A week is a long time in football. That statement rings especially true when you look at the Kansas City Chiefs’ last two games. The Chiefs went from playing their most undisciplined game in years against the Jacksonville Jaguars to turning in a near-flawless performance in a 30-17 win over the Detroit Lions just six days later. It’s hard to find two games that were more different.
A week ago, the Chiefs had just lost to the Jaguars in a game riddled with miscues. There were penalties, missed tackles, a pick-six, a kickoff blunder, a comical game-losing touchdown, and more penalties. The game was defined by a lack of discipline, poor situational football, and a failure to execute when it mattered most. A game that felt like it should have been a comfortable win instead slipped through their fingers.
Fast forward a week and Kansas City put on a clinical, almost immaculate showing to roll past Detroit by two scores. The difference between the two games was night and day—even if both were played at night.
No freebies for the Lions
In Jacksonville, the Chiefs committed a ludicrous 13 penalties for 109 yards—the most penalty yards they’ve given up in a game since the Super Bowl LV loss to Tampa Bay. That included three flags on the Jags’ game-winning drive: a kickoff out of bounds, a defensive pass interference in the end zone, and a defensive holding on Trevor Lawrence’s mad scramble, which was declined.
In contrast, the Chiefs had no accepted penalties against Detroit. Zero. Nada. Zilch. None. It was just the 20th time since the NFL-AFL merger that a team had gone an entire game without committing a single penalty, according to Sports Radio 810 WHB’s Kurtis Seaboldt.
https://twitter.com/KSeaboldt/status/1977579618992595186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
What a difference that makes.
Zero penalties meant the offense was never hampered by a flag that put them behind the sticks and later forced them to punt—something that happened three times against Jacksonville. It also meant the Lions never got a free chunk of yards or a free first down, both of which occurred multiple times the week before. That’s a crucial advantage.
Protect the football
The loss to Jacksonville will be remembered for two plays: Lawrence’s trip-option rushing touchdown and a back-breaking 99-yard pick-six thrown by Patrick Mahomes. It was the very definition of a 14-point swing, taking a score off the board for Kansas City while adding one for Jacksonville without their offense even stepping onto the field. The interception in the third quarter had an EPA of -12.7 for the Chiefs, dropping their win percentage by a massive 45 points, from 72.8 percent to 27.4.
On Sunday night against the Lions, the Chiefs were able to avoid a similar crippling play, even if it was close. Detroit defensive end Aidan Hutchinson had a strip sack on Mahomes in the second quarter, but it was the Kansas City quarterback who—thankfully—was able to dive on the loose ball first.
Kansas City ended the night with zero turnovers for the fourth time this season, a key factor in their wins. The Chiefs have lost both games in which they’ve had an offensive turnover—last week against the Jags and in Week 2 against Philadelphia. They’re 3-1 in games with zero turnovers.
That’s good football
It felt like the Chiefs did everything possible to get in their own way against Jacksonville. The penalties were one thing (well, actually, 13 things), but the terrible situational football was another. Before the most important defensive drive of the game, Harrison Butker booted the kickoff out of bounds, setting the Chiefs back before they’d even taken a snap—an inexcusable mistake.
This time, there were no such errors from Butker. Mercifully, all of his kickoffs landed in bounds. And while he missed his first extra point, he made each of his four kicks after that, including a 33-yard field goal. On offense, the Chiefs were able to take advantage of the coin toss and the two-for-one at the end of the half against the Lions, which is something they failed to do in Jacksonville.
The Chiefs went three-and-out on the two possessions surrounding halftime against the Jags, but a week later, they turned both of those drives into touchdowns. That not only gave Kansas City a lead at the half, but it meant they were up by two scores—10 points—before Detroit had a serious chance to answer. After the second quarter, the Lions never had the ball with a chance to take the lead. What a difference that makes.
It wasn’t perfect. After forcing the Lions to punt on their first drive of the second half, the Chiefs could only answer with a punt of their own when a touchdown might have put the game to bed. But Kansas City did have the perfect response after the Lions cut the margin to three: a touchdown of their own to reestablish that double-digit advantage.
It was good all-around football.
Mistakes piled up and crippled the Chiefs in Jacksonville, ultimately costing them a game they should have won. This time, Kansas City minimized the errors. And even when they did occur—there were a few drops and the occasional breakdown up front—the Chiefs never allowed them to snowball, and in fact made up for them later on. After the mess that was the Jacksonville game, this was exactly the kind of performance the Chiefs needed.
