This was a strange game for the Kansas City Chiefs. The defense looked good and the defensive line looked dominant and the offense was absolutely dominant between the twenties but looked a little out of sorts in the red zone. but it wasn’t a huge issue because the Kansas City Chiefs won 26-10. But this game was still a little strange to watch from an offensive perspective. They looked like they were using a very vanilla gameplan and they didn’t need to do a whole lot for the win. The defense looked great and the corners had a pretty good game and the linebackers looked great so let’s break down what happened in the Chiefs vs Rams.
Offensive Efficiency:
As I mentioned earlier I think this game was very strange for the Chiefs’ offense. They came out with a very vanilla game plan because they didn’t need to do too much for the win. We saw Mahomes create some magic when he needed to keep drives alive. The Kansas City Chiefs found a lot of balance with the running game today and even though the running numbers were not spectacular they ran the ball incredibly efficiently in the first half. They are starting to make teams have to respect the run game and this can create better matchup opportunities for players running routes on the second level of the defense. You do this by holding them in position for even just an extra step because they are making sure we don’t gash them in the long run.
The energy Pacheco plays with is infectious and the team feeds off of it we saw him multiple times get laid out by a tackle and he would just pop back up and sprint back to the huddle. there was a late hit he took while he was running out of bounds and he laid down for a second he may have laid down for a beat or two longer so he could collect his thoughts and take a breath and not get up in the heat of the moment and potentially draw a penalty. When he keeps popping up from these giant hits it sends a message to the other team that he can take their best shots and keep getting up this creates a big mental edge for the team and it can be demoralizing to the other team that he just won’t stop running as hard as he can every single down.
The Kansas City Chiefs were rotating their offensive starters a lot this game. There could be multiple factors to this. Thuney was held out because of an ankle injury and they could have kept him out to make sure he is fully healthy for the upcoming Bengals game. There was also a more limited role for Kelce and Juju during this game. Juju is coming off of a concussion so I completely get using his fairly sparingly. Similar to Thuney I think they used Kelce a lot early on and then late they used him less. This could be to help him take fewer hits so he could be used more against the Bengals.
Defensive Dominance:
The Kansas City City Chiefs defense played another impressive game this week. The Rams were missing a lot of their key pieces on offense but they still had their starting running back so that seemed like the main goal with a new quarterback in the game is to take away the run game and make life more difficult for Perkins’s first start. The defense did what they were supposed to do they were supposed to look dominant from start to finish because of the injuries the Rams were facing. There were stand-out performances on each level of the defense that helped us hold the Rams to 10 points. Let us break down what contributed to the Chiefs’ defense having another largely dominating performance.
The corner play from the Kansas City Chiefs has been improving as the season has gone on. The Chiefs have three rookie corners who have played extremely well and they have the veteran anchor in Sneed. McDuffie who has the least amount of experience so far this season because of his hamstring injury early on and you have seen him get better and better each week. Watson and Williams have been excellent editions through the draft and we have seen them rotate in and out depending on the week and depending on certain matchups. This has been one of the best groups and as the season goes on they will continue to improve and could be one of the best corner groups in the league.
The Kansas City Chiefs defensive line has really got their stride in the past few weeks and having Chris Jones on your defensive line is an amazing help because he is playing like a top-two defensive lineman in the NFL. The Chiefs’ defense has 35 sacks this season for reference last season as a total sack number for the year they had 32 sacks. This has shown the growth and improvement of the defensive line and a lot of this could be contributed to new defensive line coach Joe Cullen. Much like the offense, there was a lot of rotating along the defensive line to keep everyone fresh. There were many plays where Jones and Karlaftis flashed with their ball get-off and had great moments sacking the quarterback.
Personnel Decisions:
As I have mentioned earlier this was a game where we rotated our star players a lot and i think this could be attributed to multiple factors. It could be they didn’t want to make them take any more hits than necessary going into an enormous game next week against Cincinnati where the Chiefs have a lot to prove against a Bengals team that has gotten the better of then the last two matchups. To win they may need big-impact games from Jones and Kelce. This could also be because they felt the game was in control so they didn’t need to risk anything so they wanted to give them ample breathers.
We saw Skyy Moore go back again for a punt return and we saw him muff another punt return. I’m just confused about why Toub continues to put him back there. Then we saw him perform well on the offensive side of the ball as a true receiver and it was great to see him bounce back from that mistake. I think we will se him get more passes thrown his way as Mahomes gains more trust in him. He is similar to Pacheco he plays the receiver position with so much energy and passion and you can see the team feed off of his energy. You can see in flashes why the Kansas City Chiefs drafted him. You see his hands and route running on full display and I truly think the sky is the limit for him.
L’Jarius Sneed is one of the most valuable and versatile Kansas City Chiefs defenders. We saw this on full display on Sunday I don’t know what he can’t do in the secondary. You want him to blitz the quarterback he is the best blitzing corner in the NFL, he is an exceptional slot corner and he is one of if not the best-tackling corners in the league. He might be a top three most valuable piece in this defense because of his versatility. He is truly a unique chess piece for this defense and I think he is an amazing asset that can help the young corners get up to speed and with how he plays and how versatile he is.
Moving Forward:
The Kansas City Chiefs have a monumental game coming up this weekend with the Cincinnati Bengals. We have heard multiple Chiefs players talk about how important this game is to them. This Bengals team is one of the few teams in the NFL that can say they have gotten the best of the Chiefs multiple times. The Kansas City Chiefs had an all-time epic collapse against the Bengals in the AFC Championship game. That game was a huge motivation for this Chiefs team this off-season. The Chiefs have an opportunity to exercise a lot of demons from last season with a win against the Bengals. This team is very different in multiple ways from the last time they played the Bengals. The defense has much more team speed on defense than last year. and on offense, they are much more multiple and don’t need to just rely on two players for success. This game could shape up to be one of the best games of the year and should be an epic matchup that we all get to watch this Sunday afternoon.
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