Kansas City Chiefs: Four things we learned vs Saints in Week 15

The Kansas City Chiefs knocked off the Saints 32-29. What did we learn in the win?

It came down to the wire once again, but the Kansas City Chiefs recorded a big victory against the New Orleans Saints and move to 13-1 as a result. While the Chiefs did impress with this win, it still came down to the final few minutes, which has been a problem for this Chiefs team. They haven’t been able to close out games and that’s a growing concern every week that they fail to do so.

Anyway, with this game in the books, let’s check out what we learned about the champs after their latest victory.

What we learned in Kansas City Chiefs’ win vs Saints – Offensive line woes

Look, most of us expected the Chiefs offensive line to struggle on Sunday, as the team was now down to their third-string right tackle. Struggle they did, as the Chiefs o-line surrendered three sacks while also allowing Patrick Mahomes to be hit 11 times by the Saints smothering defense.

The offensive line did play better when it came to opening things up in the run game, but the pass protection was a problem throughout the entire game. Eventually, it’s going to be costly and this is something Kansas City needs to work on for sure, especially if Mitchell Schwartz or Mike Remmers aren’t coming back any time soon.

What we learned in Kansas City Chiefs’ win vs Saints – Injuries stacking up

This might have been a big victory for the Chiefs, but they saw some key players go down with injuries. The biggest one was obviously to Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who left the game in the fourth quarter with what looked to be a leg injury. As of this writing, we’re not sure what the status is on CEH’s injury.

Another injury that occurred was to Bashaud Breeland, who exited the game with an injury in the first half. Obviously losing Breeland would hurt this secondary, as he’s been a nice player this season. We even saw Le’Veon Bell get banged up in this game and with CEH exiting the game, losing both him and Bell would be really bad for this Chiefs offense.

Of course, I’ve already mentioned how beat up the Chiefs offensive line is and this is the time of year that teams struggle with players staying healthy. It hasn’t cost KC yet, but hopefully, injuries can be limited down the stretch.

What we learned in Kansas City Chiefs’ win vs Saints – Run game did its part

The rushing attack has been hit and miss for the Chiefs this season, but it did well against the Saints on Sunday. Tony Romo mentioned several times during the broadcast that the Saints defense was playing deep to prevent Mahomes from airing it out, so that did open things up in the run game and the Chiefs took advantage.

The rushing attack totaled 179 yards and a touchdown off of 41 carries with Edwards-Helaire tallying 79 of those yards off of 14 carries. Bell had one more carry and was right behind him with 62 yards while also finding the end zone in the fourth quarter. Mahomes had 37 yards rushing with a long of 24 yards.

It’s going to be key for the Chiefs’ run game to continue to be effective and help bleed the clock. They did so this week, but now it’s something we need to see on a weekly basis as we inch closer to the playoffs.

What we learned in Kansas City Chiefs’ win vs Saints – No worries in red zone

It had been a growing concern how poorly the Chiefs offense was performing in the red zone in their past few games, but they threw that narrative out of the window this week. The Chiefs went 4-for-5 in the red zone, making sure they capitalized on their opportunities on the Saints’ side of the field.

This is something that seemed odd for a team with this explosive of an offense, but they proved against New Orleans that it was hopefully just a temporary struggle. They were able to put up points in the red zone this week and did so against one of the best defenses in the entire league.

This was a competitive game that came down to the very end once again. It’d be nice to see the Chiefs put away an opponent once they get a big lead, but at the end of the day, I guess the most important thing when it comes to this team is that they avoid any major injuries while also leaving with a W.

Sitting at 13-1 feels good, but the Chiefs will have a sneaky opponent coming to Arrowhead next weekend, as the Atlanta Falcons come to town for a Week 16 matchup in Kansas City. For now, though, let’s take some time to celebrate this win because it was most definitely an impressive one.