The Kansas City Chiefs went to Foxborough and brought home the win. It’s not that impressive beating the New England Patriots, but a win is a win, and we needed to capitalize on Denver’s loss this week.
Unfortunately, the drops and penalties persist (even if some of the latter weren’t legit). They also got off to a slow start on both sides of the ball.
Kadarius Toney and Skyy Moore both had drops, Toney’s, resulting in a turnover. Skyy’s fumble would have put him on the naughty list had it not been negated by a penalty (that, again, may not have been legit). Still, there was a lot of good in this game, too.
- Watson, Gray, Kelce, James, and MVS all made contributions.
- Jerick McKinnon had both a passing touchdown To Rashee Rice and a receiving touchdown in the same game. That’s pretty cool. It’s too bad he didn’t have a rushing touchdown as well.
- Rashee Rice broke the rookie franchise touchdown record and came away with 91 yards on the day.
- Clyde Edwards Helaire Did a fine job filling in for Isaiah Pacheco with 101 total yards and an incredible touchdown catch.
- After finding their groove, there were playmakers all over the defense, and even special teams pitched in.
- Sneed’s zero-touchdowns-allowed streak still stands, and he added two tackles for a loss.
- Jaylen Watson got his 2nd sack of his career.
- Darrick Nnadi, Drue Tranquil, and Charles Omenihu also logged sacks.
- Willie Gay got an interception that set the Chiefs up with an excellent field position that, for once, the offense capitalized on.
- As a unit, the Chiefs defense logged seven total tackles for loss, four sacks, and an interception.
We still only have an outside shot at the one seed, but if we keep it together, we should have the division lead locked. I am more hopeful because while mistakes still happened, the offense looked more in control than at any point over the last several weeks. In fact, since the Dolphins game.
Skyy Moore is now on injured reserve, so seeing who fills his spot will be interesting. They could bring Mecole Hardman back after the Raiders game, but on Monday, they placed Justyn Ross on the 53-man roster.
In either case, I would expect most of Skyy’s snaps to go to Richie James, at least in the short term. I wouldn’t oppose playing Richie Moore and putting Toney on returns. That way, Toney can regain some confidence.
We aren’t the team we’re used to, but watching other AFC teams this past weekend, I’m not sure we need to be through the playoffs. The Bills and the Bengals still look like the biggest threats even if their records don’t reflect it, but there’s no guarantee either will make it in the postseason dance.
Keep the faith, Chiefs Kingdom. It’s not over just yet.
