The Saints visit Arrowhead Stadium to face the undefeated Chiefs on Monday night following back-to-back losses

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Chiefs enter Week 5 of the regular season as one of two undefeated teams in the NFL, and a big reason for that is their ability to hold onto the lead in the fourth quarter or take games that are often deadlocked at stake.

The Saints, who travel to Kansas City on Monday night, are 2-2, thanks in part to their inability to accomplish the same thing.

New Orleans opened the season with losses to Carolina and Dallas and then had to duel Philadelphia and Atlanta for four quarters. In the first, they allowed Saquon Barkley to score the go-ahead touchdown with 1:01 left an eventual 15-12 loss. And in the latter case, Alvin Kamara gave the Saints the lead with his TD run with a minute left, only to watch the Falcons set up Younghoe Koo’s 58-yard field goal with two seconds left 26-24 defeat.

Those disappointments are why the theme in the Saints locker room this week has been that the style points from wins 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 kicking people out and doing all that stuff doesn’t matter,” Kamara said. “I don’t care if we beat a team 80-0. We have a lot more football to play against better teams.”

Teams like the Chiefs, the two-time defending Super Bowl champions.

All four games were on the line, and all four times Patrick Mahomes and Co. finished the job. That includes a Week 1 win over Baltimore that was only decided when a review showed the Ravens’ Isaiah Likely caught a pass out of bounds as time expired that could have forced overtime. It continued with Harrison Butker’s 51-yard game-winning strike against the Bengals and a 22-17 win in Atlanta against the Chiefs’ defense preserved with a quart-down stop about another minute.

Last week in Los Angeles, the Chiefs overcame the loss of star wide receiver Rashee Rice due to a knee injury by rallying from a 10-0 deficit and eventually getting the go-ahead touchdown from Samaje Perine with six minutes left in their 17:10 win.

“You just know everything is on the line here,” Mahomes said. “But at the same time, you need to go back to your normal process.”

Mahomes knows how to do this because the Chiefs have a lot of experience with it. Six of their last seven playoff victories have come by a touchdown or less, including their Super Bowl triumphs over Philadelphia and San Francisco.

“I think the experience I’ve had in these games makes it to a point where it’s not too big, where it looks like I’m not trying to make a crazy play happen,” Mahomes said . “I have learned from my experiences, the good and the bad, and from knowing how to succeed in those moments and not make it bigger than it is.

“All you can do is focus on that one play and then try to find a way to make it happen.”

Playing without Rice

The Chiefs will play without leading wide receiver Rashee Rice for the first time on Monday night. He injured his knee last week in Los Angeles when Mahomes fell while trying to make a tackle after an interception. The Chiefs will look to JuJu Smith-Schuster and Justin Watson to fill the void.

Bring on Kamara

Derrick Henry of the Ravens, Zack Moss of the Bengals, Falcons running back Bijan Robinson and JK Dobbins of the Chargers combined for 55 carries for just 143 yards against Kansas City. That’s an average of 2.6 yards per attempt. Next up is Kamara, who averages 4.5 yards per carry and poses an additional threat when she catches the ball.

A head-to-head race

Between games on Monday night, many eyes will be on their cell phones as the Royals play the Yankees in Game 2 of their AL Division Series in New York. The first pitch is scheduled for about an hour before kickoff. Arrowhead Stadium is located a few hundred yards from Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals where Game 3 and Game 4 (if necessary) will take place.

The Hill Factor

The presence of tight end and former QB Taysom Hill has helped the Saints keep opposing defenses off balance, especially in short-yardage situations. But Hill has left two of his four games with upper-body injuries, including the last one after scoring two touchdowns against Atlanta, and his status against Kansas City was uncertain this week. The Saints scored just 10 points against the Falcons after Hill left and failed to score on a first-and-goal situation.

“I definitely feel like we’re impacted by not having him available,” Saints coach Dennis Allen began, adding, “I still think we have the ability to be an effective offense .”

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