Arrowheadlines: The Chiefs are a second-quarter team

The latest

The Chiefs Own The Second Quarter | Forbes

The Kansas City Chiefs have outscored their opponents by a whopping 57-6 margin in the second quarters of games this year.

“I don’t think we’re just trying to score in the second quarter,” wide receiver Demarcus Robinson said. “We just try to go out and make plays every time a play is called. I guess it’s a ‘second-quarter luck’ right now.”

The Chiefs have scored 56% of their total points in the second quarter, and Robinson was a big part of that barrage in Kansas City’s 33-28 victory against the Baltimore Ravens.

Week 3 NFL takeaways: Fast starts by Chiefs, Pats, Cowboys | ESPN

Mecole Hardman, Demarcus Robinson and Darrel Williams showed the Chiefs’ quality offensive depth. The Chiefs can thrive in the passing game when the injured Tyreek Hill is out of the lineup, as evidenced by Hardman and Robinson each scoring a touchdown. And Williams led the Chiefs in rushing, giving the Chiefs some confidence they will be OK if Damien Williams and LeSean McCoy can’t play because of injuries in next week’s game at Detroit. -- Adam Teicher

MV-Repeat? Patrick Mahomes unstoppable in win over Ravens | NFL.com

The results thus far have been jaw-dropping. Through three games, Mahomes has completed nearly 72 percent of his passes for 1,195 yards and 10 touchdowns for a team that has yet to lose. The man threw for 5,097 yards and 50 touchdowns in his first NFL season and it sounded ridiculous. Now he’s looking very much like a man who might surpass those numbers.

There isn’t another player in the league right now who can compete with that. Drew Brees is sidelined with a thumb injury, Ben Roethlisberger is out for the season and Tom Brady simply doesn’t put up numbers like that anymore. You can throw out Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott -- who admittedly has enjoyed a strong start for the Cowboys -- but that’s really reaching at this point. This game against Baltimore was billed as a showdown between Mahomes and Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson and it seemed like a silly narrative once the game ended.

Giants GM Dave Gettleman, who gets the last laugh, is the winner of NFL Week 3 so far | SB Nation

The Chiefs’ wideouts, who make Tyreek Hill look a bit more expendable every week

Kansas City’s tailbacks only ran for 27 yards in the first half, and it didn’t matter. The Chiefs took aim at the Ravens’ solid secondary and tore it to shreds. Hardman and Robinson only had five catches, but those five plays resulted in 140 yards and 14 points. Travis Kelce and Sammy Watkins added a dozen more catches for 153 yards. Any concerns about the team’s passing game struggling as Hill recovers from a shoulder injury were overblown.

What we learned from Sunday’s Week 3 NFL games | NFL.com

LeSean McCoy is getting back in sync with Andy Reid. Starting for injured Damien Williams, McCoy looked spry early after entering with an ankle injury. Shady galloped for multiple chunk gains, including a 25-yarder to open up the second half. A dual-threat ideal for Reid’s offense, McCoy generated 54 yards on eight carries (6.8 average) with a TD, and added 3 catches for 26 yards and another score. McCoy exited early in the fourth quarter with an ankle injury. Darrel Williams took over and ripped off a 41-yard run setting up a key field goal late. In classic Reid fashion, Williams caught a perfectly executed screen-pass call to earn a first down to ice the game. The lesson: Andy Reid is a gawd at generating RB production.

Patrick Mahomes opted not to throw a block when he saw Earl Thomas coming | Yahoo Sports

In the second quarter of the win over he Ravens, Mahomes had an opportunity to throw a block after receiver Mecole Hardman caught a screen pass to the left and unexpectedly reversed field. There was Mahomes, leading the way and ready to create a moment that would win him ample film-room praise.

He thought better of it, and he hit the deck with a baseball slide.

After the game, I asked him by phone whose voice he heard in his head before he decided in that instant to not actually throw a block.

“I didn’t hear anyone,” Mahomes said with a laugh. “But I saw Earl Thomas coming.”

Week 3 Booms and Busts: Patrick Mahomes mocks the Regression Police | Yahoo Fantasy

Even without Hill, the Kansas City passing tree is an embarrassment of riches. Travis Kelce (7-89-0, eight targets) always looks like the big kid on the playground, a man among boys. Mecole Hardman zipped for an 83-yard touchdown, turning on the jets and reminding us of Hill. Demarcus Robinson (3-43, touchdown) makes a splashy play every week. Even the running backs entered the fun — Darrel Williams collected 109 total yards, while veteran LeSean McCoy compiled 80 yards and two touchdowns, the ultimate fantasy deodorant.

Early Week 4 Fantasy Football Waiver Wire | SI.com

Mecole Hardman, WR, Kansas City Chiefs (49% owned)

Patrick Mahomes and the high-octane Chiefs offense have picked up where they left off last season. Mahomes has thrown for 370-plus yards and three-plus touchdowns in each of the first three games. Tyreek Hill (clavicle) may not miss much more time, but a different Chiefs wide receiver has led the team in fantasy production without Hill. This week, it was the rookie speedster out of Georgia.

