After two straight wins on final play, unbeaten Chiefs take on revitalized Falcons

Kansas City (2-0) at Atlanta (1-1)

Sunday, 8:20 p.m. EDT, NBC

BetMGM NFL Odds: Chiefs by 3 1/2

Series record: Chiefs lead 7-3.

Against the spread: Falcons 1-1, Chiefs 1-1.

Last meeting: Chiefs defeated Falcons 17-14 at Kansas City on Dec. 27, 2020.

Last week: Chiefs defeated the Bengals 26-25; Falcons defeated the Eagles 22-21.

Chiefs offense: overall (15), rush (19), pass (14), scoring (6).

Chiefs defense: overall (29), rush (17), pass (31), scoring (19-T).

Falcons offense: overall (18), rush (17), pass (20), scoring (25).

Falcons defense: overall (11), rush (27), pass (7), scoring (10-T).

Turnover differential: Chiefs minus-2, Falcons minus-2

RBs Carson Steele and Samaje Perine are expected to get most of the work in the backfield after Isiah Pacheco hurt his ankle in the final minute of a win over Cincinnati. Steele is an undrafted rookie who turned heads in training camp with his run-through-a-wall style. The Chiefs were planning to use him mostly in short-yardage situations. Perine signed with the Chiefs on Aug. 30 and has been trying to pick up the playbook quickly. He is at his best catching the ball out of the backfield.

FS Jessie Bates III is coming off a huge performance in a 22-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles this past Monday night. He broke up what appeared to be a touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith and sealed the victory with an interception in the closing seconds. Bates also contributed a team-high 12 tackles, including one behind the line, earning NFC defensive players of the week honors. For the season, he has been credited with 18 tackles — 13 of them solo efforts.

QB Kirk Cousins vs. Chiefs secondary. Cousins completed five of six passes for 70 yards on the final drive, including a 7-yard touchdown to Drake London with 34 seconds remaining, to lead the Falcons to their improbable victory in Philadelphia. He should be overflowing with confidence as he faces a Kansas City defense that has allowed huge chunks of yardage the first two weeks against star quarterbacks Lamar Jackson of the Ravens and Joe Burrow of the Bengals. The Chiefs rank next-to-last out of 32 teams, giving up an average of 256.5 yards per game.

The Chiefs lost Pacheco to an ankle injury, one week after putting WR Marquise Brown on injured reserve because of shoulder surgery. The Falcons are relatively healthy, though LB Nate Landman did go injured reserve before last week's game at Philadelphia with calf and quad issues. That left Atlanta with only three inside backers — Kaden Elliss, Troy Anderson and rookie JD Bertrand — on the active roster.

The teams have only met 10 times with the Chiefs winning seven of them, including the past two. ... In their most recent game, Patrick Mahomes threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns, and Travis Kelce had a big game as the Chiefs won 17-14 on Dec. 27, 2020. Younghoe Koo missed a 39-yard field-goal attempt that would have sent the game to overtime. ... Atlanta's most recent victory over the Chiefs was a 40-24 triumph on Sept. 9, 2012, in Kansas City.

Both of the Chiefs’ wins this season have been decided on the final play of the game. Ravens TE Isaiah Likely landed out of bounds on a would-be tying TD catch in Week 1, and Harrison Butker kicked a winning 51-yard field goal last week against the Bengals after the winning drive was extended by a pass interference call on fourth down. ... Cousins was the first NFL quarterback in the past 30 years to complete at least 80% of his passes while throwing for at least 70 yards on a drive that began on the road in the last two minutes with his team needing a touchdown to erase a deficit, according to OptaSTATS. ... Chiefs OT Wanya Morris caught a TD pass last week against Cincinnati. OT Eric Fisher caught a TD pass in 2020 and did the same for Kansas City in a playoff game against Pittsburgh in 2022. ... Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier combined for 150 yards on 23 carries against the Eagles. Overall, the Falcons averaged 5.4 yards per carry. ... Kansas City WR Rashee Rice has 12 catches for 178 yards and a TD through the first two games of the season. ... Falcons WR Darnell Mooney had a 41-yard touchdown catch and two more huge receptions on the winning drive against the Eagles, totaling a team-high 88 yards on those three grabs. ... Chiefs DT Chris Jones has 77 sacks. He needs two more to pass Justin Houston for fourth most in team history. Chiefs FS Chamarri Conner returned a fumble 37 yards for a touchdown against Cincinnati. He also had a sack on a blitz. ... Falcons DE Grady Jarrett had six quarterback hits in the first two games. ... Butker has kicked four game-winners in his Kansas City career. He also has made 29 field goals of at least 50 yards.

Don’t read too much into Travis Kelce’s meager production in the Kansas City offense. The four-time All-Pro tight end has just four catches for 39 yards through two games, with a long catch called back by a penalty last week against Cincinnati. He should get a bigger workload as the Chiefs adapt to Brown’s absence and the loss of Pacheco.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

FILE - Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt (27) scores a touchdown ahead of Los Angeles Rams free safety Lamarcus Joyner (20) as Chiefs offensive guard Cameron Erving (75) looks on during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Nov. 19, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud III (34) is tackled by Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Zack Baun (53) after a catch during the second half of an NFL football game Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker (7) walks off the field after kicking a 51-yard field goal at the end of an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals to give the Chiefs a 26-25 victory Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Drake London (5) celebrates his touchdown with teammate Chris Lindstrom (63) during the second half of an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Widening protests in Iran sparked by the Islamic Republic's ailing economy are putting new pressure on its theocracy.

