Overlooked veterans deserve Chiefs game balls after gutsy win over Saints

The Kansas City Chiefs' first Monday Night Football game of the year ended up being their first win of eight or more points, dominating the New Orleans Saints by a score of 26-13. With that said, the game was the first without Rashee Rice. In his place, two major players stepped up despite the fact they were written off by multiple fanbases before the season started.

Those two players were not around for training camp and yet they both proved that they can still be a viable option at their position, even earning game balls in a primetime game that keeps the Chiefs undefeated on their way to the NFL's first-ever three-peat.

Game Ball #1: Kareem Hunt

Kareem Hunt only joined the team two weeks ago after the Chiefs lost star running back Isiah Pacheco for the foreseeablene future. Last week he ran for 69 yards against the Chargers and proved he still has a little bit of a burst that made him such a huge force during his first two seasons in Kansas City. Monday night he blew the expectations out of the water early with his first start since week seven last year while he was replacing Nick Chubb in Cleveland.

Monday night's start yielded a huge 102-yard performance on the ground including his first touchdown in over nine months. He also added one catch for 15 yards early in the game, showing the Saints that he is not "washed" as many Cleveland fans and media members claimed he was when Kansas City brought him back midway through September.

Even more impressive is those 102 yards on the ground came on 27 carries (3.8 avg), with a game-high long of eight yards. That means he was used and abused up the middle and around the edge, putting his head down and just trucking along which is exactly what Andy Reid and the Chiefs needed him to do.

This gives all of Chiefs Kingdom huge hopes for whenever Pacheco comes back as maybe this could be one of the best one-two punches heading into the playoffs, but let's hold our horses and just respect what he did on the field in just his second game back in red-and-yellow.

Game Ball #2: JuJu Smith-Schuster

After losing Rashee Rice, likely for the season, it was obvious that Mahomes and Reid were going to utilize Smith-Schuster as much as possible in the slot position but nobody could have predicted a 130-yard game on seven catches in the first Monday night game of the season.

A huge 50-yard catch-and-run by Smith-Schuster at the beginning of the fourth quarter set up the Chiefs for a touchdown that put them up by ten and allowed him to be the first Chiefs receiver not named Rice to have 100+ yards since—hey!—Smith-Schuster back in October of 2022 against the Saints when he had 124.

In fact, Monday night saw Smith-Schuster catch for the fourth-most yards in his career, tying his 130 yards against Oakland back in his second year in the league.

Now, just like Hunt, the "washed" player with the knee made of brittle bone and butter looks to be on the up-and-up. If he can replicate even a little bit of what we saw on Monday night, then the loss of Rice could turn out to be not nearly as detrimental as it first looked.

Smith-Schuster also turned out to be one of the better blockers for Hunt and other runners, meaning he has much more value on the field outside his hands and his legs.

Game Ball #3: Matt Nagy

When Matt Nagy was first brought back to be the offensive coordinator of the Chiefs, plenty of disgruntled fans thought the offense might take a step back. There have been some games where his inability to adjust has been on display, but with Reid being the main playcaller and Mahomes adjusting at the line of scrimmage, it hasn't been all on Nagy for the most part.

With that said, the play calling and adjustments tonight proved themselves over and over as Mahomes threw for over 330 yards since week seven against the Chargers last year when he threw for 424 and 4 touchdowns.

In fact, according to NextGen Stats, Mahomes accumulated 300 of his 331 yards through the air on attempts under 15 air yards. Also, he did not throw into a tight window on any of his 39 pass attempts, meaning the schemes that Nagy and Reid put together worked to perfection.

Even though Mahomes didn't throw a touchdown, Nagy's offensive ideas mixed with Reid's playbook and Mahomes' ability made Chiefs Kingdom feel like they were back in the glory days when nobody knew how to defend against him.

Not only did Nagy allow Mahomes to look like the Mahomes of old, but he ran the ball effectively and really set the tone early with rushes up the gut and long, methodical drives that ended up with field goals and touchdowns.

This game was one of the few that made Chiefs Kingdom and the rest of the NFL realize that Nagy is not the same guy as he was in Chicago (where he brought Mitchell Trubisky to the playoffs). Nagy and Reid were really in their bags Monday night, allowing the Chiefs offense to finally get back to their dangerous-looking presence at the top of the league.

Honorable Mentions:

DT Tershawn "Turk" Wharton - Wharton's sack was the Chiefs' only one of the game and it was a huge one midway through the third. He likely would have received a game ball if it weren't for an unsportsmanlike conduct call when he attacked the facemask of a Saints' player after the play was over.

S Bryan Cook - Cook's interception on the Saints' first drive of the game was one of the easier interceptions he'll ever have, but it set the tone on defense and allowed the Chiefs to get going early and get a lead with their first drive of the game.