Chiefs tackles stepped up when Mahomes needed them most

The Kansas City Chiefs desperately needed a win on Sunday night against the Detroit Lions to avoid dropping to 2-4 on the season. Just a few hours before the game started, word spread that KC might unexpectedly be without their rookie star left tackle, Josh Simmons, making that win even more difficult to pull off. Fortunately for the Chiefs, Jaylon Moore and Jawaan Taylor stepped up, made sure Patrick Mahomes was comfortable, and led KC to a 30-17 win. Most of the attention will be on Patrick Mahomes and the all-around performance of the offense (and the pending return of Rashee Rice), but that performance doesn’t happen without the solid tackle play by Moore and Taylor. We’ve seen that Mahomes doesn’t play as well when he doesn’t trust his tackles, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday. Last season, the Chiefs never found an NFL-caliber starting left tackle, and while Jawaan Taylor’s play on the right side fluctuated between poor and average, he was racking up penalties left and right. So basically, last seaso