Patriots vs. Chiefs: Winners and losers from Week 4

We’ve got the winners and losers from the Chiefs performance in Week 4 against the Patriots.

The Kansas City Chiefs handled the New England Patriots with relative ease, but it was the defense that earned the victory on an off-night by the offense—at least in the red zone and other key points. Let’s take a look at some winners and losers from Monday night.

Juan Thornhill, WINNER

Juan Thornhill began the season working his way back from an ACL tear suffered last December. The unfortunate injury ended a terrific rookie campaign and kept him from playing in the postseason. From there, Thornhill vowed to come back strong and that’s exactly what he’s done less than 10 months later.

It took Thornhill a few weeks to work his way back into game shape (not a surprise given that there were no preseason games this year), but he’s looked better with each passing week. This week, Thornhill came up big for the Chiefs by generating a turnover with this high catch on a ball overthrown by Brian Hoyer.

Thornhill has shown himself to be a reliable ballhawk and instinctive playmaker for the Chiefs secondary in just one season. Julian Edelman referenced him this week when discussing the great players on the Chiefs defense. Even after tearing his ACL, he could be breaking out to become a true star alongside Tyrann Mathieu.