Kansas City Chiefs vs Jacksonville Jaguars: Four takeaways from week 1

Takeaway #1: The Chiefs Offense is a Juggernaut

If you look up the definition of the word juggernaut at Merriam-Webster.com it defines it as: “A massive inexorable force that crushes whatever is in its path”.

That sounds like an accurate description of the Kansas City Chiefs offense to me.

This summer you could pretty much group NFL fans into two camps when it came to how they viewed the Chiefs offense. The first camp believed that what we saw from the Chiefs last season was just the beginning of a new offensive powerhouse in Kansas City as head coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes and a massive collection of playmakers are now poised to dominate the NFL for years to come. The second camp (largely populated by fans of the other AFC West teams as well as fans of the New England Patriots) believed that last year was a bit of a fluke and that Mahomes and the Chiefs offense were destined to come back down to earth this season.

For those poor souls that were hoping last season was a fluke, this first game had to be a bit of a wake up call. The Kansas City Chiefs went on the road against a good defense that had a chip on their shoulder after the Chiefs got the best of them last season. In case you missed the 100 different reports on the subject, it was really hot in Jacksonville on Sunday, but that didn’t slow down the Kansas City attack any more than the Jacksonville defense did.

On top of that, the Chiefs were without star wideout Tyreek Hill for most of the game and star quarterback Patrick Mahomes was hobbled for most of the game with a bad ankle that wouldn’t allow him to step into throws like he normally does. The Chiefs even put in backup Matt Moore and coasted through much of the fourth quarter… and still put up 40 points.

The Chiefs didn’t need Tyreek Hill. The Chiefs didn’t need Patrick Mahomes to be 100%. The Chiefs didn’t need their new rookie weapons Mecole Hardman and Darwin Thompson to play a big role. They were able to score 40 points on the road against a good defense in Week 1 of the season without firing on all cylinders.

That’s not a good sign for the rest of the NFL.

All summer we’ve been hearing how fast this offense looked and how Mahomes somehow looked even better than last season. While seeing that in practice is encouraging, we needed to see it in a game that counted and that’s exactly what happened on Sunday. Mahomes continued to look like the next great quarterback in the NFL. Sammy Watkins went off. Travis Kelce was Travis Kelce. Damien Williams and the newly signed LeSean McCoy added production from the running back position.

Last season wasn’t a fluke. This offense is an absolute juggernaut and the rest of the NFL is on notice. Which leads me to my second takeaway.