First the concerns, and you know that always relates to the big question we have every year: Do we have a chance to get to a point of being an elite defense? As it is we've got all those rookies on the roster, we think safety Juan Thornhill is finally fully healthy, and we're hoping filling those holes on the D-line will get us some more wins in the trenches.
On the whole I feel we were too bendy for my tastes, we were just not pursuing with the laser-focus we need, and our tackling really does need work as far as wrapping up runners. As far as a first game we're okay, and our young guys can learn. It was also obvious that quite a few of our stops were really the Cardinals just not being in sync. Their QB Kyler Murray has tremendous physical talent, but there were too many instances when he just looked flummoxed. That may indeed be a credit to our scheme and the pretty good play overall by our boys.
Offensively, what more can be said. Mahomes was on. Nuff said. The one egregiously bad mark was Smith-Schuster's fumble, but otherwise he was good, and all our receivers got open and made plays. I also don't know why we don't hand the ball to Jerick McKinnon more often -- this dude gets into the open spaces. And whoa, what Isiah Pacheco did in garbage time to chew clock. Very nice.
Harrison Butker injured his left ankle on the first kickoff after our first touchdown, and Justin Reid came in to do the kicking. He did okay, especially on kickoffs, but missed a PAT. Butker then came in to bang through the PATs and even kicked a 50+ yard field goal, all of which he did by taking half-step towards the ball and just slamming his good right leg through the ball as hard as he could -- he's so strong he made everything.
Our defense did well enough, but our offense looks like it is even better than it has ever been. If so, if we can keep that up, I mean -- zowie. We have a true test Thursday night against the highly touted Chargers, in what I believe is the first game ever broadcast on Amazon's Prime Video -- that should be interesting.
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The image is from Ric Tapia at the official Chiefs site, thank you.
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