Kansas City Chiefs return to .500 with slim win over New York Giants: What we learned
It was far from pretty, and the Chiefs still don’t resemble the powerhouse team many thought they would be in 2021.
Kansas City let an inferior opponent stick around Monday night at Arrowhead Stadium and the Giants almost made the host team pay.
New York was tough throughout the prime-time contest, trading punches with the Chiefs, who entered the game as 10.5-point favorites. The game was tied late in the fourth quarter.
The difference? Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes drove his team 45 yards and kicker Harrison Butker took over from there, drilling a 34-yard field goal for a 20-17 victory.
“All in all, a good hard-fought win, one that was needed,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I was proud of our defense and the way that they played.”
But the game shouldn’t have been anywhere near as close as it was. New York entered the game without a pair of stars: running back Saquon Barkely and wide receiver Kenny Golladay. The two were inactive because of injuries. The Giants also lost wide receiver Sterling Shepherd to a quad injury during the game.
But the Chiefs couldn’t figure out how to put away the Giants after jumping out to a 7-0 lead.
New York put up a fight against the heavily favored Chiefs and even took a 17-14 lead early in the fourth quarter, when quarterback Daniel Jones found tight end Evan Engram for a 5-yard touchdown pass.
But Butker’s two field goals to close out the fourth quarter helped the Chiefs improve to 4-4. They’re 3-0 against NFC East opponents this season, with a game remaining against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 11 at Arrowhead.
“Offensively, we made plays when they were needed down the stretch to get us in field-goal position,” Reid said.
YOU KNEW IT WAS COMING: TURNOVERS
Is anyone surprised at this point?
The Chiefs are their own worst enemy and their inability to protect the football continues to hurt them against superior and inferior opponents alike.
Kansas City entered the game with a league-high 17 turnovers and can now add two more to that dubious total.
Mahomes has become an interception machine. He threw his 10th interception of the season in the first quarter on the Chiefs’ opening drive. Mahomes has now thrown an interception in seven straight games.
The usually sure-handed Travis Kelce lost a fumble in the third quarter, his first turnover of the season.
The Chiefs are aware of their issues, but the problem hasn’t been corrected eight games into the season.
Mahomes said he and his teammates will continue to fight through the turnover problems.
“We’re going to keep battling,” he said. “Even the Titans game the week before, we’re going to battle to the very end. I promise you that.
“You’re hoping that the turnover luck flips the other way, but that comes with us trying to execute at a higher level.”
BIG PLAYS ABSENT
Mahomes started the game completing a perfect 8 of 8 passes, engineering a 12-play drive on the game’s opening possession. He got the Chiefs to the Giants’ 5-yard line, but their 13th play resulted in an interception.
The Chiefs’ signal-caller finished the game completing 29 of 48 passes for 275 yards and a touchdown with an interception for a 74.6 passer rating. He averaged 5.7 yards per pass, but that’s not surprising because of how the Giants safeties played against the Chiefs’ offense.
“They did a nice job on some things,” Reid said. “I’m going to go back and kind of look at whether I was putting him in a good position or not to make plays, and then we’ll see. I thought he did a nice job of hanging with it and ended up making some big plays for us with his feet and his arm.”
Like numerous other opponents this season, the Giants played their safeties deep, sometimes 15 or 20 yards off the line of scrimmage. Such deployment of a team’s defensive backs effectively takes away deep passes and explosive plays, which the Chiefs had once thrived upon.
The Chiefs’ lone explosive play came on a Mahomes shovel-pass to Mecole Hardman in the fourth quarter for 24 yards.
Monday marked the fourth straight game in which Mahomes, who posted a career-low 62.3 rating in Week 7, failed to record a passer rating above 91.
Wide receiver Tyreek Hill led the Chiefs in receiving with 12 catches for 94 yards and a touchdown on 18 targets.
GAY PLAYED GREAT
Willie Gay Jr. put on a show in front of a national audience.
The Chiefs’ second-round pick of the 2020 NFL Draft made his presence felt early in the game, recording an interception on the Giants’ first possession and returning it to New York’s 13-yard line to help erase Mahomes’ interception.
Gay’s lone regret on the interception was that he didn’t score a touchdown and was brought down by running back Devontae Booker.
“I should’ve just ran him over,” Gay said.
On the Giants’ second possession, Gay stuffed Booker for no gain. The Chiefs linebacker finished the game with nine tackles, an interception and a pass defensed.
The Chiefs invested heavily at the linebacker position over the past two drafts, first with Gay and then with Nick Bolton in 2021. Bolton, a former Missouri Tiger, recorded a career-high 15 tackles last week against the Titans, while Gay is coming into his own as a playmaker.
Bolton led the team in tackles with 11 against the Giants.
ROTATING PRESENCE
Defensive lineman Chris Jones made a position change this past offseason, moving inside to left defensive end.
Against the Giants, the Chiefs rotated Jones between the two spots, and he took advantage of personnel matchups against New York’s offensive linemen, especially inside.
While he didn’t light up the box score, Jones was a disruptive force, pressuring quarterback Daniel Jones on pass rushes from inside. He finished the game with two tackles, a sack and two quarterback hits.
INJURIES
Wide receiver Marcus Kemp left in the second quarter to be evaluated for a concussion, but returned to action.
“He cleared that right away,” Reid said.
INACTIVES
Linebacker Anthony Hitchens (tricep), defensive tackle Khalen Saunders (knee), center Austin Blythe, right tackle Mike Remmers (knee), cornerback Deandre Baker and tackle Prince Tega Wanogho did not play in the game.
UP NEXT
The Chiefs host the Green Bay Packers in Week 9, on Sunday, at Arrowhead Stadium.
This story was originally published November 1, 2021 at 10:40 PM.
