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The Kansas City Chiefs are 2-1 after falling to the Indianapolis Colts 20-17 at Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Here’s three takeaways from that ballgame:
1. The Defense Acquitted Itself…ish
The Chiefs defense was more than game to square up with a lackluster Colts offense. For the most part, they came through even though they were missing Willie Gay (and will continue to for the next few games); they had Matt Ryan in the torture chamber for three and a half quarters, sacking him five times and forcing a fumble. The Colts run game, spearheaded by one of the best ‘backs in the game in Johnathan Taylor, was kept in check with just 82 yards total averaging 3 yards per carry. They even stymied a couple of fourth down conversions thanks to some heroic efforts by La’Jarius Sneed and Nick Bolton. Things started to break down on the last drive of the game, which featured a backbreaking penalty leading to the Colts scoring the game-winning touchdown. It bites when you have to come out and say the defense let you down when they were the ones keeping you in the game for so long, but it’s a game made with four quarters and you can’t just bring your A-Game for 90% of those four quarters, especially on a day like this because…
2. The Offense Was Pretty Clunky
This was a tough game on KC’s offensive line, which is usually the strength of this offensive unit minus the quarterback. It wasn’t just visible in the running game, where Pat Mahomes was the leading rusher with a grand total of 26 yards; DeForest Buckner and Yannick Ngakoue were constantly pressuring Mahomes, freeing up the Colts to drop more players back and really mess with the passing game to the tune of a 30% third down conversion rate out of ten tries and ultimately the game-sealing interception. There were a couple of flashes, like JuJu Smith-Schuster having his best game as a Chief and MVS finally being able to click on some key plays to help get the Chiefs in the driver’s seat, but it wasn’t consistent enough to fend off a Colts team fiending for its first win to keep its playoff aspirations alive. It’s also week three and nobody in that wide receiver room has really established themselves as a top pass catching threat not named Travis Kelce. That’s something that’s gotta change if the Chiefs want to make a deep playoff run this season.
[This is just an aside but honestly what’s the worst that could happen if the Chiefs moved Orlando Brown to Right Tackle and Joe Thuney to Left Tackle? Andrew Wylie isn’t exactly a spicy starter and the two have had some pretty good success at those spots. Maybe when the Chiefs get a little more depth at guard? Who knows, it might be fun to see though.]
3. SPECIAL TEEEEEEEEEEEAMS
This hurts my heart as a supporter of the Skyy Moore agenda, but man there’s nothing like a muffed punt deep in your own territory after a strong defensive outing to really take the wind out of your sails. He’ll have plenty of opportunities to prove himself but he looked understandably rattled out there. I’m also extremely ready for the Matt Ammendola experiment to be done and dusted because there’s really no substituting the consistency of Harrison Butker, here’s to hoping he gets to good health as soon as possible. I’m also unsure why they would try for the fake field goal when they did when they might have been better suited trotting the offense out there to get the fourth down conversion. Even if Townsend connected on that pass that play wasn’t really going anywhere anyways. Maybe it’s just the yucky vibes of playing the Colts because Lord knows there’s been plenty of whack happenings whenever those two clash.
Up next the Chiefs get little time for licking their wounds because they travel to Raymond James Stadium to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football.
