Football
Love them or hate them, it’s undeniable that for most of the Patrick Mahomes era the Kansas City Chiefs were interesting to watch. That’s far from the case this season.
Mahomes will still make fantastic plays, but the Chiefs are not a fun team to watch right now. Kansas City beat the New York Giants 22-9 on Sunday night and the Chiefs needed the win. Falling to 0-3 by losing to the Giants would have been a massive hole to dig out of, especially with the Los Angeles Chargers improving to 3-0 earlier Sunday.
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But the win was ugly. And largely boring, save for perhaps a heated sideline exchange between head coach Andy Reid and tight end Travis Kelce in the first half.
Nobody is used to this from the Chiefs. (Well, we’re used to Reid and Kelce getting into it, which the head coach addressed postgame, saying, via ESPN: “I’ve been through a lot of things with him. That’s all part of it. I love that he loves to play the game.)
The Chiefs did not play well yet again, but the Giants were much worse. Russell Wilson had a bad game and while it took the Chiefs a long time to deliver the knockout punch, at least their defense played well enough to earn the win. That didn’t make it an enjoyable watch for the majority of NBC’s Sunday night audience.
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The Chiefs’ dynasty has given them an almost weekly place in one of the preeminent spots in the NFL’s television schedule. At some point when the Chiefs get some receivers back it might be more visually pleasing. For now the Chiefs are not a pretty team. At least they’re not winless anymore.
Patrick Mahomes, pictured dodging Giants outside linebacker Tomon Fox, grinded out a victory Sunday night for the Chiefs’ first victory of the season. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
It was an ugly 1st half for Chiefs
The Giants’ offense looked terrible to start the game. Wilson couldn’t get Malik Nabers involved in the first half (he wouldn’t make his first catch until the fourth quarter), didn’t get much going in the passing game to anyone else and threw two bad interceptions.
But the Chiefs couldn’t fully take advantage. They hit a couple of field goals, and missed another. When the Giants finally put together a drive and scored, that tied the game 6-6. The extra point was blocked, but the game was tied 6-6 despite the Giants doing very little on offense.
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In previous seasons, the Chiefs might have buried the Giants by halftime. But everything has been a struggle for them to begin this season. It would have been even worse for the Chiefs by halftime if not for a huge play by Mahomes after his own mistake. He had a backward pass — the second time he had done so, though the first was incorrectly whistled dead as an incompletion — but when the Giants seemed to recover inside the 10-yard line, Mahomes ripped it out of linebacker Bobby Okereke’s hands. The Giants still had a shot at a halftime lead but Wilson threw another bad interception into the end zone in the final minute of the half.
The Chiefs finally made something of it, though it wasn’t an incredible highlight. Mahomes threw deep, the Giants took a bad pass interference penalty that was worth 52 yards, and the Chiefs got a field goal for a 9-6 lead.
It was an ugly half of football. That’s not unusual for the Giants. But it’s weird to see the Chiefs struggling to make anything happen on offense, even if that has been the trend this season.
Chiefs finally score a TD
The Chiefs’ start to the second half looked more like their normal selves. Kansas City drove 74 yards on 11 plays and Mahomes hit Tyquan Thornton for a 5-yard touchdown. After being held out of the end zone for the first half, the Chiefs were finally on the board and led 16-6.
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The Giants had a shot to get back in the game early in the fourth quarter. Jaxson Dart came in for a couple plays, and running back Cam Skattebo gained 12 yards on two runs. But then Wilson came back in and the offense stalled on second and third down. The Giants settled for a field goal. It was a baffling sequence that epitomized the Giants’ lack of a functional offense.
The Chiefs put away the game after that. Thornton couldn’t haul in a deep pass near the goal line, but on the next play Mahomes made a remarkable throw and Thornton made a great catch at just about the same place on the field. Kareem Hunt scored a 1-yard touchdown a play later. The extra point was no good but the way the Giants were playing on offense, a 13-point deficit was way too much to overcome.
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The days of Mahomes throwing for 50 touchdowns and the Chiefs lighting up the scoreboard might not be over for good, but the days of Kansas City having the most thrilling offense in football seem a lot further away than they are. Maybe it will improve when Rashee Rice returns from suspension after six games and Xavier Worthy makes it back from a shoulder injury. Either way, the Chiefs will have a marquee spot on the TV schedule most weeks.
Read More Lyndia Schewe