Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense righted the ship Sunday in a 31-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, including a season-high 17 second-half points.
“Yeah, it felt like we were moving the ball,” head coach Andy Reid said in his postgame press conference. “Even down towards the end, you’re up by 14 points, so they’re still within striking distance and you have to keep that hammer down. But yeah, I thought the guys did a nice job with that.”
The most important drive, arguably, was the opening drive of the second half. Mahomes connected with Justin Watson for a 3-yard touchdown strike with 25 seconds left in the first half to tie the game at 14-14. The offense then double dipped opening the second half, marching 75 yards in 10 plays taking 5:45 off the clock before Pacheco punched the ball in the end zone from the 1-yard line. It was the team’s first second-half score since Mahomes and Pacheco connected on an 8-yard touchdown pass against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 7 more than a month ago.
“Well, we went three second halves without scoring, so we needed a score,” Reid said. “That was
important. It was good the way we did it.”
The Chiefs piled up 197 yards in the second half — their most since collecting 248 yards in the second half against Jacksonville in Week 2. Mahomes and company accomplished that feat with a return to fundamentals, focusing on a ball-control offense built around quick throws, shorter passes and establishing the run.
“It was big on us to just really get back to the fundamentals,” Mahomes explained, “take the short stuff when it’s not there, hit the check downs, and then try to utilize and hit the deep ones when they are there. So, it was big for us to get that first touchdown drive and it kind of got the momentum back in our favor.”
Mahomes completed a season-high 79% of his passes against the Raiders, including 9-of-10 for 56 yards behind the line of scrimmage, 13-of-16 for 138 yards and two scores between the line of scrimmage and 10-yards downfield, and 5-of-5 for 104 yards between 10 to 20 yards downfield.
He only took one shot beyond 20 yards from the line of scrimmage after going 0-of-4 on deep balls against Philadelphia last Monday night. His only deep ball on Sunday came on the team’s second drive on third-and-8. The Raiders brought a zero blitz, and Mahomes made the quick decision to target Justin Watson down the left sideline. With a split second more time to go through his progressions, he would have found Travis Kelce breaking wide open on a deep crossing route to the right side.
Sunday’s win left the Chiefs in high spirits after the Monday night loss the Philadelphia but it also Mahomes wanting more heading into December.
“I still think we can be better,” he said. “There was plays here and there that we didn’t execute at a high enough level. But we’re going to be going into Green Bay, playing in a great environment, which I’m really excited about, against a team that’s playing really good football right now, and a defense that is playing really good. It’ll be another great challenge for us and how can we respond.
“How can we not have these highs and lows and continue to build throughout the rest of the season,” Mahomes said.
Defensive Adjustments
The Chiefs defense struggled to start Sunday’s game, allowing the Raiders to pile up 14 points and 245 yards in the first half, a season-worst for coordinator Steve Spagnuolo’s squad.
Running back Josh Jacobs and receiver Davante Adams fueled the Raiders offense in the first half. Jacobs rushed for 94 yards on 12 carries including a 63-yard touchdown. Adams hauled in five catches on five targets for 73 yards.
But the Kansas City defense took both star players out of the game in the second. Jacobs carried the ball eight times in the second half for 16 yards with a long of just 5 yards. Adams, shadowed much of the day by L’Jarius Sneed, had zero catches in the second half and just two targets.
The Chiefs appeared to play more traditional 4-3 fronts as the game wore on, using three linebackers in the box to ensure Jacobs didn’t get past the second level. The interior run defense also stiffened in the second half.
Rookie Breaks Out
The Chiefs need one of their young receivers to deliver a statement performance, and rookie Rashee Rice did just that Sunday, hauling in eight passes for 107 yards and a score for the first 100-yard receiving game of his career.
His highlight play came early in the fourth quarter with the Chiefs facing a third-and-5 from the Las Vegas 39-yard line. Rice lined up in the slot on the right side, and the Chiefs cleared the middle of the field for him to run a drag route over the middle. He hauled in the pass at the 35 and weaved his way through traffic and broke an arm tackle to make it into the end zone.
Mahomes has been singing Rice’s praise all year, and on Sunday the promise came true.
“He works hard and we’re giving him more and more as the season goes on,” Mahomes said. “And kind of the flow of the games, we’ve put him in more of a bigger role these last
few weeks, but the flow of the game hasn’t dictated him getting the football. But you saw today some of those coverages where they were doubling (Travis), or putting a lot of attention on Trav, he was able to make some stuff happen like on that shallow cross. He’s a guy who wants it.”
The only blemish on Rice’s day came on a drop midway through the third quarter. Rice ran a comeback route along the left sideline and created room to make the catch but appeared to subtly look toward his next move before securing the ball in his hands. While Rice leads the club with six drops the rookie mistakes are becoming less frequent for him.
“He’s a smart kid and he works tremendously hard at his profession here,” Reid said. “So, he has the trust of the quarterback.”
Pop Running Hard
The Raiders focused on taking away the Kansas City ground game on Sunday, and they did limit Isiah Pacheco to just 3.7 yards per carry. Yet the Chiefs remained committed to establishing the run, and it paid off with Pacheco scoring twice on the ground and also rushing for three first downs.
“Pacheco, those are the toughest 55 yards I’ve ever been around,” Reid said. “He had 15 carries, and he ran really hard.”
Pacheco was also a big part of the Chiefs’ effort to focus on the short-passing game, hauling in five passes for 34 yards. That was despite a disastrous screen pass on the team’s opening drive that went for an 11-yard loss.
Perhaps most impressive given the Raiders’ focus on the run, Pacheco didn’t get stuff on of his 15 carries picking up at least 1 yard on every attempt. That’s Pacheco’s mindset, especially in third-and-short situations.
“You have to know you have to get 1 yard, and that’s the goal,” Pacheco said. “For me, get 1 yard. Whatever happens after happens, but for me, it’s 1 yard.”
Eliminating Mistakes
Reid reiterated again this week that the team’s offense was just “off a tick,” and only needed to cut down on turnovers, penalties and dropped passes to restore its luster.
Four touchdowns during a stretch of five drives and tallying 31 points with zero turnovers, only four penalties and one dropped pass proved him prescient.
“I’m proud of the guys for catching the ball the way they did,” Reid said. “They really did a nice job. I mean, we do all that in practice and they just did a nice job with that. And then the penalties, we were
able to cut down on those. Still work in that area and we’ll continue to do that. But those unnecessary
things, those things where you are kind of shooting yourself in the foot, we eliminated them.”
For Mahomes, the clean performance illustrated that the offense is still capable of consistently scoring when focusing on moving the chains and taking what the defense is giving.
“We’ve shown that we can move the ball, but penalties and drops, and me not getting to the right guy at the right time,” Mahomes said. “Just little things like that, it’s kind of stalled some of our drives, but we got to it. Kind of went back to the fundamentals this week and we kept pressing and pushing, and we’re going to try to keep going the rest of the season.”
What’s Next?
It’s a somewhat more normal week for the Chiefs this week despite a Sunday night showdown at Green Bay on deck in Week 13.
Reid will speak with reporters via Zoom on Monday, then the Chiefs resume their regular weekly schedule with practice and media availability Wednesday through Friday before traveling to Green Bay on Saturday.
