It was a close game, but in the end, the Chiefs came away with the victory. There are lots of great stats in this game to go over so let’s jump right into it. Here are my key stats from the Week 11 victory.
91
We have been tracking this stat for a bit now, but with his first catch of the game, Travis Kelce became the fastest tight end in NFL history to reach 6,000 yards and 450 receptions. He did so in 91 games passing hall of fame tight end Kellen Winslow Sr who achieved this in 94 games. Kelce has become widely recognized as the best tight end in the game right now and continues to add to his resume as one of the best to ever play the game.
3
The Chargers seemingly moved the ball at will in the first half, but the common theme for them in that half was three. No matter what big plays they managed to make in the first half, their only scoring drives ended in three points. At halftime, the score was 10-9 in favor of the Chiefs mostly due to the defensive performance by Kansas City. Their defense gave up some big plays, but never let them in the end zone.
2
While we are talking about the defense you have to mention the first-half turnovers with two interceptions off of Philip Rivers. Both of the big offseason signings by the Chiefs got in on the action and gave Kansas City a lead at the half. The first interception was created by a fantastic rush from the edge by Frank Clark, ripping Rivers’ arm and sending the ball right into Derrick Nnadi’s lap for the pick, and the second was a perfect disguise in coverage followed by an athletic grab by Mathieu setting up the Chiefs for their only touchdown of the half.
11,000
Halfway through the fourth quarter LeSean McCoy took a carry up the middle putting him over 11,000 career rushing yards. Among active players in the NFL that ranks third in career rushing yards behind Buffalo’s Frank Gore and Washington’s Adrian Peterson. While it appears his age is catching up to him, McCoy still has that twitch and vision to make some electric plays when he has the ball.
60
Patrick Mahomes not only achieved a career-high in rushing yards for a game with 60 yards, but he led all Chiefs in that category on the day. On three separate occasions, Mahomes managed to pick up a first down on a third-down broken play. While he may not have had the best statistical passing game, seeing him run to pick up the first downs in this game and how he moved around in the backfield looked much more like the MVP Mahomes from 2018 for the first time this season.
1
Frank Clark had arguably the best game of his career in Kansas City against the Chargers with an exceptional stat line on the day. Clark had one sack, one tackle for a loss, one pass defended and one forced fumble. Clark also deserves credit for the Nnadi interception as well as the dropped interception by Mathieu in the second half as he hit Rivers’ arm on both plays forcing the ball into the hands of the Chiefs defenders. He came up big in a game where the rest of the defensive line seemed a bit lackluster overall.