SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- If members of the 1972 Miami Dolphins break open the champagne every time the last unbeaten team in the NFL goes down to defeat, what are members of the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers doing now?
John Carney kicked a 52-yard field goal with 2:14 remaining as the San Diego Chargers became the last NFL team to win a game this season, 17-16, over the embarrassed Kansas City Chiefs.
The Chargers (1-11) escaped any long-lasting link with the 1976 Buccaneers, the last team to complete a winless season when they went 0-14 in their inaugural campaign. The 1972 Dolphins were undefeated (17-0), and the team revels in the distinction by celebrating when the last remaining club is defeated every season.
"We've got the goose egg off of there and we can hopefully stay out of the history books, and that's an important thing," San Diego coach Mike Riley said. "Now we can go out and play."
There will be no joy in Kansas City (5-7), where the Chiefs have dropped their last four games and are in danger of missing the playoffs for the third straight season.
The Chargers nearly had their first win of the season last week, but squandered a two-touchdown lead and lost by one point in Denver. Six of the Chargers' losses have come by three points or less.
Oft-maligned Ryan Leaf tossed a pair of touchdown passes to Freddie Jones and the Chargers somehow managed to overcome five turnovers, including an interception by Marvcus Patton that was returned 24 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter.
Leaf completed 17-of-30 passes for 176 yards and was picked off twice.
"I want to be known as one of those quarterbacks who had trouble in the beginning but who found a home and made something special," Leaf said.
The Chiefs' offense was never able to get on track behind quarterback Warren Moon, who looked every bit of his 44 years in his first start since 1998 for Seattle. Playing in place of the injured Elvis Grbac, Moon faced a series of blitzes and completed just 12-of-31 passes for 130 yards.
"We needed to make a couple of big plays downfield to take them out of their blitz, but I didn't come up with the play today," Moon said.
Outside of Patton's interception, the only other points for the Chiefs came on three field goals by Todd Peterson.
His third field goal, A 30-yarder, came after the Chiefs running back Tony Richardson was stopped just short of the goal line on an 11-yard run. Thinking he was in the end zone, Richardson spiked the ball and was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
"When the official called no touchdown he spiked the ball because he was mad and they called a continuous action which made it third down," Chiefs coach Gunther Cunningham said. "That play definitely hurt us badly."
The Chargers also had trouble moving the ball, and the game-winning field goal came only after a 35-yard punt return by Nate Jacquet gave San Diego possession at the Chiefs 36. A six-yard pass to Curtis Conway on third down put Carney into position.
"Our record doesn't go through my mind. I don't think it goes through anybody's mind on this team," Carney said. "We're playing for one win at a time."
Peterson opened the scoring with a 39-yard field goal in the first quarter that followed a muffed punt by Jason Dunn that was recovered by Jason Fernandez.
Leaf answered with a 20-yard TD pass to Jones to complete a 68-yard drive that was aided by a 19-yard pass interference call on Eric Warfield.
Warfield was called for the same penalty on the next San Diego drive, which Leaf completed with a seven-yard TD pass to Jones that made it 14-3.
Terrell Fletcher fumbled the ball away late in the second quarter and James Hasty recovered, leading to a 34-yard field goal by Peterson that cut the lead to 14-6 at halftime. Fletcher carried 14 times for 40 yards.
The Chiefs cut the lead to one point 62 seconds into the third quarter when Leaf forced a pass under pressure that was intercepted by linebacker Patton and returned for a score.
The Chiefs regained the lead at 16-14 late in the third quarter on the 30-yard field goal by Peterson. Moon put Kansas City into position with a 41-yard pass to Derrick Alexander, who had four catches for 67 yards.
