Chiefs Beat Texans 30-24 in Overtime, Claim 7th-Straight AFC West Championship
All victory Monday's are #good.
The Kansas City Chiefs (11-3) can officially check off their first goal of the 2022 season by winning the AFC West Division for a seventh-straight season following their 30-24 victory in overtime against the Houston Texans (1-12-1) on Sunday afternoon.
It wasn’t exactly how anyone predicted, or what Chiefs Kingdom was hoping to see after the teams’ performance last week against the Broncos - the other lowest-ranked offense in the league this season in terms of points per game, but a win is a win at this point in the season.
And most importantly - Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game that there were no injuries. So a win - a division title, and a healthy club heading into the matchup against the Seattle Seahawks next week.
Here’s what Kent, Craig and Matty thought about Sunday’s win over the Texans:
One change to the Chiefs’ overtime victory over the Texans would have altered the outcome of this game significantly and it’s one that continues to plague them — turnovers.
Isiah Pacheco gave the Texans a short field with a fumble deep in their own territory that they capitalized on with a touchdown. Later in the game, Juju Smith-Schuster ended a promising drive prematurely by fumbling the ball at the point of progress being stopped (an unusual application of the rule).
The defense wasn’t able to generate a turnover against the lowly Texans in regulation. They were second in the league in giveaways heading into this game. It took overtime for the Cheifs to finally find a timely takeaway that led to the walk-off touchdown run by Jerick McKinnon.
The Chiefs’ lost the turnover differential battle yet again in their win over the Texans. They have the third worst differential in football (-7).
The Chiefs offense is elite. There is no denying that. The success or failure of this team was always going to hinge on that unit. But the defense and their inability to turn the ball over are not going to afford this team much margin for error.
There won’t magically be an uptick in plays made on the ball on defense. There doesn’t seem to be anything dynamic about that side of the ball. When errors like Pacheco and Smith-Schuster putting the ball on the ground happen, things like what we saw today are in play.
Patrick Mahomes was outstanding on Sunday and it almost didn’t matter. That’s a scary thought for a team with Super Bowl aspirations. Something has to change to either find a way to manufacture more turnovers (blitz?) and ball protection needs to be a premium come January. This can’t continue if the Chiefs want to make it to February.
20 - Consecutive Completions by Patrick Mahomes
When looking back on this game, many Chiefs fans are going to focus on the offensive turnovers (again), the defense allowing points to a bad offense (again), or referee Carl Cheffers finding a way to award 10 penalties to the Chiefs (again!). The storylines have almost become commonplace in 2022 as the Chiefs find themselves in a bit of a rut. Unfortunately, that means that we may miss some of the more “commonplace” Patrick Mahomes statistics – like rattling off 20 straight completions to finish out the game.
With 20 seconds remaining in the first half, Mahomes attempted a back shoulder fade to Jody Fortson from the Houston Texans’ four-yard line. That pass break-up by Tremon Smith ended up being the last time a pass left Mahomes’ hand and didn’t find a Chiefs receiver for the rest of the game. Mahomes was an obscenely effective 36-for-41 for 336 yards and two touchdowns through the air while adding another 33 yards and a touchdown on the ground. Each week, Patrick Mahomes finds a new way to impress the league – usually through his gumby-like arm angles or insane creativity. This week didn’t need many of the highlight-reel plays to get the job done. Just a new personal-best efficiency and a steady guidance to another victory.
All Patrick Mahomes knows is winning the AFC West. Let’s see if that consecutive streak hits the same relatively ridiculous heights that today’s completions did.
105.3 - Jerick McKinnon’s average yards from scrimmage the last three weeks
I usually drop a notable defensive statistic in here to go along with the offense, but frankly, this one deserves the attention instead. The Chiefs offense has found themselves in a number of high-leverage situations over the past three weeks. Whether drives have stalled out or the defense has allowed response-drives, the offense has been expected to pick up the slack and come up with the necessary output to get the team over the line. That largely falls on the shoulders of Mahomes, who leans heavily on Travis Kelce (10 receptions for 105 yards today) to keep the ball moving. However, as of late, Jerick McKinnon has arguably been just as important to the Chiefs offense as Kelce.
A week after posting a 134 yard outing against one of the best defenses in the league, McKinnon put down another 122 yards of offensive output. He’s not only been the Chiefs best pass protection back, but he’s integrated himself as a reliable safety-valve against the blitz. This was illustrated in back-to-back plays just before the two-minute warning in the first half, picking up 21 and 11 yards to get into Texans’ territory – and eventually put six points on the board.
McKinnon’s contributions through the air have been massive, but it was only fitting that the walk-off touchdown came on a weaving split-zone run from 26-yards out. That overtime touchdown run was McKinnon’s fifth touchdown in the last three games – three more than any other player on the Chiefs roster during that time period. The offense will always flow through Kelce, but the development of a consistent second weapon out of the backfield – even with Isaih Pacheco playing well! – is a major boon for this offense.
Another game against a lower tier NFL team, another nail biting win for the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs outgained the Bengals by 300 yards, nearly averaged 3 yards more per play, and converted better on third down opportunities but yet still found themselves heading to overtime against the Houston Texans.
After winning the toss, the Chiefs’ offense stalled out just past midfield and was forced to punt back to the Texans. A timely forced fumble by Frank Clark got the ball back to the Chiefs’ offense at the 26 yardline and a chance to win the game. The issue was, Harrison Butker had already missed an Extra Point and a field goal in this game making a 43 yard Field Goal anything but certain.
Jerrick McKinnon made sure that wasn’t going to be a problem for long. On the first play of the drive the Chiefs dialed up a Split Zone play to the left that McKinnon was able to take in for a walk off Touchdown. The Chiefs had been running the ball well all day at 5.7 yards per carry but it was great to see them just punch it in from far out rather than settle for a Field Goal.
The Texans played a surprising amount of man coverage against the Chiefs in this game and eventually the Chiefs started punishing them for it. The Chiefs were stretching the Texans horizontally all game long with their jet motions and they even added a new wrinkle of the H-Back inserting through the middle of the LoS off of play-action.
When the Texans were in man coverage, the Chiefs sent Skyy Moore across in jet motion pulling a defender with him. When Noah Gray - aligned as the play side tight end - went across the formation off the snap, it pulled another defender with him. All of sudden, two potential defenders were moved to the backside of the run for the Chiefs.
The rest was phenomenal blocking and great running by McKinnon. Creed Humphrey and Andrew Wylie do just enough to slow down upfield penetration while McKinnon jump-cuts around their blocks. Joe Thuney and Trey Smith work to the second level to create a big hole for McKinnon and all that is left for him to do is set up the alley running safety.
McKinnon shows his hips to the inside and forces the safety to commit there. He easily slips around the outside Trey Smith - who does catch a tiny bit of the safety as well - and he’s off to the races. It was a well executed run play that was set up throughout the entire game and called at the exact right time. Game, set, match for the Chiefs as they escape Houston with an overtime win.
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