Back in the day, going all the way back to 2020, we used to get excited when we got to watch Patrick Mahomes and the explosive Kansas City Chiefs in primetime games. Unfortunately, the 2021 version of the Chiefs has struggled, and those struggles continued in this week’s Monday Night Football game. On the day after Halloween, we thought we would get a treat of a game, but it turns out, it was just a trick.
The Manningcast was the highlight of this game for me. We got to see Jon Stewart get body slammed by John Cena, Michael Strahan criticize Jason Garrett and the Giants play calling and Michael Irvin not knowing how to put text messages on Do Not Disturb. I would even say watching a clip of Peyton Manning devour some chicken during halftime was more exciting than the actual game.
Patrick Mahomes still looked off his game. He was 29 for 48 for 275 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. He led the Chiefs down the field on the opening drive only to throw a late pass in the endzone that bounced off his receiver and into the hands of a Giants defender for an interception. The Giants sat back and didn’t allow Mahomes to beat them deep, so he dinked and dunked his way to 275 yards. The Giants brought 3 man rushes at Mahomes most of the night and were still getting pressure and making him leave the pocket, Until the offensive line gets fixed, Mahomes is going to continue to struggle.
Daniel Jones wasn’t much better on the other side. Jones was 22 for 32 for 222 yards with 2 touchdowns and an interception. It didn’t help that his wide receivers were once again beat up with Sterling Shepard and Kadarius Toney both leaving the game with injuries. Jones also dealt with pressure and couldn’t get comfortable in the pocket. His 2 touchdowns both went to his tight ends with a first half touchdown to Kyle Rudolph and a second half touchdown to Evan Engram. That may have been Engram’s last touchdown in a Giants uniform as rumors have him as a possible trade target of the Green Bay Packers heading into the trade deadline.
Tyreek Hill was the only productive Kansas City Chief in this game. Hill had 12 receptions on 18 targets for 94 yards and a 6-yard touchdown. Travis Kelce was shut down and only had 4 catches for 27 yards and also had a costly fumble that led to a Giants touchdown.
Derrick Gore contributed in the Chiefs backfield with 11 carries for 48 yards and their lone rushing touchdown. He split rushing duties with Darrel Williams and will probably be a popular name on the waiver wires in fantasy football leagues this week. I can’t wait to see how much The Joey Wright tells us to bid on him in his article this week. Darrel Williams didn’t completely go away though. He had 13 carries for 49 yards and added 6 receptions for another 61 yards.
It wasn’t the treat of a week 8 finale that we hoped for, and at the end of the night, the Kansas City Chiefs squeaked out a 20-17 victory over the New York Giants. We’re now on to week 9 and the NFL trade deadline. Enjoy the week and we’ll see you next time!
