After losing to the Detroit Lions in week 1, the Kansas City Chiefs have now rattled off 5 straight wins. They are back on top of the AFC and just beat the Denver Broncos for the 16th straight time. Their defense may be the best of the Patrick Mahomes era, and they still have Andy Reid as captain of the ship. But the most crazy part about all of this is the offense hasn’t even hit their stride yet.
Aside from posting 42 points on the Chicago Bears, the Chiefs offense this season has been fairly pedestrian. Mahomes and Kelce are still as good as ever, and Isiah Pacheco has been a force running the football. But the wide receiver group has left a lot to be desired. Each week, we expect them to piece it all together and each week they tease us with small flashes but have yet to play a strong game from start to finish.
Last night’s game felt like the season in a nutshell. From the terrific defense to Harrison Butker remaining perfect, to the offense moving the ball but not scoring, to the continual struggles from third and short.
Chiefs Offense Left Points on the Table
It’s no secret that the Broncos’ defense has had its share of struggles this season. However, on paper, it might appear that last night was arguably their best performance of the year as they held the Chiefs to 19 points. Unfortunately, if you watched the game, you saw it was more like the Chiefs held themselves to 19 points. They moved the ball up the field all night, throwing for 300 plus and running for nearly 100. But time and time again, the play calls got too cute.
Maybe the coaching staff just wanted to have some fun playing against a struggling Broncos team, but it’s hard to give them the benefit of the doubt when they haven’t been great situationally this entire season.
Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes (15)- David Eulitt/Getty Images
The first frustrating play came at the end of the first drive. On a third and short, Mahomes looked to hit a wide-open Kadarius Toney for a first down, but Broncos Mike Purcell got his arm up and batted down the pass. As a result, the Chiefs settled for 3. The very next drive the Chiefs drove it right back into the Redzone, but this time came away completely empty-handed. On 3rd and 8 with the pocket collapsing, Mahomes still tried to get a throw-off into the endzone. Unfortunately, his arm got hit and it fluttered right into Justin Simmons’s hands for an interception.
That made it two trips to the redzone, and 3 points to show for it.
The next drive, Kansas City once again drove it deep into Denver territory, and once again couldn’t punch it in. This time Andy Reid brought out the field goal unit, only the Chiefs did not kick 3, they snuck Noah Gray under center and attempted the “brotherly shove.” The Broncos weren’t fooled and held their ground, stuffing the Chiefs short of the first down. The most frustrating part of this play was leaving the MVP on the sidelines. If they wanted to go for it on fourth, why leave the league MVP and arguably the greatest tight end of all time on the sidelines?
Make that three trips to the redzone, and 3 points to show for it.
Thankfully, this trend would end on the next drive with Mahomes hitting Toney for a 3-yard touchdown reception.
Overall, I think Mahomes said it best post-game when talking about the difference between scoring 7 and scoring 3. Mahomes said, “I think if we found a way to execute in the red zone and score those touchdowns we’d come away feeling great, but since we didn’t, we have a lot of room to improve.”
Harrison Butker
Harrison Butker had another phenomenal game against the Broncos going 4/4 on field goals, and 1/1 on extra point attempts. His highlight came at the end of the first half. Following a 13-yard run by Mahomes, Reid brought out Butker to attempt a 60-yard field goal. This was one of those situations where if he makes it great, but if he misses, it’s the end of the half regardless. But Butker didn’t just make the field goal, he made it with room to spare. After the game, Mahomes even joked that it would’ve been good from their 20. For the season, he is now 14/14 on field goals and 15/15 on extra-point attempts.
The defense
The Chiefs’ defense had yet another great outing on Thursday. Early on, the tackling wasn’t great, but over the course of the game, they corrected that. The line was active all night, batting down a number of Russell Wilson pass attempts. A highlight for the defense came on the Broncos 2nd drive. The Broncos tried to run a play-action pass to Jerry Jeudy, but linebacker Nick Bolton did not bite one bit. Instead, he dropped perfectly into coverage and hauled in the interception. Chris Jones picked up another sack and now has one in every game he’s played this season. The secondary also played well, leaving little space for Denver’s receivers to get open.
Broncos RB Javonte Williams (33) – BVM Sports
Looking ahead
The Chiefs will welcome their divisional opponent, the Chargers, to ArrowHead on the 22nd. The extra time off should be beneficial to the Chiefs and hopefully, they can correct their issues in the red zone. It will be important to not have to settle for three versus the Chargers, as last year the Chiefs won both games by a combined 6 points. I would expect this to be another close game, as they always seem to be with the Chargers.
