Chiefs – Bengals Overreactions and Takeaways

The Kansas City Chiefs fell to the Cincinnati Bengals in a rematch of last year’s AFC Championship game. The Bengals won with a score of 27-24. This is Chiefs Bengals Overreactions and Takeaways

Takeaways

Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon prove to be a dynamic duo

Rookie running back Isiah Pacheco has received the bulk of the carries for a few weeks now and the Chiefs have become a more balanced team because of it.

Pacheco’s numbers will not blow you away but his explosiveness has given Andy Reid more options other than Mahomes and the passing game. As he has been getting more of a workload the Chiefs have noticeably been inclined more to run the ball in third and medium. Before Pacheco, this was a passing down 80% of the time.

Along with Pacheco, Jerick McKinnon has been a very valuable backup since Clyde Edwards-Helaire has been injured. McKinnon is more of a pass catcher but can also be a weapon in the running game as he rushed for 51 yards off eight carries.

With the absence of Tyreek Hill this season this duo of running backs will prove valuable in the postseason. These explosive backs will look to provide lighting in a bottle whenever the offense needs it later this season.

Is Patrick Mahomes the MVP frontrunner?

Before this game, the answer would have been a yes. But now, Mahomes had his second straight game with only one passing touchdown and made some questionable throws. Many of these will go unnoticed in the stats as would-be interceptions were dropped. The most questionable throw he made this weekend was a laser into triple coverage on a third down.

Right now the race for the MVP trophy is primarily between Mahomes and Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts had a spectacular game this weekend throwing for over 350 yards and four total touchdowns.

Mahomes has failed to provide his MVP-level stats for the last two weeks now. Because of this, there may be a slide in the MVP odds favoring Hurts.

Overreactions?

The Chiefs shouldn’t be the AFC favorites.

With the loss to the Bengals, the Chiefs are now the number two seed in the AFC. Kansas City is sitting on a pretty lead within the AFC West but their record of 9-3 lacks great competition.

The Chiefs’ most prominent wins this season is against the Chargers, 49ers and Titans. Two out of these three teams lost handily this weekend and have shown major weaknesses.

What this shows is that Kansas City’s “big wins” aren’t quite impressive outside of San Fransisco. It is very concerning to see the Chiefs lose to the Bengals again this year as they already fell to the Bills.

There is no doubt that Mahomes and the Chiefs always show up in the postseason but they don’t quite seem to be the same team of years past. They certainly shouldn’t be the AFC favorites this year as they already lost to some of other AFC contenders.

Missing Tyreek Hill?

The Chiefs have been the most explosive offense for many years now. But that has since dropped off some as Tyreek Hill departed this offseason.

Hill’s big play ability won Kansas City many games in the past. But now with the current cast of receivers we are starting to see the drop off in production.

Kansas City’s top two targets are injured leaving a make shift cast of wide-outs which really hurt the team against the Bengals. Marquez Valdes-Scantling was the teams number one receiver this week and had an up and down performance. He caught a big deep ball late in the game but this only made up for his wide-open drop in the end zone.

Heading into the playoffs it will be interesting to see if Mahomes can create the same magic without Tyreek Hill.

This concludes the Chiefs Bengals Overreactions and takeaways.

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