Kansas City Chiefs: 10 Likes and 10 Dislikes from Week 2 vs Oakland
By Cullen Jekel
10 Things I Liked
1. Robinson’s Career Day
https://twitter.com/Chiefs/status/1173339690105049089
Without Tyreek Hill, Demarcus Robinson, a four-year vet out of Florida, started opposite of Sammy Watkins, and had by far the best game of his career, setting career highs in catches (six), receiving yards (172) and touchdown receptions (two).
2. Defensive Shutdown After the First Quarter
Oakland jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but Kansas City’s defense shut it down after that. The first two Raider drives led to a field goal and a touchdown. Their next five drives went: punt, punt, punt, punt, end of half. In the second half, it was more of the same, with the longest Raiders drive ending in an interception while the team punted on their final two drives.
The #Chiefs’ defense didn’t allow the #Raiders to score in the final 49:46 of the game, coming away with three sacks and two INTs.
— Chiefs Reporter (@ChiefsReporter) September 16, 2019
Last week in their win over the Broncos, Derek Carr wasn’t sacked at all and didn’t throw an INT.
The Chiefs’ defense stepped up today.
3. Mahomes Spreads the Wealth
The reigning MVP completed passes to seven different players while an eighth–back-up tight end Blake Bell–just missed hauling in what would have been a touchdown reception. Overall, Travis Kelce paved the way with seven receptions while he, Robinson, and rookie Mecole Hardman all caught touchdown passes. Sammy Watkins led the team in targets with 13, catching six of them for 49 yards.
4. Pressure on Derek Carr
Chris Jones, Kendall Fuller and Tanoh Kpassagnon each had a sack while the Chiefs hit Carr a total of five times with Jones collecting three of those.
5. The Offense Kept Attacking
Even though the Chiefs were up 21-10 when they got the ball back with just 40 seconds left on the clock in the second quarter, Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy dialed up another aggressive play. It paid a quick dividend, as Mahomes connected with Robinson for a touchdown for the second time that quarter, all but extinguishing any hope the Raiders had.
A lot, if not most, teams would have run down the clock even more and tried for a (long) field goal with little to no time left on that clock in that situation. Not the Chiefs. That mentality is infectious. Here’s to more of it.
6. Swiveling Heads
Bad throw by Carr, nice tracking by Breeland. Chiefs rolling 28-10. pic.twitter.com/JjXOOYMjPF
— RIP Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) September 15, 2019
Not only did the Chiefs pick off Carr twice, including once in the end zone, but the Chiefs defended six passes. And it wasn’t just the secondary, as Jones defended one pass and linebacker Damien Wilson, signed away from Dallas in the offseason, also defended one.
7. Different Types of Scoring Drives
Kansas City’s first play of the second quarter went for six, ending a three-play drive that stretched 72 yards in just 70 seconds. The Chiefs second drive lasted a whopping 14 plays, going all the way from their own five yard-line to the end zone, and took over six-and-a-half minutes.
On the team’s third scoring drive of the quarter, they drove 94 yards in just five plays and in under two minutes. And finally, the last drive ended with yet another touchdown that took a single play, stretched 39 yards, and lasted seven seconds.
There are 50 ways to leave your lover, and just as many ways for the Chiefs offense to score on the opposing defense.
8. Limiting Damage Through the Air
Carr completed 23 passes on 38 attempts to seven different teammates, but he only threw for 198 yards. That’s a mere 5.4 yards per attempt. The Chiefs defense did a good job at discombobulating Carr while limiting his receivers after they made a catch.
9. Eric Fisher’s Toughness
Fisher, the former No. 1 overall draft pick in 2013, gave it a go on Sunday after being listed as questionable to play. The left tackle had nothing to prove by going out there, but he did it anyway. This wasn’t exactly a Willis Reed in the Garden moment–it was the second game of the season after all–but it shows how seriously the Chiefs are taking this season. There’s no room to spare, not even against a team that went 4-12 a year ago.
Kudos to Fisher.
10. Not Panicking
How much different would this game have played out had the Raiders scored six on that first drive instead of just a field goal? Would the Chiefs have panicked then? Who knows. What I do know is that the Chiefs didn’t panic going down 10-0 on the road in one of the most hostile environments in the NFL. There’s no quit in your 2019 Kansas City Chiefs.
Better yet: there’s no panic.