Chiefs 31, WFT 13: 10 Observations from Sunday's Victory, Plus Key Plays and Numbers to Know

Back in 2015, the Kansas City Chiefs began the season with a 1-5 record - losing Jamaal Charles to a knee injury in the midst. Hope was waning before a seemingly uninteresting Week 7 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers became much more than that.

And for the next few months, “the Pittsburgh game” became a phrase often used to begin to describe when things got better.

So, here’s to hoping “halftime at Washington” becomes something similar this year for the Chiefs defense, which held the WFT to 76 yards of total offense (and zero points) in the second half.

A weird 18-point feeling

Winning by the margin the Chiefs did is not a simple task, and yet it doesn’t feel as satisfying as it could have. Some of the problems this team has been dealing with this year (more on them below) still bit them. The first half was largely terrible, and the Chiefs trailed 13-10.

Three and out starts the game

The much maligned Chiefs defense started with a three and out to kick off the game. They forced an incompletion on the first play of the game, held a second down run to four yards and contested a shot to Washington’s star receiver Terry McLaurin down the sideline. 

An early response offensively

A little aggressiveness on a fourth and one around midfield helped spark an opening drive by the Chiefs offense — highlighted by a heavy dose of Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce, a big catch by Jody Forston, and some key conversions from running back Darrel Williams. 

Mecole Hardman made an outstanding catch

We haven’t seen much of a downfield presence from Hardman in recent memory, but boy did he make a big play down the sideline against Washington. A 3rd and 4 fade route was placed perfectly by Mahomes, and Hardman did the rest — fighting through tight coverage to make a beautiful over-the-shoulder grab for a massive gain. 

Turnovers continue to plague

Call it bad luck, call it bad timing, call it whatever. The Chiefs can’t get out of their own way with continued turnovers on their side of the field. Tyreek Hill was again the culprit on a drop-turned-interception — this time deep in the red zone with the Chiefs on the verge of make it a two score game in the second quarter. Hardman fumbled on a reverse late in the second quarter.

The streak ends!

The Chiefs forced a turnover for the first time since week 2 against Baltimore. The turnover differential has been one of the worst in the leagues because neither side had done much to help it. It increased still, but seeing the defensive get off the field with the ball is progress!

Busted coverage leads to explosive play

The only touchdown that Washington scored came on another busted coverage play — when linebacker Ben Niemann failed to carry Ricky Seals-Jones up the seam on a 36 yard touchdown. While a lot was cleaned up, old issues still plagued the team. 

A second half shutout by the defense

Outside of a drive that saw a 3rd and 16 converted on a screen pass and a busted coverage touchdown, the defense put their best performance of the season together. There are plenty of questions that will only be answered with time, but this was a step in the right direction. 

Mahomes got his groove back

The best player in the world started acting like it again after displaying some uncharacteristic timidity at times last week and in the first half. The second half performance by Mahomes — confidence exiting the pocket and finding outlets downfield, converting third downs — was a welcome sight. Here’s to more. 

Turk Wharton: ball hawk

The second year UDFA out of Missouri S&T had an outstanding interception late in the game to secure the second half shut out. He grabbed the ball with one hand and pinned it to the offensive lineman — allowing him to control the ball for the defense’s second turnover of the game. 

Play[s] of the Game

I’m cheating this week and there is nothing anyone can do to stop me. Instead of one play of the game, y’all are getting two! One from the offense and one from the defense because I do think both were pivotal in the Chiefs victory over the Washington Football Team and could potentially have sparked a little uptick in play from the team overall.

Defensive Stop

Up first is the defense, taking the field down 13-10 in the third quarter. The offense had just received the ball and punted after 12 yards. The Football Team was driving down into the Chiefs’ territory and looking to extend their lead.

After Tyrann Mathieu and Nick Bolton teamed up to stop a first down HB Screen for 4 yards, WFT called an Inside Zone RPO. Due to how the Chiefs were out leveraged by all the WFT blocks in the box. Mathieu was the lone remaining defender who wasn’t accounted for and he was aligned 10 yards off the LoS.

Once the ball was snapped, he quickly spun into the box and was able to identify the play. He was able to run the alley, beating the WR trying to stem up to him, and insert himself into the hole the running back was working through. By changing levels and getting low, he was able to stop the runner in his tracks forcing a third and short.

