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Despite Sunday’s two-score win, the Kansas City Chiefs take another dip — albeit a small one — in most of the Week 4 rankings. That might say more about the New York Giants than it does about the Chiefs.
Here’s this week’s sampling:
Signing Tyquan Thornton looks like a pretty genius move now. Making a little over a million bucks, Thornton all but bailed the Chiefs out Sunday night in a second-half flourish and a comfortable — albeit unattractive — road victory over the Giants. The offense had its typical struggles early, and it could have been worse, had Patrick Mahomes not taken the ball back from Bobby Okereke after giving it up on an ill-fated backward pass. Starting a drive at the Giants’ 47-yard line and missing a 40-yard field goal felt like a turnover, with the Chiefs holding a delicate 6-0 lead at the time. Thankfully, New York provided little explosion and couldn’t turn the game. Kansas City’s defense, which has been good two games in a row, largely stonewalled Big Blue. Then Mahomes and Thornton connected for a breathing-room TD and two big downfield catches to set up the put-it-away score. It might not have been the tune-up performance the Chiefs wanted prior to hosting the Ravens this Sunday, but it was an important win nonetheless.
Biggest issue on defense: Pass rush surrounding Chris Jones
The Chiefs have been inconsistent in pressuring the quarterback without blitzing, an issue that could plague Steve Spagnuolo’s unit all season long. The Chiefs have just seven sacks, and most offensive lines are doubling Jones often, which leads to several one-on-one opportunities for edge rushers George Karlaftis, Charles Omenihu, Mike Danna and rookie Ashton Gillotte. One of those players needs to elevate his performance to be a consistent threat alongside Jones.
QB confidence: Just waiting on reinforcements
Somehow, Patrick Mahomes has made Tyquan Thornton look like a legit NFL receiver after he was cast off by the Patriots as a second-round bust. If he can do that with Thornton, this offense should be fine once Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy are back.
A George Karlaftis revival—can we call it that against the Giants, when the quarterback seems to be running toward contact in the pocket?—was one of the happy underpinnings of a get-right game against the Giants. If enough of these little turnarounds take place, can it cover up the fact that some of the bigger issues, like Travis Kelce, may linger?
A win is a win, but the first win of the season didn’t feel like one.
They might have saved their season with the victory over the Giants on Sunday night, but they still have major problems on offense. And here comes the Ravens this week.
The Chiefs got a necessary win but it wasn’t impressive. Their offense is still surprisingly dull. There’s no running game. Presumably things will get better for the Kansas City Chiefs when Xavier Worthy and Rashee Rice are back, but it’s getting tougher to blindly trust that.
The Chiefs had to go back to some offensive basics with Patrick Mahomes and needed to take advantage of the weaker Giants on defense, too. The get-well game came just in time ahead of hosting the Ravens.
They got off the mat, albeit fairly unimpressively against the Giants, but do get to play at Arrowhead four of the next five weeks.
Beating the Giants saved their season, even though it didn’t look pretty. Their ranking is based on their talent and potential, but it’s hard not to see the cracks beginning to form.
