(Kansas City) Patrick Mahomes passed for 331 yards, Kareem Hunt ran for 102 yards and a touchdown and the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the New Orleans Saints 26-13 on Monday night.
The Chiefs (5-0) remain perfect this season.
Rookie Xavier Worthy scored another touchdown for the Chiefs, who saw their defense stop their old rival Derek Carr while inflicting a third consecutive defeat on the Saints (2-3).
Carr threw for 185 yards, two touchdowns and an interception before leaving the field with an abdominal injury. That happened with just over nine minutes left as Carr was hit on an incomplete fourth down.
Alvin Kamara had just 26 rushing yards on 11 carries, becoming the latest running back to struggle against the Chiefs. The latter limited Derrick Henry to 46 yards, Zack Moss to 34, Bijan Robinson to 31 and JK Dobbins to 32.
Monday night’s first half featured a little bit of everything: Hunt’s first touchdown since returning to Kansas City, a 43-yard touchdown pass from Carr to Rashid Shaheed and another lateral pass from Travis Kelce that came on a sequence with the strangest attack.
The Chiefs led 10-7 when a fumble and a holding penalty left them facing a second down and 34. They moved up some of the field on a pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster, then Mahomes found Kelce over the middle of the land.
Kelce then threw a lateral pass to Samaje Perine, who came within a yard of a first down, and the Chiefs converted on fourth and short to set up a potential field goal.
It was exactly that – field goals – that kept the Saints in the game. The Chiefs struggled to score touchdowns and were forced to let Harrison Butker kick three field goals to lead 16-7 at halftime.
In the fourth quarter, the Saints drove 65 yards and Foster Moreau’s touchdown made it 16-13 with 14:16 to play. But unlike every other Chiefs game, which was decided in the final minutes, they responded quickly.
Smith-Schuster caught a 50-yard pass moments later and Worthy had a three-yard touchdown run. After the Chiefs stopped the Saints on a fourth down, they added another field goal with 3:03 remaining.