The Kansas City Chiefs had plenty of issues off the field last week with the Kareem Hunt incident but on the field Sunday the offense wasn’t the problem.
On Friday, the Kansas City Chiefs were the talk of the NFL for all the wrong reasons. The Kareem Hunt saga had everyone talking. We don’t need to rehash what went down here, other than to say that it had everyone wondering if losing such a talented player could derail the Chiefs’ Super Bowl aspirations.
When the Chiefs took the field on Sunday the offense had a lot to prove to Chiefs fans, NFL “talking heads”, and themselves. They walked away from the game with a 40-33 win over the Raiders. Despite the win, it was clear that the Chiefs do have issues that they will need to address moving forward.
Those issues just aren’t on offense.
I’m not here to tell you that the Chiefs won’t miss Kareem Hunt at all. I’m not here to tell you that the running backs on their roster are just as good as Hunt, because they aren’t. What I am here to tell you is that if the Chiefs fall short in the postseason it won’t be because of the drop off in the run game from Kareem Hunt to Spencer Ware and company.
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Because of how late in the week the Hunt drama played out the offensive game plan for this game was designed for Hunt and not Spencer Ware. Despite that, the Chiefs still ran for 174 yards on 30 carries (5.8 yards/carry). You can point to the Raiders horrible run defense or the fact that 89 of those yards were from Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill but my argument is that it doesn’t really matter. The Chiefs offense was still able to get the job done. I would add that the Chiefs other running backs should only improve when they get more practice reps and as Andy Reid is able to put in a game plan that fits their specific skill sets. The Chiefs offense is still an elite unit. Period.
Patrick Mahomes was a little off on Sunday, missing throws he normally makes, but they still put up 40 points and 469 yards of total offense. In-between misses, he made some incredible big time throws and ended the day 23 of 38 for 295 yards and 4 touchdowns. Travis Kelce was a monster going for 168 yards on 12 receptions with a couple of touchdowns. The offense kept rolling, even without Kareem Hunt.
However, that doesn’t mean that Chiefs fans should be feeling great about this team despite their offense rolling without Kareem Hunt and improving to an AFC best 10-2 record. That’s because two of K.C.’s biggest problems going into their bye week continued to be huge problems.
Last week I wrote about what the Chiefs needed to do in order to give themselves a real shot to win the Super Bowl. While one of them was to utilize Kareem Hunt more in big games (sigh…), I stand by what I’ve said about the offense still being Super Bowl caliber. Unfortunately, the other two biggest areas for improvement were the defense and the constant penalties. Those two things showed absolutely no improvement coming off the bye week against an inferior opponent and that is worrisome.
The defense gave up 33 points and 442 yards to an offense that entered Sunday’s game as the NFL’s fourth lowest-scoring offense. To the Chiefs credit, they did force three turnovers on fumbles and that was likely the difference in the game. I don’t want to take any credit away from them, but if the Raiders running backs held onto the ball, the Chiefs would have likely allowed 40 or more points to a Raiders team that had only topped 23 points twice this season coming into the game. That’s inexcusable.
Before the Raiders game, the Chiefs had really only allowed elite offenses (and quarterbacks) to put up huge numbers on them. The Raiders aren’t in that category and the fact that they did this to the Chiefs coming off their bye week, when they should have been making adjustments to fix these issues, makes matters even worse.
Then there are the penalties. The Chiefs were averaging a league-worst 8.82 penalties per game for 74 yards coming into Week 13. My hope was that the Chiefs coaching staff would crack the whip on the sloppy play during the bye week and try to get this issue under control. That certainly didn’t appear to be the case on Sunday as the Chiefs were flagged 11 times for 94 yards. The Raiders who are one of the least experienced teams (and traditionally one of the least disciplined) in the league only had 8 penalties for 74 yards. It’s simply absurd for the Chiefs to consistently be that sloppy and that undisciplined.
I hate to come away feeling frustrated from a win where the Chiefs phenom quarterback carried them to 40 points on the road despite a huge distraction this week with the Hunt situation, but the defense and the penalties are just too bad to ignore.
I want the Chiefs to contend for a Super Bowl this season. I was worried that the loss of Hunt could derail those hopes. The good news is it appears that the Chiefs still have a Super Bowl caliber offense even without Hunt. Mahomes really is that good. Unfortunately, the issues with the defense and all the penalties are still there as well.
The Kareem Hunt incident and release will probably still dominate the talk around this team for a while. However, if this team really wants to win games in January they better stop worrying about the running back situation and focus on improving the defense and undisciplined penalties, because that is what almost derailed them against the Raiders. It will likely do the same in the playoffs if they don’t get these issues fixed.