Chiefs rally over Bengals, clinch AFC West
Tyler Brown
It might not have been how head coach Andy Reid drew it up, but the Kansas City Chiefs (10-6) clinched their eighth consecutive AFC West Championship with Sunday’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals (8-8). The Chiefs defeated the Bengals 25-17 as they received key contributions from all three phases of the team on the New Year's Eve matchup. This was Kansas City’s first win in Arrowhead Stadium since October 22nd in week seven.
The offense moved the ball well most of the day but could not punch it into the endzone on six of their seven scoring drives. Kicker Harrison Butker had a busy day, going six for six on his field goal opportunities. After allowing 17 points on the Bengals' first three possessions, the Kansas City defense held them scoreless on their remaining seven drives.
“The offense and defensive coaches, special teams, everybody contributed in this thing which I think was great,” head coach Andy Reid said. “As you saw, nobody gave up hope. It wasn’t the smoothest early but the guys battled through and they supported each other so, that’s a positive.”
After last week’s debacle on offense, the Chiefs wanted to come in with a simpler game plan to allow the team to play fast. Like most past opponents, the Bengals put a lot of resources into defending tight end Travis Kelce, which left the door wide open for others to step up. The two main contributors in this win were running back Isiah Pacheco and wide receiver Rashee Rice as they staked their claim as the team's dependable weapons heading into the playoffs.
“Those guys (Pacheco and Rice) stepping up and making plays happen,” quarterback Patrick Mahomes said. “I thought the offensive line did a tremendous job in the run game and then obviously Isiah (Pacheco) when he gets through there, he’s gone and so he did a great job. Rashee (Rice) made a lot of big plays, especially in the second half and that’s what we’re going to need when they have that much attention on Travis (Kelce), for guys like that to step up and make plays happen. Like I said, I thought guys just continued with it, when stuff wasn’t going our way, they didn’t get down, they just continued with the process and we were able to get a win.”
Pacheco averaged 7.2 yards per carry, rushing for 130 yards on just 18 attempts. What was perhaps most encouraging though, was his continued development in the passing game. Mahomes dumped it off to the Rutgers product seven times for 35 yards. One of those catches was a touchdown where he ran an angle route out of the backfield, crossing the faces of the defenders, and hauling it in near the goal line. Pacheco needs 65 more yards to register his first 1,000-yard rushing season.
Much has been made of the Chiefs' lack of vertical attack throughout the 2023 season, but quarterback Patrick Mahomes put an end to that narrative, at least for this week. Mahomes hit two passes longer than 40 yards in this game. Mahomes mentioned after the game that opposing defenses respecting the deep ball will help the team operate in the short and intermediate areas of the field. The first deep one was to wide receiver Justin Watson for 41 yards.
The second one was just a few plays later on an ensuing drive where Mahomes found Rice deep on the right side of the field. Mahomes threw it out in front of him, as Rice ran under it and tacked on some more yards after the catch as well. Rice had a career day, going for 127 yards on five catches, as he continues to evolve into a game-changer for Kansas City. With one game to go, Rice is 62 yards away from a 1,000-yard season as a rookie.
Mahomes finished the day tossing for 245 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. Other than not being able to finish drives in the endzone, Mahomes and the offense played mistake-free football for the most part. The one major blemish this week was when rookie left tackle Wanya Morris got beat off the edge by defensive end Trey Hendrickson, who stripped sacked Mahomes.
Bookend Sam Hubbard recovered the fumble and it was that turnover that led to the 17-7 lead Cincinnati held over Kansas City early in the second quarter. In most of the Chiefs' losses this season, it has been multiple major mistakes that led to their demise, so just having one turnover and a couple of drops here and there ended up being few enough for the Kansas City offense to overcome. The Chiefs were not able to overcome a 17-7 deficit last week to the Raiders.
