The Kansas City Chiefs clinched a playoff berth for the 10th-straight season with a dramatic 19-17 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders after their AFC West rivals fumbled the ball with 15 seconds left when in position for a game-winning field goal.

The lowly two-win Raiders came back from a 13-point deficit late in the third quarter to briefly lead the reigning Super Bowl champions in the fourth. After a fourth Matthew Wright field goal for the game again nudged the Chiefs ahead, Las Vegas looked set to escape with a shock victory when positioned at the Kansas City 32-yard line with 15 seconds left.

The Raiders opted to run one more play in order to give their kicker Daniel Carlson – who had missed with three kicks from over 50 yards – the best chance of nailing the game-winner but, instead, a fumbled snap was recovered by the Chiefs in a stunning finish.

It means that Kansas City move to 11-1 on the season with the victory, but it was the ninth of those being one-score wins as they continue to let inferior teams hang around only to come up clutch late on.

Stats leaders

Las Vegas Raiders

• Passing: Aidan O’Connell, 23/35, 340 yards, 2 TDs
• Rushing: Sincere McCormick, 12 carries, 64 yards
• Receiving: Brock Bowers, 10 catches, 140 yards, 1 TD

Kansas City Chiefs

• Passing: Patrick Mahomes, 26/46, 306 yards, 1 TD
• Rushing: Isiah Pacheco, 7 carries, 44 yards
• Receiving: DeAndre Hopkins, 4 catches, 90 yards
• Travis Kelce, 7 catches, 68 yards

The Chiefs had only one touchdown to show for their efforts. Patrick Mahomes, who completed 26 of 46 passes for 306 yards, threw his lone scoring strike to Justin Watson in the second quarter, it coming off the back of an eye-catching trick play which saw Travis Kelce toss a no-look lateral to Samaje Perine, prompting celebrations from Taylor Swift in the stands.

Down 16-3 in the second half, back came the Raiders with two touchdowns in the space of two minutes either side of the end of the third quarter. Star rookie tight end Brock Bowers, who earlier in the third quarter pulled off an incredible one-handed catch, hauled in a 33-yard TD from Aiden O’Connell.

Then, swiftly on the back of a Chiefs three-and-out on offense, the Las Vegas QB unleased an even more impressive deep ball for a 52-yard touchdown to Tre Tucker to see the visitors nudge ahead.

O’Connell went 23 of 35 for 340 yards and those two TDs, but his efforts ultimately proved in vain as the Raiders drop to 2-10 with yet another defeat.

Scoring summary

What’s next?

The Chiefs face another AFC West rival in the Justin Herbert-led Los Angeles Chargers in Week 14, while the Raiders are on the road against as they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Watch the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Cincinnati Bengals from 6pm live on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday, followed by the Philadelphia Eagles against the Baltimore Ravens and the Buffalo Bills versus the San Francisco 49ers

Southampton boss Russell Martin and Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler squared up to each other at the end of a bad-tempered, controversial 1-1 draw at the Amex Stadium.

Both bosses accused each other of a lack of respect following a match which saw Saints denied a priceless victory by a VAR decision in the second half.

Flynn Downes had just cancelled out Kaoru Mitoma’s opener when Cameron Archer converted a cross from Saints substitute Ryan Fraser.

A check of more than four minutes eventually decided Archer was onside but then penalised Adam Armstrong, who was offside but did not touch the ball, for interfering with play.

The official explanation was that Armstrong was in an offside position and “deemed to be impacting” Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen’s ability to play the ball.

After 13 minutes of added time, during which Brighton’s Simon Adingra hit a post, both benches gave each other a piece of their mind.

The managers had also been booked during the match; Hurzeler for waving an imaginary yellow card in the first half and Martin for his reaction to more protesting from the Brighton boss after a foul by Downes, who was on a yellow card and probably lucky to still be on the pitch.

Questioned about Downes not receiving a second yellow, Hurzeler said: “That’s exactly what I said at half-time and then he makes another foul.

“There’s no explanation for that and that’s something that changes the game. It changes the game in Bournemouth [when Brighton’s Baleba was sent off], in the other direction.

“Today, it could change the game in our direction, but you have to be very careful what you say here in England because also my yellow card is something that I can’t understand and I have to adapt to this here.”

Asked about his confrontation with Martin at full-time, the German said: “For me, it’s just important to have respect for each other.

“It’s so important to respect each other, how you talk to each other on the sideline, I think that’s the most important and that’s how I get educated.”

Martin was clearly unimpressed with his opposite number’s touchline antics.

“The manager decided to say something about respect,” he said. “I’ve never known a manager try to get as many players booked as that. Respect is reciprocal. It’s mutual.”

Martin fumes at disallowed Archer goal

Martin was also unhappy at the decision to disallow Archer’s second-half goal.

He told Sky Sports: “I’m just fed up with talking about decisions – I just don’t want to be that guy.

