The Kansas City Chiefs started the season with an impressive opening win. The defending champion beat the Houston Texans 34:20 – and didn’t even have to go to the limit. Rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire made a brilliant first impression. Here are the highlights of the game.
The minutes before the game were eagerly awaited – how would the players use the stage to point out racism and social grievances? During the anthem, the Texans players stayed in the dressing room, on the Chiefs side only linebacker Alex Okafor decided to kneel.
Both teams then met in the middle of the field to symbolize unity and to observe a minute’s silence – despite the very moderate form of expression, individual boos could be heard from the almost 17,000 fans in the stands.
On the field, the first touchdown of the season for Patrick Mahomes (24/32, 311 YDS, 3 TD) was a little later within reach – but Demarcus Robinson could not control the long pass in the end zone through contact. The Texans deserved this honor: On their second own drive, Deshaun Watson (20/32, 253 YDS, TD, INT; 6 ATT, 27 YDS, TD) distributed the ball brilliantly and, above all, quickly, at the end there was a touchdown run that was well worth seeing by David Johnson, who made a strong debut for Houston.
But then the Chiefs took over the game. Mahomes found Kelce in the Red Zone for a touchdown and Kansas City was able to get its run game off to a better start over rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire. Mahomes Watkins served touchdown number 2 via the wide receiver screen.
Houston also got in his own way: while KC successfully played a 4th-and-1 on the first touchdown drive, Houston punted on 4th-and-4 shortly afterwards. In return, the Chiefs touchdown took place. In addition, the Texans could not do an efficient drive before half-time, the field goal went wrong – and there was still too much time on the clock, so that the chiefs in return scored with a quick field goal drive on their part.
NFL: Chiefs dominate Texans in the second half
The second half then became a sure-fire success in a way that should make the rest of the AFC frown. The Chiefs didn’t need the otherwise feared big plays through the air to dominate Houston: Edwards-Helaire opened the third quarter with a wide open 27-yard touchdown run, while Houston was on its conservative route in both play-calling and play-calling also remained true to the 4th down decisions.
When Watson was hit by tyrant Mathieu on a pass at the beginning of the final quarter and the ball landed in the arms of rookie cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, it looked like a preliminary decision in view of the course of the game. But at the latest when the Chiefs kept their foot on the gas pedal in return, successfully implemented a 4th down with a penalty against Houston and Mahomes then hit Tyreek Hill with a perfectly placed pass in the end zone, the game was decided.
Kansas City had played 31 points in a row by then, and faint memories of the playoff game came back – except that the Chiefs didn’t have to be as explosive offensively as in January. Houston was only able to use cosmetic results late on, so the end result looks even tighter than the course of the game actually was.
Kansas City Chiefs (1-0) – Houston Texans (0-1)
Result: 34:20 (0: 7, 17: 0, 7: 0, 10:13) BOXSCORE
Chiefs vs. Texans – the most important statistics
- Clyde Edwards-Helaire had a brilliant start. A little pale at first, he made better and better use of the space Houston gave him and showed his excellent agility for runs between tackles. On 25 runs, he ran for 138 yards and a touchdown. In the passing game, however, it was not yet a factor (2 targets, 0 catches), and was taken off the field more often – potentially due to pass protection concerns – in third downs. Short yardage wasn’t a strength either.
- David Johnson got off to an impressive start on his Texans debut. Johnson looked dynamic and explosive, recording 32 receiving yards and running for 77 yards and a touchdown. His 19-yard touchdown run was longer than any single run he had for Arizona last season. Pro Football Focus listed him with four forced missed tackles in the first half – he had eleven those in the entire preseason.
- Will Fuller recorded 112 receiving yards for the Texans – no other passport catcher got more than 40 yards through the air for Houston. Sammy Watkins (7 REC, 82 YDS, TD) stood out among the Chiefs.
- The Texans have been the bookies’ biggest underdog (9.5 points) since the NFL launched a standalone opening game in 2002 – they still couldn’t cover. The Chiefs have meanwhile won six Week 1 games in a row, the only team that can match an active series on Sunday are the Green Bay Packers.
The star of the game: Patrick Mahomes (Chiefs)
Edwards-Helaire will be in the headlines – Mahomes, unlike Watson on the other hand, continued the previous season seamlessly. His stats would have looked a lot better if Robinson had recorded the long touchdown early in the game, the touchdown to Hill was perfect and Mahomes also had two or three passes – including the second potential touchdown to Robinson – which only a few quarterbacks in the NFL can throw. Mahomes is the first ever quarterback to play three touchdowns without interception in three consecutive season opener games.
Flop of the Game: Bill O’Brien (Texans)
It would not be fair to absolve Watson, his receivers or even parts of the offensive line of any guilt. Houston’s offense in the overall network disappointed immensely – and yet Houston’s head coach was again particularly negative with his decisions. “We thought we needed 50 points,” said O’Brien after the KC playoff bankruptcy in January; only he did not follow his own route. Houston’s play-calling was too conservative, the in-game decisions, especially when it came to fourth down, were too timid. A shaky offense would have needed help from her head coach today, but instead got fewer chances.
Analysis: Chiefs vs. Texans – the tactics board
- The Chiefs started a bit conservatively and surprisingly often bet on the run – but what initially worked out mixed worked out better and better. This was largely due to the fact that Houston acted a lot with two deep safeties, so that KC could expand the defense and run against very light boxes. This opened up spaces that Edwards-Helaire made impressive use of. He ran ten times in the first half, none of which was in the pits against eight defenders. Be Touchdown run was a prime example of this.
- In general, Houston’s defense had no bad plan to limit Kansas City’s passing game. The Texans used a lot of disguise rushers, stunts, delayed rushers and surprised a few times with JJ Watt as a nose tackle. All of this often with the mentioned two deep safeties behind them to contain the big plays.
- On the offensive, it became clear that Bill O’Brien wanted to use his two running backs as matchup weapons. Duke and David Johnson were together early on in the backfield, sometimes with David Johnson as lead blocker for Duke Johnson, then on the next play they both took on receiver positions. They have also been used in screen passing, something Houston underdid last year.
- The Chiefs, meanwhile, when they were not running the ball, showed well-known means. Screen designs with lots of distraction for defense, excellent deep pass designs, free catch-and-runs for the running backs from the backfield and run pass options made life easier for Mahomes.
- Mahomes also acted as a ball distributor, with only a few big plays: He threw the ball loudly Next Gen Stats on average within 2.35 seconds, the fastest value of his career. The 4.7 air yards per pass was the second lowest value for Mahomes to date.
- Noticeable otherwise: Tackling was still a problem on both sides – as was to be expected given the limited offseason with significantly less contact than normally. Houston, in particular, picked up on bad habits from the previous season. On the other hand, it was positively surprising that both teams managed to get by with unexpectedly few penalties.
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