Sorting the Sunday Stack, Week 2: Patrick Mahomes Sets the NFL TD Record as Chefs Explode Again



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Two weeks are not a season, but Chiefs fans should feel comfortable both in the immediate and long term. Patrick Mahomes is the truth and it is the driving force that Andy Reid's Ferrari offensive has always deserved. It's almost nonsense to write about him for the second week in a row, but how could there be anything else in this column, especially after spend the afternoon soaking in the Chiefs-Steelers shootout.

Once again, Mahomes came out with three touchdown passes in the first quarter, giving the Chiefs' pedestrian defense enough room for Kansas City to win the match 42-37. That was halfway to his late-game total, while Mahomes faced Ben Roethlisberger from the second quarter, racking up 326 passing yards. What's scary about his game is efficiency: Mahomes has averaged more than 11 yards per attempt and has completed more than 82% of his passes in this game.

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It is useful to have a large number of weapons around any quarter. The leaders have an armada around Mahomes. A week after presenting At Tyreek Hill, Andy Reid focused the attack on tight winger Travis Kelce, who caught two touchdown passes to go with 107 yards on seven catches.

Sammy Watkins did not have a buzz because he did not score, but he finished with 131 total yards, including six out of seven targets. Hill was a non-early riser early, but he ended up catching five balls for 90 yards and a touchdown.

A total of five different players received touchdown passes for the Chiefs, which means that Kansas City now has seven different players with one offensive touchdown on the season.

Watch the fifth touchdown of the day – this is a short attack in the red zone that gives Mahomes several easy-to-identify readings and the ability to keep the ball and throw it. Demarcus Robinson opens (enough) at the back of the end zone and Mahomes pulls the ball with the kind of velocity and precision that many guys do not have the talent to shoot.

It's totally fair to worry about KC's defense, and that could very well be a problem, but at the moment, the leaders' plan just to outdo everyone seems to be a problem. viable alternative. And this plan works.

This is because of Mahomes, which gives Chiefs a much higher advantage than Alex Smith. He can do any throwing and has physical skills that you do not see in many human beings. But what I noticed in this game was Mahomes' willingness to take what a defense offered him. He's ready to play under Reid's system, to be aggressive when it's needed and to check him out and let his game leaders do the work when they need to.

This has been the case for the first two weeks of the season and there is no indication that it will slow down soon. The chefs have something special to cook and Reid's decision to put the Mahomes at the center of the off season is very rewarding.

Fitzmagic could keep Jameis out of work

As we all expected, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are alone in first place after two weeks of the NFL season. Tampa having played the Saints in New Orleans and the reigning Super Bowl champion, the Eagles at home, the result is remarkable, regardless of the durability during the season.

The long-haul may not be relevant to the quarterback stance, however, as Ryan Fitzpatrick, aka FitzMagic, is currently playing Jameis Winston off the job. Fitzpatrick, in two games, makes an impossible average of 13.4 yards per pass. He's 2/2 on the season in terms of passing 400 yards in the pass, and he's done against two defenses we thought were good in the Saints and Eagles.

He plays so well that he's shown up at the postgame media interview after the victory over the Eagles dressed in DeSean Jackson's clothes and exactly like Conor McGregor.

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Fitz is feeling himself. And can you blame him? The Buccaneers were left out after Jameis Winston was suspended for the first three weeks of the season and canceled more this week as losers for the Eagles with no one on defense. But Tampa bottled off a misdirected Philly attack led by Nick Foles while Fitzpatrick threw the ball at the Bucs' various offensive weapons.

Both D-Jax and O.J. Howard played more than 75 yards, while four different players – Jackson, Howard, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin – all touched touchdowns. We have seen Fitzpatrick become rude before and play as a beginner caliber quarterback. He's in a contract year too, so who knows, maybe that's real.

At the very least, there is absolutely no reason for the Bucs to hand over the job to Winston in the fourth week against the Bears. There are some reasons for this.

One, and most obvious, Fitzpatrick has earned the right to continue playing. You go with the warm hand in these situations and no one has been warmer than Fitzpatrick during the first two weeks of the season. In the worst case, the Bucs go 2-1 to Chicago, and even then, Winston should not be rewarded for being a leading choice. He sends the wrong message to the cloakroom.

Two, are we sure the fans want Winston? There are many Bucs fans who have had a hard time believing Winston comes in after serving a three-game suspension while capitulating to a charge of sexual assault. The Buccaneers can make a smart football decision and appease fans at one go.

Third, the time is up in week 5. That's the best of the reasons: you upset Fitzpatrick over the next two weeks, see what kind of magic he can summon, try to reach 3-0 and then 4-0. can reevaluate after the bye.

And four years, a great reason to continue throwing Fitz – he's still winning and as Winston sits on the bench, the Buccaneers will see their influence in future contract negotiations with Winston. I'm not saying that they want to talk with Winston about an agreement right now, but if they want to talk to Turkey with him at any moment, be able to see that 39, he was beaten for Fitzpatrick for a long time would hurt Winston. deserves more money.

Packers (ironically?) Snatched by missing the call

The Green Bay Packers, who lost Aaron Rodgers for a good part of the season last year after being injured in a stroke by Anthony Barr, helped advance a new regulation that gave more flags than planned. . There were questionable situations, but not much more than the one that cost the Packers to defeat the Vikings Sunday afternoon.

Clay Matthews, who had a useless roughness penalty against the Bears last week, was again beaten for brutalizing the smuggler. This time it was not his fault – it's all about the refs that effectively ripped off the Packers with this flag.

