The Winners and Losers of Week 9’s Chiefs win over the Jets

It may have taken two quarters to put away the now 2-7 New York Jets, but once again, you never apologize for a win in the NFL. The Chiefs dominated the second half after taking a 14-12 lead into the break.

They led 28-12 by the end of the third after the defense allowed minus nine yards and the offense exploded even after a short-lived Mahomes health scare. A late fourth-quarter Emmett Johnson touchdown run sealed the 35-12 win. That score, especially, is one you don’t apologize for, no matter the opponent.

The game was a mixed bag of some hopeful signs of things to come and some frustrations boiling over from recent weeks. Let’s dive into the winners and losers of Week 9.

Winners

Chris Jones

Defensive tackle Chris Jones 2026 season has officially begun. Week 9 came a little later than expected, but after coming into the game with .5 sacks through seven games, he took down quarterback Geno Smith twice in this game alone. And en route to it, he became the Chiefs' second all-time sack leader with 90 sacks, surpassing Tamba Hali

The first came late in the second quarter. On a third-and-six, Jones dominated a one-on-one situation, pushing the Jets back to a long 53-yard field goal. Jets kicker Jason Sanders was 4-for-4 up to that point, but this one was just far enough to force his first miss. With a make, New York would have gone into halftime up 15-14.

The second one also came on a third down, forcing a punt late in the fourth quarter, a stop that preceded Johnson putting the game away with his touchdown run. Two sacks on third downs are something the Kansas City could have used in their loss to Denver last week. For the Chiefs, hopefully it is a sign of things to come as the second half of the season arrives.

Chiefs Kingdom

There was a real, heavy moment in this game when some inside Chiefs Kingdom felt the season was sabotaged. The Chiefs led 14-12 against a team they were heavy favorites to beat, and then the biggest scare of the afternoon happened.

Right tackle Jaylon Moore was beaten badly by 2026’s second-overall pick, defensive end David Bailey, and as Mahomes was letting it rip, Bailey violently strip-sacked his fellow Texas Tech alumnus. The mid-throw hit on his elbow put him in obvious pain as he walked off the field with his right arm limp after the Jets recovered the fumble.

As bad as it looked, he didn't miss a single offensive play, even completing a 12-yard pass to tight end Travis Kelce moments later. After the game, additional testing revealed no significant damage, and he was described as having an elbow strain/sprain.

Based on the three touchdown drives he led after the injury, he appears to be in good shape moving forward. Mahomes ended the day going 23-for-31, 242 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions. Chiefs Kingdom can take a sigh of relief.

Chiefs offensive line (run blocking only)

After two subpar performances against the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos, star running back Kenneth Walker looked as he did in the first five games of the season. He took 18 carries for 102 yards and scored on a short-yardage touchdown run.

There was one distinct difference, however. This was not one of those games where Walker was a complete magician, forcing double-digit missed tackles. The offensive line was powerful and cohesive, creating massive holes for Walker to run through.

They struggled mightily in pass protection at times, especially the offensive tackles, though guards Trey Smith and Kingsley Suamataia made way with terrific blocks downfield on a 25-yard screen pass that Walker caught for a touchdown. Both Walker and Emmett Johnson averaged 5.7 yards per carry, and they forced only three missed tackles combined, which is a hopeful sign for the big boys up front.

Losers

Harrison Butker, again

Following Sunday’s game, kicker Harrison Butker is now 12-for-19 in field goal attempts for the season. So far, he's been perfect in only 2 of 8 games, and even then, he went 1-for-1 in both instances.

You have to go back to Week 4 to find a game where Butker didn't miss a kick. With Week 10 on the horizon, Butker’s display this week against New York may have been the most illustrative of how bad things have gotten.

With seconds left in the first half, Butker attempted a 56-yarder that clanked off the upright, but the Jets jumped offsides, giving him a shot from 51 yards. That attempt went completely wide right. He made all five of his extra points, but with how little confidence anyone has in Butker to make a kick, you have to wonder if they will activate Justin Tucker next week in Atlanta.

Chiefs’ ball security

The Chiefs put 35 points on the board while missing a field goal and turning it over twice, which is fairly impressive. Kansas City came into the game top-five in the NFL in giving the ball away, but they struggled in that area in this Sunday noon game, putting the ball on the ground five times.

The first two fumbles came on the game’s opening drive. In the first return opportunity of his career, rookie receiver Cyrus Allen fumbled the Chiefs' opening kickoff, luckily with linebacker Jeffrey Bassa there to recover. The other was on the ensuing third-and-one when head coach Andy Reid called for a quarterback sneak featuring Justin Fields, and the snap never fully made it into his hands. This time, Kansas City was not so lucky, as linebacker Demario Davis recovered, giving the Jets a 6-0 lead moments later.

Speaking of poor center-to-quarterback exchanges, Creed Humphrey again put the ball out of shotgun for his seventh fumble this season. It was ultimately a drive-killer, leading to one of the Chiefs' three punts on the afternoon. Mahomes fumbled twice on the same drive, and Bailey forced it both times. Moore recovered the first one after giving up the sack. These are unlikely to become trends, but they do help explain the Chiefs' slow start to the ballgame.

The QB sneak

The Chiefs faced plenty of questions last week when they marched down the field with less than two minutes to go, clear to the Denver Broncos' 4-yard line with a chance to win the game. The heat came when the Chiefs ran three plays from the 1-yard line.

On third-and-fourth-and-one, quarterback sneaks convert well over 80 percent of the time in the NFL, a much higher success rate than traditional runs or passes. On the two particular plays Kansas City had a shot at last week, it appeared that Mahomes could merely waltz into the end zone in between Humphrey and Smith. Instead, the Chiefs threw an incompletion and had Walker get stuffed, leaving room for criticism.

The Chiefs have not run a sneak with Mahomes taking the snap since 2019, when he injured his knee on the play. He didn't run it today either, but Reid called for it with Fields under center on the very first drive of the game, and to say it went poorly would be an understatement. Fields fumbled before he could even try to get a push. With it being such an easy button around the league, hopefully Reid and company will examine the play for next time, rather than abandon it altogether.

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