KC Chiefs to ‘Keep Working’ on Offense After Another Inconsistent Game Kansas city’s offense showed more good and bad in Week 9, giving them more time to prepare for the season’s final stretch.
In many respects, the Kansas City Chiefs’ triumph over the Miami Dolphins on Sunday mirrored numerous others this season. For a long time, Steve Spagnuolo’s defense was out of its mind, with the offense displaying both strong and bad possessions.
It’s a recurring trend for the Chiefs in 2023-24: strong defense and iffy offense. No one put it better than head coach Andy Reid after the victory in Week 9.
“Offensively, we did some great things and then we sputtered at times,” he remarked. “But I would tell you that first drive was a thing of beauty and then the next touchdown was also a good job of getting ourselves upfield and scoring on that.”
Reid noted two drives that were simply spectacular. His opening drive script caused infinite difficulties for Miami, as the Chiefs marched 75 yards down the field in seven plays and 2:57 of game time. Noah Gray’s 25-yard run, Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s 21-yard run, Rashee Rice’s 11-yard run, and Skyy Moore’s 10-yard run stood out. Kansas City even had Justin Watson’s touchdown reversed and scored on the next play to win the game.
The second touchdown drive was much more deliberate. It was a 13-play, 95-yard drive that took 8:28 to complete. It also included two penalties against left tackle Donovan Smith. Despite this, running back Isiah Pacheco chipped away at the Dolphins’ run defense with little gains, and Mahomes added some of his own scrambles. There was also an 18-yard pass to Kadarius Toney, a 23-yard pass to Moore, and a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jerick McKinnon. The Chiefs displayed their offensive muscles for the second time in the game. Mahomes mentioned how those act as signs of promise.
“I think you can see it in spurts,” Mahomes explained. “You can see from the first drive and the 90-yard drive that we had that we can do it.” It’s simply a matter of being consistent on every single drive. Obviously, fouls and my inability to connect with men far down the field harmed us, but luckily for us, our defense is playing great and we won.”
The disadvantage is that those were the only signs of promise on Sunday. Following McKinnon’s score, the Chiefs’ drives looked like this:
Stretches like that were rare in prior years under Reid and Mahomes. Last season, there seemed to be more of them due to Tyreek Hill’s departure, but JuJu Smith-Schuster served as a calming presence on offense. Things aren’t going well for the Chiefs right now, with a pair of new offensive tackles in the mix, Mahomes taking a step back, Travis Kelce a year older, and Smith-Schuster out. Kansas City’s offensive is still considered good, but it isn’t the same. With a bye week looming, Mahomes believes the only way to improve is to keep working hard.
“I think all you can do is keep working,” said Mahomes. “That’s all there is to it.” It’s my timing, not theirs.
Just keep catching as many fish as possible. Fortunately for us, our defense has been outstanding, and we are 7-2 heading into the bye week, but we can improve significantly on offense. I believe that if the offense improves to where I believe it can be, we will be a difficult team to beat.”
The Chiefs were coming off an ugly loss to the Denver Broncos a week ago, in which the offense looked even worse than it did this week. It was a lackluster performance from nearly everyone on the squad, from Reid to Mahomes and countless more. Week 9 saw some improvement in terms of energy and effort, as well as emphasis on a specific goal.
On a few times. The offense is still a work in progress. Reid, like Mahomes, is aware of it. Having said that, he believes this was a good move in the right way.
“Listen, we’re 6-2 sitting there with the Dolphins coming into this,” he remarked. “Because they’re one of the better teams in the AFC.” I appreciate the energy [and] the way our players bounced back from the last game against Denver… all of those things are critical to putting together a solid football team, and our men delivered. We had a week off last week. They weren’t going there with this one, and you could tell.”
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