The Kansas City Chiefs managed to end Sunday’s week two matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars in victory formation. With just over two minutes left in the game on a third and six, Patrick Mahomes hit Skyy Moore in stride deep along the right sideline to gain 54 yards on the play.
With the Jaguars being down to two timeouts, the Chiefs only needed one first down to seal the deal for their first win of the season. Two carries from Isiah Pacheco for 11 yards moved the Chiefs to 1-1 on the season, defeating Jacksonville 17-9 in what was a sloppy game at times.
“When you play bad and win, it’s a lot better than playing bad and losing,” Mahomes said. “I was glad we found a way to get a win at the end of the day, but obviously a lot of stuff that we have to get better at.”
The Chiefs receiving core left much to be desired last week. But, the same ones who struggled with drops last week came to show their value this week. Skyy Moore led the team in receiving with 70 yards and also hauled in his first-ever regular-season touchdown. Kadarius Toney caught every ball that came his way, tallying five catches for 35 yards.
There were two gaping holes last week against the Detroit Lions with the absences of Chris Jones (holdout) and Travis Kelce (knee). This week, they made their presence felt and gave the Chiefs a sense of stability in key moments. Kelce did not necessarily have a big day, but he did find the endzone on a third down in the red zone. Key third-down conversions were something Kansas City lacked in the week one loss to Detroit. Kelce finished the day with 26 of the 305 yards that Mahomes threw for on Sunday. The Mahomes/Kelce connection was their 47th touchdown as partners in crime, which gave them the most in team history, passing Len Dawson and Otis Taylor.
“Honestly, just the fact that Travis (Kelce) played, I mean, it surprised me because that’s a scary injury,” Mahomes said. “He didn’t look good there for a little bit but he battled over those extra days. He was in the facility rehabbing, and to get himself out there and able to play, it talks about the competitor that he is and the teammate that he is. So having him out there not only helps me make plays, but helps everybody else as well. Gets other guys open, so truly just a great teammate to even be out there on this field.”
Chris Jones finished the day with one and a half sacks and one batted pass on limited snaps. The real telling story in all three of those plays is that they all happened on third or fourth down. None were more important than a third-down sack combination with rookie Felix Anudike-Uzomah that forced Jacksonville Quarterback Trevor Lawrence to fumble, which unfortunately went out of bounds.
“I figured Chris (Jones) would be able to play about half of the game,” Reid said. “We shuttled him in and out. He did a great job. Over the years here he’s learned to keep himself in shape. When I saw him at practice he was moving around pretty well and endurance seemed good. I felt comfortable that he would go in and be able to do his thing. Maybe not to that level. That was a heck of a job by him.”
On the next play cornerback L’Jarius Sneed covered Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley like a glove in the back of the endzone to force an incompletion on fourth down. That defensive stop is what gave Mahomes, Moore and Pacheco the ability to chew over four minutes off the clock to close out the game.
The Chiefs did not take the narrowest path to victory, however. Kansas City took a 7-6 lead into halftime, even after turning the ball over three times. A muffed punt from Richie James deep in the Chiefs’ own territory led to three of those points.
The offensive line also struggled with plenty of false starts and holding penalties. The Chiefs managed to lose the penalty battle 12-2, as well as the turnover battle 3-1 and still come away with the victory.
“Just too many procedure penalties, turnovers,” Reid said. “We’ll get that taken care of. That’s not the heat. That’s us needing to take care of business. We normally don’t do this, so, you know, it got us today. We’re not a big penalty team, and offensively we’re … not a big penalty team, and surely not the turnovers.”
A lot of the reason for that is the Chiefs played dominating defense for the second straight week. Last week the Chiefs only allowed 14 points to a high-powered Detroit Lions offense and this week they held another strong offense to zero touchdowns.
Nick Bolton led the team in tackles with eight, flying all over the middle of the field. George Karlaftis registered his first-ever multi-sack game. The defensive backfield played sticky defense, limiting Trevor Lawrence to 216 yards and a 54 percent completion percentage.
“You know, I’m an offensive guy, but that was a beautiful thing defensively,” Reid said. “ … Defensively great to have (Chris) Jones back. He obviously influenced the game in a positive way for us. (Trent) McDuffie, I mean I can go on and on about the guys on defense. Steve (Spagnuolo) had a phenomenal game plan.”
This was the seventh straight victory over the Jaguars, a streak that started back in 2010. That moves Mahomes, whose birthday was also Sunday, to 4-0 against the Jaguars. Next, the Chiefs will face off against the winless Chicago Bears at home in GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, Sept. 24 at 3:25 p.m. CDT.
