Sustainability: Chiefs Display Commanding Presence Vs Jaguars

Embed from Getty Images
What a wild Sunday it was in the NFL for Week 10. An unbelievable finish between the Minnesota Vikings and the Buffalo Bills resulted in a second consecutive Buffalo loss. At 6-3, they fall out of the top seed in the AFC and into third place in the AFC East. The entire AFC West lost, outside of the Kansas City Chiefs. Most of all, the floundering Las Vegas Raiders could not beat a team who had an interim coach that held no previous coaching experience in the league. In short, Kansas City did their job and benefitted greatly by the rest of the chaos that ensued. After defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Chiefs sit at 7-2, holding a two-game lead in the division and are currently holding the top seed in the conference.

Despite two offensive turnovers, the Kansas City Chiefs offense had one of their most commanding performances of the 2022 season yesterday. That is where we will place our focus in the FPC Chiefs Week 10 reaction article, as a result. Patrick Mahomes is starting to get hotter and hotter with his play at the right time. We finally saw some juice from a certain part of the Chiefs offense. Finally, Kansas City is once again able to rely on many different weapons, further becoming more difficult to defend. What made this performance against the Jaguars so impressive? Let’s kick it off.

Mahomes Is Not Missing

Mahomes is making correct decisions in seemingly every spot right now. That was present from start to finish against Jacksonville. Even with an interception late, he was able to extend the play and give his guy a chance in the middle of the field on that particular turnover. Mahomes is hitting accurately to all areas of the field, putting it where only his guy can get it. Overall, that is major for the Chiefs offense come playoff time. Kansas City is not seeing as much two-high structures as they were last season. Instead, defenses are largely using man coverage more often against Mahomes and company this season.

Beyond making those correct reads and decisions, Mahomes is displaying a great sense of urgency, timing and awareness in the pocket. He feels when it is right to step up, run, extend plays and alter through his progressions. While not every defender is taking the bait, Mahomes is also doing a great job of selling plays. This gives defenders something to latch onto. And if their decision is wrong, Mahomes and his weapons can quickly pick their poison. The Chiefs quarterback is truly embracing taking what defenses are giving him, at the same time, something other top quarterbacks are failing to do in spots right now.

Kansas City Showed Life In Running Game

For the most part, Kansas City’s running game was dominant when necessary against Jacksonville. More importantly, this occurred with both the offensive line and Isiah Pacheco. Pacheco has clearly earned the starting role, based on what the Chiefs coaching staff showed us on Sunday. For example, Clyde Edwards-Helaire only logged a handful of offensive snaps, did not see a carry and was unable to haul in passes on two targets.

For Pacheco, his fumble early on was a tough moment. But in reality, that got him going and he was able to run through and around defenders afterwards. Pacheco truly has the physicality and temperament to wear down any defense, once he is rolling.

As for the offensive line, the Chiefs did a tremendous job of winning leverage early on during reps. We have seen that deteriorate at times. Kansas City matched the Jaguars length and power, however. They were able to create movement to the outside edges and sometimes to the second level of the defense. The Chiefs have to be able to run the football to some sort of success come playoff time. Both the blocking unit and the rookie running back did what they needed to do on Sunday.

Chiefs May Just Be Deeper At Pass Catcher Positions

This may be the most important part to the Chiefs offensive attack, when it comes to continuing this sustainability and constant pressure on opposing defenses. Simply put, Kansas City cannot be stopped when all of the secondary weapons are rolling. Seeing those guys do what they did was especially crucial, due to the early injury to JuJu Smith-Schuster.

What a day it was for Kadarius Toney. In his second game with the Chiefs, he proved that he could be a versatile puzzle piece. You can get yards after the catch on short routes, he can match defenders deep down the field and his elusiveness as a runner is unmatched. On the other hand, Marquez Valdes-Scantling bounced back after a quiet game the week before. Jerick McKinnon still has the ability to be relied for chunk gains on check down passes. Elsewhere, Noah Gray once again made an impactful grab in a spot that gave the Chiefs more momentum, similar to last week.

Could this be the deepest set of weapons that the Chiefs have had with Mahomes? Even without a top five pass catcher like Tyreek Hill, Kansas City is more diverse and more difficult to defend. Sure, Travis Kelce and Smith-Schuster get the bulk of the targets. The Chiefs have more tools in their toolbox at the pass catcher positions, nonetheless.

Be on the lookout for more FPC Chiefs articles and analysis 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.