KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Chiefs head into the fifth week of the regular season as one of two unbeaten teams in the NFL, and a big reason why is their ability to hold or take the lead in the fourth quarter, when games often are on the line. The Saints, who head to Kansas City on Monday night, are 2-2 in part because of their inability to do the same thing.
New Orleans opened the season with blowouts of Carolina and Dallas, then found themselves in four-quarter tussles against Philadelphia and Atlanta. In the former, they allowed Saquon Barkley to score the go-ahead touchdown with 1:01 left in an eventual 15-12 loss. And in the latter, Alvin Kamara gave the Saints the lead with his TD run with a minute to go, only to watch the Falcons set up Younghoe Koo's 58-yard field goal with two seconds left in a 26-24 defeat.
Those letdowns are why the theme in the Saints' locker room this week has been that the style points from victories in Weeks 1 and 2 say less about the club than their failures in trying to close out more competitive contests. "When you play a lot of football in this league, you realize that blowing people out and doing all that ..
. it don't matter," Kamara said. "I don't care if we beat a team 80-0.
We've got way more football to play against better teams." Teams like the Chiefs, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions. All four of their games have come down to the wire, and all four times Patrick Mahomes and Co.
finished the job. That includes a Week 1 win over.
