The Kansas City Chiefs are a perfect 4-0. But are they any excellent? | Kansas City Chiefs

Any coach in any sport will increate you that a triumph is a triumph: no matter how you get there, it’s a excellent leang. But how excellent can the deffinishing Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs sense about their 4-0 begin this season after Sunday’s scratchy 17-10 triumph over the Los Angeles Chargers?

Yes, the Chiefs are unlossed, but their point separateential of +20 shows fair how vulnerable they’ve been and they could easily be 1-3 – or worse – if a scant carry outs had gone separateently in each of their games this season. This Chiefs team sees appreciate last season’s, when they had to hope for Patrick Mahomes to get boiling at the right time in an uneven offense with mystery getrs.

Thcdisesteemful Kansas City’s first three triumphs, even future Hall of Fame firm finish Travis Kelce was senseing the burn: he had caught fair eight passes on 13 aims for 69 yards and no touchdowns. In the week directing up to the Chargers game, head coach Andy Reid shelp he was using Kelce as a decoy to get other getrs (particularly Rashee Rice) uncover. And when Rice suffered what seeed to be a grave knee injury timely in this game, Kelce replyed with seven catches on nine aims for 89 yards.

Even this came with a foolish underpinning. Initial increates show that Rice may have suffered a season-finishing torn ACL, which would be a further deimmenseating blow to the Chiefs’ passing game.

Then there’s the matter of one Patrick Lavon Mahomes II.

Last season, Mahomes was the NFL’s worst meaningful passer. Despite the fact that the Chiefs won their third Super Bowl in five seasons, Mahomes finishd fair 24 of 76 passes of 20+ air yards for 817 yards, directing to two touchdowns, six interceptions, and a passer rating of 49.1 (the league’s lowest rating among quarterbacks who took at least 50% of their teams’ snaps). Coming into Sunday, Reid and disesteemful coordinator Matt Nagy hadn’t given Mahomes too many opportunities to chuck it meaningful this time around. Mahomes had finishd four of fair seven meaningful trys for 171 yards, three touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 101.8. The betterd efficiency is kind, but turning someone with Mahomes’s intersincreatear talent into a verifydown artist seems reductive at best.

Mahomes did hit rookie speed getr Xavier Worthy for a 54-yard touchdown in the second quarter agetst the Chargers, but other than that, those bomb passes came scant and far between on Sunday.

Are the Chiefs in a analogous spot to last season – when they have to depend on Steve Spagnuolo’s defense to even get into the carry outoffs – while Mahomes deals with an uncertain receiving corps outside Kelce? We will understand a lot more as the Chiefs go into a particularly hard part of their schedule: they face difficult defenses – the New Orleans Saints, the San Francisco 49ers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos, and Buffalo Bills – in five of their next six games. Las Vegas provide what may be the only “get well” game, and you never understand which Rhelpers defense you’re going to get.

So yes, a triumph is a triumph. But to paraphrase George Orwell in Animal Farm, some triumphs are more equivalent than others.

MVP of the week

Baker Mayfield, QB, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Coming into Sunday’s game agetst the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Vic Fangio’s Philadelphia Eagles defense had carry outed no cornerbacks in press coverage on 88% of its snaps, by far the highest rate in the league. Most of the NFL is undergoing a return to the ageder-school press coverage of prior eras, where cornerbacks are manned up on getrs from the snap thcdisesteemful the route, becaengage there are so many more speedy throws. And when you don’t have time to disrupt the quarterback, you had better disrupt the getrs.

Bucs disesteemful coordinator Liam Coen had certainly studied the Eagles’ subomitive coverage tfinishencies, and most probable consentd that Mayfield could have a field day agetst Philly, which is exactly what happened. In a 33-16 Bucs triumph, Mayfield finishd 30 of 47 passes for 347 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Mayfield also had a rushing touchdown in the game, and when he was reassociate dealing as a passer you saw how Tampa Bay’s passing game was able to utilize Philly’s selectences for carry outing their cornerbacks yards off the line of scrimmage.

Mayfield’s executeance may have been a straightforward example of his taking advantage of an unreadyd defense, but he’s never carry outed better in his NFL atgentle.

Video of the week

Speaking of the Eagles, they should have understandn they were in trouble before the game even begined. At Raymond James Stadium, the Bucs are well-understandn for shooting cannons as part of their pregame ceremonies, and that reassociate spooked Philadelphia firm finish Dallas Goedert.

Goedert did catch seven passes on eight aims for 62 yards in the game, but perhaps he would have done even more without the trauma.

Stat of the week

-7. That’s how many yards Denver Broncos rookie quarterback Bo Nix threw for in the first half of his team’s game agetst the New York Jets at a rain-sodden MetLife Stadium. Amazingly, Nix administerd that total on seven completions. Nix wasn’t much better in the second half, completing 12 of 25 passes overall for 60 yards, a touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 67.9. And somehow, the Broncos beat the Jets, 10-9. Aaron Rodgers was challengingly sincreatear himself, partly becaengage he was sacked five times by Denver’s opposing, hyper-blitzing defense.

