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Whatever you do, Patrick Mahomes under center for the Chiefs. Keep the kids out of shouting distance though, because you'll absolutely drop an expletive or two watching the second-year-old quarterback wing it around the field in Andy Reid's offense.
For several years, Reid's been driving a Honda Accord in Alex Smith – a safe, perfect vehicle for driving a couple miles above the speed limit. Now he has a Ferrari. The ride might not be perfect, but it's fast, it's fun and it's what we're doing.
Mahomes is an athletic, strong-armed quarterback capable of hitting targets at every level of the field, and efficient and effective training. That's what we were leading to believe this offseason, and based on one week's worth of work, it was not a lie.
Alex Smith was superb for the Redskins in a cruise-control road win, but his performance will be lost to the screaming maw of hype surrounding Mahomes, who reads the Chargers Defense for 256 yards and four touchdowns. Those numbers do not do Mahomes' performance justice; he only threw the ball 27 times, because the Chiefs got up on L.A. so quickly.
Mahomes shown on those throws, just 15 of which were completions, he has every club in his bag.
This throw – a sidearm joint with a pass in the middle of the field to the ground to the ground of the laser to Tyreek Hill and a touchdown – popped off the screen to me. There's like five guys in the NFL who can make this work.
Mahomes also showed he's not just a muscle monster, showing an impressive amount of touch on a touchdown to Anthony Sherman, who was running a wheel up the sideline.
Reid also feels comfortable like a funky little pitch jet sweep to hill and then using Hill on another inside pitch Kareem Hunt. Kareem Hunt.
Those technically count as touchdown passes and certainly beef up Mahomes' stat line. But those easy touchdown completions are good examples of how it works Reid and creative work Breathtaking (and John Dorsey before him) Mahomes (and Smith before him) with a different and electric set of playmakers.
Hill joined Bob Dayes (1968) and Tavon Austin (2013) as the only player in NFL history with a 90-plus yard return touchdown and a 50-plus yard touchdown reception in a single game. The diminutive speedster is one of the most electric playmakers in football.
And Sunday's action did not really feature a lot more of the Chiefs' offense. Travis Kelce was a relative non-factor for KC, Kareem Hunt with 16 yards for 49 yards and Sammy Watkins with just three catches for 21 yards.
It felt like an ounce of the Chiefs got up big, Reid closed up his bag of tricks and tried to get out of Los Angeles with his ninth-straight win over the Chargers.
That's fine, because there's 15 more weeks worth of fun to enjoy.
Sometimes a tie is a win …
Perspective is a funny thing: tying the Browns on Sunday in Week 1 feels like a disaster for the Steelers, but it seems a win for the Browns to walk away with half a point in the standings. Sort of is the key part here, because the Browns have more than enough things to do, and they have managed to do more, to do some dumb stuff and give it away.
Credit the defense, including legitimate DPOY Myles Garrett candidate, for giving Cleveland a major burst and helping it climb back into the game. The Browns looked dead after James Conner scored his second touchdown, trailing 21-7 with minimal hope for the first Sunday of Hue Jackson's coaching career.
But then Garrett applied pressure on Ben Roethlisberger, creating a pair of sacks and forcing a pair of fumbles. We saw some stinkers from Big Ben last year in the first half of the season, but this might have been the worst game of his career. The Browns defense is legit and helped Cleveland finish with a six-turn turnover. Accomplishing that should almost always equate to a win.
Almost being the key part of that statement.
That last turnover by Roethlisberger, when he was sacked by Joe Schobert and promptly fumbled again, set the Browns in unbelievable field position to secure their first win in the 2016 season.
Alas, it was not to be. Cleveland ran the ball ounce, Carlos Hyde lost a yard and the Browns spiked the ball to stop the clock and attempt a field goal. It did not hurt them, but I think it warrants mentioning the Browns spiked the ball with 13 seconds on the clock in order to attempt a 43-yard field goal in horrific weather.
