Kansas City Chiefs: 10 Likes and 10 Dislikes from Week 6 vs Houston
By Cullen Jekel
In Week 6, for the second consecutive week, the Kansas City Chiefs fell at home to a team from the AFC South, this time to the Houston Texans, 31-24.
With the loss, the Kansas City Chiefs, who started the season with four straight wins, stand at 4-2, going 3-0 on the road and 1-2 at Arrowhead.
Here are my 10 likes and 10 dislikes from the loss against the Texans.
10 Likes
1. Tyreek Hill‘s Leaping Catch & Touchdown
In Hill’s first game back since Week 1, on the first drive, he made an excellent catch on 3rd-and-21 from Houston’s 46. On what was basically a free play due to a Texan jumping early, quarterback Patrick Mahomes was, in what would be a rarity for the day, given enough time by his beleaguered offensive line to sit back and uncork it.
Hill jumped up, reached over a defender, and snared the ball just outside the end zone. He then forced his way in, giving the Chiefs an early lead.
2. Frank Clark‘s Strip & Recovery
On the Texans’ first offensive snap on the day, quarterback Deshaun Watson handed off to running back Carlos Hyde. Clark met Hyde quickly, managed to get his big mitt on the football, and pried it loose. When the ball popped up into the air, Clark corralled it for an early takeaway, giving the Chiefs a chance to go up by two scores.
3. Early Screen Passes
Early in the game, head coach Andy Reid dialed up several screens that paid dividends, and which eased some of the pressure facing Mahomes. Oddly, Reid seemed to abandon the screen pass as the game went on.
4. Ward’s End Zone Interception
After the Chiefs put together a solid 10-play, 64-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter to take a 24-23 lead, the Texans put together a long drive of their own. Starting at their own 23, the Texans marched into Chiefs territory on 10 plays. But on the 11th play of the drive, a 3rd-and-Goal from Kansas City’s 12, Watson, aiming for his No. 1 wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins, instead threw an interception in the end zone.
And what a nice play it was by Charvarius Ward.
5. Spreading the Wealth
This is a common theme in the “10 Likes” section, but Mahomes keeps doing it: he really spreads the ball around well to multiple targets. Against Houston, he connected with seven different teammates on his 19 completions for 273 yards including two players, Hill and running back Damien Williams, catching touchdown passes.