Categories: Kansas City ChiefsLaddie Morse

Chiefs in the Hunt

On Sunday afternoon at Arrowhead Stadium, the Kansas City Chiefs manhandled the Oakland Raiders then held on for dear life late in the game. On a day when QB Alex Smith was less than stellar — his quarterback rating was 71.1 on the day compared to his 107.2 rating for the year — the Chiefs remained in the hunt for the AFC West crown because RB Kareem Hunt ran for 116 yards and added another 22 yards receiving.

While the defense also played lights out for the first three quarters, there were plenty of things for the Chiefs to work on. However, before getting into what needs improving, you can be sure that this game had plenty of “TwitPinTube” (the words Twitter and Pinterest & YouTube combined) moments:

Kareem Hunt now has over 1,000 yards rushing for the season and that was his first TD since the 3rd week of the year. By my calculations, Hunt now has 1,435 yards from scrimmage. What many were wondering was… would Hunt pick up where he left off early in the season. He answered that question in the affirmative. Strongly affirmative. Then again, there was the “Basketball Tip Celebration” which had me laughing out loud longer than is normal (I’m glad other people were not around).

Harrison Butker came through on 4-of-4 Field Goals when the offense stalled out.

TE Demetrius “The Conundrum” Harris had the best catch of his career in this game (see below) which he took for 25 well earned yards. Of course he followed that up with a penalty, by moving before the snap a few plays later.

Once again, WR Albert Wilson proved he is money when it’s crunch time by making one of the best catches of the day.

CB Terrance Mitchell made a timely INT off a ball that flitted and fluttered through the air because of a hit on Raiders QB Derek Carr by Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones.

Chris Jones and Rakeem Nunez-Roches (RNR) kept the Oakland offense at bay most of the day.

While Justin Houston led the team with 5 tackles, Kevin Pierre-Lewis had an excellent game with 4 tackles.

However, no hit in this game was as pretty as the hit Derrick Johnson laid on Marshawn Lynch in the flat.

The Bad and the Ugly Rears There Heads

Penalties: the Trend Goes On

While Chiefs fans were in dream land for the better part of three quarters and the scores skyrocketing to 26-to-Nothing, the team was playing a less than perfect game. K.C ended u with 7 penalties for a loss of 69 yards. While the Raiders also ended u with 7 penalties, there loss was only 39 yards. What is bothersome about the penalties is that it is a tend. Anytime the Chiefs have more penalties than the Oakland Raiders, something is seriously amiss. I wrote about this problem last week and the issue I’m speaking of is: discipline.

Speaking of discipline problems, Marcus Peters was sitting out this game due to a suspension Andy Reid levied against him for walking off the field last week and while many expected a miserable outcome because of his absence, the opposite occurred: the Chiefs defensive backfield had one of their best games of the year. All while Peters was sitting. I can only speculate that the rest of the DBs have been playing to cover for Peters previously, in the sense that they were trying to help set him up for the picks he’s so famous for… but have been few and far between this year (3 INTs).

A Bad Case of the Dropped Balls

Normally this might sound like the doctor was asking you to bend over and cough… but Travis Kelce must have been thinking about his prostate exam on Tuesday coming up because he even dropped balls that hit him in the hands. I haven’t seen Kelce like that since his rookie year (actually his second year).

If you take away even SOME of those penalties and even SOME of the dropped passes, the game vs. the Raiders would have been a huge blowout… 40-something to less than 10 maybe. I say maybe because OC Matt Nagy who is now calling the plays, must have gotten the memo from Andy Reid… “MEMO: If you have the lead in the second half, go into DON’T LOSE mode for all play calling.” There appears to be nothing that the Chiefs do which allows their opponents to stay in games more than, going into DON”T LOSE mode. Listen, I like that Nagy is calling plays but the first 15 are all Reid… then by the time the 3rd quarter comes and you have a lead… it’s back to Andy-Basics. So, it appears that Nagy calling plays isn’t as helpful as one may have thought previously.

Covering the Other Team’s Tight Ends

As the Chiefs celebrate their success against the Raiders, they have to be concerned about their inability to cover the Tight Ends of this league. The Raider’s TE Jared Cook had his way with whoever was covering him. While we’ve seen the performance of different position groups be up one week and down the next, we’ve have yet to see the Chiefs defensive backfield (or linebackers) cover another team’s Tight End well. At all. It was not a pretty picture to see Tanoh Kpassagnon chasing a receiver down the field. If the Chiefs are going to address this issue, now’s the time to do it with the Chargers bringing one of the best ever to wear an NFL jersey coming to town: Antonio Gates. Gates has 916 receiving yards this season but the problem for the Chiefs gets worse because TE Hunter Henry is also turning out to be a good one as well. This will be a key area to watch this coming Saturday when the Chargers come for a visit.

Summing Up a Beautiful Win

If you go to chiefs.com and listen to the postgame interview Mitch Holthus did with Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, you can hear him explain that the game plan was “made simple” and that was the reason why the Chiefs did so well. A number of us hear at ArrowheadOne have made this suggestion because Reid’s offense can often be too complex for his players to execute. Let’s hope this becomes commonplace for the team as the playoffs approach.

Any way you look at it, the Chiefs won an important game by the score of 26-to-15. Furthermore, it was over the hated Raiders. So, yes, it was important… at least for the next 6 days that is, until this coming Saturday evening when the Los Angeles Chargers visit Arrowhead for another showdown of AFC West leaders. Both the Chargers and the Chiefs have identical 7-and-6 records so once again, this game will be for the AFC West lead… and… the Hunt of the AFC West crown goes on.