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It will take more than altitude and a once formidable defense to stop Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. At this point, it may take an act of God or a moment of witchcraft to stop what has quickly become the most predictable, but also the most exciting, television show of the year.
After the Chiefs had won three straight wins over the Chargers, Steelers and 49ers to start the season, during which Mahomes threw for 896 yards, 13 touchdowns and no interceptions, the NFL community surrounded the competition. the 4th week in Denver. when the highly flammable attack of the leaders would finally calm down.
That's exactly what happened in the first half. And then, when circumstances demanded greatness, Mahomes arrived.
The Broncos managed to slow down the Chiefs and make them work for each point and yard, but they could not stop them in the four quarters. The Chiefs lost 10 points early in the fourth quarter, when Mahomes took over to save his team.
On Monday night, the Chiefs defeated the Broncos 27-23, extending their run of four undefeated defeats, pushing their lead in South Africa South Africa to two full matches and issuing a final warning that they would not were not on an unsustainable pitch. to hang at any time.
The leaders are this explosive. They are this good. It's the best team in the AFC, at least for the moment. And Mahomes, well, he's the best football quarterback, again.
Their defense has its problems. A Thomas Earl's Trade, before his end-of-season injury, would certainly have helped. Eric Berry, who is dealing with a heel injury, can not arrive soon enough. But the Chiefs do not need a first-rate defense because their attack can win by themselves. They started slowly, but they ended the game in a great way – in a way that would certainly deserve the approval of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
After placing a field goal in the first series of the game, which marked the Chiefs' first loss throughout the season, Mahomes and his company improved their engines. Andy Reid, who was playing a fourth goal in their fourth game since the scrum boldly but wisely kept his offense on the ground. Kareem Hunt got the necessary distance. Two pieces later, Hunt made his way into the sideline for a 27-yard gain that put the Chiefs in the red zone. After the fall of a shotgun at the next game, they decided to score a goal to tie the game, which marked for the first time this year that their first match did not drag of touched. The first quarter ended at 3-3.
When the Chiefs finally scored their first touchdown in the second quarter, they did it abroad. May I introduce Mahomes, the jammer, as if his flamethrower arm was not already enough to deal with:
He just does everything. It does not run much, but it has the athleticism needed to enjoy the space. So he did it.
Yet at halftime he was only 13-10 … Broncos. Travis Kelce has been ruled out. Mahomes missed some shots. Tyreek Hill has dropped a gimme. The chiefs offense was committing errors with the stopwatch and instant catch count. They looked neglected. They looked confused. But they had a quarter of superheroes to make their negligence insignificant.
At halftime, the Broncos had played only one game more than the Chiefs, but they had rushed for 60 more yards. We expected the Chiefs 'offense to come back from the ground, but we did not expect them to be overwhelmed by the Broncos' offense.
It was the first half. The leaders rallied to pass the test, their first real test of the season. Mahomes has bailed out his team as the quarter-stars suppose.
The second half saw Mahomes regain his superhuman status. Facing a third, Mahomes escaped the pressure and created a huge first. He did it again later in the training, leaving the pocket before launching a bad cross shot of the field from left to right (!) For another huge win. This is not possible for humans, but it is possible for cyborgs sent from the future:
The Chiefs have settled for another field goal. The game was tied. The Broncos, who rely on their ground game, collected 10 points early in the fourth quarter. But a 10-point lead is not enough against an offense as heavily armed as the leaders.
On the down 10, Mahomes has developed two straight scoring units. The first practice was 12 games for 75 yards, with Mahomes scoring 8 of 10 attempts for 84 yards (penalties allowed him to do so). That ended with Mahomes taking advantage of an unsuspecting defense of the Broncos near the goal line.
The Chiefs' defense forced a quick three goals and allowed Mahomes to finish his return. He then made a winning record of eight games and 60 yards.
It was a third left hand completed.
And that meant the Chiefs easily overcame the second and third goals before Kareem Hunt finished the series in the end zone.
From there, the Chiefs 'defense barely kept their heads thanks to Case Keenum, who missed what should have been a decisive touchdown, and the Broncos who missed their opponents in their last offensive game on the Chiefs' territory. But do not blame the Broncos for ruining this game. Give credit to Mahomes to take it.
In a sense, this game was more revealing than the previous three. It was not a quick eruption that allowed the leaders to massage a big lead and kill the clock. It was a chore, the kind of game the Chiefs must win to become a Super Bowl contender in January.
No, they have not posted video game numbers. No, it was not perfect. But they won ugly. And it matters. Mahomes felt pressure for the first time this season and overcame it. It would have been more impressive had they been to Denver and they had dropped 50 on the Broncos, but it was equally impressive to see Mahomes leading the Chiefs out of a hole. 10 points on the road in a hostile environment.
At half-time, Mahomes was 7 out of 15 for 65 yards. At half-time, he was 21 out of 30 for 239 yards and a score. He finished 28 of his 45 goals for a total of 304 yards, a touchdown, no mediator and a passer rating of 89.5 – this was his worst game of the season statistically.
By the way, Kelce, who rebounded after a difficult first half. In the second half only, he caught seven passes for 78 yards and one touchdown.
Believe in the leaders. Stop waiting for them to wither away. Their attack fell apart and they still managed to win a divisional match. They are as scary as they were a week ago.
They may already have the best football quarterback.
