Have mercy on NFL analysts. After injury claimed another key Chiefs contributor in Sunday’s 28-18 win at San Francisco, even the greatest player in NFL history was grasping at straws in trying to understand how imperfect Kansas City continues to remain perfect.
It’s really the only logical explanation why Tom Brady, after a Super Bowl rematch, would forego Patrick Mahomes and choose an offensive guard as his #LFG Player of the Game. Nonetheless, ladies and gentlemen, Joe Thuney.
“As an offensive lineman, we always take pride in trying to run the ball, especially when the defense knows we’re going to run the ball,” Thuney told Brady after Kansas City piled up 184 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns, the first time the Chiefs hit those levels since Nov. 1, 2015. “In that situation, it takes all 11 guys, tight ends blocking, wide receivers blocking, backs running hard, Pat making great calls. So, it was a total team effort and just couldn’t be happier.”
Regardless of who flies home with accolades, credit the Chiefs and their adaptive gameplan under Andy Reid. Seven players carried the ball in Sunday’s win, led by Kareem Hunt’s 78 yards and two touchdowns. Signed off the Browns’ practice squad Sept. 18, Hunt found much of his success on inside runs, especially on a 6-yard counter for a second-quarter touchdown.
At that point, Kansas City was up 14-3, and leading while Mahomes was authoring one of the most forgettable passing performances of his eight-year career. That’s not to say he lost his magic. He still had a hand in the Chiefs’ longest play of the day, a 33-yard scramble late in the third quarter in which he didn’t need his extra layer of fat. Mahomes juked Dee Winters out of the linebacker’s jockstrap and picked up several more yards. And after San Francisco’s Malik Mustapha delivered multiple hits on the Chiefs earlier in the game, Mahomes lowered his shoulder and blasted through the rookie safety on a fourth-quarter touchdown run that gave Kansas City a 21-12 advantage.
Baffling Brady and everyone else, and angering a few fans, Mahomes is 6-0 for the first time in his career. The Chiefs are undefeated and they’ve done it having thrown more interceptions than touchdown passes, and after Detroit dealt Minnesota its first loss, Kansas City is the NFL’s lone undefeated team. The last time a defending Super Bowl champion owned the NFL’s last unblemished record was Green Bay in 2011.
Get ready for an entertaining week of headlines involving Brady’s Raiders, the last team that beat the Chiefs. Before the NFL approved Brady as a minority owner, Las Vegas dropped an unwelcome Christmas gift at Arrowhead Stadium on Dec. 25. Since that day, Kansas City has won 12 consecutive games entering Sunday’s Raiders rematch at Allegiant Stadium, where the Chiefs captured the Super Bowl by beating the Niners in overtime.
With a win over their nemesis on Sunday, the Chiefs would match the longest winning streak in team history, a 13-game stretch from 2019-20 that, ironically, also ended at the hands of the Raiders.
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