Was it the cleanest game the Kansas City Chiefs ever played? No.
Did they play down to their competition a little bit? Perhaps.
Should they have won by more than they did? Maybe.
But at the end of the day, the Chiefs are 3-0 and coming off a double-digit road win, beating the Miami Dolphins 24-10. In the NFL, that’s nothing to scoff at, no matter who you’re playing. Because at the end of the day, the Dolphins roster is still full of guys good enough to be in the NFL.
Here are five things we learned from
the Chiefs remaining unbeaten.
1. Pass rush still looks like an issue
This is a topic I feel like we have beaten to death in recent years. The Chiefs can’t get pressure without blitzing. Defensive end George Karlaftis is near the top of the league in pressures but struggles to get home. We need more from the young players we drafted. Defensive tackle Chris Jones looks like his best days could be behind him. And when you add it all up, it makes for a defense that does not rush the passer nearly as well as their investment in picks would suggest.
This is the same argument we’ve been having for years now.
And the fact we’re still having it, and the Chiefs struggled to get to the quarterback against a team that had allowed nine sacks coming into this game, speaks louder than anything else I could say on this subject.
That being said, there are ways to affect the passing game as a rusher aside from sacks. For example, Jones batting a pass late in the fourth quarter and Karlaftis intercepting it. And while this play was truly awesome, they are still too few and far between.
2. The tackles are playing fine…
Kahlil Benson and Jaylon Moore are doing a fine job at playing offensive tackle for this team. And that could be the problem. When your entire franchise is wrapped up in a No. 15 jersey, you want better than fine play from them. Because fine is okay until it’s not. And fine is good enough 85% of the snaps, but the other 15% is Mahomes being driven into the turf in the end zone, getting rolled up high and low, or taking helmet-to-helmet contact.
Fine is fine, as long as you’re playing the Dolphins. But fine becomes a whole lot less fine when you’re facing off against Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby.
It’s officially Raider week, and you know those dirty son-of-a-cusses are going to be gunning for Mahomes. This is the week that we see if our tackles are fine enough, or if they will be an issue moving forward.
3. Does Harrison Butker lose focus?
This is the second straight week that Harrison Butker has missed a field goal. We’ve also seen him struggle with making PATs at times in the past. And maybe it’s unfair to hold against him his 51-yard miss from last week, and this week’s miss was from 50 yards, which is also not a chip shot by any means.
Butker has been, in my opinion, one of the most clutch kickers in NFL history. When the game is on the line and you need somebody to drill a 56-yarder to win, I don’t think anyone is better, but when you’re up by two scores on the road, I’m not sure I can say the same thing.
And Sunday’smiss didn’t matter because there was only a minute left on the clock, but you want your guys to take care of business when they are up, just like they do when the game is on the line.
4. Mansoor Delane will have his rookie moments, but…
Dang, he is just a good football player. I feel like it took Delane a couple of drives to really get his feet wet and get into the rhythm, but once he did, he was a difference-maker on this defense. When you combine him and Nohl Williams on the outside, it’s going to be hard for opposing perimeter wide receivers to have much success against the Chiefs.
That being said, the safeties on this roster left something to be desired in this game. They seemed a step late to the ball on many plays that could have turned into gains if someone other than Malik Willis had been lofting the ball in the air. Still, as my caveat at the top of this story said, the defense and secondary held an NFL offense to 10 points on a day when the other team was trying to pull out all the stops to beat Kansas City.
5. A win is a win
It’s like a wise friend of mine once said, “Do you know what they call a person who graduated medical school with a C average?”
“No”, I replied.
“A doctor.”
The Chiefs are 3-0 and heading into Raiders week, where they will face off on the road against a nasty bunch of mouth-breathing knuckle-draggers to see who will sit alone atop the AFC West.
The Chiefs needed to win this game to move ahead, to destroy the Raiders.
They did that.
