Arrowhead Pride
Stout defensive effort leads Chiefs to win over Commanders | Yardbarker
Quote of the game: ‘This defense carried them to the Super Bowl… People talk about them now in the same way they talk about the offense.’
As “Monday Night Football” commentators Joe Buck and Troy Aikman shared their thoughts on the game in the waning moments, Aikman took time to praise the Chiefs defense, placing it on the same level as their offense.
“They’ve given up 24 points the past three games. Pretty impressive,” he said.
Kansas City limited Washington to 260 total yards, including just 60 yards on the ground on 20 carries (three yards per attempt). The Chiefs (5-3) have kept five of their first eight opponents under 300 yards and are allowing 277.8 yards per game. After holding the Commanders to seven points, they have the league’s No. 2 scoring defense, allowing 16.4 points per game.
Mahomes, for the first time in his storied career, had been intercepted on each of his first two drives. One was off his receiver’s hands, but it made no matter, the Kansas City Chiefs were sputtering against a Washington Commanders team without star quarterback Jayden Daniels and locked in a tie game.
Then came the second half, when Mahomes and Co. began to dominate, rolling up and down the field for three straight touchdown drives en route to the Chiefs’ 28-7 win over the Commanders.
“It shows the growth that we’ve had as a team,” said Mahomes, who piloted the Chiefs to their fifth win by double digits this season, already one more than last season’s total. “Offense, defense and special teams, I think we’re getting better and better each and every week. Even though we didn’t start the way we wanted to today offensively, it showed that we can battle through adversity and still continue to play the brand of football that we want to play. We’ll have to continue to get better and better.”
Chiefs were 15-2 and made the Super Bowl last year. But are they having more fun now? | The Athletic
Is it possible that the Chiefs are having more fun this season — through a 5-3 start — than they did even a year ago when they grinded their way to a 15-2 regular-season mark on their way to a Super Bowl appearance?
There’s certainly a case to be made.
For one, the offense last season never rolled like this. Mahomes, in particular, was at his best in the chaos on Monday, thriving in scramble-mode situations while consistently finding open teammates who were more than willing to freelance with him.
NFL’s Next Gen Stats accurately told that story. When he had more than four seconds to throw against the Commanders, Mahomes was 8-for-9 for 149 yards,...
