{"id":32697,"date":"2025-09-15T01:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T01:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32697"},"modified":"2025-09-15T01:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T01:58:07","slug":"breaking-chiefs-eagles-week-2-rapid-reaction-a-bad-loss-with-some-good-qualities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32697","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Chiefs-Eagles Week 2 Rapid Reaction: A bad loss with some good qualities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kansas City didn\u2019t get the score it wanted against Philadelphia, but took some steps forward.<\/p>\n

\"Chiefs-Eagles<\/p>\n

\n

The Kansas City Chiefs have started the season 0-2 for the first time since 2014 \u2014 the last year the team missed the playoffs \u2014 and for the first time in quarterback Patrick Mahomes\u2019 career. Kansas City followed its season-opening 27-21 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers with a 20-17 defeat at the hands of the world champion Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday afternoon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Here are my initial takeaways from the game.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Chiefs made a bad decision<\/h2>\n

\"Final<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Facing a fourth-and-1 at their own 36-yard line in their first drive of the second half, the Chiefs chose to go for it \u2014 but running back Kareem Hunt was stuffed for a loss. At that moment, the score was 10-10. It was too soon to be desperate enough to go for it on fourth down inside the opponent\u2019s field-goal range. The defense proved it was the wrong decision on the Eagles\u2019 next drive, forcing a three-and-out that resulted in a 51-yard field goal that gave the Eagles a lead they would not relinquish. If punter Matt Araiza had been brought in to flip the field before that stop, the game might have played out differently.<\/p>\n

Just the same, there were positives to be found in the loss.<\/p>\n

\"Travis<\/p>\n

\n

The Chiefs got over being flat<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

If there was one thing the Chiefs didn\u2019t want to do on Sunday afternoon, it was to come out playing flat. The Eagles got the ball to begin the game \u2014 and right from the opening snap, it was obvious the Kansas City defense was loaded for bear. It was so <\/em>energized that Chris Jones was called for neutral zone infractions twice in the opening series. Both defenses got stops in their opening drives \u2014 and both continued to hold the opposing offenses to very little production. Both teams managed to cobble together drives to put touchdowns on the board during the opening half, but both needed fourth-down conversions to stay alive.<\/p>\n

\n

The Kansas City defense showed it can play well<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

In the nine days since the Chiefs lost their season opener to the Los Angeles Chargers in Brazil, there was a lot of talk about how bad the defense had become \u2014 and based on what we saw in S\u00e3o Paulo, that criticism was justified. But on Sunday afternoon, the defense was able to keep Philadelphia\u2019s vaunted trio of playmakers under control. Wide receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown \u2014 along with running back Saquon Barkley \u2014 combined for 16 touches and just 88 yards in the first half.<\/p>\n

The trouble, however, was that the Eagles\u2019 defense also played very well \u2014 and without wide receivers Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy, it was hard for Kansas City to keep pace with the Eagles. The Chiefs didn\u2019t complete a big play until their final score: a 49-yard touchdown pass to wideout Tyquan Thornton with just over three minutes left in the game.<\/p>\n

\n

Patrick Mahomes overshadowed Jalen Hurts<\/h2>\n

\"Eagles'<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Everywhere you turned in the last week, you would find people talking about the Philadelphia quarterback\u2019s ability to make plays with his feet. On Sunday, neither quarterback was able to make many big passing plays \u2014 but only one of them routinely made plays while scrambling: Kansas City\u2019s Mahomes. He carried the offense on his back in the first half, scrambling five times for 60 yards and the team\u2019s first touchdown, while Hurts had just two runs for 13 yards.<\/p>\n

But at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Mahomes did something else that Hurts hadn\u2019t done during the game: throw an interception. His pass to Travis Kelce at the goal line \u2014 what should have been the scoring play of an exquisite 14-play drive \u2014 went through the tight end\u2019s hands into the waiting arms of the Eagles\u2019 Andrew Mikuba, who was on the way to a 100-yard pick-6 before rookie tackle Josh Simmons found the speed (and the angle) to knock him out of bounds at the Philadelphia 41-yard line. Four plays later, Hurts found Smith for a 28-yard pass that put the Eagles on the Kansas City 3-yard line \u2014 and the Eagles took a commanding 20-10 lead with a tush push.<\/p>\n

In the end, though, Hurts threw for just 101 yards \u2014 while Mahomes collected 187.<\/p>\n

This will be a very tough loss for the Chiefs to handle. It is likely to reverberate throughout the season. But the team actually played well enough to have a real opportunity to win the game. There were at least three points where single plays could have made the difference: Harrison Butker\u2019s 58-yard miss in the first quarter, Mahomes\u2019 interception (which represented a 14-point swing) and Andy Reid\u2019s fourth-and-1 call in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

So in many ways, this one-score loss was very similar to a number of games the Chiefs played in 2024. It\u2019s just that things didn\u2019t fall their way \u2014 or they didn\u2019t execute well enough \u2014 at critical moments. Does this game represent the beginning of a return to the mean, or the team losing its ability to find a way to win?<\/p>\n

Time will tell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kansas City didn\u2019t get the score it wanted against Philadelphia, but took some steps forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kansas-city-chiefs"],"yoast_head":"\nBREAKING: Chiefs-Eagles Week 2 Rapid Reaction: A bad loss with some good qualities - Breaking News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32697\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BREAKING: Chiefs-Eagles Week 2 Rapid Reaction: A bad loss with some good qualities - Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kansas City didn\u2019t get the score it wanted against Philadelphia, but took some steps forward.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32697\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Breaking News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T01:58:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/LIONS-NEWS-1-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"MrKen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32697\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/breakingnews.azontree.com\/?p=32697\",\"name\":\"BREAKING: Chiefs-Eagles Week 2 Rapid Reaction: A bad loss with some good qualities - 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