The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles 27-20 on Sunday despite running 19 fewer offensive plays. The Chiefs did not look like the offense that beat the Patriots last week but a win is a win.
We grabbed the snap counts from the NFL for the Eagles. Here’s what stood out:
Quarterback
QB Alex Smith: 53
Alex Smith did come up slowly late in the first half. The Chiefs called a timeout after he fell on his shoulder and the trainers looked at him. It apparently wasn’t serious because he came back in and looked OK walking into his postgame presser. However, I did see Patrick Mahomes warming up on the sidelines briefly when it happened.
Offensive line
LG Bryan Witzmann: 53
LT Eric Fisher: 53
RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif: 53
RT Mitch Schwartz: 53
C Mitch Morse: 46
C Zach Fulton: 7
The big news here is that Morse went down with a foot sprain and was replaced by Fulton. If Morse is going to miss some time, Fulton is a good backup. If Fulton goes down, I think the Chiefs would go to Cam Erving, who played some center in Cleveland. This wasn’t the Chiefs offensive line’s best day against a very good Eagles front seven.
Tight end
TE Travis Kelce: 51
TE Demetrius Harris: 24
TE Ross Travis: 6
Kelce almost had a snap on defense too. If you noticed, the Chiefs had Kelce deep in the end zone for the Eagles final Hail Mary but they took him off.
Wide receiver
WR Tyreek Hill: 47
WR Chris Conley: 46
WR Albert Wilson: 34
WR De’Anthony Thomas: 4
WR Demarcus Robinson: 2
Tyreek out-paces Conley. I can’t imagine that’s happened very often, if ever. The Chiefs are settling into their top three receivers as Hill, Conley and Albert Wilson, which I am fine with. Wilson is more reliable than DAT or D-Rob at this point. (Al Wilson gets some hate in the comments section.
Running back
RB Kareem Hunt: 39
RB Charcandrick West: 11
FB Anthony Sherman: 1
Kareem Hunt is clearly the man. The Chiefs activated Akeem Hunt from the practice squad. That led to at least one person emailing me to say, “You know, your running back’s name is Kareem Hunt, not Akeem.” I pointed out to her the difference.
Safety
S Daniel Sorensen: 72
S Ron Parker: 72
S Eric Murray: 50
The Eric Berry question answered. All three of them were in a ton. Sorensen is the every-down replacement for Berry. He does have a subpackage role when Murray comes in but Sorensen it appears will be an every snap player from here on out like Berry was.
Cornerback
CB Terrance Mitchell: 72
CB Marcus Peters: 72
CB Phillip Gaines: 57
CB Kenneth Acker: 2
The Eagles were not afraid to go after Marcus Peters, which was interesting a week after Tom Brady and the Patriots mostly avoided him.
Linebacker
LB Derrick Johnson: 72
LB Justin Houston: 70
LB Dee Ford: 67
LB Frank Zombo: 7
LB Kevin Pierre-Louis: 1
Justin Houston was a force against the run. He was a big reason the Chiefs won the game, from his run stopping abilities to a deflected pass that Chris Jones picked off to collapsing the pocket and forcing Carson Wentz to move. But it all wasn’t good enough, Houston says.
Defensive line
DE Allen Bailey: 60
NT Bennie Logan: 37
DE Chris Jones: 32
DE Rakeem Nunez-Roches: 26
NT Roy Miller: 9
Chris Jones played fewer than half the snaps and got three sacks and an interception. That’s incredible. I also need to shoutout Allen Bailey who seemed to be all over the place. He may not have the Chris Jones-like numbers but Bailey had a strong game. Another shoutout to Bennie Logan, the pass rusher. I remember when the Chiefs signed him all the Eagles fans said he couldn’t rush the passer. That sack on Carson Wentz must have felt good.