The Kansas City Chiefs ended Week 8 of the NFL with a clear 28-7 win over the Washington Commanders. Travis Kelce once again wrote himself into the history books.
Commanders @ Chiefs: At a glance
- The Chiefs decided this game with a strong third quarter and were particularly effective on 4th down and in the red zone.
- The star tight ends on both sides wrote their names in the history books.
- The Chiefs benefited several times from massive mistakes in the Commanders’ pass defense.
Commanders @ Chiefs: The analysis
The first quarter had everything but no points. The Commanders started with a good drive with short passes and zone reads that thwarted KC’s pass rush. However, the drive ended when Deebo Samuel let a screen pass from Marcus Mariota slip through his hands. It bounced off the receiver’s helmet and ended up falling to edge rusher Mike Danna for an interception. In return, the Chiefs marched down the field, but also came away empty-handed, as cornerback Marshon Lattimore grabbed an interception from Patrick Mahomes in the red zone in tight man coverage against Hollywood Brown.
The Commanders were then stopped on their fourth attempt and Mahomes then threw another interception – this time Travis Kelce let the ball slip through his hands and Bobby Wagner said thank you.
The spell was broken in the second quarter. Kareem Hunt ran for a short touchdown to give the home team the lead. However, the visitors struck back shortly before half-time: Mariota threw a rainbow pass to Terry McLaurin to equalize.
In the third quarter, however, the Chiefs pulled away. Hunt caught a touchdown pass for the first time since 2022 – on a fourth attempt – and towards the end of the quarter, Mahomes also found Travis Kelce in the end zone. 21:7 Chiefs after three quarters.
Chiefs ice cold in the red zone
In the final quarter, Mahomes once again led his team into the red zone, this time from his own 6-yard line, and finally completed this drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to Rashee Rice, whom he found against linebacker Wagner in a huge mismatch. With that the game was decided.
Ultimately, the key in this game was that the Chiefs finished most of their drives and converted on both fourth downs. The Commanders, on the other hand, missed such attempts twice and lost points each time. In addition, the Chiefs were perfect in the red zone (4/4), but the Commanders were only 1/2.
Washington Commanders (3-5) @ Kansas City Chiefs (5-3)
Result: 7:28 (0:0, 7:7, 0:14, 0:7) BOXSCORE
Commanders @ Chiefs: The most important statistics
- With his second reception of the game, Washington’s Zach Ertz reached the 800 reception mark. He is only the sixth tight end in NFL history with at least 800 receptions. The others are Tony Gonzalez, Jason Witten, Travis Kelce, Antonio Gates and Shannon Sharpe.
- This was the first time ever that Mahomes threw interceptions in the first two Chiefs drives of a game.
- This was the first time the Chiefs did not score any points in the first quarter since Week 10 of the preseason.
- Mahomes has now broken the 40,000-yard mark, making him the only quarterback after Peyton Manning to do so in his first nine seasons.
- Kelce’s touchdown was his 83rd of his career. In doing so, he equaled Priest Holmes’ Chiefs franchise record.
The star of the game: Mike Danna (Edge Rusher, Chiefs)
Danna represents the Chiefs’ strong defensive front, which dominated this game in the end. Danna ended the visitors’ promising first drive with an interception and thus prevented an early deficit. He later managed another sack, making him the first Chiefs player since Justin Reid in October 2023 with a sack and a pick in the same game. Also extremely strong: George Karlaftis with eight pressures (1 sack).
The flop of the game: Pass Coverage (Commanders)
It’s difficult to single out a single culprit because everyone actually made one or two major mistakes at some point. Far too often, this left Chiefs receivers wide open. For example Kelce, who was too often ignored. Or there were errors in the assignment, such as the Rice touchdown, which Wagner suddenly had to pay attention to. So you don’t just lose against the Chiefs.
Analysis: Commanders @ Chiefs – that stood out tactically
- Offensively, the Commanders mainly relied on short, quick passes such as screens and checkdowns as well as numerous zone reads with Mariota and the respective running back. The goal was to relieve the burden on the offensive line in pass protection. The Chiefs, in turn, sometimes set up base defense against short downs to better defend the run.
- The Commanders relied more often on man coverage, especially at 3rd & Long, and then usually used Frankie Luvu as a spy on Mahomes to contain his scrambles. Luvu, on the other hand, was one of several defenders deployed in various positions to present different looks.
- The Chiefs blitzed Mariota on just over a third of his dropbacks and, as usual, did so from a variety of directions. However, Mariota was hardly deterred by this and usually got rid of the ball quickly. However, he also got a sack on 3rd down late in the game that ended a drive early.