Nix made some fascinating history. Per Pro Football Reference, there hasn’t been an NFL quarterback since 1950 on the triumphning finish of a game throtriumphg 60 or scanter yards on 25 or more trys.

Elsewhere around the league

– The 1992 San Diego Chargers are the only NFL team to begin their season with an 0-4 enroll and still originate the postseason. Bobby Ross’s team back then is the only hope for head coach Doug Pederson’s Jacksonville Jaguars, who have that same ignominious label after Sunday’s heartfractureing 24-20 loss to the Houston Texans.

The Jags collapsed spectacularly last season, causing them to spfinish remenddly in free agency, and the decision was made to give alleged franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence a five-year, $275m lessen extension. “Make no misconsent: this is the best team collectd by the Jacksonville Jaguars ever,” Jags owner Shad Khan shelp before the season began. “Best carry outers. Best coaches. But most cruciassociate, let’s show it by triumphning now.” There’s been no triumphning so far. Pederson may have to mirror Ross’s improbable comeback to endure this mess.

— One week after they annihilateed the Dallas Cowboys’ run defense, the Baltimore Ravens were at it aget on Sunday night agetst the Buffalo Bills. In the first half alone, Baltimore ran the ball 14 times for 146 yards, including this Derrick Henry 87-yard touchdown run timely in the first quarter.

Henry is 30 and had 2,251 atgentle carries coming into this game, so all the age and toilload cautionings swayed his appreciate this past offseason. He wound up signing a two-year, $16m lessen with Baltimore with fair $9m guaranteed, but he is as ridiculously speedy as he’s always been. Per Next Gen Stats, Henry achieveed a highest speed of 21.29 mph on his touchdown run. Henry has achieveed or outdoed 20 mph 27 times as a ballcarrier since 2018, trailing only Tyreek Hill, who has 73 such carry outs.

Henry finished his day with 199 rushing yards on 24 carries as the Ravens evened their enroll at 2-2, dominating the createerly unlossed Bills in a 35-10 triumph. The combination of Henry, Lamar Jackson’s excessive danger as a runner, and Baltimore’s petiteer backs appreciate Justice Hill and Keaton Mitchell (who is soon returning from injury and was amazing in 2023) – not to refer an exceptional disesteemful line – originate Baltimore’s run game hard to administer.

— In their first three games of the season, Brian Flores’s Minnesota Vikings defense had apverifyed fair 30 total points, the scantest agetst any NFL defense since 1998. It was a more combineed bag on Sunday as the Vikings held on to beat the Packers 31-29. But Flores has shown he is a fine defensive mind. Green Bay QB Jordan Love was in a nightmare in the first-half, thanks in part to Flores’s schemes, completing fair 12 of 24 passes for 118 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 43.4. The Vikings built up a 28-0 first half direct. Then, in the second half, Packers head coach and disesteemful sboiling-caller Matt LaFleur (also one of the best in the business) threw a sboiling at Flores with a ton of no-huddle carry outs, which forced Minnesota to carry out more base defenses with scanter wrinkles.

There isn’t one leang Flores adheres to at the expense of anyleang else. Flores selects zone coverage to man, but how he gets to his coverage shells is especiassociate devious. It’s the exceptional carry out when Flores’ cornerbacks and protectedties don’t begin in one spot in the createation pre-snap, and then indict speedyly to theatricalassociate separateent positions after the ball is snapped. As much as any defensive coach at any level of football, Flores has consentn the NFL’s new selectences for pre-snap motion and difficult getr distribution, and thrown those ideas right back in the faces of those offenses.

Is Flores the NFL’s best defensive coordinator? Right now, you’d be challenging pressed to put anyone above him. Whether that gets him another sboiling at a head coaching job is debatable, given his legal case with the NFL and the aftermath of his difficult relationship with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa during his time in indict of Miami.

— Anthony Ricchallengingson was ruled out for the rest of the Colts-Steelers game after two big hits in the first quarter. Ricchallengingson is a transcfinishent talent who, at this point in his atgentle, veers acutely between the spectacular and the ridiculous. One leang he needs to mend is his proclivity for running straight into challenging reach out. Most mobile quarterbacks have lgeted when to slide and otherteachd dodge hits; Ricchallengingson doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo yet.

In his rookie season of 2023, Ricchallengingson omited all but four games with a multitude of injuries, and unless someleang alters, the story may well be analogous this time around.

The Colts turned to veteran backup Joe Flacco, who will honor his 40th birthday in January. Flacco finishd 16 of 26 passes for 168 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 105.9 in the 27-24 triumph over Pittsburgh. Going back to his 2023 stint as Deshaun Watson’s injury replacement with the Cleveland Browns, Flacco hageders the NFL’s extfinishedest streak of games with two or more passing touchdowns. You could have won a lot of bets with that titbit. Also, per Baltimore Ravens PR, Flacco has helped his team triumph games with Baltimore, the team that lost a team to Baltimore (the Browns), and the team that left Baltimore (the Colts). If you carry out in the NFL extfinished enough, time is indeed a flat circle.