Chiefs 37-21 Win Highlights Outstanding Offense and Woeful Defense

Chiefs 37-21 Win Highlights

Outstanding Offense and

Woeful Defense

by David Bell

The Chiefs played an away game at Cleveland and notched their 8th win in 9 games. Put it in the book. I am good with that. On to prepping for the Cardinals.

SOMETHING GLISTENED — IT WAS WABI-SABI

The Mahomes led offense scored 37 points. They did so using the strength of their players but two stood out: Travis Kelce and Kareem Hunt. Between the two Ohio originating players they accounted for 5 scores. The first three possessions yielded 3 TD’s, two by Kelce and one by Kareem Hunt.

At the half, the Chiefs led 21-15 giving up a score by the browns which began on a drive with about 2 1/2 minutes left in the half.

My view of the game from the halfway point on was that it was pretty sloppy. True, The Chiefs scored 2 more times on TDs by the Ohio pair, added a Butker Field goal and wrapped up the win with 37 points.

Patrick Mahomes Statistics

• QB rating: 129.0
• 3 TD’S(29 Total) 1 Int(Total of 6)
• 375 yards(2,526 Total)
• Season’s Completion percentage: 65.6%
• 23-32

Kareem Hunt and Spencer Ware’s Rushing Stats

• Kareem Hunt: 91 yards, 19 attempts, 2 TDs
• Spencer War: 11 Yards, 2 Attempts

Team Receiving Stats

• Kareem Hunt: 50 yards, 2 Targets, 1 TD
• Travis Kelce: 7 Receptions, 9 targets, 99 yards, 2 TD’s
• Ty Hill: 5 targets, 4 receptions, 69 yards.
• Sammy Watkins: 5 targets, 5 receptions, 62 yards.
• Spencer Ware: 5 Targets, 4 Catches 69 yards
• Chris Conley: 2 Targets, 1 catch, 23 yards.
• Demarcus Robinson also had a catch.

The offense, as the above stats show, played well. Yes, the Chiefs failed to advance the chains only once. Dustin Colquitt had to punt. After the game he and his brother Britton met on the field for a brotherly photo shoot.

Yes, Patrick Mahomes had an INT — it was a long pass on the last play of the first half. The potential outcomes could have been a catch and explosive effort from inside the 10 with a WR making moves and scoring. It could have been a deep Interference call and the result would have been that quarter of play at the half cannot end on a penalty. The Ball would then be positioned for a Field Goal by Harrison Butker. Instead it was an interception on the side line and the defensive back’s momentum led him out of bounds. The pass was the last opportunity of the half and that INT is forgiven. At least by me.

Travis Kelce scored 2 TD’s and Kareem Hunt 3. The pair of players accounted for 5 of the Chiefs Scores. Harrison Butker kicked a Field Goal but his “Ugly-Ugly” was a missed extra-point conversion kick. His second of his time in KC and his second this season. That was the bad part about Special Teams play. A bright side was a 4th quarter punt block by Damien Williams. Perfectly imperfect.

Essentially, the Chiefs offense moved the football and chains with aplomb, converted 3rd downs and only had one failure which accounted for the Chiefs only punt.

After the game in an interview, Patrick Mahomes was talking to network pundit for CBS and he said of the game: “It’s a lot of fun,” said Mahomes, who was hurt by a couple drops. ”It makes my job a lot easier knowing that I can trust these guys are going to be in the right spot. They’re taking care of their business. They’re running the routes and making route adjustments on the fly just because they’ve looked at the film and know how to do those things.” source: cbssports.com

The offense rating by me? It was Perfect–uh, Wabi-Sabi.

THE UGLY is… UGLY

I was fuming nearly the whole game about the play of the defense. I am totally at a point of spitting nails about this. Sure, it’s true that 6 points came from a bad call by the officiating crew in the first half. A whistle wasn’t blown, Dee Ford had a strip sack and could have returned the ball for a TD. The Whistle blew the play dead(mistake #2). Then the officials ruled they should have had a penalty at the snap and didn’t blow the Whistle. That resulted in a Brown’s drive and a scoring of a TD(with a missed 2 point conversion attempt). Failure to throw the red flag is on Reid.

Play after play, it seemed to me that the ILBs were positioned wrong for run defense and were missioned with stsopping the run up the middle and also being primary in coverage in the intermediate zone. After the game though, I checked the numbers and the Browns had the following game on the ground:

• Nick Chubb at 22 attempts and 85 yards, 1 TD; Johnson had 1 yard on 2 attempts while Perriman had 2 yards. So primarily the Chiefs held the Browns under 100 yards rushing.
• Receiving was different: Johnson had 9 catches for 78 yards and 2 TDs.  Njoku, Callaway, Landry and all had 50+ yards receiving and Perriman 36. As noted, Mayfield had 274 yards passing.

Primarily though, the Chiefs allowed first down after first down, giving the Browns a lop-sided time of possession and giving up 21 points. Time after time, Receivers were open for receptions. Twice on Johnson catches, he was totally wide open with no defender nearby. One resulted in a TD and the other a 1st down when the play was 4th and 2 or 3. Just totally awful coverage. Against a good team, giving them that kind of time of possession imbalance would result in a loss. Making huge errors in coverage as was witnessed in this game is not going to get to where the Chiefs are trying to get to: Deep in Post -season and perhaps the Super Bowl. It’s just not going to happen.

I have questioned my analysis of player ability and the performance in the defense sets called by Bob Sutton. My conclusion after the half was why had Bob Sutton not been relieved of duty and told to pack his bags and head home. Have an assistant take over because what Bob Sutton’s defense calls results in what we have seen game after game with the exception of the first half against the 49’ers and the Bengals game. Sutton did not use linebackers inside or outside aggressively. He did not set up a pass rush defense to get past a weak offensive line an at least get in the face of Baker Mayfield. Sure they had 2 sacks but Pressures and Hurries and a hand in the face snap after snap works more effectively.

With a New Offensive Coordinator and head coach, the Browns did an effective job as was probably possible. A Cleveland.com author rated Mayfield’s performance as a ‘B-‘.

As far as what the defense did in it’s game?  I give it a C- because of ToP and allowing the Browns to roll up and down the field.

My rating for Bob Sutton and his defense play-calling? Is he still the Chiefs Defensive Coordinator?

David Bell – ArrowheadOne

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