The Return of Mahomes

Remember in about the last 45 minutes of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, when the rebels teamed up with the ewoks to crush the empire - both figuratively and literally - with trees and massive boulders?

That is in a nut shell, what the Chiefs did to the Bengals last night. 

At the end of my last blog, I promised you that after a heartbreaking loss to the Pats, there would be a “Return of the Jedi” and that is exactly what unfolded in Arrowhead stadium. 

It began with a 95 yard touchdown run which included Kereem Hunt squirting out of one tackle, just to leap over another defender, to bulldoze a group of defenders at the Bengals 14 yard line and drag them all down to the 6 yard line where he was finally brought down picking up 21 yards. 

On the next play, Hunt would catch a 6 yard pass from Mahomes and would extend it to the goal line - giving the Chiefs their first touchdown of the game and Mahomes’s 19^th touchdown pass of the season. This action movie duo style continued into the second quarter, as Mahomes zips a short pass into the hands of Hunt. Hunt danced out of a tackle by Bengals linebacker, Vontaze Burfict and tanking his way through two more defenders and into the end zone for another Chiefs touchdown. 

Meanwhile, as if he wasn’t already dangerous enough, Mahomes proved, that the QB also runs, rushing for 45 yards on 4 rushes. Mahomes air attack was deadly, passing for 358 yards and 4 touchdowns. He achieved his sixth game passing for over 300 yards, which has become the Mahomes norm. His partner in crime Kareem Hunt finished the game with 86 yards on 15 carries and a handful of TDs. If Mahomes is Luke Skywalker, last night Hunt was his Han Solo. Mahomes finished the game breaking yet another record with 22 touchdown passes for this season (a record previously held by Kurt Warner with 21).

When the offense was not exploding in every which direction, the defense formed the red brick wall that no Bengal could penetrate. Bengals running back and former Oklahoma Sooner Joe Mixon, was held off by a stout Chiefs D to just 50 yards. Mixon did not have a run longer than 6 yards in the entire first half. On third down, outside Linebacker Dee Ford chased down Bengals QB Andy Dalton, knocking the ball from Dalton’s grasp then dragging him to the turf for good measure. 

The Chiefs D got a pair of sacks, including one by Chris Jones who flattened Dalton to the turf like an old Looney Tunes character and another from safety Ron Parker who took the ball into the end zone for his first career touchdown. Unfortunately, on a night where moon beams seemed to shine on a 45-10 decimation of the Cincinnati Bengals, linebacker Terrance Smith went down with a knee injury, being helped off the field but not putting any weight on his leg.

The game ended with a score of 45-10 marking head coach Andy Reid’s 200th career victory.

Best of all, I was there for the entire thing!

Next week Arrowhead will be roaring once again, as the Chiefs roll out the welcome mat for division rivals the Denver Broncos and hopefully pull it out from under them just as quickly. 

Keep checking the blog this week for there might be a surprise bonus blog - chronicling my adventures at Arrowhead Stadium.