Four Things the KC Chiefs Can Do to Get Better on Offense
The Kansas City Chiefs were able to escape with a 23-20 win over the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football last week. Yes, quarterback Patrick Mahomes made the right call and slid to the ground when he could have walked into the end zone and made it a two-score game with less than two minutes remaining in the game. The Chiefs could have scored 30 points, but it didn’t feel like the offensive performance we’ve come to expect from Mahomes and company.
The Chiefs' offense hasn’t looked crisp through the first quarter of the season, yet the team is still 3-1. The defense has stepped up when needed most, though. For a fourth consecutive game, the defense gave up two touchdowns or less. That should be enough to get the Chiefs a win 99% of the time, with Week 1 being an outlier.
What can the offense do to get on the same page and be more consistent moving forward as the second quarter of the season begins this week in Minneapolis as the Chiefs take on the Minnesota Vikings?
Limit the turnovers
It feels like the only time the Chiefs are losing games is when they lose the turnover battle. When Kansas City doesn't give the ball away and give the opponent extra chances, they will win the game more often than not. It seems like an easy fix, but Mahomes will need to make better decisions with the ball when the team starts playing tougher opponents as the season continues.
Feed Isiah Pacheco
For the first time all season, we saw the Chiefs feed Isiah Pacheco the football and good things happened. If they can get Pacheco going early, that will open up the passing game as the game rolls on. It seems like the Chiefs have started games running but gotten away from it. In Week 1, with Pacheco coming off an injury and maybe on a bit of a snap limit, they started the game with Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
Pacheco needs to be the man going forward. Jerick McKinnon really hasn’t been utilized to the best of his ability yet, either. He can be a safety valve for Mahomes in the passing game when necessary. As the second quarter of the campaign rolls on, seeing a healthy dose of Pacheco each game should be the norm moving forward.
Someone besides Travis Kelce needs to step up
Tight end Travis Kelce will always be there to make plays for Mahomes. He’s proven it time and time again. The Chiefs need someone in their receiver room to step up and become a consistent playmaker. Marquez Valdes-Scantling is what he is, and that is not a No. 1 or even a No. 2 wide receiver. Justin Watson has a good rapport with Mahomes but he is also not a top receiver. Kadarius Toney has the skill level to be a top-tier receiver, but he needs to stay healthy so he isn’t playing on a limited basis.
Second-year player Skyy Moore and rookie Rashee Rice seem to have the most potential, but so far haven’t been utilized like they can be leading options. Then you have the case of Justyn Ross, the man who was hyped up through training camp and preseason just to get two targets through the first four games of the season. Something’s got to give, and hopefully it’s a larger workload for Ross to see what he can give to the team. It would also be good to see Moore and Rice get more targets throughout the game. Ideally, Mahomes will continue to put trust into the young core of receivers as the team gets deeper into the season.
Offensive line must limit penalties
The officials may have been picking on Chiefs right tackle Jawaan Taylor, so I won’t go too hard on the guy. However, he needs to learn from his mistakes over the first quarter of the season and stop putting the team in second-and-long or third-and-long situations with the infractions he continues to commit each game. The offense as a whole needs to clean things up, but the penalties are something that can really hurt the momentum of a drive. Luckily for the Chiefs, Mahomes can sometimes mask the mistakes and hide some of these issues. It would be nice to not put more pressure put on Mahomes’s plate, but it has been a recurring theme early in the season. Get it cleaned up and things will go much more smoothly the rest of the way.
After the first quarter of the season, the Chiefs are on pace to finish 13-4. There is still plenty of time for the offense to get on track, and the defense has given its counterpart time to go through a bumpy stretch to come out stronger on the other side. Getting a win on the road against a team that was in the playoffs last year would be a nice start to the second quarter of the season. The Chiefs will have a prime opportunity to get things right this week against the Vikings.
