense got the ball and stalled out around midfield, and Newton put together an absurd 20-play drive that advanced to the Chiefs' 21-yard line.
But the Chiefs' defense kept competing. Dee Ford racked up his 10th sack of the season on a second-and-11, and Chris Jones followed with another sack on third down to take the Panthers out of field goal range and force a punt.
The Chiefs seemed to get some juice from that; they used a no-huddle, shotgun-heavy approach to advance all the way to the Panthers' 18 on their next drive. But Smith misfired on his next three passes _ which included a gut-wrenching overthrow of a wide-open Chris Conley on second down and a deflating third-down drop by Ross Travis _ and the Chiefs were forced to kick a field goal that cut the deficit to 11, at 17-6, with 12:02 left.
The drive stifled the Panthers' momentum a tad, but the Chiefs still needed a big play to swing the game around. That's when one of their defensive leaders, safety Eric Berry, stepped up.
With the Panthers facing a third-and-6 in their own territory, defensive coordinator Bob Sutton dialed up an A-gap blitz up the middle that caused Newton to throw a wobbler off his back foot. The ball hung in the air, and Berry swooped in front of Greg Olsen to record the interception.
But Berry wasn't done yet. He spun a few times and reversed his field, eluding tacklers, and 42 yards later reached for a game-changing TD that made it 17-14.
The Panthers, who had been dominant all day, finally appeared shaken. They were forced to punt on their next drive, giving the Chiefs' offense the ball around midfield with 7:34 left.
The Chiefs eventually tied the game at 17, courtesy of a six-play drive. But they could have had more. Smith missed tight end Travis Kelce over the middle on third-and-2 with an overthrow.
He had a chance to make up for it on the Chiefs' next drive, but an illegal forward-pass penalty and a sack seemingly submarined any KC hopes of scoring before overtime.
Seemingly. Because that's when things got weird.
The Panthers got the ball back with about 29 seconds left, and after a completion to receiver Kelvin Benjamin, Peters ripped the ball out of his hands, recovered it and returned it to the Panthers' 24.
That should have set up a 41-yard field goal, but Peters punted the ball into the stands _ the second week in a row he's done that _ and was assessed a 5-yard penalty.
It hardly mattered, as Spencer Ware rushed for 11 yards on the next play to set up a 36-yard attempt by kicker Cairo Santos that sailed through the uprights to clinch the comeback.
