Chiefs Hold Off the Dolphins, 26-21 : Kansas City: Victory comes despite Marino’s three touchdown passes in the second half.

The Kansas City Chiefs withstood a fourth-quarter rally led by Dan Marino to defeat the Miami Dolphins, 26-21, Sunday and move into contention in the AFC West.

Kansas City wide receiver Stephone Paige caught seven passes from Steve DeBerg for 133 yards and Christian Okoye rushed for 148 yards in 32 carries to set a new team single-season rushing record for the Chiefs.

The Chiefs (6-6-1) and the Dolphins (7-6) will conclude their battle for a wild-card spot in their season finale at Miami.

“This puts us in a must-win situation,” Miami Coach Don Shula said. “We’ve let two in a row get away.”

Marino, held to four completions for 42 yards in a miserable first half, threw for three touchdowns in the second half.

After the Chiefs took a 16-0 halftime lead, Marino threw his first touchdown pass, an eight-yarder to Jim Jensen.

The touchdown was set up when Scott Secules ran 17 yards to the two on a fake field goal.

“That was all my fault,” Schottenheimer said. “I should have had enough sense to know. I had lockjaw of the brain in that situation.”

The touchdown pass to Jensen was the first one given up by the Chiefs since Oct. 29 at Pittsburgh.

“We stopped ourselves all day, and I wasn’t throwing the ball well in the first half,” said Marino, who completed 18 of 37 passes for 218 yards.

Marino’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Mark Clayton brought Miami within 19-14 midway through the fourth period, but DeBerg countered with a 75-yard drive capped by an eight-yard touchdown pass to Emile Harry.

“Offensively, we’ve come a long way,” said DeBerg, who completed 15 of 25 passes for 239 yards and two touchdowns. “We really don’t think anybody can stop us.”

With 53 seconds remaining, Marino, on fourth down, hit Jim Jensen with a nine-yard scoring pass. Kansas City’s Emile Harry then recovered the onside kick.

DeBerg, who was benched twice earlier in the year, has played two full games and thrown just one interception. Earlier, he had 12 interceptions and only four touchdown passes.

Okoye raised his season total to 1,191 yards, breaking the team record of 1,121 set in 1981 by the late Joe Delaney.