Chiefs survive Jets on Sunday Night Football
Tyler Brown
It was a tale of four quarters in the Kansas City Chiefs' (3-1) 23-20 victory over the New York Jets (1-3). The Chiefs came out hot in the first quarter and played a solid fourth quarter after the Jets dominated the middle of the game.
Kansas City put up over 200 yards and 17 points in the first quarter before letting Zach Wilson and the Jets inch back in the game, resulting in a 20-20 tie heading into the fourth quarter. Early in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs kicked a field goal to secure a three-point lead.
In what was otherwise a coming-out party for Wilson, the Jets quarterback fumbled a perfect snap out of the shotgun that defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton recovered. Patrick Mahomes and the offense controlled the ball for the last seven minutes and 24 seconds to end the game in victory formation.
“It was definitely a fight,” Mahomes said. “We came out hot. Obviously struggled … I was proud of how the guys fought. The defense kept us in it and the offense had two drives in the fourth quarter where we had sustained drives and that’s (Jets) a good defense.”
That final drive looked cooked for Kansas City after left tackle Jawaan Tayor was called for a third-down holding penalty. However, on the following play, New York decided not to spy Patrick Mahomes as he scrambled for 25 yards on a third and 22.
“Yeah, that was a good one,” head coach Andy Reid said. “We had something else called, but that was a good job by him. You could see how competitive he is.”
The drive was looking to end again with a long field goal attempt after another third down holding penalty, this time on right guard Trey Smith. The following third down and long attempt, New York cornerback Sauce Gardner was called for a controversial defensive holding penalty committed on Kansas City wide receiver Marquez Valdez-Scantling.
Isiah Paceco had a monstrous performance on a night that was a homecoming for the second-year running back out of Rutgers. The New Jersey native had 115 yards on the ground, 43 more through the air and a touchdown.
“He’s Jersey’s own, man,” Mahomes said. “He went to Rutgers. He played in Jersey. He loves it. Kinda how I am with Texas, he has a lot of pride in it. I could see it from the first snap. You could see it in his eyes. This meant more to him.”
So, it was fitting that Pacheco helped put the game on ice with a five-yard gain to get Jets head coach Robert Saleh to use his first time out. It was a heads-up play by Pacheco, sliding in bounds on the gain. On the following play, he rushed for six more yards for a first down, burning another New York timeout and leaving the Chiefs one first down away from being able to kneel it out.
Getting into another third-down situation coming out of the two-minute warning, Mahomes scrambled again, this time to his left sliding down at the three-yard-line to stay in bounds. It was an intense ending to a game where the Chiefs looked like they were going to run away with it. Saleh even received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty as Mahomes was taking one of his final kneels. He was still upset about the Gardner holding penalty.
“Listen, I thought it was a hold,” Reid said. “I’ve got to go back and look at the tape on it. He was on the other side of the field but they’re (Jets defensive backs) aggressive and so they’re going to get a couple of those during the game and Sauce (Gardner) is as good as there is in the league (but) he might have had a little bit of fabric there.”
It was a facemask call on Jawaan Taylor, who was called for two penalties again tonight, that was the turning point in the game and gave New York the momentum. The referees deemed that the facemask was committed in the end zone, resulting in a safety. After that, the Jets defense led by Quincy Williams and his 11 tackles, and the Jets offense led by Zach Wilson, got hot.
The safety led to a New York field goal and then a touchdown after Mahomes’ first pick of the night. The Chiefs were able to kick a field goal before the half, but the Jets came out firing in the second half for a quick touchdown and successful two-point conversion to tie the game at 20.
It was a gutsy performance by Wilson and the Jets after getting down big early and then turning the game into a fistfight. Wilson completed 28 of his 39 passes for 245 to go with his two touchdowns and zero interceptions. Prior to this game, in two out of three games he had a 50 percent or below completion percentage and averaged 155 passing yards per game.
New York was dead last in points scored per game and Kansas City came in fifth in the league against the pass but they had nothing but praise for the third-year quarterback after the game.
“Well first I’d like to give hats off to Zach Wilson, the Jets offense, their OC (Nathaniel) Hacket,” Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill said. “They had a great plan and for as much criticism as they’ve taken, I thought Zach came out and made some really really good throws.”
The Chiefs' defense got bloodied up more than they had all season, even against what was considered a bad Jets offense. The Jets ran over 100 yards on the day on just 16 carries and wide receiver Garett Wilson hauled in nine catches.
While a lot of the Jets pass catchers were wide open a lot of the night, the Kansas City defensive line did their part. They accumulated 10 quarterback hits, Mike Edwards came up with a safety blitz sack and Chris Jones tallied yet another sack. Jones has at least one sack in every game he has played this season.
It should be noted that in a close game that comes down to three points, the kicking game needs to be on point. Kicker Harrison Butker was perfect on the night, nailing three field goals and executing his two extra-point opportunities.
After getting off to a hot start that included a long touchdown pass to tight end Noah Gray, the Jets defense had Mahomes on his heels and confused through the middle part of the game. New York registered nine quarterback hits and forced Mahomes to throw two interceptions. Mahomes said he was trying to do too much on those two turnovers.
“It’s just (me) being greedy, man,” Mahomes said. “Got to throw the ball away. They covered both the plays well. Instead of just throwing the ball away, I try to make perfect throws … You just got to know when you can take those chances and at those points in the game I can’t do that.”
Many of the Chiefs receivers disappeared in this game. Skyy Moore tallied no catches. Valdez-Scantling ended with six yards, Kadarius Toney had 22 and Justin Watson finished with five. Rashee Rice led the wide receiver room in catches with three and yards with 32.
Mahomes connected with tight end Travis Kelce early and often, but then went over 30 minutes without finding each other. Kelce still led the team with six catches for 60 yards while Mahomes finished the night with 203 yards passing.
It was Mahomes legs and his 51 yards rushing that was the difference-maker in the win over New York. A win is a win, as they say, and the Chiefs had to grind through this one to maintain their one-game lead in the division. Both the offense and the defense did enough to get in the win column.
“I knew it was going to be a fight going against that defense,” Mahomes said. “I thought it was almost kind of out of the norm to start that fast against them … Obviously I have to be better with the football. I can’t turn it over and put that pressure on our defense but they stepped up for me.”
In week five, the Chiefs will stay on the road and travel to Minnesota to face the Vikings (1-3) and Justin Jefferson at 3:25 CDT. It should be a good test to see if the Jets found tendencies in the Kansas City defense the Vikings high powered offense can exploit or if Zach Wilson and the Jets' offense truly turned a corner. Coming into the week Minnesota quarterback Kirk Cousins led the NFL in passing.
