The Kansas City Chiefs managed to deliver everyone in the Chiefs Kingdom an early Christmas gift in Week 16.
The team kept things rolling with a 24-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks, clinching their fifth consecutive 12-win season. It provided some new revelations on the defensive side of the ball and some new questions on the offensive side of the ball. Most importantly, they stuck to their winning ways and kept pace with the Buffalo Bills as they pursue the AFC’s No. 1 seed.
So what exactly did we learn about the Chiefs in their Week 16 win? Here are four of our biggest takeaways after the game:
The defense is getting hot at the right time
Heading into Week 16, the Seattle Seahawks offense was the seventh-best scoring offense in the NFL. You wouldn’t know that based on the defensive performance from the Chiefs in the 24-10 win. The defense didn’t allow a Seahawks first down until the midway point of the second quarter. They allowed just two third-down conversions on 12 attempts all game. On fourth down, they were 3-of-6 against Seattle.
They finished the game with 10 tackles for loss, two sacks, five passes defended and an interception. Overall, it felt like the most complete defensive performance the team has managed in several weeks. The defensive line, linebackers and secondary all played extremely well.
Patrick Mahomes really summed the defensive performance up perfectly in his postgame press conference.
“For our defense to stop them in so many critical moments, that’s what we need going forward,” he said. “When they play like that, we’re going to be a hard team to beat.”
This could be a case of the defense getting hot at the right time with the playoffs just around the corner.
Kadarius Toney needs to be more involved in the offensive game plan moving forward
There are certain NFL players who just look different when they have the ball in their hands. Kadarius Toney is one of those players for Kansas City. He’s just so crafty with his vision and cutbacks, it feels like the game is going in slow motion for him at times. It was like that on his 8-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter.
It felt like that one play illustrated why Toney needs more touches moving forward. First, he bobbled to pop-pass from Patrick Mahomes. He was able to recover, but that could have ended poorly. It’s only his second game back after missing three straight with a hamstring injury. In the same play, you saw how effective and explosive Toney can be, but also you saw that he needs more repetitions and work in the offense. He was targeted just two times during the game and didn’t have any touches in the run game. There’s only so much you can protect this kid before you need to turn him loose.
The MVP award is Patrick Mahomes' to lose
It’s no surprise that Mahomes’ daring touchdown run had the Arrowhead Stadium crowd raining down chants of, “MVP, MVP, MVP!” Things were already trending in his favor in the MVP race before the Week 16 game against the Seattle Seahawks, but Mahomes posted about the perfect performance to strengthen his MVP chances.
Things were hardly going right for the Chiefs’ offense, but then two long completions to Travis Kelce set up Mahomes for his shining moment. He decided to become Superman with an improbable touchdown run that certainly was easily one of the best rushing touchdowns by a quarterback this season. He barely tapped the pylon before going out of bounds, but it was just enough to get the score. Should he continue to play turnover-free football and lead Kansas City to a 15-3 regular season record, the MVP is as good as his.
Steve Spagnuolo should shadow top receivers more often
The Chiefs did something in Week 16 that they don’t typically do. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo chose to have third-year cornerback L’Jarius Sneed shadow the Seahawks’ top receiver.
“That was the scheme that (Steve Spagnuolo) had setup going in,” Chiefs HC Andy Reid said. “I thought he did a nice job. (DK Metcalf is) a good football player there. (L’Jarius) Sneed is a good football player too. Matching them up, I thought that was a smart thing by Spags. I thought our coaches did have a good game plan together too. My hat goes off to them.”
The decision was a fairly successful one — with Metcalf being held to just seven receptions on nine targets for 81 yards. He was held out of the endzone and save for one 35-yard reception, he didn’t have many explosive plays. Sneed even earned Metcalf’s praise for his play in Week 16.
L’Jarius Sneed told me Steve Spagnuolo asked him on Monday if he was up for the challenging of traveling with DK Metcalf today and Sneed said he was ready for the challenge.
Metcalf after the game told Sneed he had a lot of respect for him.
— Matt Derrick (@mattderrick) December 24, 2022
This is an uncommon strategy for Spagnuolo, but perhaps it should be employed more against teams with clear No. 1 wideouts.
