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On one of his worst days, Patrick Mahomes shows why he is the NFL’s best | Washington Post
A gulf exists between Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the NFL, and his performance Sunday afternoon provided a new way to explain the distance. He struggled to solve a sophisticated defensive game plan, the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense frequently stalled, and he failed to throw a touchdown pass. Mahomes also passed for more than 300 yards. He peeked at a referee to check and see if it was worthwhile to continue scrambling, and when he saw it was, he casually scampered for 25 yards. He led a game-winning, last-minute touchdown drive on which he darted 15 yards on fourth and eight. Mahomes’s tough days render him the most powerful weapon in the NFL. Even when he seems vulnerable, Mahomes is inevitable.
32 things we learned from Week 4 of the 2019 NFL season | USA Today
7. Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes failed to throw a TD pass for only the third time in his career, just the second since the start of his 2018 MVP season.
7a. Mahomes’ “failure” occurred in Detroit, his first NFL start in a dome.
7b. However, while pulling a win out of the fire against the upstart Lions, Mahomes threw for 315 yards, officially putting him on pace to become the league’s first 6,000-yard passer.
7c. And Kansas City still scored 34 points, the club’s record 25th consecutive game with at least 25.
Patrick Mahomes’ impact on Chiefs undiminished by TD bagel | ESPN
Mahomes was 6-of-9 for 55 yards on the final drive, but his most important play was his scramble for 15 yards on fourth down to keep the Chiefs alive.
”As a leader on this team, [Mahomes] kept us collected and kept us with one goal in mind, and that’s to get the ball in the end zone no matter how long it takes us to get it there and whether it takes us one play or 16 plays, 20 plays,” tight end Travis Kelce said. “It doesn’t matter. We’re going north, and we’re getting the ball in that end zone. I think Pat does an unbelievable job of rallying the troops when we need it the most.”
The Chiefs are used to big numbers from Mahomes. He finished with 315 passing yards, but this was only the fourth time that he was held without a touchdown pass. That’s three times in the regular season and once in last season’s playoffs against the Colts.
Patrick Mahomes did not have a typical Patrick Mahomes performance Sunday (24-of-42, 315 yards, zero touchdowns, zero interceptions, 81.0 quarterback rating), but the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback continued his pursuit of the NFL record books. While Mahomes did snap his streak of consecutive games with multiple touchdown passes at 14 (one shy of tying Peyton Manning for the longest streak in NFL history), he did become the fifth different player in NFL history with 300 yards passing in each of the first four games of a season and the first since Peyton Manning and Drew Brees accomplished the feat in 2013.
Manning went on to set the record for most passing yards in a season in NFL history (5,477) that year, a pace Mahomes is currently set to break through the first four games. Mahomes has 1,510 passing yards, which is a 16-game pace of 6,040 (which would shatter Manning’s record).
Now, Mahomes isn’t the first quarterback to have 1,500-plus passing yards through the first four games, but he’s the third in NFL history to accomplish the task, along with Kurt Warner and Tom Brady. Manning, Brees, Warner, and Tom Brady all had seasons of 5,000 yards after torrid four-game starts.
It’s time we paid the Lions some respect
The Lions led for the majority of the game, and Matthew Stafford threw for three touchdown passes, including a stunning catch by Kenny Golladay, where the receiver somehow got both feet down right at the end of the end zone. Kerryon Johnson ripped through Kansas City on the ground, carrying 26 times for 125 yards, but a bizarre fumble on the goal line - which no Lions player thought was a fumble - resulted in a 100-yard recovery for a score by Bashaud Breeland which helped turn the game.
Mahomes was a bit off his usual game - he didn’t have a touchdown pass all night (after 14 straight games of two or more) and failed to make a single connection over 20 yards - but he still found a way to march the Chiefs up the field to win the game late. Damien Williams powered over the line to make sure the men from Arrowhead moved to 4-0. The highlight play came when Mahomes hit Travis Kelce over the middle, and the tight end instinctively lateraled it to LeSean McCoy, who continued the move for a big gain. Even when Mahomes isn’t on fire, the Chiefs are still very special.
Seven stats you may have missed from Chiefs’ win over the Detroit Lions | Kansas City Star
7. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for 315 yards on Sunday, and has 1,510 yards in the Chiefs’ first four games, which is the third-most in NFL history to start a season:
to start a season:
1,557 Kurt Warner 2000
1,553 Tom Brady 2011
1,510 Patrick Mahomes 2019
1,473 Matt Ryan 2016
1,470 Peyton Manning 2013
Mahomes has thrown for 300 or more yards in 14 games, the third most in Chiefs history behind Trent Green (24) and Bill Kenney (15).
The Winners and Losers of NFL Week 4 | The Ringer
Loser: Tight End Hurdles
Hockenson lay motionless on the ground for a pretty extensive period of time after his fall, and his arms appeared to make the fencing response typical of concussions. He was carted off the field and did not return to the game. Hockenson is 6-foot-5 and has a 37.5-inch vertical leap, so his head essentially slammed into the turf from 10 feet in the air. It’s the second hurdle-related injury of the year—in Week 1, Rams safety Eric Weddle got extremely bloody after Christian McCaffrey’s knee slammed into his helmet.
