Wild Win for the Kansas City Chiefs: Week 4 Recap

Fumbles on Fumbles

Fumbles were the story of the afternoon in Detroit. Mahomes had an easy pass to Sammy Watkins in the end zone and the ball was punched out by Justin Coleman. Mecole Hardman then fumbled the second half opening kick return. Then, Darrel Williams fumble in the third quarter and was recovered by defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson. The final fumble came off a five yard pass from Mahomes to Watkins recovered by the hands of Coleman again. Fumbles took the ball out of Mahomes’ hands and lead to one of his “worst” games of his career.

It would not have been a wild win if the Chiefs had all the fumbles. The Lions had a few key blunders that helped keep the Chiefs in the game. Quarterback Matthew Stafford fumbled in the third when trying to scramble to make a play happen and it was recovered by Chris Jones. Later in the third the most bizarre turn of events occured. In the middle of a pile of players, Detroit fumbles the ball. Then Bashaud Breeland takes the opportunity and takes the ball 100 yards for a touchdown. In total, there were five scored fumbles.

Wild Win with minimal offense

Kansas City only had possession of the ball for 26:06. While Detroit had possession for 33:54. KC also only had a total of 438 yards. Mahomes having his weakest day only passing for 315 yards and no touchdowns. He went 24/42. The team rushed for 123 yards and 3 touchdowns. Harrison Butker even missed his first field goal attempt on the day.

However, there were many impressive offensive plays on the day. LeSean McCoy had a big 39 yard run in the first half. The most talked about play came with the use of Mahomes, Kelce, and McCoy. Mahomes threw to Kelce on the run, and Kelce decided to add his own flair. By playing heads up football, he was able to execute a “hook and ladder” with running back Lesean McCoy.” This is when one player flips a lateral pass to another teammate shortly after receiving a pass in effort to gain more yards and use some trickery. Then McCoy continued the run to get the Chiefs into scoring position. Later in the game Mahomes keeps the ball on a 4th and 8 and gets into field goal range. But that was not enough. Byron Pringle gets the offense inside the 5 and then the Chiefs put the final points on the board. 34 points would be enough to edge a good Detroit Lions team.

Defense Steps Up and Down Today

Today “Sack Nation” inducted a new member. Tyrann Mathieu got his first sack of the year. Mathieu had such a good read and jump that by the time Stafford got the ball into his right hand he was going down hard. Three other Chiefs also got sacks on Sunday. Alex Okafor, Chris Jones, and Derrick Nnadi. Then the defense combined for 69 tackles on the day. The defense stepped up big in the 4th quarter. However, they gave up a lot of yards and a lot of big plays to Matthew Stafford and the Lions.

I don’t speak for all Chiefs fans and certainly no football analysts, but I don’t think zone coverage works against the Lions. This Chiefs defense had a fighting chance when they were playing man coverage. However, they never really played heads up defense. On several pass coverage plays if Kendall Fuller had turned around or even turned his head a little he could have broken up a lot of plays. He could have even had an interception or two. Then to add insult to injury the Chiefs were getting killed by the run game. I think it is time to seriously consider going out to get a reliable corner. I hear Jalen Ramsey is still available.

Coaching Decisions Almost Take Away Wild Win

Andy Reid has not been known as the best clock manger of all head coaches. As a matter of fact a quick Twitter search would show you the internet professionals all say he is the worst at it. Not calling a timeout on the last possession of the first half could have sunk this team, if they didn’t have all the magic of the wild second half that is. But it wasn’t just clock management that alarmed fans and commentators.

When the team moves all the way down the field to get into perfect scoring position inside the three and what would you do? Majority of twitter erupted wondering why Reid would have Mahomes hand off the ball instead of a quarterback sneak. I mean “clearly that is what Brady would have done.” To be honest even I wondered the same thing. But clearly it all worked out in the end

Looking forward to next week

For the first time this season the Kansas City Chiefs will not be playing an undefeated team. They begin a stretch where four of the next five games are at home. On Sunday October 6th the Chiefs will host the 2-2 Indianapolis Colts for Sunday Night Football. Mahomes matches up with the fairly new starter Jacoby Brissett.

Week 4 against the Lions was a real test for the Chiefs. The Lions are a good team that could really be trouble for the NFC down the stretch. The Chiefs have a lot to work on heading into week five. Ball security, which I thought was a high school concern, will surely be hit hard in practice this week. The defense will have to work on stopping the run game as well. If you are going to depend on Patrick Mahomes, you have to make sure the ball spends more time in his hands. Overall, it was a wild win but a win nonetheless.

If you want to discuss what other changes the Chiefs need to make with me, follow me on Twitter @cap_jrm. Also, join me on the Overtime Heroics Forums to discuss the Chiefs and more.