Chiefs Win Thriller in Los Angeles over Chargers, Take Commanding Lead In AFC West Division Race
Breaking down all the angles following the Chiefs' 30-27 victory over the Chargers on Sunday night
It was beautiful.
Patrick Mahomes improved to 14-0 in his career in road divisional games. The streak of 25-straight wins in the months of November and December stayed in tact, and all those people who doubted their ability to win the division for a seventh-straight season are having a rough Monday.
The Kansas City Chiefs (8-2) all but took care of the AFC West Division here in Week 11 as they took down the Los Angeles Chargers (5-5) 30-27 in a thrilling comeback victory that Chiefs Kingdom will be enjoying all week as everyone gets ready for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Chiefs basically now have a four-game lead with seven regular-season games left to play.
Here are Kent, Craig and Matty to help break it down a bit …
The Chargers were fully prepared to unload the clip in a must-win game for their chances of dethroning the Kansas City Chiefs atop the AFC West. A win for the Chiefs would all but assure them their seventh straight divisional title before the Thanksgiving turkey was carved.
Keenan Allen and Mike Williams rushed to return, and the Chargers broke tendencies offensively — getting more aggressive down the field to try and keep up with the high powered offense across the field from them.
The Chiefs were out two of their top receivers in Juju Smith-Schuster and Mecole Hardman. It didn’t matter.
In an offseason full of narratives about whether Mahomes was somewhat a byproduct of his weapons, he put together a masterful performance when weapons were falling left and right. The top two remaining receivers heading into this game — Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Kadarius Toney combined for 1 catch and 18 yards in the game — with the lone MVS catch happening on the final drive.
Sure, Mahomes still had his primary target in Travis Kelce, but the rest of the stat line read more like a preseason game with Justin Watson, Skyy Moore, and Jody Fortson both going over 50 yards receiving.
20/34 for 329 yards and three touchdowns despite a hobbled skill group. A six play, 75 yard touchdown drive that took 75 seconds to allow the Chiefs to run away and hide with the division, much like it looks like Mahomes will do with the MVP.
Mahomes was the front runner for the Most Valuable Player Award before the game. Sunday night he gave himself an MVP moment that people will point to when he wins the award in February. If he keeps playing like this, he’ll be unable to accept the award in person. He’ll be preparing for another game he can win the award in.
1454 yards/19 TD’s - Travis Kelce’s projected stat line for the 2022 season
Going into the 2022 season, there were more questions than answers about the pass catchers at Patrick Mahomes’ disposal. Mecole Hardman was the only receiver returning, and Travis Kelce – as all-worldly as he is – was facing some questions about his ability to keep his game at a high level as he aged. Even the schematic questions about this offense missing a second bona-fide weapon were raised, as defenses would be able to focus on and limit the effectiveness of the best tight end in the game.
None of that happened. Travis Kelce has been absolutely outstanding in his 10th year as a pro, potentially having his best season ever. Kelce is on pace for the most yards, receptions, and touchdowns in any season in NFL history after posting his 33rd 100+ yard game – which also sets the tight end record. Kelce has been phenomenal even with the opposition clearly focused on stopping him, as the Chargers attempted to do Sunday night. He ran through them to the tune of 115 yards and three touchdowns, putting him at 11 TD’s for the year – tying his career best only 10 games into this NFL season.
Patrick Mahomes gets the majority of the praise – rightfully so – and the bulk of the MVP votes. However, Travis Kelce has been just as crucial to the success of this rebuilt offense in 2022 – and just as crucial to the Chiefs holding the #1 overall seed and practically clinching the AFC West before Thanksgiving.
7.5 - Average points allowed in the second half by the Chiefs defense in the last 4 games
The Chiefs defense has gotten off to some slow starts over the past four weeks, allowing some teams to keep up with – or get up on – the team at the half. However, this defense has become a whole different animal during the back half of games, allowing just over a touchdown in the second half of the last four games. This has played a key role in the outcome of the San Francisco 49ers game, the Tennessee Titans game, and now this Sunday’s Los Angeles Chargers game. When the team has needed a stop – and the offense was starting to find their footing – this defense has come up big time and time again.
The Chiefs defense has allowed an average of just 119 yards and a staggeringly great 22.8 yards per drive over the last four weeks. For reference, the Denver Broncos’ lockdown defense averages 24.9 yards per drive on the year (and they haven’t played the Chiefs yet). Each week, Steve Spagnuolo and company are able to deal with the early-game haymakers that each offense is throwing at them, before flipping the switch and shutting down the opposition for most of the rest of the game. This defense may have some warts, but they’re just as much a part of the Chiefs 2022 success as the offense is – and they’ve still got plenty of room to grow.
Zero reason to beat around the bush on this one, we all know what the play of the game is. Trailing by 4 with time dwindling down, MVPatrick Mahomes drove the Chiefs down the field to give the Chiefs a chance to take this game from the jaws of defeat. Then the most familiar site of the last half decade occurred to give the Chiefs a lead with just over 30 seconds left in the ball game.
Like most other Chargers-Chiefs games, a lot was being made about how Derwin James had slowed down Travis Kelce and how they were leveraging that into slowing the Chiefs down on third down. Well that may have held true for the first half of this football game but when things mattered down the stretch, no one was stopping Travis Kelce from putting the Chiefs over the top.
The Chiefs use pre-snap motion of Justin Watson to confirm man coverage by the Chargers and know they have Kelce matched up with James one on one. The Chiefs are running a rub route underneath a Post and Slot Fade. Kelce and Watson are crossing each other with the intent for Watson to “pick” off James on the crossing route.
The thing is, Kelce didn’t need it thanks to an absurd release off the line of scrimmage. Kelce skip-releases but switches his feet at the last second. The defender was anticipating an out-breaking route out of the skip due to Kelce’s inside leg being his lead leg but as soon as Kelce switched his stance it was over.
He was able to cleanly break free of James on the shallow crossing route and work underneath Watson's hip. Watson does a great job recognizing Kelce’s separation and getting out of the way early. He also begins veering upfield which forces the trailing defender - James - to cut underneath of him and lose any angle he could have on Kelce to stop him short of the end zone.
Mahomes delivers the ball on time thanks to great pass protection up front and the rest is history. Kelce scoots into the end zone for his third Touchdown of the game giving the Chiefs a 3 point lead. The Chiefs’ defense seals the game with an interception and that’s all she wrote for the AFC West (more or less).
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