Chiefs 35, Jets 9: Insta-reaction from a stellar day for Patrick Mahomes at Arrowhead!
This is a weird game to talk about, sort of like a race between a sports car and a tree, so we might as well get the disclaimer out of the way here at the top: The Jets are a mess of a professional football team. They have an overmatched head coach and an undermanned roster.
Honestly, the Chiefs might get more of a challenge from scout-team looks during practice.
But the Chiefs can only play the teams on their league-issued schedule, and so it was that they gave the world a 35-9 win over the Jets Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium, a victory so thorough that for a second consecutive week the Chiefs did not need Patrick Mahomes to finish the fourth quarter.
An empire built on parity is incapable of offering a bigger mismatch, which should be remembered with any analysis of this game. OK. Consider us properly disclaimer’d, and we’ll focus the rest of this space on trends that are important when the Chiefs play better opponents.
Patrick Mahomes is back and, yes, we’re saying that ironically. His and the offense’s “struggles” have been greatly exaggerated. The Chiefs have been very good, if something less than the standard of entertaining perfection that they are often judged against.
Mahomes deserves to be singled out here. He was something close enough to flawless, completing 31 of 42 passes for 416 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions.
He has been fairly knocked for drifting in the pocket at some times and for breaking pockets too early at others. He has misfired on some throws, particularly deep, and not seen open receivers on others.
The film from this one will surely present more room for improvement, because that’s what film does, but Mahomes operated with ruthless efficiency for much of the afternoon. He read blitzes, sat in the pocket when he could, threw accurately both downfield and on intermediate routes, was aggressive when he could be and did not throw a pass that was particularly close to being intercepted.
The offensive line showed mixed results. We saw snaps where the line dominated, both in pass protection and in getting downfield on screens and short passes. Nick Allegretti was particularly good with this, including on a 30-yard touchdown on a jet sweep by Mecole Hardman that technically counted as a pass.
Those guys seem to show a growing comfort and understanding with each other, which is critical with so many moving pieces. They’ll be instantly better when Mitchell Schwartz returns, but that they’re holding together this well with two injuries is an encouraging sign.
Now, we also saw the opposite. The line — especially the interior — essentially ruined the team’s third drive, which was the only one in the first half that didn’t end in a touchdown.
They also had some lapses in pass protection, forcing Mahomes out of the pocket. That’s not always a bad thing, of course, but it’s not a habit that you want to develop. Quinnen Williams is a rising star — which recent history shows the Jets will probably trade him with haste — but the league is full of talented players. The line is still searching for more consistency.
Le’Veon Bell did not have the revenge game that some of us thought he might. He finished with just seven yards on six carries, including a failed fourth-and-1 handoff.
But he did show progress.
You might remember that third and 4 in Denver last week, when the Broncos sacked Mahomes on a zero blitz. Former Chiefs lineman Geoff Schwartz pointed out the play was a potential touchdown if Bell had turned his head around quicker for the pass.
It wasn’t the only moment when Bell appeared to be adjusting to the difference in speed from the Jets to the Chiefs.
He was much better with this against his former team Sunday, important progress that will earn trust and should allow the Chiefs to continue to use Bell enough to keep Clyde Edwards-Helaire fresh for the playoffs.
You might think these types of things are small, but they matter in real ways. This is how a potential playmaker earns more snaps, and how one of the team’s best playmakers can avoid being worn down for the games that matter most.
Harrison Butker was perfect. On kicks, anyway. He did put a kickoff out of bounds shortly before halftime. Because he was already kicking deep after Travis Kelce broke the NFL’s stupid rule against dunking over the crossbar, the mistake gave the Jets the ball at the 50.
But he made all five of his extra points and, whatever it’s worth, hit from 53 yards on a field goal that technically never happened because of a false start. It was just the third time this season that Butker did not miss an extra point in a game.
This is not to say problem solved. Butker took more than one game to get into this slump, and he’ll need more than one to get out.
But obviously the misses weren’t about Butker not being good enough. They were about a specific technique flaw. Butker works on his craft obsessively, so the Chiefs will have patience with him working his way out of this.
Sunday was a start.
This story was originally published November 1, 2020 at 2:59 PM.