Chargers - Chiefs TNF Showdown: My Objective Recap
AHHHH!!!!! THE CHARGERS CAN’T LOSE! THE STREAK IS OVER!!!! they’re probably going to be a 13 win wildcard team BUT THEY’RE THE BEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE! Oh the final score was 29-28, and the teams are both 11-3 now.
I am going to qualify this recap with the following: I did not get to see all of the game live. I was presented with the following options:
1. Sit in the office and watch my favorite team go into the hardest away stadium in the league to play the best offense in the league while starting a 3rd string RB to compliment a ton of other starters being out OR
2. Go to the office christmas party, get drunk, and watch it there amongst friends.
I chose the latter, and while I did not regret the decision by the end of the half, I certainly did by the end of the game. Anyway, let’s get to recapping.
On offense for the Bolts, Phil Rivers started slow but finished strong. And by slow, I mean he threw a pick on the second play from scrimmage and followed it up with another in the red zone 2 possessions after that. He followed that up with some airtight drives, digging them out of the hole he dug en route to one of the craziest comebacks I have ever seen. He finished 26/38 with 313 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Mike Williams, though, was the true star of the day. He hauled in 2 toe-tapping touchdowns, ran for another and caught the game winning 2PC. He had 79 receiving yards and 19 rushing, helping pick up the slack after Keenan Allen hurt his hip in the second quarter. Justin Jackson struggled vs one of the worst rush defenses in the league, ending the day with 16 carries for 58 yards and a score. The offensive line also struggled mightily, letting Rivers go down 5 times while getting flushed out of the pocket way too much. That also lead to Phil basically getting concussed into the stone age by Dorian O’Daniel on a vicious helmet to helmet hit (no call)
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For the Chiefs offense, they struggled to find consistent footing in the second half. The receiving corps was a little depleted, missing Sammy Watkins and playing with a hurt Tyreek Hill who only finished with 46 yards on the day. Damien Williams stepped up big, taking in 6 receptions for 74 yards to compliment his 10 rushes for 49 yards and 2 scores. A lot of what they succeeded at in their first matchup vs LA didn’t seem to work this time around, mostly because of the personnel changes/injury. If you recall, Tyreek put up a 169 yards on them in week 1, totally blowing up mismatches in their secondary. Credit to the offensive line, though, who only let Pat Mahomes(245 yards, 2 TDs) go down twice and gave him a relatively stable pocket to work with.
On defense, the Bolts had one of their best gameplans I’ve ever seen them run. They managed to keep one of the most electric and crafty offenses from establishing their normally dominating pace. A huge amount of this credit goes to what Gus Bradley was able to do, and even more to Adrian Phillips, Derwin James and Jatavis Brown for making plays all over the field. They struggled generating pressure, though, only hitting Mahomes 5 times and sacking him twice.
For KC, they were doing great up until they started fucking everything up. Chris Jones has a simply outrageous 10 game sack streak which he continued, logging 2.5 on Rivers. Justin Houston combined with him for one and had another solo. Steven Nelson and Kendall Fuller both had interceptions, but the latter also logged a game-fucking pass interference call in the endzone that gave LA the ball at the 1. The big story was the return of Eric Berry, who looked awesome while logging 6 tackles.
Takeaways for LA: The Chargers needed a huge prove it game for all the analysts etc. saying that their record was a product of an easy schedule, and into the hardest stadium in the NFL and breaking a 4 year loss streak vs easily the best team KC has had out of any of those matchups is about as much of a prove it win as there can be. It was also a great example of how superior planning can beat superior talent, which is very promising for the playoffs. They still only have around a 25% chance of getting a first round bye, so nobody should be holding their breath in that area.
Takeaways for KC: You can’t knock the offense too much, as Mahomes was still feeling out some new faces in starting positions. Some of the miscues on defense at the end of the game were critical, however, and an ugly dog reared its head for Andy Reid. That’s right, poor end-game management. The timeout he called with 8 seconds left was maddening. Rivers even said postgame that it allowed them crucial time to regroup.
Notes for LA: Melvin Gordon, Austin Ekeler, Chris Landrum, Cole Toner, Sean Culkin, Dylan Cantrell and Brandon Mebane were all inactive. Keenan Allen got hurt on an insane one-handed touchdown grab (called back) and did not return.
Notes for KC: Sammy Watkins, Spencer Ware, Cam Erving, Gehrig Dieter, Kahlil McKenzie, Deon Yelder and Tanoh Kpassagnon were all inactive. They go to Seattle to hopefully hold on to the #1 seed.
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