Goin' Sixty Minutes-Real Time Analysis and Instant Reaction
In a context of expectations never experienced here in Kansas City as almost everyone’s Super Bowl pick, but facing the specter of the ultimate bogey man in the New England Patriots, who did another bogey-man thing on the day before the season began in picking up Antonio Brown, the Chiefs actually got down to real football on Sunday in Jacksonville.
As soon as Brown was released by the Raiders on Saturday morning, Twitter was ablaze with snark about the ultimate destination of the mercurial wide receiver. And millions of eye rolls later, Brown was a Patriot, and actually the Chiefs status as Super Bowl favorites flipped at least in Las Vegas. Then the Chiefs went out and showed Vegas a little something
When it was time to hit the field, and the Chiefs showed why they are so tough to stop immediately. They ran three simple plays that should have netted them a first down. An ineffective running play, and few yards on a slant, and then a third down conversion to Sammy Watkins turned TD, when Jaylen Ramsey missed a tackle, and Watkins took it all the way home.
After a pulse soothing three and out by the Chiefs defense, it was flashier but just as effective as chunk plays featuring perfect throws got the Chiefs instantly down deep. But on third down, Mahomes did one of the things everyone loves, a no look to a wide open Kelce for a touchdown…..oops….misses very badly, but the FG makes it 10-zip and it looks mighty easy. No demerit points from the NFL quarterback rating. Mahomes sits at a perfect 158.3.
Three plays later, it’s 3rd and 18 for the Jags, and this one looks like it might get ugly early. But a few plays later, Nick Foles throws a ludicrous perfect deep ball for a touchdown, and things get interesting, for about three minutes. Foles has played his last snap after Chris Jones lands on Foles on the TD. The Chiefs look even more unstoppable than advertised. Andy Reid gets Sammy Watkins high school open, and it’s 17-7.
Chuckles rumble through Chiefs Nation as Washington State rookie Garner Minshew has the game in his hands. But Minshew looks pretty poised and the game settles into classic 2018 tennis match mode. You score, I score.
The game is chippy to say the least, and given that, a Tyreek Hill injury that has him out for the game, and degenerating pass protection that results in a wrap job on Mahomes ankle, mean the game has moved away from giddy.
23-13 at the half, and and a goofy 700-yard pace for the Chiefs. Sammy Watkins made Hill’s absence look irrelevant with a huge game, featuring great running after the catch. But the defense opening the half by allowing the Jags to march down deep had the game with a ground hog day feeling from 2018. But a fumble the Jags can’t in any way afford calms the waters, if even they were choppy. The Chiefs have yet to punt, and it doesn’t seem likely, so any concerns about actually losing the game seem absurd.
More absurd when they follow the fumble with a drive that chews up almost the rest of the third quarter. A defensive stop followed with the struggling unit getting to pin their ears back and actually force an incompletion for Minshew, who completed the first twelve passes of his career. The Chiefs have succeeded in making the fourth quarter irrelevant from a scoreboard standpoint.
But there were certainly some fun takeaways. Lesean McCoy looked more than spry. He ripped off a big run, had speed and bounce. Damien Williams started and he was mostly ineffective, so if they don’t start McCoy next week, it would seem merely to be cosmetic. With Hill’s status up in the air, Watkins career day with three touchdowns and two hundred yards was a nice sight to see.
Even though Mahomes was clearly compromised after the first twenty minutes, his play merely dropped from intergalactic to great. At one point looking like he might throw for a million, he had to “settle” for just under four hundred. Of course, the Chiefs D allowed a touchdown with eight minutes to go, so even when the Jags missed the two pointer and were down three scores, we saw the usual NFL paranoid coaching move of keeping Mahomes in the game despite a bum ankle.
The only drama that occurred in the fourth was when CBS first said they were switching to a more competitive game, and then after a no doubt firestorm from the Midwest, claimed technical difficulties.
The only real technical difficulties are what the Chiefs clearly are poised to do again to opposing defenses. The only difficulty the Chiefs had of real import was pretty shabby protection for Mahomes. Sure, the defense wasn’t very good (they gave up over eight yards a play0, but will it really matter? Certainly not against all but the best opponents.
Jacksonville avoided a far more important hurricane this week, but on this Sunday they certainly couldn’t avoid the football version the Chiefs brought to town. Let the fun begin.