Kansas City Chiefs: Chiefs Hold On For First Home Victory

The Kansas City Chiefs hold on for a victory against the San Francisco 49ers to make them 3-0 on the season. There are still concerns on defense.

The Kansas City Chiefs were able to hold on for a victory on Sunday afternoon against the San Francisco 49ers 38-27. After dominating in the first half, Kansas City went into a bit of a shell in the second half. While the first half had the looks of a blowout, San Francisco made it a game again in the second half.

Even in the first half when Kansas City made numerous mistakes on offense, they still couldn’t be stopped. Patrick Mahomes had a couple of errors early on between missing wide open Travis Kelce in the first drive and underthrowing Tyreek Hill on a deep touchdown play that ended in Richard Sherman making a pass breakup. He also overthrew Demarcus Robinson on a deep route that was wide open in the second quarter.

Kansas City continued the creativity on offense getting Anthony Sherman involved once again in the passing game out of the backfield. He is an entirely new weapon in the new Air Reid offense. Spencer Ware also got involved a few times in the passing game showing off his ability to fight for yards.

Kareem Hunt finally got a pair of touchdowns on the ground after not getting any through the first two weeks. San Francisco had no answer for anything the Chiefs did on offense giving up a touchdown on every drive in the first half. Probably the best play of the half had to be Mahomes scrambling from the pass rush to hit Chris Conley in the back of the end zone who was returning from a foot injury in the first quarter.

Just before halftime, Patrick Mahomes hit Sammy Watkins for his first touchdown reception of the season and broke the record for most touchdowns in first three games of a season topping Peyton Manning who had twelve.

The defense struggled in the first half but kept San Francisco in check only allowing ten points in the first half. Jimmy Garoppolo looks uncomfortable in the pocket with Dee Ford getting another sack. While the linebackers struggled in coverage and to tackle, the overall defense was successful. Going into the half, the score was Kansas City winning 35-10.

The story was different in the third quarter as the Chiefs were forced to punt on their first two drives. San Francisco picked apart Kansas City’s defense moving down the field for two touchdowns of their own and getting back into the game making it 35-24. The issues weren’t the cornerbacks, but the linebackers and safeties blowing coverages.

Toward the end of the third quarter, Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense got rolling again moving down the field and inside the red zone to finish the quarter. Unfortunately, the Chiefs offense was unable to get it into the end zone being forced to settle for a field goal.

The 49ers continued their offensive momentum as they ran the ball down Kansas City’s throat. Once they got down inside the red zone, the Chiefs got back to back sacks by Chris Jones and Justin Houston who also stripped the ball. On third and long, Garoppolo tries to run the ball and lower his shoulder to Steven Nelson on the sideline which ends with Nelson leveling him resulting in Garoppolo being hurt.

After a questionable penalty negating the 49ers touchdown on the very next play, they are forced to kick a field goal. Kansas City came out the next drive running the ball for first downs to keep the clock moving to complete the victory. While it was an ugly second half, the Chiefs were able to finish and move to 3-0.