It was a very hard fought win for the Chiefs on Sunday night, which going into the week no one thought they would have to scratch and claw against an inferior New York Jets team. Kansas City was favored by 8.5 according to Vegas during the week. But that’s why the games are played. While the Chiefs did storm out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter and made the real life version of football look like Madden, the second quarter onwards looked like a totally different team filled with so many odd mistakes at times. Make no mistake about it: no matter how it might look, there are no apologies for winning games.
Offensive Clinic in First Quarter
The first quarter was played to perfection on offense. Whatever the Chiefs wanted against the Jets defense, they took advantage. After the first drive ended in a 37 yard field goal from Harrison Butker, it turned into the Isiah Pacheco show. He was extremely physical and just ran through the Jets defense. After the Chiefs defense forced a punt, the Chiefs marched downfield on a five play, 69 yard drive capped off by this 47 yard touchdown run by Pacheco. The score was 10-0. But the offense did not stop there. And by the way, Pacheco had a career night: 158 total yards (116 rushing, 43 receiving) and the touchdown.
The very next possession was just as impressive. Patrick Mahomes carved up New York’s pass defense completing two big passes during the six play, 89 yard drive that catapulted the offense. One was a 33 yard completion to Isiah Pacheco. The other big play? A 34 yard touchdown pass to Noah Gray. 17-0 in the blink of an eye. By the way, that was the 200th touchdown pass of Patrick Mahomes’ career and he is the fastest in NFL history to reach that milestone (84 starts).
Offense Stalls Until Late
Although the first quarter was a show, the offense could not get much going after that. An extremely strange play occurred in the second quarter that went in the Jets favor and shifted momentum: a holding penalty on the Chiefs offense deep in their own territory resulted in a safety for the Jets which made the score 17-2, followed by a field goal to make it 17-5.
From that point forward, it seemed to be an uphill climb for Kansas City’s offense. Patrick Mahomes threw two interceptions, both of which came in the second quarter that gave the Jets life and they were able to capitalize. It simply looked to be a bad throw and not getting enough steam on it. New York went on a seven play, 41 yard touchdown drive capped off by a CJ Uzomah two yard touchdown catch to make it 17-12. The second interception was made by linebacker CJ Mosely before the half but the Jets didn’t score off of it.
Zach Wilson Stepped Up
But before I go any further, I have to give Jets quarterback Zach Wilson his props for stepping up. He made a bunch of big plays when he had to: the touchdown pass to Uzomah but to me the most impressive was the first drive of the second half. A seven play, 75 yard touchdown drive and scoring the two point conversion to tie the game at 20 to get the Jets back into the game. In all, Wilson went 28-39 for 245 yards and two touchdowns. Despite a miscue on a fumbled snap in the fourth quarter with the Jets trailing 23-20, that does not take away from what I believe was the best game of his career and even Patrick Mahomes took notice of that after the game by telling him: “you played your tail off, man”.
Mahomes Magic in Fourth Quarter
When a play needed to be made late in the game, you know who delivered. He made two big runs for first downs. The first one was on 3rd and 22. Check this out. The second one was a game clinching first down run just after the two minute warning on third and eight. Needless to say, that was all she wrote. After the game, Mahomes told reporters “You can win pretty, but you have to win ugly too. Just find a way to win”. The Chiefs improved to 3-1 on the season and their next game is on the road against the 0-4 Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.
