Chiefs beat Eagles: 8 winners, 3 losers

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 27-20 to improve to 2-0 on the 2017 season. It was an early defensive struggle, with a 6-3 score at the half, but things opened up in the fourth quarter.

Here are the games winners and losers:

Winner: Kareem “The Dream” Hunt

Kareem “The Dream” Hunt is one of the NFL’s youngest stars and is doing things no other player in the league’s history has done through two career games.

With the way the fourth quarter went, it may be easy to forget this point, but it was looking grim as the Chiefs were losing a defensive struggle 10-6. On first and 10 at the Chiefs own 47-yard line, Hunt hit his lane perfectly and dashed into the open field for a 53-yard touchdown. It broke the game open.

He added a 2-yard touchdown later in the game by powering his way into the end zone and reaching the ball over the goal line as he fell to the ground.

This is how he celebrated:

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

“The Dream” just doing what he does best. Steal of the NFL Draft? Starting to look like it.

Winner (some of you will make a case for Loser): Travis Kelce

Travis Kelce had a quiet week (for him) against New England last week, and he got off to a better start on the Chiefs’ very first drive with catches for 12 and 44 yards. Later in the game on the first Hunt touchdown play, he took his second taunting penalty in as many weeks, which got some of you chirping on Twitter.

I felt the Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger had a thoughtful tweet on the matter:

It is a hard subject, right? Because you can make a case for Andy Reid and the Chiefs to discipline Kelce. One of you on Twitter suggested him taking a series off.

The catch with that, of course, is then he wouldn’t have had an opportunity to scale another player to score the Chiefs’ go-ahead touchdown. Kelce finished with 103 yards, the ninth 100-plus-yard output of his career.

So what do you do? Reid was clearly enraged on the sidelines Sunday and his postgame press conference answers on Kelce were short. Knowing what I think I know, Kelce will be disciplined ... we’ll just never hear about it publicly.

Winner: Chris Jones

The best game of his career— three sacks and an interception.

Winner: Dee Ford

Dee Ford’s day included perhaps his most impressive play as a Chief—Ford had Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz by one hand with an offensive lineman in between him and held onto him for dear life until he brought him to the ground for the sack.

Winner: Daniel Sorensen

“Dirty” Dan Sorensen has a tall task ahead, as he will be the guy to fill in for Eric Berry the rest of the season. Sunday was a very strong start, especially on two plays in particular-- one involved a heavy shot on Wentz and another involved a play in which he jumped over a lineman to nearly get him for a sack.

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Neither will appear on the stat sheet but they were great plays for the former undrafted free agent.

Winner: James Winchester

“Just a long snapper!? Did you call me just a long snapper!?” - Chiefs long snapper James Winchester, probably, to someone before forcing a fumble Sunday.

It was 3-3 late in the second quarter, with both teams’ offenses continually stalling. Dustin Colquitt punted, and Winchester tackled Darren Sproles, forced the fumble and Anthony Sherman recovered. The fumble led to three points for the Chiefs and a 6-3 halftime lead.

Winner: Eric Murray

Speaking of that halftime lead, the Eagles almost miraculously stole that when Wentz launched a ball downfield before the half and Terrance Mitchell deflected it in the air into the hands of tight end Zach Ertz. Ertz would have scored a touchdown if Eric Murray gave up on the play, but he stayed with Ertz and caught him at the 11-yard line.

The Eagles eventually missed a field goal at the end of the half. Murray saved the Chiefs points.

Winner: Zach Fulton

When Mitch Morse left the game with a foot injury (and on crutches), the offense didn’t skip a beat. Big kudos to Chiefs utility offensive lineman Zach Fulton. No word on whether Morse will miss time.

Loser: Chiefs first half offensive line

Alex Smith had a rough day when it came to time to work, the Chiefs offensive line struggling a bit in the first half. A lot of that has to do with the Eagles front seven, which is very good, so I wouldn’t say this calls for panic, but it’s certainly worth noting.

Reid made adjustments at the half to make it work and it led to 21 more points in quarters three and four. A second half team.

Loser: Jason Kelce

Battle of the Kelces 1 went to Travis.

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Loser: Our old pal Doug Pederson

Former Eagles offensive coordinator Doug Pederson almost pulled it off, but he came up just short, and Reid improved to 9-3 against assistants. Reid gave Pederson a nice face touch to console him.

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