Upon Further Review: 10 Quick Facts About Sunday’s Victory Over Detroit | The Mothership
8. Chris Jones had himself a game
Jones had a sack and a fumble recovery on Sunday, but the box score doesn’t fully explain his impressive performance. The third-year defensive tackle had another sack that was wiped out by a penalty and was consistently wreaking havoc on the interior of the Lions’ offensive line.
9. Derrick Nnadi, Tyrann Mathieu and Alex Okafor all notched a sack
The Lions’ hadn’t allowed a sack in either of their two previous games heading into Sunday before the Chiefs tallied four as a team.
Nnadi’s sack was the first of his brief career and came in a huge moment, as he brought down Lions’ quarterback Matthew Stafford and stripped the ball free, turning things back over to the Chiefs’ offense and halting Detroit’s drive deep in Kansas City territory.
The Chiefs took advantage of the Lions’ mistakes, and the Lions couldn’t do the same
The Lions outplayed the Chiefs. There’s no way around it. They forced three Chiefs fumbles and limited their offense to 13 points at halftime, far less than the 24.7 points they were averaging in the first half of their previous games this season. Patrick Mahomes looked off and didn’t score a touchdown, ending a streak when he had thrown at least two touchdowns in 14 straight games.
The Detroit offense was able to control the line of scrimmage and even made six trips to the red zone. However, the Lions had two plays they’d love to have back, plays where the Chiefs saw a small opportunity and took advantage.
Another good week for McCoy
Seriously, reuniting with Andy Reid — and a functioning offense — has done wonders for LeSean McCoy, who had 11 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown on Sunday against the Lions. This was his second game in a row with a score.
McCoy also had two receptions for 33 yards, and is finding various ways to contribute to the Chiefs offensive success.
Top 13 waiver-wire pickups for Week 5 of fantasy football | Business Insider
Darrel Williams, RB, Kansas City Chiefs
ESPN fantasy ownership: 35.3%
Week 4 stats: 13 rushing yards, three receptions, 43 receiving yards, two total touchdowns — 18.5 fantasy points
One thing to know: Darrel Williams had made the most of his opportunities with the Chiefs, averaging more than 17 points over the past two weeks stepping in for an injured Damien Williams. He should have value for fantasy players in need of running back depth as long as he keeps getting playing time.
Around the league
Raiders’ Vontaze Burfict suspended for rest of season | NFL.com
The discipline marks the longest punishment ever handed down for an on-field act in NFL history. Given Burfict’s reputation as a repeat violator of player safety rules, a lengthy ban shouldn’t come as a surprise.
NFL VP of football operations Jon Runyan said in a league release that Burfict was suspended for lowering his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent, and for repeat violations of unnecessary roughness rules.
”There were no mitigating circumstances on this play,” Runyan said in his letter to Burfict. “Your contact was unnecessary, flagrant and should have been avoided. For your actions, you were penalized and disqualified from the game.
”Following each of your previous rule violations, you were warned by me and each of the jointly-appointed appeal officers that future violations would result in escalated accountability measures. However, you have continued to flagrantly abuse rules designated to protect yourself and your opponents from unnecessary risk.
Sources: Broncos LB Bradley Chubb out for rest of season with torn ACL | ESPN
Denver Broncos pass-rusher Bradley Chubb has a torn ACL and will miss the remainder of the season, a source tells ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Chubb suffered the injury in Denver’s 26-24 loss Sunday to the Jacksonville Jaguars. He left the game twice -- first for a calf injury, then for the knee injury -- before returning to the lineup to close out the contest.
After the game, Broncos coach Vic Fangio said Chubb “had some calf issues and then I think he had another injury in his leg issue that he was able to come back from.”
10 winners from Week 4 of the 2019 NFL season | SB Nation
2. Frank Gore, who could be the last player to ever rush for 15,000 yards
Gore did not look 36 years old while being the only bright spot of a foundering Bills offense. The future Hall of Famer gashed the Patriots’ vaunted defense with regularity Sunday,
No run was bigger than his 41-yard sprint in the second quarter. It not only set up Buffalo’s first points of the afternoon, it also made him only the fourth player in league history to ever rush for 15,000 yards.
In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride
Patrick Mahomes: “Be who we are”
“He never gave up, first of all,” Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said after the game. “He exuded that [on] both sides of the ball. Very easily a young guy can get in the tank if the things aren’t going right. Whether it’s his problem or somebody else’s problem, you start pointing the finger or – pardon, you point the finger at yourself when you go in the tank. He didn’t do that at all. He just kept it going.
“He said, ‘We’re going to win the game, we just have to kind of get rid of some of this garbage here.’ Whether it’s his or whether it was somebody else’s – whatever it was, just get rid of it and keep moving forward.”
Andy Reid: “I got so excited I thought Mozart was an artist”
“I got so excited I thought Mozart was an artist,” he laughed. “It was pretty exciting. You don’t want to turn the ball over. You want to capitalize on turnovers, which we talked about and at least we were able to get half of that done and capitalize on turnovers. But, the best part about it... the guys never doubted one another or themselves for whatever case it might be with a turnover. They picked the guys up that had the turnovers and we were able to rally around it. The defense made some stops. The offense made some plays. It worked out OK. There was a good feeling on the sideline, there was an emotional feeling that we were all in and going to take care of business. That’s reassuring for a head coach.”
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