Chiefs' Head Coach Andy Reid with injury update and highlights Chiefs’ depth ahead of Washington matchup on Monday Night Football. By Tammy Ljungblad
The initial five possessions featured no punts yet no points.
The quarterback and NFL MVP favorite threw two interceptions before halftime.
And yet the Chiefs still cruised past the Commanders 28-7 on Monday night.
They were pretty terrible for a half, or at least pretty frustrating. And on the other side, Marcus Mariota responded with a sound performance in a stadium he’s enjoyed before, but it produced all of one scoring drive.
A strange start. A familiar finish. The Chiefs have scored at least 28 points in five straight games, their first time on that kind of streak in four years.
Here are five observations from immediately after the game:
1. A lesson learned
Patrick Mahomes’ final game as the backup quarterback he watched the Chiefs blow an 18-point lead in the second half of a playoff game.
It was just this week that he said he learned a lesson from that day years ago, even if standing on the sideline: Don’t let big plays bury you.
He’s still using his own advice.
Mahomes threw two interceptions in the first half — which had a combined expected points added of -9.9. per NFLfastR. That’s ... sizable.
And yet the Chiefs rolled anyway. Because Mahomes rolled anyway.
Mahomes was 17 of 19 for 210 yards and three touchdowns — in the second half.
The first interception was probably a bad decision, though it’s a bad decision that comes from aggression, and being more aggressive is one of the reasons Mahomes has turned it on this year. It’s not something you want to coach out of him.
The second interception bounced off the hands of Travis Kelce — the second time this year a Mahomes interception has hit Kelce before popping into the arms of a defender.
Kelce, like Mahomes, did bounce back. He had season-high 99 yards on six catches.
2. The second-half changes
The Chiefs didn’t play good football in the opening half, and while that’s due to a collection of reasons, there was one that stood out more than the rest:
The offensive line got beat.
Playing without Trey Smith, and still playing without Josh Simmons (whom owner Clark Hunt said before the game he expects back), the Chiefs line struggled to protect Mahomes in the opening half.
They owned up to it in the second.
Mahomes not only had time for his first reads but made his biggest plays of the night on his second and even third reads.
The Chiefs returned to the team we’ve seen the last month. Their second-half possessions produced 80-, 75- and 90-yard touchdown drives, and they pulled away.
The offense looks better with Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice, but it’s still quite dependent on its offensive line.
3. The accidental explosive play
The Chiefs’ longest offensive snap of the night?
It came by accident.
Mahomes hit Kelce for 38 yards on a third-quarter scoring drive. Kelce’s assignment on the play? To block.
The Chiefs ran a max protection play, but Mahomes couldn’t find an opening. Kelce turned to Mahomes at one point, almost as though he was wondering why the ball hadn’t been released yet.
Noticing Mahomes was still holding it, Kelce leaked into the flat uncovered and took a short pass 38 yards all by his lonesome inside the 10.
The Chiefs turned it into a touchdown on a pass to Kareem Hunt.
Speaking of which...
4. Short yardage? Same old, same old
I mentioned it last weekend.
It’s just as relevant this week.
Kareem Hunt is really good on short yardage. The Chiefs went for it on fourth-and-1 on their own half of the field, and Hunt turned it into a first down. He converted third-and-1 later in the game. And he scored from the 1.
Andy Reid has kept the offense on the field for fourth down a lot this year. He says he hasn’t changed his formula, but he has. And there’s an easy reason.
Kareem Hunt.
Hunt’s short-yard rate has been a few percentage points more successful this year than the Tush Push, a play some NFL teams wanted to outlaw this summer, and probably even more will advocate to ban next summer.
5. A career-first, but not a stadium-first
Mike Danna’s first career interception derived from some good fortune.
It also provided a sort of poetic justice.
The pick fell into his lap after the Commanders’ Deebo Samuel bobbled a screen off his hands and off his facemask. Right place, right time for Danna.
The pass came from Marcus Mariota, who knows a little something about deflected passes inside Arrowhead Stadium and a little something about right place, right time. In his last start in Kansas City, eight years ago, Mariota caught his own deflected pass as part of the Titans’ second-half comeback in the playoffs.
It was the most fortunate of bounces.
This was among his least fortunate.
Danna will take it. He didn’t even have an interception in his college days. He also got his first sack of the season on Monday.