Football is Back! Chiefs down Texans on Opening Night
For the past couple of months, the COVID-19 pandemic has made the start of the football season a big question mark. On September 10th, we were able to start the season on time, with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs taking down the Houston Texans by a score of 34-20.
Kansas City Plays Balanced Football
For the entire game, the Kansas City Chiefs controlled the clock, holding the ball for 34 of the 60 game minutes while committing only one penalty. Early on, Houston had the momentum taking an early 7-0 lead before the defending champs took over the game, outscoring Houston 34-13 after the first quarter. For the winners, Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes managed the game well, while still throwing 3 touchdowns, going 24/32, equating to a 129.3 QBR. Sammy Watkins led the receiving attack with 7 catches for 82 yards and a touchdown. TE Travis Kelce and WR Tyreek Hill also both chipped in touchdowns.
The story of the Kansas City offense on opening night was not the passing attack, but the debut of RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire, who dominated in his first career game. The former LSU product carried the ball 25 times for 138 yards while scoring his first career touchdown. To add to the rushing attack, Darrel Williams chipped in 7 carries for 23 yards. The Chiefs ended the game with a pass: rush ratio of 32:34.
On the defensive side of the ball, Kansas City did a good job containing Deshaun Watson and the Texans, holding them to only 20 points. In his NFL debut, L’Jarius Sneed made three tackles and recorded his first career interception. Chris Jones led the way with 1.5 sacks, while Alex Okafor, Frank Clark, and Dorian O’Daniel chipped in a sack as well.
An Uneven Night for Houston
For most of the night, the Texans struggled to get any type of rhythm on the offensive side of the ball, scoring just 7 points before the fourth quarter, scoring 13 points in garbage time. Despite this, the Texans had a lot of positives to take from this game, especially from the running game. David Johnson, trying to regain his 2016 form, carried the ball 11 times for 77 yards, finding the endzone once. Johnson also caught three passes for 32 yards in the losing effort. On the receiving side, Will Fuller V led the receiving attack, catching 8 passes for 112 yards. Besides Fuller V, the Texans receivers were non-existent for the entire team. Brandin Cooks and Randall Cobb totaled just four catches for 43 yards on the night.
On the defensive side of the ball, Jacob Martin had the lone sack, while Zach Cunningham and Bradley Roby led the way with 6 tackles each. Benardrick Murray and John Reid both also chipped in 5 tackles.
Looking Forward
Going into Week 2, the Houston Texans will look to salvage their Week 1 loss against the Baltimore Ravens at home. As for the Chiefs, they will look to start the season 2-0 going on the road to Los Angeles to take on their division rival Chargers.
Stats from profootballreference.com
