Chiefs vs. Chargers final score: Kareem Hunt delivers the dagger in 24-10 KC win

The KC Chiefs beat the LA Chargers in Week 3, 24-10. Kareem Hunt’s 69-yard touchdown late in the game sealed it for the Chiefs who move to 3-0 on the season and their 12th straight AFC West win.

We’ve seen a Chiefs win like this before where they look really ugly. They got the big lead over the Chargers in the first quarter and then they got conservative and didn’t really do anything until late in the game. We’ve seen that script before, right? Getting a lead and going into a shell is an Andy Reid staple. We saw the Chiefs use the dagger in New England and we saw them do it against the Eagles.

I was wondering where that dagger was today. It might’ve been this sack on third and 10 from Justin Houston:

The real dagger?

A 69-yard touchdown run from Kareem Hunt, who put up his third straight game with a 50-plus yard touchdown.

Kareem the Dream indeed.

Final stats are here.

A great first quarter

The Chiefs had three first quarter interceptions. They scored two touchdowns in the first quarter off those turnovers. Alex Smith went deep to Tyreek Hill on a touchdown. Andy Reid called the shovel pass touchdown to Albert Wilson. It looked like a blowout. That was all great.

But then ...

Despite what you saw in the first quarter, the Chiefs offense was not good against the Chargers.

The Eagles had a really good front seven and the Chargers had two of the better pass rushers in the league. So I get why the Chiefs had some trouble with Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa on the edges but it killed their offense again this week. The Chiefs offense didn’t look great in the first three quarters last week against Philly and after a couple of early touchdowns in San Diego the offense was not impressive either. It was because of that pass rush (or playcalling or whatever we want to blame it on).

A sign of how bad the Chiefs offense was: they went for a fake punt with the lead in the fourth quarter on their side of the field.

That all changed when Kareem scored on his big run with a few minutes left but let’s not forget this offense needs to do better.

Kareem Hunt and the defense are your MVPs

Hunt was right at 100 yards with minutes left in the game. He already had a good game going. He had a very good game that turned into a GREAT game with his late 69-yard touchdown run that sealed the game. Hunt finished with 172 rushing yards.

The defense, meanwhile, had three interceptions -- all in the first quarter. Holding an NFL team to 10 points is hard to do no matter who you are.

The Chiefs penalties are a problem

They are among the most penalized teams in the NFL. It was a thing in the first two weeks and it was a major thing in this game. Whether it was on the special teams, the offense or the defense, they didn’t discriminate. They got penalties everywhere. I’m not sure the solution here but it seems like a trend.

Where was Travis Kelce?

The Chiefs needed a big play from their playmakers Kareem Hunt, Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelce. Hunt had a really good day, again. Tyreek caught caught the first touchdown pass of the game and was targeted a bunch in the passing game. Kelce? He was quiet for the most part. It was about halfway through the fourth quarter when I realized he had just one target so far.

This week’s personal foul went to Marcus Peters

Andy Reid got ticked off this week when the media kept asking about Travis Kelce and his penchant for personal fouls. We knew this week that Kelce was going to be on his best behavior so we looked to Marcus Peters who was going up against Keenan Allen of the Chargers. Allen called Peters a bum last year so I figured there were some fireworks coming. There was ... sorta. It wasn’t Peters on Allen but Peters on the ref. He went off on one of the refs after what he appeared to be saying was an offensive pass interference that went uncalled. I don’t know what he said but it wasn’t good as the ref flagged him for unsportsmanlike conduct. As Kelce breaks his streak of three consecutive games with a personal foul, Peters starts his own streak at one.

Kareem Hunt has jackhammers for legs

That’s what Rich Gannon said. So this photoshop is great: