With a lot of luck, the Kansas City Chiefs beat the New York Giants at 20:17 and benefited above all from mistakes made by the guests. Patrick Mahomes played uncertainly again, but the defense showed rising form.
The Chiefs started the game with a trip to the Red Zone. But there they remained without points, as Patrick Mahomes missed his receiver Josh Gordon under pressure and the ball ricocheted off the surprised running back Jerick McKinney in the end zone and ultimately landed in the arms of Julian Love.
The guests weren’t too happy about it, because Daniel Jones then threw an interception right into the arms of linebacker William Gay. Shortly thereafter, Mahomes found Tyreek Hill in the end zone for a 6-yard touchdown to lead the home side.
The Giants then hit back with their own touchdown at the beginning of the second quarter – Jones on tight end Kyle Rudolph from the 1-yard line after play action to equalize. After a few defensive stops, KC then stepped up: at the end of a drive dominated by rookie running back Derrick Gore, it was the one who scored his first NFL touchdown from 3 yards. The Giants then only managed a field goal from 23 yards at the 14:10 break.
Towards the end of the third quarter, the home side made the next mistake: Kelce caught a pass and Logan Ryan eventually knocked the ball out of his hands and James Bradberry took the fumble. The guests seized this opportunity and marched into the Red Zone. It was there that Jones eventually found tight end Evan Engram for a 5-yard touchdown pass for the G-Men’s first lead.
Chiefs weak in the red zone
In return, Mahomes led his team once more into the Red Zone, where the Chiefs engine stalled again. At 3rd Down, Leonard Williams managed a strip-sack against Mahomes, but O-Liner Trey Smith captured the fumble and averted the complete disaster. KC contented themselves with a field goal from Harrison Butker from 36 yards to equalize.
A little later, the Chiefs had the ball back and were lucky that another Mahomes interception deep in their own half was canceled due to an offside penalty against Oshane Ximines. Shortly thereafter, there was a curious facemask penalty against the guests and the chiefs were back in business. A little later they found themselves in the red zone, but were stopped again – a sack of defensive back Keion Crossen against Mahomes forced another field goal, which put the Chiefs in the lead, but left the Giants 1:07 minutes to answer. That was not enough, however, the game ended on Downs after a sack from Jones.
Kansas City Chiefs (4-4) – New York Giants (2-6)
Result: 20:17 (7: 0, 7:10, 0: 0, 6: 7) BOXSCORE
Chiefs vs. Giants – the most important statistics
- In the drive that led to his first NFL touchdown, Derrick Gore ran for 41 yards at 7 carries. That was the most rushing yards on a Chiefs drive since Damien Williams in 2019.
- Mahomes threw an interception in the Chiefs’ first drive, then a touchdown in the second. This marked the first time in his career that he threw both a touchdown and a pick in the first quarter.
- For Mahomes it was the seventh game in a row with at least one interception. It’s his longest run like this, whether in high school, college or the NFL.
- For the fourth time in a row, the Chiefs recorded at least two turnover in one game. This is the longest active streak in the NFL and the longest under Andy Reid with the Chiefs.
- Mahomes averaged just 2.1 air yards per completion, the lowest figure in his career. And of his 13 passes that went longer than 10 air yards, only 2 made it, also the lowest value in his career.
- Penalties played an important role in the game. The Giants took 10 for 88 yards, the Chiefs even 12 for 103 yards.
The star of the game: The Chiefs’ defensive front
Defense of the Chiefs was a big problem for a long time. This time, however, we managed to make a difference at the front. The Pass Rush, for example, managed 9 QB pressures against Daniel Jones, including three sacks and one strip sack. D-Liner Chris Jones (1 sack, 3 pressures) and Edge Rusher Frank Clark (1 sack, 3 pressures) were particularly outstanding. In addition, the group managed to stop most of the Giants’ runs (3.6 yards per carry). We can build on that.
Flop of the game: Daniel Jones (Giants quarterback)
Of course, Jones helped keep his team in the game. But the bottom line was that this was not enough, especially in the crucial phase. He threw a bad interception in the first half and prepared a touchdown. And he never consistently managed to find his receivers, had a few mistakes and far too seldom used the single coverage of his outside receivers. In addition, he avoided any risk and threw almost only short passes (3.7 aDot).
Analyse: Chiefs vs. Giants – die Taktiktafel
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The Giants actually played consistently with 2 high safetys, these days the usual defensive structure against the Chiefs. However, they varied their coverage on the line, leaving a lot of space at the beginning, but then played Press Man over and over again. And top cornerback James Bradberry also covered tight end Travis Kelce from time to time.
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With the 2 high looks, the Giants, as expected, robbed the Chiefs of the chance of big plays through deep passes. But they also left large gaps for runs through the middle, which the Chiefs took advantage of at times. Otherwise, KC relocated to many short passes, mainly on Tyreek Hill.
- In the Red Zone, on the other hand, the Giants relied on double coverage in the second half against Kelce and Hill, so Mahomes’ secondary weapons were all involved in one-on-one duels.
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If the Giants had the ball, there was no consistency in play-calling. Far too often, offensive coordinator Jason Garrett relied on runs in early downs, which repeatedly brought the offense into difficult third downs.
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As far as the passing game was concerned, it was also mostly about very short passes, which even with 3rd Down rarely went up to or beyond the marker. Caution and ball security were obviously paramount here.
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