Kansas City Chiefs: Taking Charge Of The AFC West Division
The Kansas City Chiefs take charge of the AFC West with a Week 1 victory against the Los Angeles Chargers at the StubHub Center.
The Kansas City Chiefs were underdogs coming into the Week 1 game against their divisional opponents, the Los Angeles Chargers. Both teams were without All-Pro talents on defense as the Chiefs were without safety Eric Berry and the Chargers were without edge rusher Joey Bosa. With an impressive and dominant offensive showing, the Kansas City Chiefs take charge of the AFC West division.
It all started after the Chiefs defense held the Chargers to a three and out drive to start the game. Los Angeles punted to Tyreek Hill who took it all the way for a touchdown. Hill was the dominant playmaker that the Chargers had zero answers for. Along with his punt return, Hill also had seven catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns.
Outside of Tyreek Hill and his big day, all of the eyes were on Patrick Mahomes as he tore apart the Chargers highly regarded secondary. Consistently escaping pressure and keeping his eyes downfield, Mahomes made some big plays deep. He also ran the ball through the game for another 21 yards. Mahomes passing totals were 15/27 for 256 yards and four touchdowns.
Tyreek Hill wasn’t the only player who made impactful plays on special teams. DeAnthony Thomas came up with a strip on the Chargers inside the five-yard line in which Kansas City recovered. The Chiefs went on to score another touchdown to bolster their score.
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On the defensive side of the ball, there were plenty of mistakes made. The front seven didn’t look as dominant as it did against the run in the preseason. He wasn’t getting the help he needed from his supporting cast. Philip Rivers finally threw an interception in the third quarter as safety Ron Parker jumped the route for the pick.
Rivers overall stats were padded with garbage time yards in the final quarter of the game. Kansas City’s defense played ten to twelve yards off of their receivers throughout the fourth in order to just keep the play in front of them. Regardless, they didn’t have a consistent answer for Keenan Allen as Orlando Scandrick was clearly outmatched.
Steven Nelson was a player that had some good and some bad plays. He got beat multiple times against the Chargers receivers, but also came up with some good plays to keep receptions from being made. Anthony Hitchens and Reggie Ragland looked rusty as they’ve only played one preseason game this season.
Something surprising that I noticed on defense was that Tanoh Kpassagnon and Breeland Speaks both saw rotating time throughout the game. I expected to see them in a very limited fashion, but Bob Sutton had the outside linebackers rotating pretty consistently.
At the end of the day, Kansas City dominated the Chargers defense without much hesitation. The Chiefs defense struggled but kept Los Angeles to 12 points until the fourth quarter. Most of the Chargers points came padded in garbage time late in the game with the Chiefs offense doing their job scoring 38 points.
We knew that the defense would struggle. We also expected for there to be a few games until the defense got in sink with players being out in the preseason and the overhaul of new players joining the team this season. That doesn’t take away from the concerns that still remain, but just remember that the defense held the Chargers to 12 points until late in the game.
Everyone was terrified of what Philip Rivers would do to this Kansas City defense and all of its question marks. While it wasn’t pretty, the defense did enough for the offense to break off for a big lead. Looking at the box score stats, it would seem that the defense was much worse than it was with the padded stats in the fourth quarter.
I’m concerned about what the defense could look like going forward, but I expect it to get better. Kansas City will have another tough matchup defensively as they travel to Pittsburgh and take on the Steelers next weekend. Regardless, 1-0 feels pretty good after being the underdog for the entire offseason.