Photo credit Jeff Roberson
The Super Bowl champs caught fire immediately after knocking the rust off its first possession.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire rushed for 138 yards and scored the decisive touchdown and quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw for 211 yards and three touchdowns to lift the Kansas City Chiefs over the Houston Texans, 34-20 on Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium.
The Chiefs playing without a full house of fans, settled in with 17,000 screaming fans who sounded much louder than a social distancing crowd.
Kansas City opened the third quarter with the winning drive. From its 20 yard line, Mahomes hooked up with speedster Tyreek Hill for 12 yards to soften up the defense. The balanced attack included receptions to Watkins, who had 66 yards on six catches to this point of the game. Darrel Williams added a 12-yard carry before running back Edwards-Helaire concluded with a 27-yard touchdown run to bump his total to 128 yards also at this point of the contest.
Mahomes finished 24 of 32 and a sack. Edwards-Helaire carried the ball 25 times on a soggy field.
On its opening possession of the game, the Texans marched 80 yards. Watson finished five-of-five and running back David Johnson capped the drive on a flashy run when he took the handoff, cut right, found an opening, and outran the Chiefs’ defense to the end zone with 4:45 left in the first quarter.
Kansas City responded with a similar drive as Mahomes picked up from last season’s Super Bowl run. Like Watson, the MVP of Super Bowl LIV quarterback guided the Chiefs. He eventually threaded a six-yard touchdown pass through traffic to tight end Travis Kelce, knotting the game at 7, following Harrison Butker extra point kick with 14:13 left in the second quarter.
The Chief’s surprising ground game complimented its passing attack. Mahomes threw to his stellar receiving corps, including, Hill, Kelce, Watkins, who all had a touchdown.
Houston’s next drive stalled as Kansas City bumped up its defensive pressure. Watson jump-started the possession with a 24-yard pass to Wil Fuller at the 44. Johnson carried the ball four yards to the 48 but Watson suffered the first of four sacks on the following play which put the offense in a hole. It led to a punt.
By this time, Mahomes and company found its groove, rolling 91 yards on 14-plays. Mahomes found Watkins at the one where he bulled his way into the end zone to give the Chiefs the lead, 14-7 with 2:26 left in the second quarter.
The Texans had an opportunity to add points but kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn missed a 51-yard wide right with 25 seconds left before halftime.
Still, that was enough time for Mahomes to direct the Chiefs into field goal range where Butker drilled a 29-yard field goal with no time left, increasing the Chiefs lead, 17-7.
J.J. Watt and the Texan defense applied pressure to Mahomes and the Kansas City’s offense but the Super Bowl quarterback countered each time it faced a roadblock.
The bright spot on behalf of the Texans proved it can move the ball. Finishing drives is the question.
Houston penetrated to the Chiefs 48-yard line but it led to a punt.
Later, another great start faltered when Tyrann Mathieu pressured Watson into throwing an interception to L’Jarius Sneed returned the ball 40 yards to the Texans 17 with 14:15 remaining in the game.
Watson managed 20 of 32 attempts for 253 yards, a touchdown, and one interception. Wil Fuller caught eight passes for 112 yards.
Edwards-Helaire ripped off ten yards down to the seven-yard line. A few plays later, Texans linebacker Benardrick McKinney thought his Interception of Mahomes would stand. Instead, It was wiped out by a pass interference infraction when cornerback Bradley Roby held target receiver, Byron Pringle which set up an automatic first down from the one-yard line.
On the same series of downs, Hill beat Robey off the line to the right corner of the end zone to cap a one-yard touchdown reception from Mahomes. That put the game on ice as the Chiefs inflated its lead, 31-7 following Butker’s extra point kick.
Houston added two touchdowns to finish with a respectable showing.
The quick pass worked well for Watson and the Texans. He threw a ten-yard pass to Fuller and 12-yards to Johnson as the Texans marched 75-yards to paydirt.
Despite defensive tackle Chris Jones which collected his second sack of Watson, Houston kept its focus as Watson connected with tight end Jordan Akins to complete a 19-yard touchdown pass to trim the score, 31-13 with 7:15 left.
Watson would add a one-yard scoring run with 2:38 to go.
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