The Chiefs’ offense, special teams, and poor coaching led to the Chiefs losing a trap game.
Quentin Morris @quentincmorris
The Kansas City Chiefs lost the game against the Indianapolis Colts by a final score of 17-20.
The Colts have struggled this year. The Colts were a team that tied against the Texans and was blown out by the Jaguars despite this the Chiefs found a way to lose. From coaching to missed field goals, mental errors and bad offensive line play the Chiefs lost the game on all three levels causing a complete meltdown of the team.
Matt Ammendola
Head coach Andy Reid took some of the blame for the loss and said that you can’t make mistakes in the NFL.
“In the NFL the parody is crazy so any mistakes get magnified and that’s just how it goes. So we have to clean that up,” Reid said.
The players did not bail out Reid with their play as the first blunder of the game came early with Skyy Moore muffing a punt on the four-yard line. This led to the Colts scoring their first touchdown.
For the next two possessions, the Chiefs’ offense looked anemic. The Chiefs took less than three and a half minutes of play clock between the two possessions before scoring a touchdown on the third possession. However, the special teams let the team down again when replacement kicker Matt Ammendola missed a PAT.
The Chiefs would score another touchdown after the defense forced a Matt Ryan fumble. The Chiefs scored on a highly contested two point conversion to go up 14-10.
Despite having the lead the Chiefs were clearly frustrated with their play. With the clock winding down Patrick Mahomes and offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy yelled at each other when they left the field for halftime.
In the after-game press conference Mahomes addressed the spat he had with Bieniemy.
“All I said was I’m not going to turn it over, I’ll get it out,” Mahomes said. “I’ll try to get it to the sideline and give us a chance to kick a field goal.”
While Reid said there was no confrontation it was clear that there was frustration between the two going into the locker room.
The offensive struggles continued for the Chiefs during the second half as the Chiefs only scored three points and made some questionable play calls.
One of those was to go for it on a fourth and ten, on the Indy 24 yard line. The play was a fake field goal attempt that did not fake the defense.
The Chiefs’ offensive line got beat all game. Orlando Brown was beaten by the bull rush all throughout the game. The entire line forced Mahomes to break out of the pocket and have Mahomes try and make plays out of the pocket. This is despite the fact that the Colts blitzed only twice. Mahomes is now the second most pressured quarterback in the league.
Mahomes addressed the pressure in his press conference and put some of the blame on himself.
“They have a lot of money in that defensive front. They have a lot of great players. Obviously, I gotta go back and watch the film but I thought they battled,” Mahomes said. “It’s my job to get the ball out of my hand and I felt I was holding it too long in certain situations. I got to be better in that instance.”
While pressures and sacks are partially on the quarterback the offensive line played poorly, in both the passing and rushing game.
Mahomes was the leading rusher on the day with 26 yards. Jerick McKinnon was second with 20 yards. Nobody else broke into double digits for the day. The worst performance of the day came from Clyde Edwards-Helaire who ended up with no yards on seven attempts.
In the passing game, Mahomes stat line was underwhelming. He went 20/35, totaled 262 yards, scored one touchdown, and threw one pick.
The defense was the only positive to come out of the game. The Chiefs less experienced defensive players stepped up to make plays
Darius Harris replaced Willie Gay as he missed the game due to his suspension. He led the team in tackles with 13 and 7 of those were solo. Jaylen Watson started his second game and had more highlight plays. One of the close plays included a perfect pass break that prevented a touchdown. Nick Bolton not only got two sacks but he also stopped Jonathan Taylor from getting a first down on fourth and 1. When Taylor jumped over the pile Bolton put his arms up and stopped all of Taylor’s momentum.
The Chiefs will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers next week on Sunday night football.
