Arrowhead Pride
In a playoff-like atmosphere on “Sunday Night Football,” the Kansas City Chiefs lost 20-10 to the Houston Texans.
Here are three takeaways from the game.
It didn’t take long for the Kansas City defensive tackle to show he was ready to wreak havoc on a subpar Houston offensive line. To cap the Texans’ opening drive, Jones flew off the line and blew past the outside shoulder of the right guard. Quarterback C.J. Stroud tried to throw in a tightened pocket, but the hurried throw fell incomplete.
That was the first of many impactful plays for Jones, who finished the game with one sack, two other quarterback hits and a batted-down pass.
On Houston’s first scoring drive, another of Jones’ quick pressures combined with good pursuit by defensive end Ashton Gillotte to force a difficult throw. The pass was completed short of the sticks, forcing the Texans into a field goal rather than a touchdown.
In the second half, Jones came out with a clear purpose: to continue carrying the Chiefs. Jones blew up Houston’s first offensive play of the third quarter — a handoff — allowing linebacker Nick Bolton to clean it up for a four-yard loss. The All-Pro followed that up by batting away a pass on the next snap.
With the score tied 10-10 in the fourth quarter, Jones blew by the right guard once more with a clear path to a sack. Stroud evaded him — and Jones’ teammates were unable to cover the back end to finish the job. That eventually led to Houston’s go-ahead score.
The Chiefs played an uninspired opening 30 minutes before going into halftime trailing 10-0. The defense allowed Texans’ top wide receiver Nico Collins to get wide open downfield on a play that resulted in cornerback Trent McDuffie suffering a game-ending injury — and it wasn’t even Collins’ most back-breaking catch in the first half.
Then there was the Chiefs’ offense, unable to average a first down every three dropbacks. It’s easy to imagine some frustrating (but passionate) words among the veterans in the locker room at intermission.
Whatever happened before Kansas City took the field in the third quarter, it worked. The team showcased an urgency that only Jones displayed in the first half. The offense put together two scoring drives to tie the game leading into the fourth quarter, while the defense pitched a shutout for five consecutive possessions.
That energy was present through a third-down scramble by Mahomes that fell just short of the sticks in the fourth quarter, still in a 10-10 stalemate. Chiefs’ head coach Andy Reid decided to go for it on fourth down, needing just over a yard; from a shotgun formation, Mahomes dropped back and hurried into a throw that fell incomplete through traffic. It zapped all of the team’s resurgent energy.
There was not a good feeling to...
