Chiefs beat Bengals: 17 winners and no losers

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 45-10, on Sunday Night Football at Arrowhead Stadium.

Usually, in this article, I will list the winners and losers from the game—but not tonight. I could nitpick, but the Chiefs had this game won midway through the third quarter.

Winners only.

Winners

Photo by Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

• Chiefs head coach Andy Reid won his 200th NFL game on Sunday night—and that’s made up of 189 regular-season wins and 11 postseason wins. While Reid has had his postseason struggles, his regular-season success is undeniable, and he’s now within one win of eighth all time. He is five wins (205) from former Chiefs head coach Marty Schottenheimer and nine wins (209) from Chuck Noll. Once Reid overtakes Noll, be it this year or next, he will sit alone in sixth.

“That’s an individual thing, I’m not really good with that,” Reid said. “We are about team. I know a lot of people involved with each one of those wins that have been crucial, so, I enjoy it and I appreciate it, but I would tell you it’s everyone. Everyone is involved. I’ve been blessed to be around some good people, players and coaches. Ownership has been phenomenal. I’ve been really blessed to be in a great position and be a part of it.”

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• Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes continues to play at an MVP-caliber level, and he should once again be the frontrunner after this week’s performance. Mahomes finished 28 of 39 for 358 yards, four touchdowns and one interception. He continued to show development in being comfortable in the pocket, as well as his ability to make plays with his legs. Mahomes also had 45 rushing yards on four rushes in the win. The Chiefs never punted—a feat that has occurred only two other times in franchise history, against the Carolina Panthers in December 2000 and away against the Los Angeles Rams in December of 1991.
• Mahomes connected with eight different receivers on Sunday night, including the big three—Travis Kelce had five catches for 95 yards, Sammy Watkins had four catches for 74 yards and Tyreek Hill had seven catches for 68 yards. Hill had the trio’s only touchdown on the evening during the same drive in which he dropped a wide-open touchdown pass. It was the 20th receiving touchdown of his three-year career.

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• After a slow start to the season, Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt recorded his fourth game in a row of 80 rushing yards or more. Hunt had 86 rushing yards on the night, as well as a 2-yard rushing touchdown. Through the air, Hunt had five catches for 55 yards and two touchdowns. The three touchdowns make 20 touchdowns in Hunt’s two-year career. Hunt has tapped back into the kind of elusiveness we grew to expect stemming from his rookie season. Hunt has 13 career games with 100 yards from scrimmage or more in 23 total tries.

Also, Chiefs fans weren’t the only ones who noticed his ridiculous hurdle:

• Tight end Demetrius Harris has Mahomes’ other touchdown with his only catch of the game.
• The offensive line tandem of center Jordan Devey and right guard Andrew Wylie is especially noteworthy. Based upon our first look, Geno Atkins was kept in check on the duo’s first full night together. The game marked Wylie’s first career start.

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• Chiefs fans will have trouble admitting, but defensive coordinator Bob Sutton deserves a lot of credit for the gameplan he put together against the Bengals.

This comments came through from wide receiver AJ Green after the game:

“They didn’t play a lot of press. I think they had drive where I had a couple of catches where they would be pressing me and bailing and then a lot of two-manning on my side. They switched up some things that we didn’t see on film...They played a lot of two-man. They didn’t show that on film during their previous games. So they played a lot of two-man and they didn’t bail that much on film, and they bailed a lot on me.”

Green was the Bengals’ only effective offensive player—he had seven catches for 117 yards in the losing effort.

• Linebacker Dee Ford continues to be the Chiefs’ best defensive player. Ford sacked Andy Dalton for the fifth sack of his career, and Dalton fumbled on the play but managed to recover the football. Chris Jones also had a nice sack on the evening.

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• Chiefs safety Ron Parker picked off Dalton for his first touchdown in his eight-year career. It was the second interception of the season and the 11th for his career. The interception score gave the Chiefs a 38-7 lead with 11 minutes to go in the third quarter and pretty much sealed the game. The Chiefs hardly looked back after the pick-six.
• As it turns out, rookie linebacker Dorian O’Daniel really does exist. O’Daniel recorded his first career tackle (and tackle for loss) in the third quarter, and he finished with four solo tackles. Watch O’Daniel’s tackle of Bengals running back Joe Mixon here:

Thunderous.

• I liked that it seemed like Reggie Ragland and Anthony Hitchens turned it on in this game, recording three tackles apiece. The Bengals were behind most of the game so they had to throw the ball quite a bit, but the explosive Mixon was held to just 50 rushing yards on 13 carries partly thanks to the effort of Ragland and Hitchens. I have begun to think that Ragland is just starting to get healthy as the Chiefs approach their eighth game of the season.

As promised, no losers tonight. Except for maybe these guys.