No hangover for Super Bowl-champion Chiefs, who soundly hammer Houston in season opener
Don’t worry about a Super Bowl hangover in Kansas City.
If anything, the Chiefs opened up Thursday night where they left off in Miami on Feb. 4.
The Chiefs’ kicked off the regular season in defense of their league championship with a game of dominant runs against the Houston Texans at Arrowhead Stadium.
After spotting the Texans an early 7-0 lead, the Chiefs ran off 17 straight points to take a 17-7 halftime lead. The Chiefs eventually opened up a 31-7 lead before Houston’s offense was heard from again in the fourth quarter, when the game was effectively out of reach.
The other run, quite literally, came from rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who electrified the close to 16,000 fans in attendance by gashing the Texans for 138 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.
Look out, NFL. This Chiefs team effectively announced they remain a force to be reckoned with after a convincing 34-20 win against a playoff-caliber Texans squad. It was the sixth consecutive season-opening win for coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs.
“Both sides of the ball and special teams, I thought were solid,” Reid said. “For a first game, listen, there were some good things that were done, some great individual performances and some young guys that had some nice performances. So, all in all, a good day.”
The Chiefs did it with a balanced attack on offense, even with Edwards-Helaire making his rookie debut.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes had another fine day at the office, completing 24 of 32 passes for 211 yards and three touchdowns — one each to tight end Travis Kelce and wide receivers Sammy Watkins and Tyreek Hill. The star quarterback would’ve had a fourth touchdown, but wide receiver Demarcus Robinson dropped what should’ve been a score on the Chiefs’ opening drive.
Watkins enjoyed a good outing, hauling in seven catches for 82 yards on nine targets. Kelce showed he was in midseason form with six catches for 50 yards and a touchdown on six targets against a defense that elected to take away the deep game with a Cover-2 scheme.
Reid and Mahomes, though, adjusted and attacked the underneath routes.
“Pat did a nice job of checking it down,” Reid said. “We had some deeper things that he decided to come down on because they were covered down the field and the checkdowns were good for him. I thought he played very well.”
The game was an unveiling of sorts for Edwards-Helaire, the LSU product whose impressive outing will give upcoming opponents something more to think about when it comes to the Chiefs offense.
With the Chiefs’ offensive linemen imposing their will on the Texans’ defense, Edwards-Helaire showcased his ability to hit a hole without hesitation. In the open field, the rookie proved hard to tackle and finished the night averaging 5.5 yards per carry with a healthy workload.
“We wanted to give him the ball, but we didn’t come in saying he was going to get X number of carries,” Reid said. “We liked the mix that we were able to get going.”
Mahomes agreed.
“He’s been doing it since the day he got here,” Mahomes said of the team’s prized rookie rusher. “He’s been working hard, he’s been learning from his mistakes and he’s been running the ball between the tackles and catching passes. I thought the offensive line did a great job of giving him holes to run through and he hit it every single time.
“He’s going to keep getting better. Another weapon I kind of have in this offense and we’re going to keep doing whatever we can to keep moving the ball and scoring touchdowns.”
Edwards-Helaire wasn’t the only Chiefs rookie to have a good showing in the season opener.
On defense, cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, the Chiefs’ fourth-round pick of the 2020 NFL Draft, drew the start at right cornerback over Rashad Fenton and was exceptional.
Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson appeared to go after Sneed early, but Sneed held his own. He also showed his speed by hanging with wide receiver Brandin Cooks down the right sideline before reaching up to break up the pass.
Sneed finished the game with three tackles, two pass breakups and an interception to impress All-Pro safety Tyrann Mathieu.
“I wouldn’t say that I saw him having this day, but I did see the kid playing solid ball,” Mathieu said. “I did see him making tackles, making plays. But to have a night like this on prime-time TV, the whole world is watching, all his family is watching, I’m just excited and happy for him going forward.”
After allowing the Texans to score in the first quarter on a 19-yard scamper by running back David Johnson, the Chiefs put the clamps down and befuddled the potent Houston offense.
Watson, one of the NFL’s elite signal-callers, totaled 668 yards passing and three touchdowns in two games against the Chiefs last year. Thursday night, the Texans quarterback found the going tough and completed just 20 of 32 passes for 253 yards and a touchdown and an interception for an 84.5 passer rating. Most of Watson’s production came in the final period with the game essentially out of reach, and the Chiefs sacked him four times. Defensive tackle Chris Jones had 1.5 sacks.
With the Texans offense struggling to get into any sort of rhythm, the Chiefs’ offense held a commanding 34:47-to-25:13 edge in time of possession.
The Chiefs (1-0) now have an extended weekend break before hitting the road for Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers.
INJURIES: Reid said defensive tackle Khalen Saunders suffered a dislocated elbow, defensive end Alex Okafor left the game with a “slight” hamstring injury and cornerback Charvarius Ward suffered a fractured hand.
This story was originally published September 10, 2020 at 10:42 PM.
