KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The first half was all Kansas City Chiefs — two turnovers, two touchdowns and a two-score halftime lead Sunday during a win at Cleveland’s Huntington Bank Field.
The Chiefs seemed to be in control against the Browns despite an inconsistent offense and Harrison Butker’s missed chip shot in the closing seconds of the second quarter.
Cleveland remained in a giving mood with turnovers on their first two offensive snaps in the second half sandwiched around Xavier Worthy’s 21-yard touchdown run for a 21-0 lead, but Kansas City’s offense came unglued from there.
During the next four drives, Patrick Mahomes went 2 for 12 for 11 yards, throwing eight straight incompletions to close the third quarter, while Kareem Hunt and Isiah Pacheco combined for three carries for minus-1 yard.
It was an eyesore of an offensive performance.
“I’ve got to take care of business on my end for the third quarter of just giving our guys things that they can work with,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I wasn’t able to do that, so I’ve got to take care of that part.”
Reid nobly fell on the sword, but the reality is that a patchwork offensive line, which bumped Joe Thuney from left guard to left tackle and welcomed Mike Caliendo at left guard, struggled mightily against the Browns’ pass rush. It also failed to create any push in the run game.
Reid laid the blame at the feet of the play-calling rather than delving into the offensive line’s struggles.
“I can give the guys better options there,” he said. “We’ll get that taken care of, make sure I clean that up.”
A lot of the 12 hits Mahomes took came during the third quarter, but Reid defended the run-pass split — 12 passing plays and only three runs on those four fruitless drives.
“You’ve got to be able to throw the ball in this league,” Reid said. “That’s how it works. You guys were at the game; some of our runs didn’t work too well either, so we’ve got to make sure we clean that up and get that going. That’s where I can do a better job there for them.”
After Trent McDuffie’s first career interception snuffed out Cleveland’s first drive in the fourth quarter, leading to Jameis Winston’s benching, the Chiefs’ offense showed some life with a 10-play drive that marched 41 yards into Browns territory.
That’s when Mahomes suffered a sprained right ankle on a fourth-and-3 play as he tried to move up in the pocket and make a leaping throw to JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Dalvin Tomlinson, a 325-pound defensive tackle who led Cleveland with five QB hits, dove on Mahomes’ legs from behind and landed on his right ankle.
The Browns didn’t have any sacks, but Myles Garrett also hit Mahomes, who didn’t return after the Tomlinson hit, three times and defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. was credited with two QB hits.
