Chiefs-Lions: Making sense of snap counts

The Kansas City Chiefs improved to 4-0 by defeating the Detroit Lions 34-30 on Sunday.

Here are the snap counts from the game:

Starters (offensive): WR Demarcus Robinson, LT Cameron Erving, LG Andrew Wylie, C Austin Reiter, RG Laurent Duvernay-Tardif, RT Mitchell Schwartz, TE Travis Kelce, WR Sammy Watkins, QB Patrick Mahomes, RB LeSean McCoy and WR Mecole Hardman.

Starters (defensive): LDE Alex Okafor, LDT Chris Jones, RDT Derrick Nnadi, RDE Frank Clark, LB Anthony Hitchens, LB Damien Wilson, RCB Charvarius Ward, LCB Bashaud Breeland, CB Kendall Fuller, FS Juan Thornhill and SS Tyrann Mathieu.

Did not play: QB Matt Moore.

Inactive: WR Tyreek Hill, RB Damien Williams, T Greg Senat, T Eric Fisher, G Nick Allegretti, T Martinas Rankin and DT Khalen Saunders.

Editor’s Note: Arrowhead Pride obtains snap count data from the NFL’s game stats and information system, which allows us to break out snap counts by run or pass on offensive and defensive plays. Because GSIS data ignores plays that were nullified by penalties, total offensive and defensive snap counts will vary from other sources, which get their data from NFL Gamebooks

Offensive takeaways

• TE Deon Yelder certainly made the most of his very limited snaps, catching two passes early in the game for 43 yards.
• RB Darrel Williams led the Chiefs in running back snaps by game’s end, beating out LeSean McCoy, 33-31. McCoy’s run-pass split was much closer to 50-50 than Williams, who came on for 13 more pass plays than run plays.
• The fact that WR Byron Pringle played just three offensive snaps all game makes his big catch on the Chiefs’ final drive all the more impressive.

Defensive takeaways

• The iron men for the Chiefs were CBs Bashaud Breeland and Charvarius Ward, as well as S Tyrann Mathieu.
• TE Travis Kelce came in on defense during the game’s final play, when Matt Stafford heaved the ball into the end zone.
• S Daniel Sorensen has been on the field for 20 or more defensive snaps two weeks in a row, a slight uptick from the season’s first two weeks. LB Darron Lee came on for a season-high 24 defensive plays.

Special teams takeaways

• S Jordan Lucas, LB Ben Niemann, LB Dorian O’Daniel and S Daniel Sorensen shared the lead for special-teams snaps at 26. FB Anthony Sherman was right there with 23.