Kansas City Chiefs: Week 18 Winners and Losers

The Kansas City Chiefs did everything it took to lock up the number 1 seed in the AFC playoffs. The team came out hot from the start, putting on a 31-13 dominating win over the Las Vegas Raiders in the regular season finale on Saturday. The Chiefs will have a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. (Unless the Chiefs host the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship. Then the game will be played at a neutral site.)

There were many players that contributed to the win, but there were those that stood out to me. Here is my list of the winners and my one loser of Week 18 for the Chiefs.

Week 18 Winners

1. Patrick Mahomes, Quarterback:

Mahomes finished with 231 combined yards in the win, giving him the most total yards in a season in NFL history. Mahomes broke Drew Brees’ record of 5,562 yards, finishing the season with 5,614 total yards. He went 18 of 26 for 202 passing yards with a touchdown pass, finishing with 5,250 passing yards and 41 touchdowns on the season. He was 5 of 7 with a touchdown and a 113.1 passer rating in the red zone as well. MVP, MVP!!!

2. The Running Back Duo of Isiah Pacheco and Jerick McKinnon:

Since Week 9, these two have carried the load and are a big reason behind the team’s success.

Jerick McKinnon caught another red zone touchdown, his 8th receiving touchdown in the last 6 games and 6th consecutive game with a receiving touchdown. Isiah Pacheco scored a rushing touchdown as well, part of the reason why the Chiefs will finish in the top three in red zone scoring for the year.

Pacheco finishes his rookie season as the NFL’s All-Purpose yards leader with 1,559 total yards and is the fifth-most in a season by a rookie in franchise history.

3. Chris Jones, Defensive Tackle:

Chiefs defensive tackle and DPOY candidate Chris Jones put out a monster game, recording 2.5 sacks on Raiders quarterback Jarrett Stidham. Jones tied a career-high with 15.5 sacks on the season. Jones’ dominant season has been very similar to the seasons Aaron Donald won the DPOY title in 2020 who had 13.5 sacks.

Sack Nation put up 6.0 sacks on Stidham and forced two turnovers. More than half of the fourth quarter had expired before the Raiders found the end zone, making the final score appear closer than the game truly was.

The Chiefs finished the regular season with 55 total sacks after only registering 31 in 2021 and as the No. 11 total defense after finishing 27th in 2021.

4. Andy Reid for the Ring around the Rosey play:

Andy Reid is just an offensive play calling wizard. Even though the play didn’t exactly count over a bad hold call on Creed Humphrey, the Chiefs using the Ring Around The Rosey huddle was the funniest part of this game — and showed how much the Chiefs were trolling but having fun. The Raiders did go around Arrowhead on the bus in 2020.

McKinnon took the direct snap and flipped the ball back to Patrick Mahomes, who rolled to his right. Mahomes, who can throw a pass, found Kadarius Toney aka Human Joystick 2.0 in coverage. Toney eluded two defenders and took the pass in for a score.

The play was nullified with an offensive holding penalty by Creed Humphrey. Toney scored on the next play on an 11-yard run to put Kansas City up 21-3 late in the second quarter.

This brings back the fun brand of football we saw when Kansas City won the Super Bowl.

Week 18 Loser

1. Josh McDaniels, Raiders Head Coach (And Mark Davis for Hiring him):

The Raiders are a very poor coached team. They have added the right players to compete with the Chiefs but you have a coach that is 0-9 in games in where you were in the lead, don’t put that on Derek Carr. That is clearly on Josh McDaniels, the Raiders Head coach.

Patrick Graham’s defense allowed us to score on 4 of their 5 first half possessions including 3 touchdowns. The NFL Rushing Champ Josh Jacobs couldn’t get going with just 2.6 yards per carry and Davante Adams was held out of the end zone by L’Jarius Sneed, Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson.

The Raiders didn’t get their touchdown until midway through the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach. They have a lot of questions to address this offseason, including the future of McDummy (McDaniels) and Derek Carr. If it were my choice, get rid of McDaniels and keep Carr. Mark Davis, This one is you, pal.