Chiefs Scored 31 Points
LAS VEGAS In Sunday’s game, the Kansas City Chiefs scored 31 points, matching their second-highest total of the season, but Patrick Mahomes didn’t think that was the crucial offensive number.
Numbers one (the Chiefs’ dropped passes) and zero (the Chiefs’ turnovers) pleased Mahomes more. Mahomes claimed he always felt that if the Chiefs improved as they did on Sunday, good things would come naturally. The Chiefs have struggled for most of the season to match their offensive prowess from prior years.
After the Chiefs defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 31-17 to improve their record to 8-3, Mahomes said, “We’ve shown that we can move the ball, but [turnovers] and drops and I haven’t reached the right guy at the right time, which has limited the Chiefs’ offensive potential.”
Small things like that have caused some of our drives to stall. We kind of went back to the fundamentals this week, but we kept trying. It’s clear that we made progress in the right direction now. Let’s just carry on like that for the remainder of the season.
After the Chiefs had fallen behind by ten or more points, Mahomes won his 15th game in the NFL. In these types of games, his winning percentage of 58 is the highest in NFL history.
However, this season, the Chiefs had yet to come back from a double-digit deficit. The Chiefs appeared to be in trouble early in the second quarter, trailing 14-0, as they have a history of losing when they fall behind by a sizable margin.
That was prior to one of the Chiefs’ potentially most significant touchdown drives of the season, a 71-yard drive led by Mahomes. The Chiefs had gained 13 yards on seven plays run up to that point.
“We needed that first touchdown drive because it turned the tide in our favor,” Mahomes said. “Especially after having seven plays in the first quarter, we needed to find that motivation.”
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The Chiefs then scored touchdowns on three of the next four possessions to take command of the game. The Chiefs scored their first points of the game in the last two quarters in two of those touchdowns, which occurred in the second half of their previous four games.
Rookie Rashee Rice hauled in eight passes for 107 yards. Since Week 7 of the previous year, he is the first wide receiver for the Chiefs to record more than 100 yards in a regular season game. In the NFL, that 20-game streak was the longest one still going.
Rice’s 39-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, which helped loosen up a close game, was the game’s highlight play. After breaking an attempted tackle close to the end zone and making the reception at the 35, Rice ran after the ball.
The Chiefs had been waiting for this game from any of their wide receivers, and it finally arrived from the second-round draft pick.
“We’ve really only scratched the surface, to be honest,” Mahomes said of Rice. “I believe you see us hitting him a little bit close to the line of scrimmage, but I also believe he has some vertical threat ability and bursts of speed.”
“We will continue to challenge him to be that receiver each and every week. He can develop into one of this league’s best receivers.”
