Why the best Chiefs team in the Patrick Mahomes Era is no longer just about Mahomes
The conversation came up during the Chiefs defensive backs’ meeting this week: You know what? It might be beneficial to get kicked in the mouth — just to see the response.
Trent McDuffie, a second-year cornerback, is standing in the middle of the Chiefs’ locker room after a 31-17 win against the Chargers on Sunday, reciting that anecdote. And you can’t help but wonder if his brief time in Kansas City prevents him from realizing just how backward that would have sounded in the not-too-distant past.
Think about it from the big-picture view. The Chiefs’ defense is on such a roll that it began to breed some eagerness to find out what might happen when things got a little haywire. And, well, things got a little off-track Sunday.
For a half. That’s it.
The defensive backs — or anyone else for that matter — are no longer in the dark about the response.
On a day Patrick Mahomes threw for 424 yards and four touchdowns, and on a day Travis Kelce caught 12 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown, it was the defense, not the offense, that kept the game moving in the Chiefs’ direction.
The defense pitched a shutout after halftime, a statistic that somehow illustrates only part of the story. A Chris Jones halftime speech. Some words from Willie Gay too. Those are parts of the story, as well.
In the best start to the season the Chiefs have had under defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, it is the best sign yet. The reply to some adversity.
And, hear me out, it’s why this just might be the best Chiefs team in the Mahomes era.
If you’re writing a book on that Mahomes era, with No. 15 as the obvious central character, one of the defining traits you’ll have to mention is his response to failure. He has several ways of separating himself in a league of the world’s best, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a more distinct separator than that.
He’s the constant. This has not been: The defense delivered a Mahomesian response Sunday afternoon.
Their best. After their worst.
The Chiefs got whooped in the opening half by a Chargers team that threw a wrinkle with some hurry-up tempo. The Chiefs prepared for it, but they still appeared lost, and in the process they probably provided plenty of evidence for anyone who has doubted their fast start (No. 2 in scoring defense, No. 5 in yards allowed).
And then? They punched back. Bossed the game, really.
The Chargers touched the ball five times in the second half, and here’s how those drives concluded: interception, punt, punt, punt, interception. On their final four drives, the Chargers did not even advance into field-goal range.
The Chiefs sacked Justin Herbert five times, knocked him down eight times, deflected seven of his passes and intercepted two.
They just kept coming.
“The pressure on the QB — that was an unsettling position for him today,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said.
For years now, the Chiefs have won mostly because of the comfort of their quarterback, not the discomfort of the guy standing on the opposite sideline. Since Start No. 1, they pretty much go as Mahomes goes.
But what we’re slowly finding out — actually, what we’re slowly believing — is they can go even when he does not go.
There are other ways, after all.
To be clear, the offense probably had its best half of the season in the opening two quarters. But did you know, in a one-score game through most of the second half, the Chiefs did not gain more than 35 yards on any of their last four drives?
It just didn’t seem to matter.
Baffled by tempo in the first half, the Chiefs threw numbers at the problem in the second half. That’s what they’ve been doing all season.
Actually, it’s what they did before the season. What’s funny, come to think of it, is the most important additions of the Chiefs’ offseason were some of those least talked about. They did not add stars to their defense. They added starters and asked them to play rotational roles.
Charles Omenihu, Drue Tranquill and Mike Edwards — one player on each level of the defense — would start for most teams. Heck, they would have started for the Chiefs, most seasons.
Two are role players. The other, Omenihu, missed the first six weeks of this season, his first in Kansas City, due to a suspension ... only to return Sunday with a sack and a deflected pass that found a home in the belly of L’Jarius Sneed for an interception. Bryan Cook got a pick, too.
I’d be remiss if I did not acknowledge that they could be playing without linebacker Nick Bolton for the foreseeable future after he dislocated his left wrist. That hurts, no doubt, but imagine the extent of that effect just one year ago. The Chiefs have played without Bolton three times already this season, and they allowed 289 yards per game in those three weeks.
It didn’t all fall apart, and that’s not a point to minimize the loss of Bolton, but rather to maximize the importance of the depth behind him — because it’s becoming clear that’s precisely the difference.
Those Sunday stats I mentioned earlier? Delve a bit deeper into them. The five sacks came from five different players. The eight quarterback hits were recorded by seven players. The seven deflections came from seven players. The two interceptions came from two.
Chris Jones, the Pro Bowler, finished without a tackle.
The Chiefs aren’t star-reliant anymore.
They just keep coming.
This story was originally published October 23, 2023 at 5:30 AM.