“I really respect how difficult the referee and assistant referee’s decision is on the pitch so I understand they may be getting it wrong because in the heat of the moment there’s so much going on and it’s really difficult, but then I really struggle to accept that because the on-pitch decision holds a lot of weight and it’s not really clear and obvious, when I think it is because I’ve been told Adam Armstrong’s run affects the goalkeeper.

“I’ve seen it a lot already and I’ve had a few messages about it as well.

“We were told it was affecting Van Hecke’s ability to get the ball which it doesn’t. The ball goes behind Adam and if Adam’s run had moved Verbruggen at all from his position to deal with Arma (Archer), I would understand the decision but he hasn’t. He hasn’t moved, the ball goes behind Adam and I can’t see how it’s affected the goalkeeper, I really can’t.

“He actually takes a step this way away from Adam so for me, in understanding the game and playing it a lot, the interpretation, and this is the point of VAR, I would rather the guy makes a mistake on the pitch and we can all go no problem afterwards but when they take so much time to look at it, in the same way we had a penalty decision against us on Sunday at 2-1 up [in the 3-2 defeat to Liverpool] with Adam Armstrong, which I still think is a penalty, and me and Howard (Webb) will argue for ages about it, which we have, this is like a problem when you have so much time to look at it.

“The interpretation is so subjective still, so it’s still human error in my opinion because they watch it and they make a mistake. Now the mistake is it’s not clear and obvious enough to correct so even if what I’m saying is right, which I think it is, and people who have played the game probably understand it, now it’s not clear and obvious enough to correct because the on-field decision carries weight so I’m annoyed about it as you can probably tell. I’m frustrated, I think anyone would be but I’m really happy with the performance and I’m really proud of my players.”

‘Minimal decision but it’s harsh’

Ex-Brighton midfielder Steve Sidwell speaking to Sky Sports:

“If you’re a Southampton fan, staff or a player you’d be very disappointed.

“I get what they’re saying in terms of Armstrong’s making a run and whatever his motion is, and it’s a motion where the ball is behind him, so he’s trying to backheel it here, he knows he’s run too far in front, he’s trying to backheel it.

“If he does get any connection to that ball it will impact Verburggen of where he then goes. So Verbruggen is actually waiting for some kind of connection from Armstrong there so you can see his eyes there because he’s watching the ball exactly when it goes by so it does impact Verbruggen’s decision-making I expect until the very, very end when the ball goes in the back of the net.”

Sky Sports’ Izzy Christensen:

“It’s an incredibly bitter pill to swallow for Southampton. I do feel for them because this epitomises the way they got back into the game.

“There seemed to be a real hunger and energy about the way they played and we’re talking fine margins.

“Cameron Archer’s onside but it’s Armstrong who’s marginally offside and that’s why the decision has been given that way, but the ball’s behind him and he makes an attempt to try and backheel it.

“It’s minimal but it’s harsh. It took them a while to get to that decision and if you’re in that Southampton dressing room right now it’s a bitter pill.”

The Chicago Bears have fired head coach Matt Eberflus following their Thanksgiving Day defeat to the Detroit Lions on Thursday night. 

Eberflus and the Bears squandered the opportunity to take the Lions to overtime by neglecting to call a timeout while trailing 23-20 and seeking to get into field goal range in the final seconds of the game.

It resulted in Chicago suffering their sixth straight defeat as they fell to 4-8 on the year at the bottom of the NFC North.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport confirmed the dismissal of Eberflus, who becomes the first head coach in the franchise’s 100-plus year history to be fired in the middle of a season.

Thomas Brown will now take over as interim coach, having been promoted to offensive coordinator following the firing of Shane Waldron earlier in the campaign.

The firing of Eberflus came just hours after he had outlined his confidence that he would still be head coach in Week 14 while speaking to reporters.

He departs with a record of 14-32 after being appointed as head coach in January 2022 following his time as Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator.

The Bears had threatened to upset the Super Bowl-chasing Lions on Thursday when they came from 16-0 and then 23-7 down after three quarters to move within three points of Dan Campbell’s side thanks to a Caleb Williams-inspired resurgence. But a horrendous example of clock management would cost them and Eberflus as Williams took a sack with 32 seconds left before 26 seconds came off the clock until the Bears finally ran their play, at which point it was too late.

“I like what we did there,” Eberflus said after the game. “Again, once it’s under seven (seconds), you’re going to call a timeout there, actually under 12 and then really you don’t have an option because it’s third (down) to fourth, you have to throw it into the end zone then.

“To me it’s, I think we handled it the right way, I do believe that you just re-rack the play, get it in bounds and call timeout, and that’s why we held it and didn’t work out the way we wanted it to.”

It continued a gruelling run of form that has seen them lose out to a dramatic Washington Commanders Hail Mary as well as to a blocked Cairo Santos field goal as time expired against the Green Bay Packers.

The Bears are now looking for their 18th head coach as they look to maximise the talents of No 1 pick quarterback Williams, who has shown vast improvement under center amid the team’s losing streak.