Tehran is still reeling from a 12-day war launched by Israel in June that saw the United States bomb nuclear sites in Iran. Economic pressure, which has intensified since September when the United Nations reimposed sanctions on the country over its atomic program, has put Iran's rial currency into a free fall, now trading at some 1.4 million to $1.

Meanwhile, Iran's self-described “Axis of Resistance” — a coalition of countries and militant groups backed by Tehran — has been decimated in the years since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.

A threat by U.S. President Donald Trump warning Iran that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters” the U.S. “will come to their rescue," has taken on new meaning after American troops captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran. Iran has installed a banner in Tehran warning the United States and Israel that their soldiers could be killed if they take military action there.

Here's what to know about the protests and the challenges facing Iran's government.

Demonstrations have reached over 170 locations in 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces, the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reported early Sunday. The death toll had reached at least 15 killed, it added, with more than 580 arrests. The group, which relies on an activist network inside of Iran for its reporting, has been accurate in past unrest.

Understanding the scale of the protests has been difficult. Iranian state media has provided little information about the demonstrations. Online videos offer only brief, shaky glimpses of people in the streets or the sound of gunfire. Journalists in general in Iran also face limits on reporting such as requiring permission to travel around the country, as well as the threat of harassment or arrest by authorities.

But the protests do not appear to be stopping, even after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday said “rioters must be put in their place.”

The collapse of the rial has led to a widening economic crisis in Iran. Prices are up on meat, rice and other staples of the Iranian dinner table. The nation has been struggling with an annual inflation rate of some 40%.

In December, Iran introduced a new pricing tier for its nationally subsidized gasoline, raising the price of some of the world’s cheapest gas and further pressuring the population. Tehran may seek steeper price increases in the future, as the government now will review prices every three months.

The protests began first with merchants in Tehran before spreading. While initially focused on economic issues, the demonstrations soon saw protesters chanting anti-government statements as well. Anger has been simmering over the years, particularly after the 2022 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody that triggered nationwide demonstrations.

Iran's “Axis of Resistance," which grew in prominence in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, is reeling.

Israel has crushed Hamas in the devastating war in the Gaza Strip. Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group in Lebanon, has seen its top leadership killed by Israel and has been struggling since. A lightning offensive in December 2024 overthrew Iran’s longtime stalwart ally and client in Syria, President Bashar Assad, after years of war there. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels also have been pounded by Israeli and U.S. airstrikes.

Now Venezuelan ally Maduro is in U.S. custody. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has condemned the “illegal U.S. attack against Venezuela." U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth likened the attack to the U.S. strikes in Iran last year, saying that “Maduro had his chance, just like Iran had their chance.” He added that adversaries of the U.S. should “remain on notice” that “America can project our will anywhere, anytime.”

China meanwhile has remained a major buyer of Iranian crude oil, but hasn't provided overt military support. Neither has Russia, which has relied on Iranian drones in its war on Ukraine.

Iran has insisted for decades that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials have increasingly threatened to pursue a nuclear weapon. Iran had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels prior to the U.S. attack in June, making it the only country in the world without a nuclear weapons program to do so.

Tehran also increasingly cut back its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, as tensions increased over its nuclear program in recent years. The IAEA's director-general has warned Iran could build as many as 10 nuclear bombs, should it decide to weaponize its program.

U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iran has yet to begin a weapons program, but has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”

Iran recently said it was no longer enriching uranium at any site in the country, trying to signal to the West that it remains open to potential negotiations over its atomic program to ease sanctions. But there's been no significant talks in the months since the June war.

Iran decades ago was one of the United States’ top allies in the Mideast under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who purchased American military weapons and allowed CIA technicians to run secret listening posts monitoring the neighboring Soviet Union. The CIA fomented a 1953 coup that cemented the shah’s rule.

But in January 1979, the shah, fatally ill with cancer, fled Iran as mass demonstrations swelled against his rule. Then came the Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which created Iran’s theocratic government.

Later that year, university students overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seeking the shah’s extradition and sparking the 444-day hostage crisis that saw diplomatic relations between Iran and the U.S. severed.

During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the U.S. backed Saddam Hussein. During that conflict, the U.S. launched a one-day assault that crippled Iran at sea as part of the so-called “Tanker War,” and later shot down an Iranian commercial airliner that the U.S. military said it mistook for a warplane.

Iran and the U.S. have seesawed between enmity and grudging diplomacy in the years since, and relations peaked with the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Iran greatly limit its program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. But Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord in 2018, sparking tensions in the Mideast that intensified after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

FILE - An Iranian security official in protective clothing walks through part of the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the Iranian city of Isfahan, on March 30, 2005. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

FILE - A customer shops at a supermarket at a shopping mall in northern Tehran, on Sept. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

FILE - Current and pre-revolution Iranian banknotes are displayed by a street money exchanger at Ferdowsi square, Tehran's go-to venue for foreign currency exchange, in downtown Tehran, Iran, on Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

FILE - People cross the Enqelab-e-Eslami (Islamic Revolution) street in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

FILE - Protesters march on a bridge in Tehran, Iran, on Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP, File)

People wave national flags during a ceremony commemorating the death anniversary of the late commander of the Iran's Revolutionary Guard expeditionary Quds Force, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2020 in Iraq, at the Imam Khomeini grand mosque in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)