Chiefs Edge Past Giants on Monday Night, 20-17: Key Observations, Play of the Game, and Numbers to Know

The Chiefs are back to .500

It’s not the decisive feel-good performance that many of us wanted, but a win is a win.

Here’s what stood out from the Kansas City Chiefs’ 20-17 victory over the New York Giants on Monday night:

Mahomes’ struggles continue

It’s like pulling teeth watching the offense lately — and surprisingly Patrick Mahomes is playing a role in those struggles. He appears to be lacking confidence — not trusting the offense, protection, his targets. It’s concerning — especially with a massive stretch coming up. 

Clark/Jones finish game strong

The game ended with back-to-back sacks from Chris Jones and Frank Clark to close out the game. A welcome sign considering the lack of availability/production from the most expensive DL in football. 

Confidence shot?

This group looks like the shell of the team that won a Super Bowl less than two calendar years ago. The sad thing is, a lot of the same pieces are still here. The Chiefs were favored by double digits over the Giants — and didn’t lead by more than 7 the entire day. Something has been off with this team all year, and wasn’t resolved this week. 

Short passing game was working

The Chiefs went up the field with ease on the first drive of the game — focusing on short passes. Mahomes completed the first three pass plays of the game to Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce at the line of scrimmage. A simple idea to get the ball in the hands of their stars fueled the first drive of the game. 

Giants keep lid on Chiefs’ offense

The only pass play over 20 yards was a tap pass to Mecole Hardman behind the line of scrimmage on the final drive of the game for the Chiefs. The Giants kept their safeties deep, limited the explosive plays, and force the Chiefs to drive. They found the end zone only twice.

Have a day, Willie Gay

Back-to-back weeks with interceptions for the second year linebacker out of Mississippi State. Gay was also good against the run for the most part this week. His athleticism is there, and his instincts are starting to kick in. If he can be a viable playmaker at the second level — look out. 

Mahomes working from the pocket

Mahomes was hell bent on keeping himself in the pocket and trying to work within structure as long as he could. It looked a bit unorthodox at times, but some good things came from it — like finding Tyreek Hill in the back of the end zone for the Chiefs’ first touchdown. 

The Derrick Gore Game?

Fun fact: Derrick Gore had more carries in the first half than Jerick McKinnon has had all season (4). The training camp darling performed well in his opportunity — showing good vision, cuts, and a north-south minded running style. 

Run blocking was exceptional

The run blocking — highlighted by more man/gap scheme — was highly effective blocking for the likes of Gore. The personnel fits better than the zone blocking the Chiefs utilized over Andy Reid’s tenure — and it showed this week. 

Tommy Townsend got work in

The Chiefs’ punter saw the field several times, kicking 4 times on the game. The punter who had seen the least amount of work in the league heading into the game was seeing time as a byproduct of bad offense.

Play Of The Game

The Chiefs got back in the win column against the New York Giants but it was far from easy. In fact, on the offensive side of the ball, it was anything but easy. For the first time in 2021 the Chiefs defense was really needed to pick-up the Chiefs offense and they were able to do just that.

The Chiefs were coming off a long drive to tie the game at 17 and it was up to the defense to stop the Giants and get the ball back. After a couple big penalties going against each team, the Giants were faced with this 3rd and 7 which ultimately felt like it would decide the game.

The Chiefs came out in a patented Spags’ Dime look. The Mike linebacker was mugging an A-Gap and another defensive lineman was standing up mugging the opposite A-Gap. The nickel cornerback was aligned with inside leverage to present as a potential rushing threat as well. 

This was designed to slow down the running back’s potential release into a route as the Chiefs were playing Cover-1 behind this pressure. This means the player responsible for the running back was Tyrann Mathieu who was still just rolling down into the box. He would need the running back to be delayed out of the backfield to get over to him but it also doubled as a reason to put  Mathieu in the middle of the field.

The Giants looked to get quick in-breaking routes against this pressure look by KC but anything thrown immediately is taken away by  Mathieu still working downhill over the middle of the field. Once the first read is taken away, the Giants’ quarterback begins to roll out to his right in an attempt to extend the play.

This was the second part of the Chiefs play as they ran a game up front. Alex Okafor was the standing defensive linemen in the far A-Gap and off the snap he shows like he’s taking a normal rush path. After a quick couple steps upfield, he quickly steps back out and loops down the line of scrimmage to re-enter the rush off the quarterback’s right side.

The quarterback sees his plan of escape has been anticipated and schemed against forcing him to essentially throw the ball away. What looks like such a simple play was really a three step masterclass by Steve Spagnuolo.

First, show enough pressure to keep the running back in the protection or delay his release. Second, have the player covering the running back work across the middle of the field providing a “robber like presence”. Finally, play into the quarterback’s tendency to scramble to his right once the first read is taken away. 

This play allowed the Chiefs’ offense to get the ball back and go kick a game winning Field Goal.

38.8 - Average yards per turnover drive

Another Chiefs game, yet another multi-turnover performance from the Chiefs offense. If it feels like the Chiefs are giving the ball away consistently after long drives, that’s because they are. The Chiefs offense has put together 700 yards of offense (excluding penalties) on drives ending in turnovers in the 2021 season. The average of those 18 drives would be good for third in the NFL in average drive length in the 2021 season.

That average drive length is higher than that of any team not named the Dallas Cowboys or (yes, believe it or not) the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s baffling how often long drives are ending up in turnovers for this Chiefs offense — a drive of 70 yards and 61 yards contributed again tonight — and are absolute momentum-killers right now. The sample size may be lower than the other teams on the chart, but the amount of yards they’ve racked up in a small time is not.

-45 - Team differential in points off turnovers

It is to be expected for an imbalance in this category, as the team has turned the ball over 19 times while taking it away just 8 times. However, the Chiefs have scored just 17 points off of their 8 turnovers — and 7 of them came from a Tyrann Mathieu pick-six. The Chiefs offense added their first touchdown of the season off of a turnover just tonight — after Willie Gay’s interception to give the ball back to the team. Two of those turnovers were at the end of the half, meaning the Chiefs offense has averaged just 2 points per drive on the season after a turnover — lower than their season average.

Conversely, the defense has allowed a whopping 3.92 points per drive off of turnovers in those same scenarios — well above their season average. It happened yet again on a 57-yard touchdown drive after a late third quarter fumble, helping the Giants to take the lead for the first time on the day. While it’s apparent that the two sides of the team are struggling to play complimentary football right now, it screams it with the way both sides react after turnovers.

1.87 - Yards per play allowed by KC defense in the 4th quarter

On a day where the offense sputtered, the defense needed to step up. There have been times throughout the year — and throughout Mahomes’ tenure — that they’ve struggled to do that. Tonight was not one of those occurrences. The Chiefs defense saw 3 drives (one that continued from the third quarter) in the fourth quarter, and was able to keep the Giants down for most of it.

The longest play of the quarter was a 16 yard catch and run on third and short — followed up by a 15-yard taunting penalty to bring it back — but allowed just 12 total yards on the remaining 13 plays, minus a Charvarius Ward holding penalty. While the Giants offense is far from a juggernaut, this Chiefs defense stepped up when it was needed most and closed out the game.