On Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs played a well rounded game all around. In fact, the passing offense is the unit that is looking to turn things up a notch the most. This road win also secured a tenth consecutive victory against the Denver Broncos for the Chiefs. With that in mind, we will look back on the major moments from Sunday’s contest in our game recap. Let’s get it started.
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Doing The Little Things
With potential snow in the forecast, the pressure was all on the Chiefs to create momentum on defense and special teams. And that’s just what they did. Denver’s offense turned the ball over four times, two fumbles and interceptions each.
Daniel Sorensen, in one of his best career games, took it the other way for a pick six. His ability to sit and read both Drew Lock‘s eyes and the receiver, allowed him to take a perfect angle to a late, underthrown football. Lock’s other interception was not on him, as KJ Hamler let the ball bounce right off of his hands, into the waiting arms of Tyrann Mathieu. Mathieu also recovered a fumble earlier on. The play was really created by UDFA Tershawn Wharton, who punched the ball out of Melvin Gordon‘s hands from behind. Gordon also botched a flea flicker attempt, having tossed the ball over the head of Lock. Frank Clark was right there to scoop it up.
And the defense wasn’t the only bright spot. The Kansas City Chiefs’ special teams had a couple of major moments. Byron Pringle raced by everyone for a 102 yard kick return touchdown. Tommy Townsend also pinned the Denver offense at their own one yard line with a magnificent punt. With Kansas City being stellar in those areas, the Broncos had no chance to win, due to their continuous mistakes.
Running Circles
Whether it is running around you, through you or over you, the Chiefs rushing attack is the strongest it has been in a long while under Andy Reid. Clyde Edwards-Helaire gained 5.8 yards per carry in a rather miniscule day of touches. The way in which he glides, no pun intended, in the open field allows for many favorable matchups one on one in the open field. Coach Reid is also doing a great job right now of designing running plays. The offensive line is providing so much of a push up front, that the second level of defenses are struggling to fill. As a result, this leaves defensive backs having to make most of the tackles.
On the other hand, Le’Veon Bell showed some juice in his Kansas City Chiefs debut. He may not be what he was at the beginning of his career. But, there is enough there to prove that his results in New York were not all on him. He had as many runs of 15+ yards in his Chief debut, than his entire tenure with the Jets. Bell did a good job to hit a hole quickly, once he saw his running lane. While his touches were limited, Le’Veon still managed to generate 6.5 yards per carry. Overall on the day, the Kansas City Chiefs averaged 4.59 yards per carry against the Denver Broncos.
Winning Formula
Despite a pedestrian day from Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City pass offense, Sunday’s win proved how complete of a team they are. When your depth is flourishing in a road division game, that allows you to not have to rely on the big name players on every snap. The aforementioned Sorensen flew around all day long, playing relatively strong coverage and stuck some major hits. Rookie linebacker Willie Gay finally got a great bulk of playing time. His results in both the run and pass game was encouraging, and something the Chiefs have needed from the linebacker position. Above all, this team is fairly healthy and getting production from areas that are often forgot about for Kansas City.
Be on the lookout for more FPC Kansas City Chiefs articles and podcasts throughout this week. For more great sports and NFL content, stay tuned to Full Press Coverage.
– Braden Holecek is the Kansas City Chiefs managing editor for Full Press Coverage. He covers the NFL. Like and follow on Follow @ebearcat9//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Follow @FPC_Chiefs//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js and Facebook.