Kareem Hunt launches
It's weird and scary. It's odd that after leading the league in rushing yards during his rookie season, Hunt has not been good so far this season. It is scary to note that Hunt has been so bad and that the offense of the leaders has been so good.
Oh, speaking of Hunt, he finally started Monday night. A week after scoring two touchdowns, but averaging just 2.4 yards per run, Hunt looked to be in 2017 again. He provided firepower over the Chiefs' tied sales series in the first quarter.
He did it again during his green light run early in the second quarter.
And then he scored the winning goal.
Hunt has been an afterthought on the best offense in football so far. Do not expect this to last longer. He ran for 121 yards in 19 carries and rushed for 54 yards in the air against the Broncos.
The Broncos can run
Paxton Lynch's draft and Case Keenum's signature may not have solved their quarterback problem, but the Broncos have at least one excellent running game led by two rookies, Royce Freeman (third round) and Phillip Lindsay (unwritten).
Freeman and Lindsay combined for 136 yards and two touchdowns on 20 runs. It's a two-headed monster that the Broncos can fly from now on.
Check out this monster (and patient) touch by Freeman to tie the game at 10-10 in the second quarter:
It was Lindsay's turn to score the next touchdown. This one – after a big (obvious) call of the interferences of passes against the Chiefs – gave a 20-13 lead to the Broncos in the third quarter. It's not flashy, but it's an excellent hard-nosed race.
Unfortunately for the Broncos rushing machine, they received no offensive help. And when the Broncos had the chance to lose the match, they ran the ball once and threw the ball twice, leading to a quick three goals that preceded the Chiefs' win. drive.
Keenum's disappointing season continues
Keenum has signed a $ 36 million, two-year contract with the Broncos. It's weird because it's neither their future quarterback nor a bridge quarterback. It's not talented enough to be a franchise type, but it's not a gateway to another quarterback because the Broncos do not really have a viable quarterback behind it.
At this point, Keenum was unequal with the Broncos, entering the game with two more choices than touchdowns and a score of 71.6. He showed another performance: 21 to 33 for 245 yards, no touchdown, one choice and a score of 73.4 for smugglers.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, Keenum "had not completed a more than 30-yard pass since the 10th week of last season … 0 of 12 on such throws in this period. "He broke the series Monday night by completing a nice 42-yard run at Courtland Sutton on the right.
However, his third-quarter pick came after a horribly uncontrollable pass to a wide open receiver and an incredible hold on Eric Murray.
Again, it's an amazing catch and an absolute flight. Nine times out of 10, this game ends in failure. But the completion was there for the catch. Keenum just put too much air under the ball and left it too short, giving Murray an opportunity that he should never have had. And he took it.
Keenum's biggest mistake came in the last round of the game. Fleeing by four and needing a touchdown after the Chiefs regained the advantage, Keenum opened Demaryius Thomas for a decisive touchdown. But he missed the kind of pass that NFL quarterbacks are supposed to hit 10 times out of 10.
He just missed it.
This image does not summarize Thomas's season until now. He also summarizes Keenum. Victory stood there, wide open with empty space at the front. But he missed the opening.
Stop going to Tyreek Hill
It might be time to give Tyreek Hill the Devin Hester treatment. Do it at your own risk.
In the first quarter, Hill lined up Marquette King's 51-yard punt on his own 22-yard line. He did not go down until he reached 41 Denver. It's a 37-yard return that seems somehow effortless.
Hill came in with four punt returns for 100 yards and one touchdown.
Ford and Houston lead the chiefs pass
The defense of the chiefs is not good. We have already spoken about it several times. But give credit to two players who could possibly turn a bad defense into a decent defense, which would be really enough for the Chiefs, given the state of their attack. Dee Ford and Justin Houston, if they can continue to press the smuggler in the same way that they attacked Case Keenum, can straighten that defense.
Ford and Houston got the better of Keenum early, each generating a sack in the first quarter and exerting pressure to force several saves.
Houston is already a well-known product at this point with 71.5 career bags before Monday, but Ford has been playing well for some time. He picked up two bags during the first three weeks of the season. Sometimes he looks like the best attacker for the defense. It is worth mentioning that he blew up for 10 bags in 2016, so he has already demonstrated his ability to be a two-digit duffle guy. A quarter of the season, it has 12 bags. His injury to the groin, however, deserves to be watched.
As a team, the chefs finished with four sacks. Their hasty pass may be their only redeeming quality in defense.
Sammy Watkins's hamstrings
By depositing this under something to watch for. Watkins, the Chief Independent Chiefs player, left the game with a thigh injury. It was initially considered dubious to return, but he was declared out before half-time.
Until now this season, Watkins has 227 yards and a touchdown of the scrum. The Chiefs certainly do not miss weapons, but Watkins will miss him in a series of tough matches if he is forced to wait for his hamstring to be healed.
And after?
The road will not be easier for the leaders. In what could be the game of the week 5, they will welcome the Jaguars 3-1. If you thought that the Broncos' once brilliant defense, now in the middle of the road, would challenge the Chiefs, you should already be salivating for Sunday's game. After playing the Jaguars, the leaders get Patriots and Bengals. Their schedule does not give up.
The Broncos, meanwhile, go to New York to face the Jets before facing the best football team, the Los Angeles Rams. After, they get the Cardinals in Arizona.
Then the Broncos and Chiefs will meet in Kansas City for the eighth week.
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