The Bengals offense played chain-moving football early on, with a lot of short passes dumped off to running backs and tight ends. Quarterback Jake Browning was also extending drives many times with his legs. Other than the first 20 minutes of the game though, the Chiefs' defense thoroughly dominated after making a few adjustments.
“It was just about sticking together, comradery, trusting in one another,” Safety Justin Reid said. “We knew we had their number called. The quarterback was able to escape out of the pocket a couple of times, so it was just about containing him, taking away the threat of his legs. Once we forced him to stay in the pocket, we were able to make some plays as a defense.”
Cincinnati wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase led the Bengals in receiving, but with L’Jarius Sneed shadowing him, he was limited to just 41 yards on three catches. The rest of the defensive back room did a stellar job as well, holding wide receiver Tee Higgins to just one catch for 19 yards and Tyler Boyd to two catches for 29 yards.
Browning finished the game with 197 yards and a touchdown pass to running back Joe Mixon. Mixon and fellow running back Chase Brown ran for a total of 70 yards on 24 carries, good for 2.9 yards per carry.
Browning did what he could, but towards the end of the game, his offensive line was looking gassed as the Chiefs' pass rush was getting home at a very high rate. Kansas City finished with six sacks on the day and hit the Bengals quarterback 14 times.
Reid tallied two of those sacks, both coming in the fourth quarter. Defensive end George Karlaftis racked up 1.5 sacks, getting him to double-digit sacks for the first time in his young career. Defensive linemen Chris Jones, Charles Omenihu and Tershawn Wharton all got in on the sack party as well. Linebacker Nick Bolton led the team in tackling, accounting for 13 of them.
“I think our D-line – I’ve said it all year, we have one of the best D-lines in this league, we just have to get them to third down-and-longs, let them pin their ears back and go to work,” Bolton said. “Chirs (Jones) is going to get two guys blocking him and everyone else is going to get one-on-ones and we’re going to feast off of that.”
Butker was not the only special teamer that made their presence felt in the game either. Late in the game, the Chiefs were able to extend their lead from five to eight after wide receiver Richie James took a punt return 27 yards down to the Bengals' 37-yard line. It was that eight-point lead that allowed the Chiefs to pin their ears back on Cincinnati’s final possession. Kansas City tacked on four of their sacks on that final drive.
When you outgain an opponent by more than 100 yards and move the ball as well as the Chiefs did, you would like to see more than 25 points on the board and win by more than one possession. With that being said, one thing is abundantly clear. The Kansas City defense will award the offense with a chance to win in any game they play in moving forward. It may not look pretty, but they will always be in the ball game. Mahomes felt a responsibility to take care of the ball this week and not have a situation like they did last week against the Raiders.
“Personally for me, I feel like I let the defense down last week,” Mahomes said. “They played their tail off and I think everybody knows that. The two turnovers were 14 points, I mean that changed the entire game obviously but I thought it just let the defense down. This week, I tried to do a great job – we had the fumble – (but) I tried to do a great job of just, when it wasn’t there deep, get it underneath, try to get the first down, if not, we can punt. I know it’s not how I’ve always rolled but we can punt, the defense gets us the ball back, and we’re going to find ways to win football games. I think if we execute in the red zone and put up more points than we did today, but other than that, it’s different to have this good of a defense that shuts the door on some great offensive players. It’s when we keep pushing every single game, it’s going to be on the offense to go out there and score enough points to win them.”
What is next is sort of up in the air. The Chiefs are locked into the three-seed, and it is unclear if Andy Reid will give some of the starters a rest, or if he will try to get his offense more in rhythm when they take on the Los Angeles Chargers (5-11) in week 18. It is also unclear who will be coming to Arrowhead in the Wild Card round. If the Buffalo Bills beat the Miami Dolphins, it will be Miami coming in as the six-seed. If Miami wins though, it could be several different opponents.
We will have to see how the Chiefs approach the final week of the season, but it will take place at SoFi Stadium at a time that will be released Sunday night or Monday morning.
