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Chiefs-Texans final score: What we learned as Travis Kelce, Alex Smith, Justin Houston help KC to 27-20 win

By Joel Thorman
Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Houston Texans on Sunday at NRG Stadium by a score of 27-20. The Chiefs dominated the first half and let the Texans back into it in the second half before closing it out. The Chiefs move to 1-0 on the season.

JJ Watt filled up the stat sheet and he was very impressive. However, it was Justin Houston who made a huge impact with a strip sack, which the Chiefs recovered in the red zone. That led directly to a touchdown. JJ Watt did not create any turnovers. Despite Watt's impressive line, Justin Houston's play was impactful, too. I'll let you decide in the comments who was better.

More: Andy Reid on Fisher's situation | Chiefs highlights, videos

Here's what we learned...

Final stats

Click right here.

Travis Kelce: Still a monster

The Chiefs TE caught five balls for 95 yards six balls for 106 yards, including two touchdowns. His first one he went up and got on a crossing pattern in the end zone. The second one was this beauty where he was wiiiide open -- how does that happen? -- and rumbled 42 yards for the score. Check out the early TD celebration:

Kelce also picked up the game clinching third down conversion with three minutes left in the game.

We had a brief scary moment with Kelce. He caught a pass across the middle and Texans DB Kevin Johnson drilled him in the abdomen. He laid on the field for a couple of minutes while trainers tended to him but he ended up coming back in a few minutes later, seemingly fine.

Marcus Peters looks like the real deal

Is there a better start for an NFL cornerback than this?  The first play:

Half credit has to go to Justin Houston for embarrassing the Texans offensive line there. Peters did his job and got the pick. It set up the Chiefs first touchdown.

Peters also had a "Welcome to the NFL" moment when DeAndre Hopkins caught a jump ball over him but overall it was good from Peters. I was impressed with his play.

Jah Reid starts at RT

And he did pretty well. I don't know what his PFF score will be or how coaches will grade him but I went into this game expecting it to be a disaster because Eric Fisher reportedly expressed concern about his ankle to the Chiefs in the days before the game which left no time for Reid, who came to town on Monday, to practice with the team. He did an admirable job in replacing Fisher. We did see Fisher briefly at the end as Donald Stephenson had a finger injury.

Now here's the question that Andy Reid will be getting soon: Will Eric Fisher play next week after the performance by the line? They gave up three sacks but this was against one of the best front sevens in the NFL. And the bottom line is the Chiefs offense moved the ball well and scored points.

Chiefs fans don't like the JJ Watt coverage

Boy, I didn't realize how bad this was. ESPN repeatedly covered JJ Watt's meaningless sacks as the Texans were down by multiple scores. Luckily, Chiefs fans let ESPN know all about it.

Chiefs caught a couple breaks

Let's be honest here. There were two potentially game-changing plays that went the Chiefs way. Philip Gaines was not called for pass interference on a deep pass in the first quarter. Gaines didn't turn around and was beat on the play but the refs didn't call it when he made contact and the Texans had to punt on the drive. After that, there was a questionable non-call on Jamell Fleming in the end zone where it looked like another potential pass interference.

Phillip Gaines was nervous

He went to Rice so he had a bunch of family and friends at the game in Houston. So nervous in fact that he did this...

Still no WR touchdowns

Everyone made the same joke. Still no Chiefs WR touchdowns since 2013.

In This Stream

Chiefs beat Texans: Full coverage

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