The Detroit Lions walked into Arrow-head Stadium on Thursday, Sept. 7 with nothing to lose but to play spoiler. The night began with the Kansas City Chiefs revealing its third Super Bowl banner and ended with the Lions celebrating on their field. Detroit rallied from behind to defeat the defending Super Bowl Champs, 21-20.
It was a game-time decision to determine whether future Hall-of-Fame tight end Travis Kelce would suit up. Without Kelce, the Chiefs offense seemed to stall on multiple key situational plays.
With just over seven minutes left in the fourth quarter, Lions running back David Montgomery muscled his way into the endzone to give Detroit a one-point lead. That 75-yard touchdown drive gave the Lions their first lead since early in the second quarter.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and company took possession of the ball twice after that and came up empty. The first was a three-and-out, but the second was one of the uglier drives in recent Chiefs history.
The Chiefs received the ball on their own 45 with just over two minutes to go in the game. After a handful of drops and two penalties, Mahomes threw a deep in-complete pass to Justin Watson to essentially end the game on a fourth and 25. Nothing was easy for the Chiefs offense, and Mahomes said that will be a good lesson for the team moving forward.
“It’ll be good for the young guys to know that we are not just going to walk in and win the game,” Mahomes said. “You’re going to have to play good football. We’re going to play every team’s best shot. I’ve preached it to them all preseason, but they know now.”
The thing that Chiefs fans were most excited to see was how the Chiefs’ new receiving core would gel into the offense. Mahomes finished the day 21 of 39, totaling 226 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. However, a lot of those in-completions and the interception simply went through the receiver’s hands.
Kadarius Toney caught one ball on five targets, and most of the incompletions were drops. One was deflected straight into the arms of Lions rookie safety Brian Branch and was returned for a touch-down. Skyy Moore had zero catches on three targets, most of which were drops as well. In a one-point loss, those proved to be costly mistakes.
Mahomes and the receivers never looked in sync or got into the flow of the offense, but he said after the game he will keep firing to the young receivers. Reid said it was uncharacteristic of the young receivers to have drop issues.
“That’s unusual for us to drop that many passes anywhere anytime,” Reid said. “We’ll go back and work on that. But you got to take care of business and these guys know that.
”If there is one silver lining, it is that Travis Kelce’s injury kept him out of this game, but it seems like it is going to be short-term. Kansas City looked exactly like a team that was forced to change its game plan two days before the game after preparing to feature Kelce for the last month and change.
“Yeah, I mean you’re losing one of the best, I think the best tight end of all time, but other guys got to step up,” Mahomes said. “(Losing Kelce) is going to have an impact on the game but other guys got to step up in moments because I’m sure there’s times (Kelce) gets doubled. Just going to have to rely on these other guys that are young and talented to step up and make plays and I believe they will.”
The Chiefs’ run game was not efficient, as running backs Isiah Pacheco and Clyde Edwards-Helaire combined for 45 yards on 14 carries. Mahomes was the team’s leading rusher and extended a lot of drives with his legs while tallying 45 yards on six scrambles.
While the Chiefs would love to have Chris Jones back in the middle of its defense, they did enough to win this football game. The defense only gave up 14 points, forced five punts, two turnovers on downs and caused a turnover.
Detroit’s first touchdown actually came off a big third down stop by the Chiefs, but head coach Dan Campbell caught the Chiefs off guard with a fake punt. All-in-all, Lions quarterback Jared Goff was efficient en route to 253 yards, but Detroit only mustered 3.5 yards per carry.
Late in the second quarter Trent McDuffie laid out Lions receiver Marvin Jones to cause a fumble and fellow second-year safety Bryan Cook recovered it. McDuffie finished the game with eight tackles on the day.
The defensive line also stepped up well in Jones’ absence. Mike Danna came up with a big third-down sack and first-round rookie Felix Anudike-Uzomah finished with two quarterback hits on the night.
“Today is just a product of those guys doing what they’re asked to do in the scheme and just finding ways to be effective,” linebacker Nick Bolton said. “I don’t expect that to stop. Especially when we get Chris back. Chris will be a great addition to add to that d-line. Those guys are hungry.”
Other than the defense, if there was a bright spot in the season opener, it was rookie wide receiver Rashee Rice. Rice was involved in the offense, catching three balls on five targets including a wide-open touchdown to get the Chiefs on the board for the first time.
The Chiefs now have a few days to get prepared and get Kelce back in the lineup and Jones back on the active roster. Out-side of that, it appears the Chiefs have a lot of work to do, especially at wide receiver. Whether it is chalking it up to a sloppy game or figuring out who needs more snaps, we will find out what the results are in Jacksonville on Sunday, Sept. 17 at 12 p.m. CDT.
