There was Tommy Townsend faking the pass and firing a bullet to Byron Pringle to get the 1st down. Then there was Armani Watts just blasting through the line to block the Jets FG attempt right before the half. Townsend's punts themselves and our kick coverage were terrific on the day. Even on a kickoff that was placed way back at the 20 because of a penalty, Butker almost got it out of the side of the end zone.
Right after Townsend's completion Mahomes hit Hill in the end zone for a spiffy 36-yard TD completion. Those two had another one later in the game, so let's hope the Mahomes-to-Hill relationship is getting hot again. Kelce also had a field day against the Jets.
And how about Mecole Hardman! The guy was amazing today -- scoring a nice jet sweep pass TD but also making ankle-high catches. Maybe taking him off the kick returns has gotten him focused on all the things he can bring to the offense. Hopefully his late-game injury is not too serious.
Concerned about the running game though. I think having Le'Veon Bell is critical, because it takes a lot of the load of CEH, so I'm not complaining about having them. But their yards per carry was abominable today. They didn't work much because Mahomes and his receiving crew were just nails today, so there is that. Darrel Williams did okay in his time out there except he almost fumbled the ball away when being used to try to run clock in the middle of the 4th quarter.
Something I really like is how our defensive scheme is always ready for those very important 2nd half adjustments. In the 1st half we were softer than we should have been against this team, but right outta the gate in the 2nd half we clamped down -- our coaches are doing marvelous at finding out what we need to do to get it done. The Jets got absolutely nothing going after that.
Of course the game rhythm has a lot to do with that. At the half we were up 21-9, and it is so true: if a game is close a Chiefs opponent knows if they can run the ball and keep Mahomes and company off the field. This is why our defense, which I saw was statistically one of the better in the NFL, has got to get those key stops. So far this year we've done that reasonably well. We just won't look at the ugly beast that was the Raiders game.
This was a Jets team that was 0-7 coming in. Before the game they were a whopping 20-point underdogs, that's just unheard of in today's NFL. And the Chiefs covered. Workman-like day at the office.
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Photo is from Steve Sanders at the official Chiefs site. Thank you.
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