John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
The sky was blue, the weather was perfect, the stadium was rocking, and the Kansas City Chiefs moved to 4-0 Sunday afternoon, thumping the New York Giants 31-7. The game was close for quite some time, but the Chiefs pulled away in the fourth quarter thanks in large part to yet another long, methodical late-game drive by the offense. This week’s report card is worthy of your mother’s refrigerator. So, grab a magnet, and let’s take a look.
Offense
Sure, Smith threw two interceptions. So what. Neither were stupid plays, and the Giants got exactly zero points from them. If anything, Alex showed us today that he trusts his receivers, and he trusts his accuracy. He was more than willing to fit passes into small windows, and almost every time, his passes were right on the money.
How about Sean McGrath, eh? What can you say – the Bearded Wonder is playing very well in the place of Anthony Fasano and Travis Kelce. He has great hands, and has shown to be quite adept at getting his fair share of yards after the catch.
More than anything, however, I’ll say this: Jamaal Charles owns the fourth quarter. Just when you think Charles has been contained, the 3rd quarter clock strikes 0:00, and Andy starts feeding him the rock. We all know what happens after that.
Grade: B+
Defense
Manning completed 18 of 37 passes against the Chiefs, 10 of which went to Victor Cruz. This is the second time that the Chiefs have sacrificed the big play for the greater good of the team. Cruz had a Dez-Bryant-vs-the-Chiefs-type of game this afternoon that still resulted in a loss for his team. They held the Giants to 217 yards passing, and 164 of those 217 passing yards were to Cruz. That’s almost 76%. I’m fine with 217 total pass yards, especially with Brandon Flowers out.
Here’s another fun tidbit: The Giants were 1/14 on third down. Yeah, 1/14. That’s 7%. Incredible, really. For comparison purposes, the Chiefs did very well today by converting 9/16, or 56% on third downs. That is good defense, folks. It doesn’t matter how many plays you run, or how deep you can throw the ball if you can’t get a first down.
Can I also give a big shout-out to Marcus Cooper? This kid manned up today big-time in the absence of Flowers and played a heck of football game.
Also, secondary shout-out to Eli Manning’s confused facial expressions all game. Thanks for that, Eli. Loved it.
Grade: A
Special Teams
It looked like Dustin Colquitt was punting (and punting well) hurt, Ryan Succop hit two 50+ yard field goals (though one of them didn’t count), and Dexter McCluster took a punt to the house. Pretty nice day for Dave Toub’s boys.
Grade: A+
Coaching
Whatever this defensive game-plan is that allows one receiver to get about 150 yards, but ensures no one else gets much of anything seems to be a nice trade-off. I’ll take it – just a tad scared for when it backfires.
The offense went to the run when they needed it the most. Andy Reid and Doug Pederson obviously made it a point to get Dwayne Bowe involved in the offense – which can only be a good thing – and lot of the sloppy play we saw last week was eliminated.
As far as the special teams went, the Chiefs got a score, and also did well defending the Giants in the kick game.
Solid day for the coaches.
Grade: A+
Okay Addicts, let me hear it below. Did I blow it? Am I riding too high?