Talk about the cardiac kids! This Chiefs team is still defying any way to describe a champion. We are likely witnessing the worst the Chiefs will play this season, yet they still win. Sunday night, we saw the stick-to-itiveness and tenacity of a team that sometimes can’t get out of its way.
The Chiefs dominated time of possession but only put 22 points on the board. The defense held a hard-rushing Atlanta to 82 yards rushing and QB Kirk Cousins to 230 yards passing but allowed one touchdown and got one pick. The Chiefs are clutch when you need them to be. The way this team has been constructed, you’d expect a pile of points.
Kansas City appears to be still trying to find out who it is. Their identity has yet to be revealed, and I know it frustrates Chiefs fans everywhere. I’m included in that number. I wish we could smash a button, and out would pop the dominance we know is right there. Let’s take a deeper dive.
The first half of action in this tilt was plodding at times and nail-biting at other times. We saw a determined Falcons offense march the ball 70 yards and score a touchdown on their opening drive. My thought was, “Here we go again”.
Steve Spagnuolo’s defense seems to struggle on the initial drive of every team it faces. Why put yourselves in a hole right out of the gate? The defensive coaching staff must address that, especially the slow starts. I know their intent is for that not to happen, but they need to fix the sluggishness the defense seems to show on the first drive. I’m unsure if it’s their mindset or not getting motivated enough for the game’s first action. If I’m seeing this, they indeed should.
The KC offense has also been off. I wonder why Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the toolbox are not performing immediately. Even though they managed to march down the field to answer Atlanta’s first drive, Mahomes was picked off by his nemesis, S Justin Simmons, in the end zone, and that was the end of that drive.
Simmons has had Mahomes’ number in every game they’ve played. When Simmons was with the Denver Broncos, he could play against Mahomes twice a season and knows Mahomes’ tendencies. This was Simmon’s sixth interception on Patrick Mahomes and the current longest streak for a single player against a quarterback in the NFL.
The Chiefs defense held the Falcons to a 13-yard drive and forced a punt on the second-half possession. The Kansas City offense came storming back with a nearly seven-minute drive and capped off with a 13-yard strike to Rashee Rice for a touchdown. Rice was the hero of the game. He put up 110 yards and a score on 12 catches to 14 targets. I believe it’s safe to say that Rice is the WR1 if and until Xavier Worthy shows out at some point.
However, the Falcons and Cousins came right back on a drive that featured a 50-yard strike to TE Kyle Pitts, setting Atlanta up in a first and goal at the one-yard line. RB Bijan Robinson punched it in for the go-ahead score. The Chiefs came back with a relatively short 41-yard drive that ended with a Harrison Butker 53-yard field goal to pull the Chiefs within 4 points.
The Chiefs and Falcons traded three and outs. On the following Atlanta possession, Chamarri Conner came up with a pick on a tipped Kirk Cousins pass attempt by Turk Wharton and lateraled to Jayen Watson for a 12-yard return with 42 seconds remaining in the half. Mahomes could not complete two deep pass attempts and had to settle for another Butker field goal of 44 yards with 11 seconds left with the score 14-13 in favor of the Falcons. Cousins decided to take a knee, and that ended the half.
The Chiefs opened the second half with the ball after deferring at the coin toss before the game. Patrick Mahomes seemed to come alive on this drive but only came up short after Atlanta defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake’s group held the Chiefs to another Butker field goal. So far this year, Butker is 100% on field goals. With the score now 16-14, the Chiefs got the ball back after forcing another Atlanta three and out.
This next KC drive was beautiful—a methodic, time-consuming, nearly 80-yard march down the field, including an excellent 27-yard strike to Rashee Rice. Mahomes cleaned up two plays later with a JuJu Smith-Schuster short slant to the left side and a 13-yard score for the second touchdown of the game for the Chiefs. Unfortunately, an uncharacteristic Harrison Butker doink off the right upright missed an extra point, putting the score at 22-14 and keeping the game at a one-possession advantage for the Falcons.
Spags’ defense held rigid, and despite Cousins coming back with a couple of 17-yard strikes, it only allowed the Falcons to get within field goal range. Atlanta K Younghoe Koo was able to convert a 54-yard attempt, putting the score at 22-17.
Atlanta’s defense was able to bracket two Chiefs three-and-outs around a long offensive drive by Cousins and crew that stalled on a turnover on downs at the Kansas City 6-yard line. The following drive was a 72-yard slog by the Atlanta offense that was terminated at the KC 13 on a fourth, and one try by a great Nick Bolton stop on a left end run by Bijan Robinson for -1 yard, effectively ending the game with 56 seconds to go. The final score was Chiefs 22, Falcons 17.
A win is a win; as I’ve said before, I’ll take it any day. What I want to see is improved play by Patrick Mahomes. As always, he stated in the post-game presser he needs to play better. Not to state the obvious, but yes, he does. This team works on the pulse of the offense. If Andy Reid and Matt Nagy’s group are underperforming, there goes the rest of the team. If Mahomes improves his play, this team is unstoppable. Full stop.
Some will say the officials have favored the Chiefs. I won’t because calls go either way, every game. Do officials get it wrong sometimes? Sure. They’re human. If you look at the big picture over an entire season and compare seasons, rule changes, and intangibles, you can see the cyclic nature of calls. The way to negate the impact of adverse calls is to play well. That’s on every team, player and coach. They are enough said.
What I see in the future, or rather, what I anticipate, is Andy Reid and the coaching brain trust starting to buckle down and solidify the shakiness. I expect Travis Kelce to be better utilized and Patrick Mahomes to make better decisions on Sunday in Los Angeles. These two tweaks will automatically improve the Chiefs and continue the march to a three-peat.