On the surface this play may not look overly impressive but when a defense gets out leveraged on a run play this badly, someone has to make a play. If Mathieu doesn’t make this tackle where he does, it’s like a first down - if not more - and ultimately may not get the Football Team off the field without any points (missed FG after failing on 3rd down). This also appears to be the play Mathieu broke/injured his thumb on but he continued to bring the energy. After this play, the Washington Football Team went on to have a total of 42 yards.

Offense Gets Their Mojo Back

On the ensuing offensive drive, the offense was driving mostly utilizing the run game and quick passing attack. After an offsides penalty brought a failed 3rd and 10 back and gave the Chiefs a chance at 3rd and 5 and…

Patrick Mahomes is able to evade the rush just enough to pull off this ridiculous jump pass. The pass didn’t look super pretty but it was good enough and accurate enough into the hole of the defense that it was completed and put the Chiefs inside the 10 yard line.

So many things went well on this play. The play design to push a “fast four” to the strong side froze the underneath coverage, especially with the backside receiver on a crossing route. The Post route from the outside WR ran coverage off and allowed Hill to settle down into the soft spot. Mike Remmers did a great job getting a sneaky little pull on Chase Young’s - who was offsides - shoulder pads giving Mahomes that extra half a second to make a ridiculous play.

This play had all of those elements and extended a drive allowing the Chiefs to take the lead after a TD later but that’s not the best part. This throw appeared to give Mahomes and the entire offense their swagger back. They looked looser and more confident from this moment on, like they just simply knew how good they were. It just snowballed after this point for Mahomes; we saw shovel passes, cross body dimes, laser beams, and crazy off-platform throws that hadn’t been as consistent as of late.

We may be able to look back at these two plays as specific moments that helped both sides of the Chiefs football team start to turn a little bit of a corner.

0 - Number of Red Zone trips for the Washington offense

While the quality of the opposition’s offense wasn’t quite the same as it has been for the majority of the season, it was good to see the Chiefs defense step up and make an impact. They created three 3-and-outs, forced four punts, poached two turnovers, and allowed just one touchdown on the day — and zero offensive plays snapped inside their 20 yard line.

Prior to this week, the Chiefs defense had the most allowed Red Zone trips in the NFL on the season. While the focus was on the abysmal conversion rate (77%, good for fourth-worst in the league), the repeated trips to that area of the field were just as concerning. The Chiefs did a good job of coming up with stops and forcing longer field goals on the day, helping to keep this team in the game when the other facets weren’t quite performing up to snuff.

7 - Number of receivers with 3+ targets

The Chiefs receiving yards and targets are definitely slanted toward Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill — and for good reason. However, the ball hasn’t been spread around quite as well as it was on Sunday against Washington. With Kelce and Hill nursing injuries, Mahomes had to look to his other weapons more often — and found success throughout the day. Six players hauled in three or more receptions, and four players went over 40 yards receiving on the day.

While Kelce (8 receptions for 99 yards) and Hill (9 receptions for 76 yards) still led the way for the Chiefs offense, seeing Mecole Hardman (4 receptions for 62 yards), Byron Pringle (3 receptions for 55 yards), and Demarcus Robinson (3 receptions for 46 yards) step up was massively important to the Chiefs success on the day. Even though the expected contribution from Josh Gordon didn’t happen this week, the tertiary weapons were the reason the Chiefs offense was able to right the ship in the second half and pull away from the opposition.

22.8% - Number of drives ending in turnover for the Chiefs offense

The Chiefs offense is bordering on historic in multiple metrics. One of those (arguably the most important one) is their points scored per drive, currently sitting at 3.14 after 6 weeks. That’s on pace with some of the best offensive outputs in history if it holds through the season.

Unfortunately, they’re turning the ball over greater than one out of every five offensive drives — and rapidly increasing toward 25% of their possessions. The offense is in historic territory for points scored, and yet they’re giving themselves a chance at points at a far fewer clips than anybody else in the NFL this year. Furthermore, they’ve repeatedly turned the ball over in the red zone, taking certain points off the board that would have them closer to a one-loss team than the .500 team that they are.

This is a sloppily executed offense at times, leading to these mistakes. It’s also part of the reason why some fans and analysts think this team is still in a good spot. If they just bring down the turnovers on offense even a small amount, the offensive output — and entire script for several games this year — changes drastically. Unfortunately, these turnovers are consistent, leading some to believe that this is closer to what they are than the opposite. If — and that’s a big if — this team can find a way to take care of the ball better, there’s no reason why they can’t go on a roll through the end of the season.