Texans vs. Chiefs: Madden ’21 sim has some surprising results
By Rylan Stiles
What does Madden ’21 have to tell us about the Chiefs vs. Texans matchup?
With a blink, football is back! The Kansas City Chiefs play actual meaningful football on Thursday night against the Houston Texans. However, some of us cannot wait that long.
In order to get a read on the forthcoming season, I set up a Madden NFL ’21 franchise with the Chiefs, made the correct cuts, outlined the depth chart properly, and simulated the opening week at Arrowhead Stadium.
As the Chiefs look to defend their Super Bowl title in front of the Arrowhead crowd, Kansas City, whose defense is missing key pieces like Mike Pennel and Bashaud Breeland due to suspension, got punched in the mouth early as the Texans marched right down the field on their first possession of the game to go up by 7.
The Chiefs wasted no time responding as the first points on the board for the Chiefs in the 2020 NFL season came via a 7-yard slant route from Mahomes to Sammy Watkins in the end zone.
After the teams traded 10-0 runs against each other, Anthony Sherman got the call and plowed into the end zone to put the Chiefs up 24-17 at the midway point of the third quarter. The Texans held a 33-24 lead with 3:42 to go after Will Fuller got free for a 14-yard touchdown against a weakened Chiefs secondary.
On the ensuing drive, Mahomes found rookie running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the flats, who took it in from 8 yards for the score to bring the Chiefs within three points. Sadly, the drive took too long to develop, and the onside attempt from Harrison Butker was unsuccessful as the Chiefs fell in this simulated Week 1 matchup by a final score of 34-31.
The Texans threw for 400 yards on the Chiefs secondary as Deshaun Watson earned a 72% completion percentage which would still be outdone by Patrick Mahomes who completed 76% of his passes. Watson tossed two touchdowns, to Mahomes’ three. Despite Watson’s turnover, picked off by Charvarius Ward, the Texans offense came out on top.
Mahomes threw for nearly 300 yards and delivered his touchdowns to Watkins, Edwards-Helaire, and Travis Kelce, while Watson found Fuller and Kenny Stills. Stills was able to haul in the most yards receiving at 132, though Watkins had 93 yards to his credit. Neither team could get it going on the ground, as the leading rusher was Duke Johnson, who put up 54 yards on the ground.
Defensively for Kansas City, it was not all bad. Frank Clark earned 1.5 sacks, new addition Taco Charlton made an instant impact with a half-sack, a tackle for a loss, and two more solo tackles. However, it is never a good sign when your top corner is also your leading tackler as Ward led Kansas City with eight solo tackles.
The Chiefs fall to 0-1 in the Madden sim, though Patrick Mahomes wins the AFC Player of the Week honors on the offensive side of the ball with his 26-34, 287 passing yards and 3 touchdown passes to go with his 25 rushing yards.
This sets up a week two matchup between the Chiefs and Chargers who each enter the contest 0-1 after the Chargers fell to the Cincinnati Bengals.