Chiefs vs 49ers recap: Kansas City hangs on to win thriller over San Francisco

After an explosive 2-0 start for the Kansas City Chiefs, the team returns to Kansas City for their home opener against the 49ers.

The Kansas City Chiefs, or really, Patrick Mahomes has taken the NFL world by storm. There was a hot-Baker-Mayfield minute after his stellar Thursday Night performance, but Patrick Mahomes quickly stole the headlines right back on Sunday with a 38-27 win over the San Francisco 49ers.

The first five Kansas City drive drives ended with the Chiefs hitting paydirt.

From the first drive, the Chiefs were a well oiled machine. That drive was capped by a Kareem Hunt touchdown to get the ball rolling. The second drive was helped by a few 49er penalties, including a third down pass interference call that got Kansas City down to the 1-yard line. That eight play drive saw Kareem Hunt once again power into the end zone from one yard out. Before the first quarter was out, the Chiefs were up 14-0.

The shaky Kansas City Chiefs defense stood tall in the first half of this contest. They had a coverage breakdown that allowed Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo on a play action to find Kyle Juszczyk for six. The only other points allowed in the half for the Chiefs came when the 49ers gashed the Kansas City defense before the half and got a field goal as time ran out on the half.

The Chiefs third offensive drive saw Patrick Mahomes go all Brett Favre, making many commentators on “Draft Twitter” giddy with glee as their comparisons were accurate. The first year starter rolled out to the left before spinning to run right, losing his balance, gaining his balance back with a defender breathing down his neck and flinging a touchdown to Chris Conley in the back of the end zone.

The fourth drive saw much of the same, with the Chiefs leading it 21-7, Patrick Mahomes fired a ball into the hands of—wait, this can’t be right—Demetrius Harris, putting Kansas City up 28-7.

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After yet another stop from the Chiefs defense, Mahomes and company took over with a 28-7 lead, and Mahomes tossed his third touchdown of the day before the halftime break. This time, he found Sammy Watkins for his first touchdown grab as a Chief. With a 35-7 lead, Chiefs fans felt pretty, pretty good. The aforementioned gashing of the K.C. defense to put three points on the board for the 49ers could not even dampen the mood.

Up 35-10, Arrowhead was rocking as the players jogged to the locker room. To this point, the offense was 5-for-5: five drives, five touchdowns! The defense only allowed 10 points, and things could not get any better.

Then, the second half started.

The Chiefs offense stalled to start the half, and they were forced to punt it away for the first time on Sunday. Quickly, the 49ers took advantage. Garoppolo carved up the dreadful K.C. defense and found speedster Marquise Goodwin for the score—no one was within ten yards of Goodwin. After a missed PAT, the score was set at 35-16, Kansas City.

Another Chiefs punt forced Chiefs fans to tighten up. I mean, can you blame them? The Chiefs have a long history of blown leads. Even last week, they blew a 21-point lead in a quarter. Oh, and the super exciting and explosive offense was forced to punt again.

As the 49ers take over down 35-16, the Chiefs defense allowed two first downs on third downs by way of an offsides penalty and blown coverage. Oh, and they turned back the clock to 2012, allowing Alfred Morris to run roughshod all over the defense during the course of this drive. On that drive, the 49ers marched down the field in 12-plays capped off by Morris reaching the end zone.

So now, the Chiefs are only up 11 points after the score at one time being 35-7.

With the score now tightening,  the pressure was on the Chiefs offense. Mahomes answered the call getting the Chiefs into the red zone before hitting a road block and having to settle for a field goal. After a rare red zone stop against this explosive offense, Harrison Butker nailed the field goal to extend the Chiefs lead to 38-24.

The 49ers, with almost an entire quarter left, took over down 14. They kept the ball on the ground and ran it down the Chiefs front over and over and over again. The front seven for Kansas City got blown off the ball, and that in turn set up the passing game. Garoppolo and company had their way with the Kansas City defense.

The clock kept ticking as the 49ers kept running the football. On a critical third and one, the Chiefs stuffed the run to bring up fourth and very short. Arrowhead fans got rowdy as the game hung in the balance. Garoppolo ran a quarterback sneak that was so close the refs needed an official measure to determine that he got the first down.

Back-to-back sacks by the lowly Chiefs front set up a huge third and goal. Garoppolo evaded a would-be third sack twice on the play before getting popped by Steven Nelson knocking him out for the fourth and goal play. After a CJ Beathard touchdown gets whipped off by way of an offensive pass interference, Kyle Shanahan elected to take a field goal. Fortunately the Chiefs were able to ice the game from there.

The Chiefs improved to 3-0 with the win and next week travel to Denver to take on the Broncos on Monday Night football.