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The Good and the Bad from the Chiefs’ loss to Broncos
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- The Good and the Bad from the Chiefs’ loss to Broncos
(Photo by Dustin Bradford/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Kansas City Chiefs lost their second game of the season in Week 8, 28-24, to the Denver Broncos .
Let's look at one thing that went well and two things that didn't from the game:
The Good
Emmett Johnson's performance
Rookie running back Emmett Johnson was the best player on the field for the Chiefs against the Broncos. Johnson finished with five catches for 128 yards, including a 73-yard receiving touchdown. He only got one carry, but it went for 15 yards.
Johnson's long touchdown was a great design by head coach Andy Reid and staff. The Broncos love to blitz on third downs. They send their nickel on a blitz, hoping to keep Johnson in protection. Instead, the Chiefs have Johnson leak across the formation and run a wheel route. The Broncos screw this coverage up, as one of the defensive linemen, likely the defensive end, should drop and carry Johnson. Regardless, it's still Johnson on a defensive end in a footrace, and Johnson is going to win that often.
Andy Reid wanted to get Denver's linebackers in space, and Johnson executed on those plays. The Broncos are in Quarters coverage here against the 2×2 formation for the Chiefs. The boundary cornerback is occupied by tight end Travis Kelce running a 12-yard in route and can't turn back to the flat quickly enough. Wide receiver Rashee Rice runs an underneath route to occupy the backside linebacker, leaving the other linebacker responsible for covering Johnson in the flat because the coverage was flooded. He had no chance of stopping Johnson, easily getting around him for another explosive play.
I really liked Johnson coming out of Nebraska due to his combination of agility and balance in the hole. This play is a good example of that. Johnson makes the defensive end miss in the hole after right tackle Jaylon Moore whiffs on a block, makes the linebacker miss inside, jukes the safety inside with a deceleration move, spins out of another arm tackle, and gains 15. These types of plays were all over his Nebraska film, and he can do that in the NFL as well.
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Johnson is now up to 237 receiving yards on the year. He's been terrific on third downs this year, which is huge for spelling lead back Kenneth Walker. I would like to see Johnson get into the rotation for carries as well. The case against giving Johnson carries is that it takes Walker off the field, and Walker has a greater chance of getting explosives. However, giving Johnson more carries does save Walker and keep him fresher to get those plays. I would argue that the Chiefs should probably throw the ball less than they do now and feature Johnson and Walker more often in the run game.
The Bad
Andy Reid's 3rd and 2 play call before the missed kick
There's been some consternation about Andy Reid's playcalling in this game, but honestly, I think the Chiefs offense played about as well as you can hope. This team has two shaky tackles against a great Denver pass rush and one NFL wide receiver in Rice against Denver's top-tier cornerbacks.
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Kansas City's only options were attacking the Broncos' bad linebackers in coverage, and they did that well. The run game didn't go as well as you would hope, but they also had a backup left guard — a separate issue for the team. Denver was always going to stop the run better in this game than they did in Week 1, but the Chiefs' passing game was legitimately good.
That was a huge difference from Week 1, too, when the Chiefs' passing game was terrible.
That said, I didn't like this third-and-2 call before Butker misses the kick. Chiefs are in 12 personnel and run a half rollout for Mahomes. Kelce is the #3 receiver and runs the corner clearout route, which doesn't make sense to me. The play is designed for Jalen Royals and Xavier Worthy to win on whip routes. Royals and Worthy can't win against man coverage at all and had zero chance of getting open. Wouldn't it make more sense to have one of those two bad receivers run the pointless clearout route and let Kelce or even Rice have the underneath route? Why are we designing plays for Worthy or Royals?
Mahomes should've thrown this ball away, but I don't like limiting the field on third-and-2; mainly, designing the play for Royals or Worthy is bad. Worthy just does nothing on the field well anymore, and they need to replace him. Hopefully Royals' snaps go down once Rice gets healthier.
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The Bad
Chiefs defending the flats
The Chiefs defense made me mad in this game. Once again, they had zero pass rush. Broncos quarterback Bo Nix did hit some nice downfield throws that weren't always bad coverage. But the biggest issue was how badly the Chiefs defended the flats.
Bo Nix is either a vertical or flat thrower. He does nothing else. This is the Chiefs' fifth time facing Nix, and they didn't seem to realize it.
It started twice on the first drive: the first was a running back screen Alohi Gilman was late to close on, and the second was Cochrane completely lost on a bootleg.
Gilman has to defend Jonah Coleman in the flat here and lets Coleman run past him, and he gets called for pass interference.
The Broncos run a switch release to Waddle for a touchdown. Chris Rolland-Wallace and Nohl Williams botch the switch call, and Rolland-Wallace is way too late to recover on Waddle.
The annoying part is the Chiefs messed this up again, this time off a bootleg. Jadon Canady thinks he's running the clearout route, but Williams does too, making one of them way too slow in the flat.
The Chiefs send a six-man pressure here with two to the running back side of the protection. The Broncos have six in protection and slide the right way. I believe Nick Bolton is green-dogging here, which means he blitzes if the back stays in protection; otherwise, he has him in coverage. Regardless, he gets lost on the play, and the blitz means everyone is behind the play when it goes for 51 yards.
