KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The script seemed so familiar — the Kansas City Chiefs' defense made a critical stop late to give Patrick Mahomes a chance to go win the game, but there was no magic Thursday against Detroit in the NFL season opener at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Facing fourth-and-2 at the Chiefs’ 45-yard line as the fourth-quarter clock ticked down, the Lions went for it only to have safety Justin Reid bat away Jared Goff’s pass for a turnover on downs.
“Anytime we can get the ball to our offense, as explosive as they are, we always have a good feeling about it,” Reid said.
But there would be no Mahomes magic this time.
Kadarius Toney dropped a deep first-down pass, the kind Chiefs fans have become accustomed to igniting a game-winning drive, then a holding penalty on new left tackle Donovan Smith erased a completion to Skyy Moore, who dropped the next pass to set up third-and-long.
Deep shots to Rashee Rice and Justin Watson failed to connect sandwiched around a false start by new right tackle Jawaan Taylor and Detroit took over on downs.
“We’ve got to be better as an offense,” tight end Blake Bell said. “The defense battled their tails off and played great. Offensively, we’ve just got to finish.”
Kansas City’s defense, which played well enough to win without All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones, needed to come up big one more time, but David Montgomery ran over the Chiefs’ defense when it mattered as Andy Reid burned through all three timeouts as Detroit picked up a first down then kneeled out the clock.
“Mahomes is one of the most fantastic, exciting players you’ve ever watched, but not everything’s always going to be a magical fairytale ending,” Reid said. “We’ve just got to play play a better game throughout the course of the game, so that we don’t have to hope and pray for one of those moments again.”
The Lions ranked third in the NFL last season, averaging 380 yards per game and ranked fifth in the NFL in scoring at 26.6 points game.
Kansas City’s defense, which was without suspended defensive end Charles Omenihu in addition to Jones, limited Detroit’s offense to 368 yards and 14 points, but it felt like a hollow moral victory.
“We lost a football game, so that’s how you measure yourself, especially in this league,” linebacker Nick Bolton said. “Games are won in inches and a couple situations down the stretch, we just didn't execute well enough. You could say we gave up 14 points, good start and all that, but ultimately we lost the football game. Our goal was to come out 1-0 this week and it didn’t happen.”
Bolton said that, while the overall numbers look good, the defense needed to be better in key situations, but it with doing work on early downs to set the stage for success.
“I think our biggest problem was tackling — leaky yards, yards after contact,” Bolton said. “They had a couple gains, two-yard gains that we kind of stalemated, and instead they got four or five yards after contact and gave them favorable second downs.”
—
