Kareem Hunt, Marcus Peters with monster nights as Chiefs beat Chargers

The Kansas City Chiefs move to 8-6 and remain in first place with their 30-13 win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday night. The Chiefs have won eight straight over the Chargers.

Next week, the Chiefs host the Dolphins and then visit the Broncos in Week 17. Their chances of winning the division and hosting a playoff game are looking good if they win out (well, they’re guaranteed to do that if they win out). They just need to beat the Dolphins next week to win the AFC West.

(Find more on the Chiefs playoff picture here)

As usual, this Chiefs game was up and down. Alex Smith was 13/17 in the first half and looked pretty good overall. Kareem Hunt was excellent throughout the game and really made everyone look better. Tyreek Hill had a killer 64-yard touchdown catch over Chargers CB Casey Hayward.

Defensively, the Chiefs were good overall. There were turnovers on three straight Chargers possessions at one point. Bob Sutton had some nice wrinkles early on to get some pressure on Philip Rivers but you still saw big plays from Melvin Gordon. Marcus Peters and Ron Parker both had picks, Peters forced a fumble and Parker recovered it. The Chiefs can win with this defense.

Final stats are here.

Kareem Hunt is back

24 carries for 155 yards and 2 total TDs.

This was an Early Season Kareem Hunt game. He was dynamic breaking tackles and getting to the second level. Credit the offensive line for opening things up and to Kareem The Dream for consistently delivering. The Chiefs offense is different when Kareem is running like this.

Speaking of delivering ...

Marcus Peters had a monster game (so did Ron Parker)

I am on record — on tape! — saying that this would be a Marcus Peters game. We did our podcast earlier this week and I said I would be surprised if Peters didn’t walk out after this suspension and put up a huge game. I said I would be surprised if he didn’t get an interception.

He did better than that. In back to back plays, he intercepted a pass and helped force a fumble. Later on, he made a key open field tackle on third down to force a fourth down (where Ron Parker then picked off Rivers). Then for good measure he picked off Rivers one more time.

It felt so good to see him play like this after he was suspended last week. It seems that whatever happened there has been fixed and Peters is back to being Peters — picking off passes (and holding the ball like a loaf of bread!) and forcing fumbles.

If Tyreek is even, he’s leavin’

If you dare cover Tyreek Hill one on one, the Chiefs have to make you pay.

Alex Smith did here with a 64-yard touchdown over Chargers CB Casey Hayward, who some (PFF) might say is an elite cornerback this year.

Was this a catch?

They called it incomplete, reviewed and confirmed it was incomplete. This one didn’t feel right.