The Kansas City Chiefs got back to their winning ways with a 41-31 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on “Sunday Night Football” in Week 4. They started this game off on the right foot and they didn’t let up for a full four quarters, controlling the game from start to finish. The Chiefs will now carry a renewed energy as they head back to Arrowhead Stadium to take on the Las Vegas Raiders next Monday.
What exactly did we learn about the Chiefs in their Week 4 win? Here are four of our biggest takeaways after the game:
Super Bowl LV and Week 3 played a part in the win
There was a lot of talk about the Chiefs’ Week 3 loss to the Colts and their Super Bowl LV loss heading into this Week 4 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Asked about the primary motivation behind the big performance on Sunday night, most players seemed to agree that both games were on their minds.
“You can throw it all together, man,” Chiefs TE Travis Kelce said. “There was a sour taste in our mouth from last weekend, there was a sour taste in our mouth from the last time we were down here in Tampa. I’m going to put both of those behind me at this point. We’re here now. We’re going to roll with this momentum and how well we played today.”
Patrick Mahomes agreed with Kelce’s thoughts that really both games influenced their performance.
“Yeah, it’s definitely a mixture of both,” Mahomes said. “When you play like you played last week, you have to be motivated to get back on track. Obviously, playing at the stadium, I think when I got to the stadium I realized, ‘Man, I want to win here.’ The bad taste that I had last time definitely came into effect a little bit more. But it’s still not a playoff game. At the end of the day, it’s not a playoff game, it’s a regular season game which is important, but that Super Bowl is always going to be a bad taste for me.”
Anytime this team plays badly they want to be able to respond the right way. This week felt especially important for these players because they have a lot of new pieces on the team who weren’t here for the Super Bowl LV loss and hadn’t yet been through the adversity of losing a game. Not only did many of those players step up and help some veterans achieve their redemption, but they responded to the Week 3 loss the right way. That’s a good sign for the season and this team moving forward.
The Chiefs' rushing defense is legitimate
It’s about time we started talking about the Chiefs’ rush defense and its potential to be one of the best in the league and one of the best in franchise history. They’ve been holding the line against some very good running backs this season so far in Austin Ekeler, Jonathan Taylor and James Conner. This week, they managed to hold Leonard Fournette without positive rushing yardage and stamped their name in the franchise record books in the process.
Tampa Bay only ran the ball six times against Kansas City in Week 4. They were playing from behind all night long, so it’s not a huge surprise that they didn’t run the ball often. The six rushing attempts by the Bucs are the fewest ever against a Chiefs team in franchise history. It replaces a 9-rushing attempt game by the Oakland Raiders in 2004.
On those six rushing attempts, the Buccaneers gained just three total yards. That ties the franchise record for the fewest rushing yards allowed, which was set back in 1961 against the San Diego Chargers.
The rush defense will have their work cut out for them again in Week 5, facing a Las Vegas Raiders team whose offense has run through the ground game so far this season.
No. 1 scoring defenses don't scare Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes
If you’ve got the No. 1 ranked scoring defense in the NFL and you’re about to play Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, you’re in for a bad time. The game that comes to mind prior to this week’s dominant performance against the Buccaneers is the AFC divisional round game against the Buffalo Bills. Mahomes made those guys look like they hadn’t sniffed the No. 1 scoring defense all season long.
He extended his success in Week 4 against Tampa. Mahomes has now played the NFL’s No. 1 ranked scoring defense seven times during his career. During that span, he has a 6-1 win-loss record, he’s thrown for over 322 yards per game and he’s thrown 15 touchdowns compared to seven interceptions. The Chiefs have averaged 31 points per game in those seven games against No. 1 scoring defenses. It’s just crazy the amount of success we’ve seen from Mahomes and the offense against some really good defensive teams.
There is immense respect between Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady
If you ever doubted the mutual respect that Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady have for each other, look no further than their brief postgame interaction when the clock struck zero. Brady came up to Mahomes and said the following:
Respect.#Buccaneers QB Tom Brady: "You played great, keep it up." #Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes: "Yes sir."
— Charles Goldman (@goldmctNFL) October 3, 2022
The two players now have a 3-3 record against each other since Mahomes became the Chiefs’ starter in 2018. Mahomes doesn’t expect this will be the last game against Brady either.
“I feel like I’ve had the last game against Tom Brady like four times now,” Mahomes said. “Until he is not on that field when I step on the field, I’m not going to believe it’s my last game against him.”
