Titans at Chiefs - Week 9 - Record: 6-2

I was so rattled by this game I don't know if I really know what to write here.

I don't think I was as rattled, however, as Patrick Mahomes was through most of this game.

Give the Titans' defense credit. They played a smart and ferocious brand of football, and had it in their minds to intimidate our offense as much as they could. They got a ton of penalties called against them, and a few penalties they had that weren't called. They just proficiently made every move and every play they needed to win this game.

After all, the Titans are just one of those teams the Chiefs have always really struggled against. I don't know how in the world the oddsmakers had the Chiefs as 12-point favorites. A 12-point spread? Against this defense? I really didn't know anything about the Titans before this game, but they were absolutely stuffing us throughout.

The Titans D was not only standing up our O-line on our running plays -- our backs had, what two total yards rushing? -- but they were doing a phenomenal job against Mahomes in the pocket. Their D-line was terrific and their pass coverage was smothering.

And I'm sorry, but Mahomes just looked way more rattled out there than he ever had. After scoring just nine points to start, we had seven straight possessions with no points. Zippo. He got pressured, he got sacked, he threw passes into the dirt -- it was miserable.

But when we got the ball with, I think it was five or six minutes left and behind 17-9, Mahomes went off. And it wasn't that he suddenly stopped being rattled, he just used that energy to make the key completions and then scramble. On one play he scrambled for a 1st down on a 3rd-&-17. He then capped the drive with a wild scramble TD run, and then topped that off with another scramble jet-sweep left to get the two-point conversion right at the pylon. Tie party 17-17 with a minute left.

The Titans were stopped but when we got the ball back we couldn't get down the field far enough to kick a game-winner in regulation, so in OT we were able to matriculate the ball down the field with the help of some amazing catches by our two tight ends, Kelce and Gray, and at least bang through the go-ahead field goal.

Our defense kept playing well throughout the entire latter part of this game, and sure enough we were able to stop the Titans on four straight plays to end it.

Yeah, it looked like there'd be enough of the standard number of ding-dong things that always seem to happen when we play this team that'd keep us from winning. Our offense just could not get untracked, but when it came down to it Patrick just took things into his own hands, and running like a madman seemed to be what it took to get the job done.

It was just enough for us to barely eek out this one.

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The image of Noah Gray's amazing catch to set up the game-winning FG was by Gavin Liddell at the official Chiefs website. Thank you.

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