Even worse, the Packers intercepted Kirk Cousins ​​on this coin. The match would have been completed and the Packers would be 2-0 and placed first in the NFC North with two division wins to their credit. The game of playing Aaron Rodgers would have worked perfectly.

Instead, the Packers eventually tied the Vikings and Matthews – with the rest of us – remains extremely confused about what happened.

"I mean, I do not even know where to start to be completely honest with you," Matthews said. "I have so many emotions to go through to what terrible call it has been in. But at the same time, I do not know what else to do, I mean, I do not know. no, you tell me.

Tell me: Did I put pressure on him? I thought I'd hit him at the waist, chest, I put my head across, I went down. the hands.The call at this stage of the game is amazing.Last week, OK, shame on me, but this week it's amazing.

"The worst thing is, we're probably going to send it and you know what they're going to say – they'll say, you know … they'll blame me because they are going to be in agreement with the refs.So, I do not know, it's just a hard call to call, you see how that changed the game and I know that quarterback protection is a priority, but she has become uncontrollable here. "

Many thought that the new Aaron Rodgers rule could have been put in place this season, but referee Tony Corrente said that was not the case.

"It has nothing to do with the rule of total body weight" Corrente explained, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. "It has nothing to do with the helmet on the helmet.He picked up the back quarter and led it to the ground."

How did Corrente reach this conclusion? This did not seem to be the case in real time and it certainly did not seem to be the case when watching the hit on replay. There is nothing that a defender can do if the referees will report it. The NFL should consider using replay to determine whether or not a game meets the smuggler's assessment criteria. It's very subjective, but it does not matter.

At present, the league allows its officials to legislate in favor of 275-pound men who have just punched a 300-pound line of men with a mission (sack the quarterback), and that does not work .

The Packers have been ripped off here, but they can only be crazy, because they are partly responsible for the focus on penalties for smugglers.

While we are on this game: credit Cousins ​​to rally you after this moment, causing big players to launch Adam Thielen for an incredible touchdown pass that would set up the two-point conversion without too much time little Cousins ​​throw on the two-point conversion too).

The Viking offensive has not yet completely clicked. The cousins ​​and their recipients begin to move. Nor is the defense against Aaron Rodgers' defenders, but it is a team of Vikings with a lot of potential. We know that the defense will be good and if the offensive starts to click as it did during the periods of this game, pay attention.

Vontae Davis … is retiring?

It's one of the weirdest NFL stories in the game you can see. The Chargers and Buffalo posing as the worst football team for the second consecutive week, cornerback Vontae Davis acquired this free season in free agency, left the game and … retirement. He went to see his coaches and told them that he was done with football and then issued a statement about it.

"This is not how I photographed the NFL"Davis said in a statement.

"I did not want to disrespect my teammates and coaches, but I'm staying at a level," said Davis. "Mentally, I'm still waiting for me to play at a high level, but physically, I know it's not possible, and I've had an honest time with myself." While I was on the field, I told the coaches, "I do not feel like me.

"I was wondering too, do I want to continue sacrificing, and honestly, I do not do it because the season is long and my family and I have to retire soundly to embrace the warrior mentality and leave late . "

It's Davis's prerogative, doing what he wants and leaving when he's off, but using the word "retiring" at half-time is a bit debatable. It's more like the word "quit" than anything else. At least one teammate – Lorenzo Alexander – would agree.

The former Bills center, Eric Wood – who follows the media world closely – agrees.

Sean McDermott said that he did not want to talk aboutbut, in a way, you have to talk about that. The Bills have now been eliminated two weeks in a row, losing a bajillion against the Ravens in Week 1 and having never touched the Chargers in the second week at home. Josh Allen gave it all and the Bills were under 15, but let's be real here. It was not close.

That could go south to the Browns last year.

Birds on the ground

The Arizona Cardinals are not ready, it's a good start to the season. Arizona had a lower total of wins this season (5.5), the Bills (6.5) when the over / unders came out, and it looked maybe too low. Now he looks too high: the Cardinals were just baffled by the Rams, and it was not particularly close.

Los Angeles is a great football team. The defense is not perfect but it's really good and Todd Gurley shows no signs of slowing down after a MVP-style season last year. They should win 13 games and go to this division if everyone stays healthy.

That was the biggest point gap of the weekend, with the Rams scoring 12.5 points. And Los Angeles never let it get close to a non-coverage situation. Arizona has not even crossed the midfield before the last round of the game. Think about that.

It's humiliating. This game was out of control long before. And yet, the only time we saw Josh Rosen was a camera shot yawning on the sideline.

Hard to blame Rosen. It stinks of getting caught yawning – someone is probably going to yell at it – but it was a worthwhile game. And given the way Sam Bradford played, one has to wonder about Rosen's entry in the middle.

Coach Steve Wilks did not respond to the situation and never thought to throw Rosen out there. How? Bradford finished 17th on 27 for 90 yards, which is hard to do, even though Larry Fitzgerald is injured. At one point, should not Bradford launch it to David Johnson? Because the guy looking for the 1,000,000 season does not understand him – he had two targets, catching a pass for three yards. And that seems to be an offensive issue all around.

There are only two weeks left, but if the Cardinals refuse to see what they have with Rosen and fail to pass the ball to Johnson in the game, there should be some major questions about Steve Wilks and his team. offensive coaches. Having 22 staves and six catches in two games is simply unacceptable in terms of use for the best offensive player on the team.

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