Both Sammy Watkins and Travis Kelce had more targets (eight) on Sunday, but Hardman led the team in receiving yards (97), which included an 83-yard touchdown. Hardman now has more than 60 yards and a score in back-to-back games with a total of six catches for 158 yards and two touchdowns on 11 targets over that span.

Around the league

Emmanuel Sanders: Broncos ‘living in a world of suck’ | NFL.com

“Times are rough around here,” the veteran wide receiver said, per The Athletic’s Nicki Jhabvala. “Obviously the past three years -- it’s been tough. Trying to get it right. We sit at 0-3, living in a world of suck. Football is still fun but it’s not so much fun when you’re losing, especially when you prepare as hard as you can, you go out and have four targets, two catches and 10 yards. But there’s always next week, so I’m optimistic.”

Sanders’ frustration is understandable on multiple levels. As he noted, he wasn’t especially involved in the Broncos’ run-first attack at Green Bay. Just last week, he caught 11 passes for 98 yards and a touchdown. While the 10th-year wideout had gotten off to a strong start to the season, Denver has scored just 46 points through three games. Only two teams among those that have played three games as of Sunday afternoon have scored less.

Chargers can’t stop Texans’ second-half surge or deliver late in loss | Los Angeles Times

Against the Texans at Dignity Health Sports Park, they blew a 10-point halftime lead, lost two potential game-altering plays to penalties and simply couldn’t lock their arms around quarterback Deshaun Watson.

“We can’t allow certain things to keep happening,” linebacker Thomas Davis said. “We just gotta be better. We just gotta execute better.”

Including the playoffs, the Chargers were 7-1 last season in one-score games. That’s all they’ve played so far in 2019, and they’re 1-2.

Browns coach admits late draw play a ‘bad call’ | ESPN

According to ESPN Stats & Information, no NFL team had attempted a draw on fourth-and-9 or more since at least 2007, when ESPN began tracking such calls.

”It just didn’t work. It was a bad call,” said Kitchens, who is Cleveland’s offensive playcaller. “We’re trying to win the game and we’re on their side of the field. Bad call.”

With solid field position, the Rams drove down to kick a field goal and extend their lead.

Mayfield was also asked about the playcall, as well, but blamed execution for coming up short.

”I know what you guys are gonna try and do is talk about the playcalling,” Mayfield said. “But you know what, that’s why I said execution’s the most important thing. Whatever we have called, we have to do our job.”

The Winners and Losers of NFL Week 3 | The Ringer

Winner: Danny Dimes

What makes Jones’s performance so unbelievable to me is that he was not exactly an unknown quantity coming out of high school. Jones played 36 games at Duke, starting for three years. There was more than enough tape for draft folks to build their opinions on him, and more than enough sample size for analysts to form a statistical opinion on him. And in those three years, Jones never played a game as good as the one he played Sunday. He never had a game in college with 300 yards, no interceptions, and a rushing touchdown, let alone a game with 330 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a rushing touchdown. He had only nine 300-yard games, and he threw at least 40 passes in eight of them, five of which were team losses. He had only 36 passing attempts Sunday. Jones essentially played a better game in his very first NFL start than he did in three years at Duke. Criticize the Buccaneers defense if you must, but I suspect they’d outperform most ACC defenses.

In case you missed it at Arrowhead Pride

Five winners and three losers from the Chiefs’ 33-28 win over the Ravens

Last week, rookie wide receiver Mecole Hardman had a long touchdown catch called back against the Oakland Raiders — but on Sunday, his touchdown bomb stayed on the board. The 83-yard reception came in the second quarter and put the Chiefs up 20-6. Hardman finished the game with two receptions, 104 total yards and the touchdown. The rookie is filling in nicely for the injured Tyreek Hill, helping the Chiefs offense look like it hasn’t missed a beat with multiple starters out

Ravens running back Mark Ingram scored the first 18 points for Baltimore — and looked unstoppable in the running game. Ingram finished with 103 yards (and three touchdowns) on the ground on 16 attempts. Although many didn’t think it was possible, Ingram’s addition to the Ravens somehow made their run game even more dangerous

Five things we learned as the Chiefs beat the Ravens

Harrison Butker is worth every penny

When an NFL placekicker misses an extra point, it tends to create questions about them. People tend to forget that PATs are no longer automatic.

Still, they are mostly automatic.

Harrison Butker missed an extra point on Sunday — a serious matter because sometimes missed PATs can decide the outcome close games — but in ways, both big and small, Butker demonstrated why the Chiefs gave him that $20 million contract extension.

First, Butker was able to shake off the missed field goal. The next time he lined up in field goal formation, he nailed a 42-yarder. No problem.

Second, he kicked off seven times in the game. Five of them were unreturnable. Of the two that remained, one was meant to be returnable. Butker’s final kickoff was deliberately kicked so that it would hit the ground just behind the blockers immediately in front of Ravens returner Justice Hill and bounce the rest of the way — which gave Chiefs tacklers more time to get downfield. Hill got a 22-yard return, but after such a well-executed kick, the likelihood it was even possible to get a bigger return was extremely low.

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