Chiefs rout Bears as offense finds rhythm
Tyler Brown
Fans were exiting the stadium and backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert entered the game late in the third quarter in the Kansas City Chiefs (2-1) matchup with the Chicago Bears (0-3) Sunday afternoon.
After two weeks of seemingly no rhythm to the offense, Patrick Mahomes and company nearly stacked more points in the first half than they had put up all season combined. Everything was clicking, as Mahomes targeted 11 players en route to defeating the Bears 41-10.
“It always feels good to get the whole offense going,” Mahomes said. “I mean obviously, the first two weeks we have been kind of out of rhythm, we haven’t gotten sustained drives going so just to not have those killer penalties and to kind of get the offense moving in the right direction. All of the other stuff comes with it, so I was proud of the guys today, (there’s) still little things here and there that we can tweak but it was a step in the right direction.”
It was an all-around effort from the receiving core that Chiefs Kingdom has been longing for after the buzz of training camp described this group as a deep and talented bunch. Rookie Rashee Rice finished second behind only Travis Kelce in yardage, with 59, twice being tackled on the one-yard line, keeping him from having an even bigger day.
Justin Watson finished with over 50 yards, Skyy Moore contributed four catches for 42 yards and Marquez Valdez-Scantling caught a 37-yard deep ball from Mahomes.
One concern of today's game, which is an ever growing trend with the Chiefs so far this season is the illegal procedure penalties that are being called on newly signed tackle Jawaan Taylor. While the offense was able to get into a flow for the first time this season, the referees continued to use Taylor as an example for lining up too far behind the center's hip.
“Yeah you know last week we had over 400 yards and it just - we were shooting ourselves in the foot with some of the penalties,” Reid said. “We cut down on that a bit. I think they’re – you know I checked all the looks that our right tackle (Jawaan Taylor) got called on today and you know I’m seeing it on both sides of the ball, I’m seeing it with our left tackle. He might be being picked on just a little bit here. I felt today (he was being picked on). I thought they did a good job the week before but today I thought it was too much. I mean I wasn’t seeing it but still we got to keep working on that and get through this.”
The running backs had a nice day as well, tallying quite a few carries as head coach Andy Reid burned the clock up in the second half. Both Isiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire finished with over 50 yards and both recorded a rushing touchdown. Jerrick McKinnon did what he was so successful at last year, grabbing two touchdown catches down in the red zone.
“To have those three guys I think is great and then you finish the game,” Reid said. “We needed that. We needed to get that last first down and take that knee right there and he went and got it.”
The defense was business as usual. After only allowing two touchdowns across eight quarters of football, they only allowed one today. Even that one was in garbage time with just over four minutes left in the game. The unit was a big part of the Chiefs taking a 34-0 lead into halftime.
The Bears were tied for 30th in the league coming into the game, allowing 10 sacks through the first two weeks. That trend continued this week, as the Chiefs' pass rush took advantage, sacking Justin Fields three times.
Jones added another sack in this game, bringing his season total up to 2.5 after two games played. Karlaftis earned a sack split with Drue Tranquill and Mike Danna is up to 2.5 sacks after getting another today.
It is tough to say whether the defensive line or the backfield contributed more to Fields only tossing for 87 yards today, but either way, both units played great football. Not much was caught on the defensive backs, as D.J. Moore was the only Bears receiver with more than 25 yards.
Trent McDuffie continued to play sticky coverage and make drive-saving tackles. The promising second-year corner out of Washington jarred a ball loose out of Bears running back Khalil Herbert’s hands and linebacker Willie Gay came up with the recovery.
“This is a young – and I keep saying this is a hungry defense,” McDuffie said. “We’ve got a lot of guys committed not only to the defense but to each other. There’s a big strong brotherhood with this defense, and it’s exciting to come in each and every day and work with these guys. I feel like we are only scratching the surface, so I’m excited for the rest of the season.”
On the next Bears possession, Mike Edwards, whose calling card in Tampa Bay was that of a ball hawk, brought in his first interception as a Chief. Justin Reid got credit for the pass defense, tipping it up in the air before Edwards hauled it in and took it 16 yards deep into Bears territory. That complimentary football led to the touchdown rush for Pacheco.
Another promising development came in the Chiefs return game. Second-year wide receiver Montrell Washington spent all of last season in Denver returning kicks for the Broncos. This past August, Denver cut Washington and the Chiefs pounced to sign him to the practice squad.
After losing Richie James (Knee) to the IR this week, Kansas City added Washington to the active roster. The return man rewarded the Chiefs with juice in the punt return game today, averaging 11 yards per return, including a 23-yard return. The Chiefs may benefit from having a return specialist, rather than having an offensive weapon worry about those duties.
Kelce looked like his old self and had a big day on many fronts. He caught seven of his eight targets and had his rumored girlfriend in attendance to watch the show. Two weeks after Chris Jones watched the Chiefs take a loss from a box suite, it was Taylor Swift who watched the team click on all cylinders. Kelce hauled in Mahomes’ third touchdown pass on the day to go along with 69 yards as well.
Head coach Andy Reid offered some humor to go along with the Swift situation as well.
“You know what, I’ve met her before,” Reid said. “I set them up. She’s tremendous at everything she does. I haven’t (actually) got to meet her, but if she ends up with Travis (Kelce) I’ll probably get to meet her.”
Up next is Sunday Night Football against the New York Jets (1-2). The Rodger-less Jets and the Chiefs will kick off in New Jersey at 7:20 CDT.
