Overlooked takeaways from the Chiefs win over Jaguars

Maintaining Margin

NFL maxims exist for a reason. They are proven statements—such as the game being won or lost in the trenches—and teams strive to follow them for good reason. But when it comes to turnovers, this year’s Chiefs team is an anomaly—or at least so far.

The Chiefs had three fumbles against the Jacksonville Jaguars and gave away two of them—from Isiah Pacheco and Jody Fortson. Patrick Mahomes also threw an interception to Andre Cisco. That’s three turnovers and potentially another one and yet the Chiefs were never in doubt from the second quarter on against the Jaguars.

How many teams can turn the ball over multiple times and win so comfortably? The truth is that the Chiefs came into the game at No. 19 overall in turnover differential—basically not where you’d expect one of the league’s “elite” teams to be in such an important category.

Now, can the Chiefs continue this sort of margin going forward? Likely not. Playoff teams are going to make the Chiefs pay for each and every turnover and the Chiefs have to start generating takeaways of their own. However, the Chiefs might have more margin for error than most teams in the league to at least make that maxim mean a bit less than it should. Oftentimes, the Chiefs are the only team who can beat the Chiefs and it looked like that again on Sunday.