It was a loss, but Chiefs backup quarterback Matt Moore looked impressive in 1st start
The last spot in the starting lineup announcement inside Arrowhead Stadium is reserved for the quarterback. For the reigning MVP. For the 24-year-old wunderkind. On days in which members of the Chiefs’ offense hear their names called, Patrick Mahomes draws the loudest cheers and the moist noise. Save the best for last, right?
But on Sunday evening, with Mahomes sidelined with a knee injury, Matt Moore walked through the line instead. The backup quarterback received a starter’s greeting. And he noticed it, too.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous,” Moore said of the moments before making his first NFL start in 23 months.
It showed early. But he soon settled into a groove.
The Packers beat the Chiefs 31-24 Sunday at Arrowhead in a game that stayed close longer than many might’ve thought it would. The former wasn’t at the fault of the backup quarterback. For a stretch, the latter was.
After an early two-touchdown deficit, Moore played the Chiefs back into game before finishing 24 of 36 for 267 yards and a pair of touchdowns. That’s the sixth most yardage of a career that began in 2007.
“I wish I would have come out of the gate rolling,” he said. “But like I said, we got it going. I just need to work on starting a little quicker.”
Ten days earlier, his first NFL pass in nearly two years arrived after a state of surprise. When Mahomes dislocated his knee, Moore’s initial thoughts rested with him before all else. So on Sunday night, the most welcomed element of his first start with the Chiefs was quite simple.
Time. Time to prepare for the possibility of a start, ready to replace perhaps the top passer in the NFL. Time for the Chiefs to prepare for it, too.
After a couple of stagnant drives to open the game, Chiefs coach Andy Reid and offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy settled Moore into a groove. Short routes. Quick passes.
Reid had never coached Moore in a game. Not even in the preseason, given his late addition to the roster after expected backup Chad Henne fractured his ankle. He learned as he went.
“He hadn’t played a lot of football in the last couple of years, so for him to come out and do what he did tonight, I thought that was respectable,” Reid said. “He battled and made some plays for us. He’ll go back and look at it, and there will be a couple he’ll want back, but, heck, he did a pretty respectable job there.”
The change at quarterback didn’t prompt a change from a pass-heavy offense to a rushing-centric one. The Chiefs ran the ball only nine times in the opening half, and one of those came on Moore’s scramble, an intended dropback. He threw 23 times in the first two quarters, completing 15 passes for 196 yards and two touchdowns. That’s after the rough start, in which the Chiefs failed to reach the sticks on either of their first two drives.
As the game aged, Reid further opened the playbook, creativity keying each touchdown pass. A double fake handoff left tight end Travis Kelce in open space. Pressured, Moore floated a ball in Kelce’s vicinity, and Kelce circled underneath it for a 29-yard touchdown. On the next drive, Hardman scored from 30 yards out, sprinting in motion to get on the other end of Moore’s flick in the backfield.
“We didn’t really hold a lot back,” Reid said. “You can’t against a team like that. But he stepped his game up. He attacked it during the week.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2019 at 11:16 PM.