The Detroit Lions caused a big surprise in the season opener of the new NFL season and beat the Kansas City Chiefs 21:20. The German-American Amon-Ra St. Brown scored the first touchdown of the season, while one receiver was particularly disappointing for the champion.
Chiefs vs. Lions: At a glance
- Amon-Ra St. Brown scored the first touchdown of the season. In addition, rookie defensive back Brian Branch made his first pick-six in his NFL debut.
- Chiefs receiver Kadarius Toney had a terrible day and dropped four passes. Among other things, he was also responsible for the interception.
- The game was ultimately decided on 3rd down, where the Chiefs only used 5 of 14 chances in the absence of Travis Kelce. In these situations, other Chiefs also dropped some easy passes, which would probably not have happened to Kelce.
Chiefs vs. Lions: The Analysis
The game started rather slowly with two punts before the Lions became aggressive and opened their second drive with a fake punt deep in their own half. They then marched down the field thanks to good plays from Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery. It was St. Brown who scored the first touchdown of the season on a slant route from the outside – a 9-yard catch over the middle.
The Chiefs then turned around and immediately equalized – Patrick Mahomes found rookie receiver Rashee Rice for a 1-yard touchdown pass because the pocket held and Mahomes got so much time that Rice was suddenly completely open in the end zone.
The Lions then marched into the red zone again, but then shot themselves in the foot several times. First, a shotgun snap was deflected by a tight end in motion, resulting in a fumble and a loss of ten yards. A little later, Marvin Jones lost a fumble.
By halftime, Mahomes even gave his team the lead after deep shots to Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Justin Watson before Blake Bell caught a 4-yard TD pass from a bunch formation.
Chiefs vs. Lions: Mahomes throws pick-six through no fault of his own
After two short series of attacks, the second half got going thanks to a mistake by the Chiefs. Mahomes looked for Kadarius Toney on a slant, but the former Giant couldn’t control the ball so it slipped out of his hands and landed at rookie defensive back Brian Branch for a 50-yard pick-six. Shortly before, Mahomes was lucky that linebacker Jack Campbell missed an interception in front of Toney.
The Chiefs then took the lead on a 35-yard field goal from Harrison Butker after a pass interference from Cam Sutton put them in position against Watson. But before the field goal, Toney’s poor night continued with a drop on 3rd&2. And in their next series of attacks, the Chiefs basically stopped themselves. On 2nd&1 they tried a jet sweep, which led to a loss of space, then Mahomes barely got rid of the ball under heavy pressure and thus prevented any further loss of space. Another field goal followed to make it 20:14 with twelve minutes to play.
Detroit then responded with an impressive drive fueled by an explosive play from Josh Reynolds. After the catch, he ran away from his guard L’Jarius Sneed for 33 yards into the red zone. David Montgomery then marched down the middle for an 8-yard touchdown run to give the Lions the lead again (21-20) midway through the fourth quarter.
The Chiefs’ problems on 3rd down continued. On 3rd&1 at their own 34, they attempted a jet sweep with tight end Brandon Bell under center to Rice, which was then stopped in the backfield, resulting in a punt.
A bit of chaos ensued on both sides. First, the Lions were stopped just above the center line on fourth down, then the Chiefs tried to go 20 yards on fourth down in their own half and even 25 yards after Jawaan Taylor’s false start. Mahomes’ deflected deep shot landed on the ground. Previously, Toney had dropped another good pass. With two minutes left, the Lions’ lead remained intact.
And it stayed that way, because the Lions then played down the clock with their run game. Perfect opening win for Detroit.
Kansas City Chiefs (0-1) – Detroit Lions (1-0)
Result: 20:21 (7:0, 0:14, 3:7, 3:7) BOXSCORE
Chiefs vs. Lions – the most important statistics
- Premiere at the wrong time: For Marvin Jones it was the first fumble of his career on the 563rd touch. His 562 touches before were the most in NFL history without producing a fumble.
- Mahomes’ third-quarter interception – even though it wasn’t his fault – was his first ever on Opening Day. Previously, he had 20 touchdowns and no interceptions in the first game of the season.
- This ends a series of eight Opening Day wins in a row for the Chiefs. If they had also won the ninth consecutive win, it would have been the fifth-longest such streak in NFL history.
The star of the game: Front Seven (Lions)
The Lions’ defensive front dominated this game. Mahomes was constantly under pressure and saw 17 pressures against him. It didn’t result in a sack, but Mahomes was disrupted well enough to often not get rid of a clean pass. Additionally, the Lions offensive line woke up late in the game and helped tremendously in bringing the game home.
The flop of the game: Kadarius Toney (Wide Receiver, Lions)
That was a terrible performance for Toney. He saw 5 targets on 10 routes run and he only caught one pass for one yard. According to “Next Gen Stats” he had -58.9 percent catch probability over expected, which is catastrophic. And he was responsible for the Mahomes interception that brought Detroit back into the game.
Analysis: Chiefs vs. Lions – that stood out tactically
The Chiefs had to play without the injured Travis Kelce. Sometimes they relied on 10-personnel, but mostly on 11- and 12-personnel, with the tight ends mostly playing away from the line – just like Kelce would do. The bottom line was that the Chiefs basically didn’t change their game plan at all, which was also evident from the fact that almost half of Mahomes’ passes before the break had at least 10 air yards. The only difference from usual: his first seven passes went to seven different receivers. Noah Gray was ultimately the clear Kelce representative and ran the most routes on his team with 28.
Both teams began to blitz heavily early, but both took their foot off the gas as the second quarter progressed. At the same time, however, both surprisingly rarely relied on play action and more on classic dropbacks, although in comparison Goff separated from the ball quicker than Mahomes. The Chiefs flashed more in the second half.
Aidan Hutchinson was a problem for the Chiefs’ O-line, but right tackle Jawaan Taylor alleviated this somewhat with a trick: He stood way too far back on the line for most of the evening and then often moved shortly before the snap, which gave him more time to position himself. The referees consistently overlooked it and punished neither the permanent illegal formations nor the numerous false starts.
Dan Campbell’s decision to punt on 4th&3 at the opponent’s 40 with 5:56 minutes on the clock in the third quarter must be questioned. It cost his team a three percent chance of winning and simply made no sense. The Chiefs, meanwhile, expected another fake and simply left their defense on the field.