Five things that stood out about the Kansas City Chiefs’ win against the Broncos
Short yardage remains a problem.
The deep passing game still hasn’t found a solution, either.
Patrick Mahomes gifted the Broncos an interception.
Oh, and the Chiefs won, by the way, a 19-8 victory against the Denver Broncos in a game that really didn’t ever feel that close.
The Chiefs have reached that level now — where we are critiquing what went wrong in a final score that really went right.
Hey, it comes with the territory. A defending Super Bowl champion with plans for wins in months much later than October ought to be focusing on them.
And we will here too. Here are five observations from immediately after the game:
1. The short-yardage stuff
I’ll say it again: The play call is the secondary problem. The fact that the Chiefs feel like they need to trick the defense in order to convert short yardage is the primary problem.
When the Chiefs elected to line up in field goal formation on fourth-and-2 from the 6-yard line, only for tight end Noah Gray to get under center and try a quarterback sneak that ultimately failed, it wasn’t purely out of boredom — though, let’s be honest, they could have been a bit bored.
When they directly snapped the ball to wide receiver Kadarius Toney for a read-option that he executed really poorly, that wasn’t out of boredom, either.
They apparently believe their best option of converting short yardage is to take the ball out of Patrick Mahomes’ hands, and that’s the initial problem before we even critique the playcall.
There’s a real lack of confidence in converting with the regular offense right now.
2. The Chiefs’ defense looks more and more real
There’s a lot going right with the defense.
Chris Jones sure looks like he’s going to earn that contract he sought last offseason, even if it’s unlikely to be in Kansas City. Justin Reid is playing much better football than he did in his first season in Kansas City.
But cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and L’Jarius Sneed top the list. When you have two corners guarding like they are, and they can each play both inside and outside, it makes the rest of the job a heck of a lot easier.
I understand the Broncos receivers aren’t known to be among the elite — though they aren’t among the worst, either — but the Chiefs did play the elite a week ago with Justin Jefferson, and they held him in check too.
There’s been a lot of wait-and-see to the secondary’s performance. It’s been six weeks. That’s more than a blip.
3. Travis Kelce ISO cam
Did the No. 87 not appear in the Broncos’ game plan?
I understand it was a quick turnaround, but Travis Kelce was left all by his lonesome all night long.
Part of that, though, is his own doing — and that’s not just a commentary on his ability. At some point in the first quarter, he might as well have told the rest of the receivers to just clear out.
I got this.
Kelce finished with nine catches for 124 yards, including seven for 109 in the first half.
He caught three passes in the first quarter, and I’m not convinced any of them came under the normal design of the play.
Before the catch.
Or after it.
We’ll learn more after the game, but it would be hard to believe his after-the-reception lateral to Noah Gray was part of Andy Reid’s call. If you notice, he caught the ball in the area in which Gray was running toward, an indication that one of them wasn’t intended to be there.
And the educated guess is Kelce saw some space and just occupied it.
It’s the type of play that comes with experience — and with the trust a quarterback is going to see the play unfold the same way.
4. The root of the Patrick Mahomes INT
Don’t make a bad play worse.
That’s the lesson Patrick Mahomes should’ve taken from an ugly offensive outing in Week 4 against the Jets.
But same one Thursday.
It probably feels out of place to occupy two of these five subheads with negative offensive developments in a game the Chiefs won by a wide margin, especially because the offense was pretty good between the 20s, but there will be better opponents ahead. Much better opponents ahead.
And Mahomes provided the Broncos a gift. With a defensive lineman grasping his foot in the pocket, Mahomes had a very obvious decision to make — just take the sack. He instead elected for something a bit better, throwing a ball that fluttered into the belly of Broncos safety Justin Simmons.
Two weeks ago, he said he got lazy with his footwork. Well, his foot was stuck, basically ensuring it was impossible to execute proper footwork on the play.
5. Harrison Butker is back
It’s becoming more and more obvious that Harrison Butker never felt quite like himself a year ago after a season-opening ankle injury.
Because he’s about as good as it gets this season.
Literally as good as he could get.
Butker is a perfect 29 for 29 on kicks this season (14 field goals, 15 extra points), and that now includes a 60-yarder that he pushed through a swirling wind before the halftime gun. It looked as though it had the distance from 70.
It also included a 52-yarder to prevent the game from getting a little too interesting in the final two minutes.
This story was originally published October 12, 2023 at 10:13 PM.