The Kansas City Chiefs came into Houston and barely escaped the Texans with an overtime win in Week 15.
On a day in which very little was expected from the Houston Texans, it was the Kansas City Chiefs who found themselves frustrated (and playing from behind) for most of the afternoon at NRG Stadium. Fortunately, the Chiefs still held on for a 30-24 overtime win in Week 15.
The 10-win Chiefs somehow held off the 1-win Texans to win their 11th and claim their seventh consecutive AFC West title on a day in which most players and coaches will want to forget. From careless errors to ridiculous penalties to special teams miscues and odd conservative playcalling, the Chiefs really didn’t deserve to win this game but should feel fortunate that they’re walking away with a win as it is.
Let’s look at some ups and downs from a game that had Chiefs fans shaking their heads most of the day.
Down: Darius Harris needs to sit
We’re not exactly sure why Steve Spagnuolo is particularly enamored with linebacker Darius Harris. Yes, he’s a good story as a former undrafted free agent who has earned his ticket onto the Chiefs’ active roster. He’s a special teams player who seems like a core performer for Dave Toub as well. But while he might be a fiend in practice who has the coaches wanting the best for him, he’s also ruining some things for the Chiefs defense.
Yes, the Chiefs defense has bigger issues than a single player given the way they are playing lately, but one easy adjustment would be for Spags to stop taking Willie Gay off of the field and forcing the Chiefs to deal with obvious liabilities in coverage when it matters the most.
Against the Texans in Week 15, Harris was such an obvious mismatch early in the game, which allowed Houston to take an early lead over the Chiefs even without so many key players due to injury. Instead of seeing Willie Gay in the lineup, the Chiefs went with Harris in the same way that Spags went with Ben Niemann in similar situations. Again, the guy might be a nice story but that doesn’t mean he deserves the playing time.
Unfortunately, the Chiefs’ defensive coordinator disagrees. He even stated earlier this week that he believed Harris deserved the reps he’s getting, which means that this problem is likely not going anywhere.
Down: The unreliability of Harrison Butker
As poorly as the Chiefs played all day (or as odd as the penalties were from Carl Cheffers’ crew), the truth is that they could have left NRG Stadium as winners by the end of regulation. Instead, the Chiefs were forced to go to overtime and even then almost lost the game if not for some late defensive heroics from Frank Clark and Willie Gay Jr.
Harrison Butker has had a frustrating season this year, mostly due to the injury to his plant foot (ankle) that happened in the first quarter of the first contest that kept him out of several subsequent games. From there, however, Butker has also looked not quite back to 100 percent at times when missing easier kicks and/or extra points.
On Sunday, Butker missed an early extra point in the first half that kept the Chiefs behind at halftime 14-13. Then from there, Butker also missed a chance to put the game away which meant the Chiefs had to go to overtime to grab a victory.
Overall it’s an odd look for Butker to come up dry in two spots in which his efforts could have cemented a win for the Chiefs. The misses are uncharacteristic but added together this season, it seems something is not quite right.
Up: Travis Kelce catches fire
Coming into this game, there was a bit of a frustrating streak of events for Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce—a statement that might sound strange given the overall excellent season that he’s enjoyed. Fortunately, it felt like Kelce also came alive in the second quarter after taking a silly flag from Carl Cheffers’ crew that snapped him out of whatever funk he’d been in as he caught 10 passes for 105 yards.
While Kelce has put up another 1,000-yard season in the face of losing his teammate Tyreek Hill in the offseason, Kelce also hasn’t looked like himself for the last several quarters. From a fumble that was partially to blame for a loss against the Cincinnati Bengals to catching only 4 of 9 targets last week in a too-close-for-comfort win over the Denver Broncos, Kelce has failed to live up to the dominant reputation he’s earned for the last several seasons now in recent weeks.
In Week 15, however, Kelce looked like his former self once again. On a tough contested catch in the second quarter, he was flagged for unnecessary roughness. The catch was followed by a burst of emotion and it felt like it could serve as a turning point for the game. Of course, the Chiefs would go on to turn the ball over and the defense would fail to get off the field, which allowed the Texans to stay in it but the offensive ineptitude was at least gone at that point which allowed K.C. to keep pace with the Texans. (Those last few words sound weird.)
Up/Down: Isiah Pacheco learns tough lessons
The K.C. Chiefs have been awfully high on Isiah Pacheco in recent weeks, and he’s settled into the lead back role in the second half of the season, working in tandem with Jerick McKinnon (who had a helluva day on Sunday) to put together a solid backfield most weeks for the Chiefs.
On Sunday, however, Pacheco had perhaps his worst overall quarter of football to start the game and Andy Reid essentially told him, without using any words—or at least any that we were privy to hearing—that he needed to get back to the basics.
In the first quarter of their game in Week 15 against the Texans, Patrick Mahomes took a nasty sack from Christian Kirksey that killed an early drive, and the assignment was on Pacheco to pick up that block, where it was clear that the rookie back just got confused about where to look or go to pick up the Texans linebacker. Shortly thereafter, Pacheco ended up fumbling on a drive that also killed another scoring opportunity, and the Texans responded with their second touchdown to go up 14-7.
Typically, Reid is kind to his younger players and gives them a chance to go right back out and put the bad memory behind them. That’s why we’ve seen Skyy Moore given a chance to go back out there on punt returns, for example, and Pacheco has received that same kindness before. That’s why it was surprising to see Pacheco stuck on the bench for the rest of the first half while Ronald Jones got a rare opportunity to run with the football in his hands.
We’re not sure what can be considered “working” or “not working” but the good news is that Pacheco didn’t fumble the ball anymore on the day and he was productive throughout. There’s no doubt about his role on the team, but Reid certainly pulled on his confidence and reminded Pacheco that he’s still a rookie with plenty to learn.
Up: Kadarius Toney still makes an impact
Chiefs fans have been looking forward to the return of injured wide receivers Kadarius Toney and Mecole Hardman back on the field for quite some time now, with Toney having missed the last three games due to a hamstring and Hardman even more than that on injured reserve with an abdomen issue. The losses of both players have limited the Chiefs offense, which relies on the speed of both to stretch the field for everyone else.
Hardman remained on the outside looking in on Sunday as he’ll return to the Chiefs later in the team’s schedule but Sunday was Toney’s time to come back and it was nice to see glimpses of what he could do.
While the box score shows very little on the part of Toney, those who watched the game will remember key moments in which Toney’s presence alone made the defense accommodate other players and what they were assigned to do. From Toney’s ability to manipulate a wave of defenders when trying to return a punt for greater yardage to the attention he garners when on the field from opposing defenders, the Chiefs have to love what they saw when he was in. Jerick McKinnon was one player with a nice long catch and run on a play in which defenders were angling to stop Toney on a deeper route that cleared space.
As Toney gets healthier and is able to take more reps, and Hardman can join him, the Chiefs offense will blossom even more. The presence of one helps the production of the others and the Chiefs are coming together at the right time.