Chiefs 27, Saints 21: Insta-reaction!

Reasonable minds can disagree on this, but I believe the Chiefs just played their second best game of the season the week after playing their best. This is a good trend for a team most of us thought should've looked better over the first four weeks.

We talked about this the other day, but the Chiefs have every opportunity to go on a prolonged run here. They could be favored in every game through Thanksgiving. The Saints will rightly feel like they gave a C- effort with D+ execution here, but the Chiefs weren't perfect either and won the game.

The key play came in the fourth quarter, when Ron Parker punched the ball out of Saints running back Mark Ingram's hands. Marcus Peters, because he's Marcus Peters, was there for the recovery, and what could've been cut to a three-point lead remained at 10.

There was a lot more to like, though, too. We'll get to a lot of it here below, including Spencer Ware, Tyreek Hill, the defense, and the blocking.

The AFC West remains tight. The Chiefs are now 4-2. The Raiders beat the Jaguars to move to 5-2. The Broncos host the Texans tomorrow night. The Chargers don't matter.

▪ Daniel Sorensen's interception was terrific, his return perfect, but the play was made by Eric Berry. When the ball was snapped, Sorensen was looking at Berry for direction about where to go. Berry had perfect timing on a pass intended for Willie Snead, delivering a hit simultaneous to the ball's arrival. Sorensen took the deflected pass in for a touchdown, with a nice cutback against Drew Brees. Veteran move by Brees, too, if you noticed he protected his right arm in his tackling "attempt."

▪ Been saying this for a while now, but Tyreek Hill should and will continue to be a bigger part of the passing game. He scored a 38-yard touchdown on a go route that was pure speed. When the Chiefs get that look — Hill in single coverage, no help over the top — it should be the throw every time. There was a moment, maybe a second or so, where it looked like Hill covered about 15 yards and Saints cornerback Ken Crawley covered about eight. The one-handed catch is evidence of under appreciated ball skills. The speed, even on a field full of athletic freaks, is astonishing.

Hill's end of the play was so terrific that it'll be overlooked how well Smith threw the ball. Perfect. And on a deep ball! But, well, speaking of Smith...

<bullet>He missed Jeremy Maclin on a go route down the right sideline, and missed him in a way that just can't happen for an NFL quarterback. The ball was thrown, sort of, halfway between the receiver underneath and Maclin, who was wide open for what should've been a relatively easy touchdown. He was hot about it, too.

As is often the case, Smith was better on more snaps than he was bad. For the most part, he got through his reads and got rid of the ball. For the most part, he was accurate. As is often the case, we tend to notice the bad with him more often than the good because his bad sticks out and his good is usually subtle. He missed a few passes, particularly the last two on their first drive, but if you look at Smith as a conduit instead of the engine he was actually pretty good.

That miss on Maclin was really bad, though.

<bullet>One more Smith point: He sure seemed to be hit late, a lot, and you can see the respect he has in the locker room and how much the other guys have bought in that they are willing to take penalties to stick up for him. Now, generally, I think this is a bad idea. You can stick up for teammates without drawing penalties. But it's impossible to criticize too hard. Those are penalties that will be complimented when they watch tape this week.

<bullet>I'm not smart enough to tell you in real time exactly what the Chiefs did, but the defense against Brees was good enough. He got his yards, because he's always going to get his yards, but the Saints had scored fewer than 32 points only one time this season, in a loss at the Giants.

Some of it was at the line of scrimmage, particularly with pressure up the middle, which takes away Brees' ability to step into the pocket and into throws. That's one of the things Terez talked about in his game preview. But they were doing good things in the secondary, too. Brees rarely, if ever, threw at Marcus Peters and the rest of the guys held up well.

They also tackled well. D.J. White missed one against Michael Thomas along the sideline in the fourth quarter, but for the most part, pretty good.

<bullet>Are we all aware that Spencer Ware is pretty much doing what Jamaal Charles-in-his-prime would be doing? This might have a lot to do with Jamaal Charles' slow integration into the offense, and Ware is also among the Chiefs' biggest threats in the pass game.

His biggest play on Sunday, that 46-yard touchdown on a tunnel screen, was more about the play design and execution by the blockers, but he still made the reads and ran it in. He's not exactly a home run hitter as a running back — not like Charles, assuming he's still Charles — but he hits a lot of doubles, and you never see him run and think, "Man, he should've had more out of that."

The only time he's not great is when he's fumbling.

<bullet>Tamba Hali cost the Chiefs at least four points on a drive in the third quarter. He was lined up in the neutral zone, twice. The first time he negated what would've been a sack by Dee Ford. The second time, he negated what would've been offensive pass interference on third down. Strange mistakes for a very smart player.

This story was originally published October 23, 2016 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Chiefs 27, Saints 21: Insta-reaction!."