That's not enough time to get things off the ground, Cleveland was giving the Steelers another shot at the game if they missed the field goal. Unsurprisingly, the kick was blocked and the Steelers got one more look. Pittsburgh did not score, but the outcome should not dictate the process.
Hue Jackson's mistake there was also way too aggressive at the end of regulation, and it almost burnt him. With 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter and the Browns holding the ball, Hue and Todd Haley dialed up to a song that called for Tyrod to take a deep shot down the field to Josh Gordon. You're not going to often hear me criticize someone for being aggressive, but it was a dumb decision. Cleveland was over midfield and just needed like 10-15 yards for a game in the field. Forcing a deep throw there is just poor game management. Hit the throw and you're cranking up the probability of winning in the 90 percent range, but throw a pick and drop from 60-ish percent down to a coin flip corner for overtime.
Cleveland would end up tying, obviously, which can not make the Browns feel great after having a good look at a win. It's still a good thing that they did not make it last year (by a half!) But it could have been a full-blown victory for Cleveland instead of a half measure.
The Browns failed to perform late in the game cost them several victories last season. It may have already cost them one in 2018. On the bright side, this is their best start to a season since 2004.
Filling in for Bell
Another reason the Steelers can feel good about this outcome? The performance of James Conner, who stepped up in the absence of Le'Veon Bell, who continues to hold out.
After Pittsburgh failed to win the game, Bell made his feelings on the 0-0-1 start to the season.
The running back he would not show shade, and that he had never seen before. That feels like a stretch, and it also feels like a stretch for Bell to point out his absence to the Steelers lost.
After all, Conner filled in and was excellent for Pittsburgh, running the ball 31 times for 135 yards and catching five passes for 57 yards. Not too shabby for a backup! Conner also found paydirt twice, including one touchdown where his offensive linemen – the same ones who buryed Bell after he failed to report to practice last week – went way over the top to celebrate with the backup running back.
As an educated NFL offensive lineman turned analyst Geoff Schwartz noted above, it certainly does feel like the introduction to Bell.
The good news for Pittsburgh is the best of the world. The bad news for the Steelers is not enough to make you feel good.
Expect a lot of Luck
A lot of throws anyway: 2016, Andrew Luck was heavily leaned on by the Colts, who let their franchise quarterback throw a whopping 52 times against the Bengals. There's a reason I can not get enough of a leader in passing the ball (30/1 before he gets back on the field): the Colts do not have a great defense, and they do not have much of a running game .
Marlon Mack was missing for this game, but he's really more of a recieving back than a feature guy. Jordan Wilkins is a rookie and Nyheim Hines, while capable of banging between the tackles, is clearly going to be moving around the place by Frank Reich in this offense.
Which leads to Luck being thrown back in the fire and winging the ball around. I thought he was impressive, even if he was not perfect. and his return certainly qualifies as crazy, as John Breech commented here.
Luck did what he needed to do in order to win, but the defense could not stop his end of the bargain. Expect a lot of that season for Indianapolis.
Also of note: Bengals player, safety Shawn Williams, was quickly made an example of by the officials when he was ejected for flagrant unnecessary roughness penalty.
Garoppolo attractive still loss
The Vikings won Sunday, and pretty well, both pretty easily. Jimmy Garoppolo in a tough situation on Sunday. Jimmy G lost Marquise Goodwin, his No. 1 receiver, for a stretch of the game and was on the road against one of the two defenses in the NFL. And he still hung tough and managed to the 49ers back to steal one on the road.
As Sean Wagner-McGough pointed out, it's a moral victory of spells for the 49ers. These things do not really exist, but given how they played, it would not be surprising to see them in the middle class of the NFC and flirt with the playoffs. They have their quarterback at the very least.
For the Vikings, it's perfectly fair to nitpick the offensive line, which did not do a fantastic job of protecting Kirk Cousins. The offense did not come out gangbusters, but there was a lot of moving on that side of the ball this offseason. The defense will give them ample room and time to work the kinks out.
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