Chiefs overcome deficit to defeat Chargers, lose Rice to injury

The Kansas City Chiefs (4-0) defeat the Los Angeles Chargers (2-2) in LA, 17-10 but suffer major loss with the injury to wide receiver Rashee Rice.

The Kansas City Chiefs (4-0) overcame a devastating injury to wide receiver Rashee Rice, who the team fears tore his ACL with a solid win over a divisional foe. The injury occurred on a Patrick Mahomes interception on the game's second drive as the Chiefs turned it over on their first two possessions. It was Mahomes who Rice ran into, buckling his knee while Mahomes was trying to make a tackle. 

The Chiefs were down 7-0 at the time and the Los Angeles Chargers (2-2) used the good field possession to make it a 10-0 deficit for Kansas City. It is a cliche, but it was next man up for them as they never allowed the Chargers to score after about the four-minute mark in the first quarter. Kansas City exited SoFi Stadium, a building Mahomes has never lost in with a 17-10 gutty victory. 

“The guys all hung together,” head coach Andy Reid said. “They feel terrible for Rashee because he was having a fantastic year … I thought Pat stepped up and just said ‘Hey, we’re going to roll.’ (Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy) was constantly going through there and just saying ‘Hang with it.’ The coaches did a great job being positive with that.”

After stopping the Chargers for the eighth consecutive drive the Chiefs defense gave Mahomes and the offense the ball back with a seven-digit lead. They began the drive at their four-yard line with three minutes and 15 seconds left on the clock. With LA only having one timeout left, the boys in red only needed one first down to ice the game. 

It came down to a third and six, where Reid had a decision: run, to take the game to the two-minute warning and punt it away or pass it to end the game with a first down. Reid went with the bold choice, even though his defense had been shutting down Justin Herbert and his offense for most of the game. In Rice’s absence, it was first-round rookie Xavier Worthy who Mahomes trusted as he sprinted right, leaving him wide-open in space. The Chiefs excelled on third downs all game long, going 9-16 in their conversions. 

That was not the only big play Worthy had on the day, as he hauled in the longest touchdown pass of his career for a 54-yard touchdown by Mahomes, in which the ball traveled a career-high 62.2 air yards. Worthy ended his career game with three catches for 73 yards. 

“He’s a great football player,” Mahomes said. “I think he is just getting more and more comfortable in the offense. I think when I go back at the tape, I feel like there’s going to be a couple more that I thought about taking those chances and he ended up winning. As I build comfort with him, I’ll keep taking those chances.”

People have been asking for it, and they got the goods from future hall-of-fame tight end Travis Kelce. 87 tallied a season-high seven catches for 89 yards and had himself a typical game we have grown accustomed to him having against the Chargers. The total was more output than the veteran had in his first three games combined. Kelce now has 1,312 yards in his career against the Chargers, in 19 games. 

Without Rice, things opened up in the middle of the field big time for the Chiefs tight ends. Noah Gray finished third on the team with four catches for 40 yards as well. With Rice expected to be out for the long haul, there is no doubt they are going to need vintage Kelce. With Worthy and Kelce leading the way, Mahomes finished with 245 yards, one touchdown and an interception, his sixth and fifth of the season. 

“They played quite a little bit of zone out there,” Reid said. “(Kelce) did a nice job getting in windows and when they did play man, he was able to do a nice job there. There wasn’t as much double-team as we’ve seen or as much settling in on him as we’ve seen.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise for Kansas City was running back Kareem Hunt’s homecoming debut. After undrafted rookie Carson Steele fumbled for the second time this season, he was put in the doghouse a bit, only carrying the ball two times for six yards. Hunt took the majority of the workload, even well over Samaje Perine and proved to be nothing but a five-yard gain all afternoon. The former and current Chief got 14 touches on the ground for 4.9 yards per carry, good for 69 yards. He also brought in two catches for 16 yards, one of which allowed Perine to give Kansas City the seven-point lead, breaking a 10-10 tie. 

“He’s always been a guy who runs tough,” Mahomes said. “He’s hard to tackle and you can see that. He’s going to make sure he finishes every run and falls forward. I think that was good to see and I think he’ll get more and more comfortable as the year goes on and he’ll be a role in our offense.”

While the Chiefs played solid complementary football all game, that would be an understatement. They overcame the turnover battle once again, just as the Chiefs have lost or tied in all four of their games this season. They overcame a minus-two margin today all while only limiting the Chargers to 224 yards of total offense. 

“I thought our defense stepped up in key situations,” Reid said. “ … I thought our secondary played tight and challenged. I thought the linebackers were flying around. Bolton was flying around all over the place. And then the D-line. They took a lot of different looks from (defensive coordinator Steve Spanuolo).”

With Herbert’s two offensive tackles out and Jim Harbaugh being their head coach, Kansas City knew they were going to come in with a plan to pound the rock. After limiting Derrick Henry to 3.5 yards per carry, Zack Moss to 2.8 and Bijan Robinson to 1.8, the Chiefs held the NFL’s third-leading rusher J.K. Dobbins to 2.3 yards per carry on 14 attempts. Former Charger linebacker Drue Tranquill led the charge, racking up 10 tackles on the day. 

Cornerbacks Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson were more than solid against both the run and the pass, limiting Herbert to 179 yards through the air and combining for three pass breakups and nine tackles. They had the help from the defensive line too, as the big boys hit Herbert 10 times, with a monstrous performance by defensive tackle Chris Jones. Jones brought down Herbert for two sacks and hit him three times. With the injury to defensive end Mike Danna, Felix Anudike-Uzomah earned his first start and walked away with two QB hits. The Chiefs finished with five tackles for a loss. 

With the loss the Indianapolis Colts handed the Pittsburgh Steelers and the beating the Baltimore Ravens delivered the Buffalo Bills, the Chiefs are now the only undefeated team in the AFC, at 4-0. Over the last six or seven seasons during the Mahomes run, the Chiefs have been relatively lucky regarding the injury bug. With the long-term losses to Hollywood Brown, Isiah Paceco and now Rice, they cannot say the same this year. With 13 weeks to go, the Chiefs will have some time to search for their identity, but the path to a three-peat, the potential first in NFL history, just got much harder. 

“I thought guys stepped up and filled the role that he (Rice) had, which is a big one,” Mahomes said. “All we can do now is go back to the basics and try to get guys opportunities to succeed. I thought Travis (Kelce) did a great job stepping up and making plays like he always does. At the end of the day, we got the win and that is what is important.“

Next up, the Chiefs play host to the New Orleans Saints (2-2) on Monday Night Football at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in week five. After that, they get an early week six bye, and it perhaps could not be coming at a better time.