For all the flux Chiefs faced, they enter bye week in prime spot after belting 49ers
Sure, the Chiefs entered the 2022 season having surged to the last four AFC Championship Games and seized six straight AFC West titles, still only a year removed from having played in back-to-back Super Bowls.
All with the main reason for all that, Patrick Mahomes, quite in his prime.
But considering the second-half cave-in against the Bengals that put a bitter exclamation point on the end of their bid for a third successive Super Bowl berth, the seismic Tyreek Hill trade, the narrative that the AFC West was vastly improved and staring at the harshest schedule in the NFL (a frontloaded one at that), the Chiefs also were facing a new frontier of challenges.
Enough so to make you wonder if they could stay in the stratosphere they’ve occupied in the Mahomes era.
Just how successfully they’ve navigated all that, of course, can’t be judged until it’s in the context of the full season and where the Chiefs end up.
But say this for the Chiefs entering the bye week after a 44-23 clobbering of San Francisco on Sunday in Santa Clara, California:
So far, so reassuring.
At 5-2 now, with narrow losses to a Buffalo team (24-20) anointed by many as their successor atop the AFC and that rather inexplicable stumble against the Colts (20-17), the Chiefs have made major strides toward reconciling some hovering questions.
The resolution of one of those in particular, the matter of life after Hill’s trade to Miami, became all the clearer on Sunday.
Facing the NFL’s No. 1 defense in yards allowed (255.8 a game) and second-stingiest in points allowed (14.8 a game), the Chiefs dissected the 49ers with as versatile an attack as they’ve uncorked all season. Mahomes was at its nucleus, throwing for 423 yards.
“To go out against a defense like this, and show that we can still be explosive and have those big plays, I think that will bode well for us as the season goes on,” Mahomes told reporters in Santa Clara after the game. “Because people don’t know where it’s going to come from.”
Beyond Travis Kelce having six catches for 98 yards, about what he does every week, he had plenty of dynamic company this time around.
Here was receiver Mecole Hardman with three touchdowns, two on the ground via jet-sweeps, demonstrating the dimension he can add to the offense when the Chiefs can find the right niche for him. (Entering the game, Hardman had two touchdowns all season and just two last regular season.)
Then there was JuJu Smith-Schuster with 124 yards and a 45-yard touchdown on seven catches. And Marquez Valdes-Scantling with 111 yards on three receptions, including a 57-yarder on a third-and-11 pass from Mahomes.
Running back Jerick McKinnon had a 34-yard catch-and-run (on a third-and-20), and Justin Watson had his second touchdown as a Chief.
Now, the Chiefs entered the game leading the NFL in scoring (29.8) points a game.
But it’s also true that the offense has had some clunky spells as we’ve waited to see Mahomes mesh with four new receivers, none of whom are more pivotal than Smith-Schuster and MVS.
Between the two of them, only Smith-Schuster (last week against Buffalo) had enjoyed a 100-yard game before Sunday.
In the considerable wake of Hill being traded for five draft choices, that ability to diversify the attack and freshen up the approach was going to be essential if the Chiefs were to remain among the elite offenses in the NFL.
There figure to be more ups and downs and growing pains and adjustments ahead. But the way they all connected on Sunday suggests the chemistry will continue to build and blossom.
Not that there isn’t plenty else to work on.
Beyond Hardman and a burst here or there from the backs, the running game remains dull (20th in the NFL entering the game).
And it would be nice to start seeing rookie Skyy Moore being remembered for plays as a receiver (he has six catches for 100 yards through seven games, likely because he’s struggling to learn the offense) instead of, alas, muffing another punt (at Indianapolis and again on Sunday).
It would be nice, too, if the Chiefs didn’t keep putting themselves in early binds. They trailed 10-0 before Mahomes ignited the 13th double-digit comeback of his career).
And if they could keep generating the kind of pressure they did on Sunday, when they unleashed five sacks (including a safety courtesy of Frank Clark) and routinely harassed San Francisco quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.
But it bears mention that a defense whose numbers are misleading (20th in points allowed) because of late points given up in blowouts of Arizona and Tampa Bay also figures to get stronger in the weeks to come.
Linebacker Willie Gay had a sack in his first game back after a four-game suspension, and cornerback Trent McDuffie (the 21st pick overall in the 2022 NFL Draft) is likely to finally return from a hamstring injury after the bye week. Fellow first-round pick George Karlaftis hasn’t stood out yet but profiles to get better.
Now, the bulk of the season remains and plenty can change. In any direction.
But to this point anyway, it all seems same as it ever was for the Chiefs of the Mahomes Era.
They are as productive as ever offensively, enjoying some apparent mid-season improvement on defense and, once again, sit poised atop the AFC West with a 2-0 division record (ahead of the Chargers, 4-3, Raiders, 2-4 and Broncos, 2-5).
As he was being asked before the season about the potential for a changing of the guard in the AFC West, coach Andy Reid offered a subtle rebuttal: “We’re not chopped liver out there. We have some pretty good players. So let’s play.”
And that they have. In such a way as to say … we’re still here.
Given the schedule and all that seemed in flux, this is a mighty fine spot to be in at this milepost of the season.
Maybe all the more so considering that Reid is 20-3 after bye weeks as the Chiefs prepare to face Tennessee (4-2) on Nov. 6 at Arrowhead Stadium. They didn’t beat Buffalo, and the loss certainly could be costly in terms of home-field advantage later in the season.
Then again, the Bills hardly outclassed the Chiefs, and there’s a lot of football to be played to determine scenarios.
“Obviously, we lost a couple games that we wanted to win,” Mahomes told reporters in Santa Clara. “But when you look back on it, you’re 5-2 and you’re first in the AFC West, I mean, you can’t ask to be in a better position.
“So now we have to kind of recalibrate, get off our feet, get our bodies back. And then learn.
“Because when we come back from this next stretch, we’re going to be ready to go and try to make a push to get to the playoffs. And then try to get back to the Super Bowl.”
As usual ... big changes and fresh challenges and all.
This story was originally published October 23, 2022 at 9:19 PM.