Voice of the Chiefs Mitch Holthus and Senior Team Reporter Matt McMullen break down the Chiefs’ thrilling Week 1 victory over Denver, plus wide receiver Rashee Rice joins the show! Matt also checks in with Ari Wolfe to preview Kansas City’s upcoming matchup against Indianapolis while also taking a look at the rest of the NFL.
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Speaker 1: All right, Matt, did you ever, okay, this sounds bad, but a terrible nightmare, but you wake up and you go, oh man, thank you, Lord. It was a dream. It was just a dream. Or the converse of this, you wake up and go, was that a dream? And then you look at your phone and go, oh no, this was one of the greatest things that ever happened. And it was real. You ever had that?
00:00:18
Speaker 2: So I have the first one a lot where I still have the total stereotypical dream where I have a test coming up, like I’m in high school or college. I have a test coming up and I haven’t been to class all year. I’m panicking.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:00:31
Speaker 2: I have that a lot.
00:00:32
Speaker 1: Once terrified.
00:00:33
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:00:33
Speaker 1: And I’ve had the same and you go, Oh good. It’s just a dream. But then there’s the opposite of like, what just happened? Was that a, Oh no, that was real. And that has the feeling of this 31 to 10 win over the Broncos, which was domination against a team that was 14 and three a year ago.
00:00:52
Speaker 2: I mean, it’s everything we could have hoped for a big win. a tone setting win. Really all last week we talked about how this was an opportunity to set the tone for the entire season. I think we did that in this game because not only did we win, we won convincingly and we won the way that we knew we wanted to win, right? By running the football and seeing our rookie class go out there and make plays. It didn’t come down to the final play and the ball bounced our way or something like that. That would have been fine. But to win the way that we did was a true tone setting kind of win. And Again, I think right away, I put the rest of the league on notice. It told them something that we already knew that, hey, the Chiefs are still here. You can doubt the Chiefs all you want, but they’re going to go out there. They’re going to run the ball down your throat and punch those dudes in the mouth. It was so much fun.
00:01:37
Speaker 1: It may be June or August, but people may want to pay attention to what we’re saying because you and I get peeked behind the curtain. And what we saw in addition to all of that was a very aggressive defense. Younger DBs. who were going to play slants and in cuts. And we also saw upfront pressure and different guys that could do different things. Then it shocked the Broncos. Yeah. From the first play of the season, the corner blitz by Spaggs, where Noel Williams comes screaming in. The Broncos gave up six sacks all last year in 17 games. They gave up four in this game. And then on third down, the interception by Delaney. That’s something we saw all the way back in May and June.
00:02:25
Speaker 2: So really all offseason, I think from the national perspective, there was this doubting of the Chiefs defense because there were so many new faces. And I think that’s fair. I mean, there was potential there, but it was unproven. But with everything that we saw in OTAs and in training camp and knowing the players that we had, I felt really good about it. And I was excited to see him go out there against the Broncos offense that has big expectations this year and see how we held up against them. And we dominated them. I mean, from start to finish, you’re right with Noel on the very first play of the game. That was a tone setter in its own where, hey, if you want to beat us, you’re going to have to really buckle up and beat us. And they couldn’t do it. I mean, really, from the first snap, you saw this defense set the mentality of the game and delaying with that pick on the third snap, something that we won’t talk about too much in the aftermath, but should be talked about. is Delane gets hurt. Well, Christian Fulton goes in. Did you hear Christian Fulton’s name the rest of the night? No, and that’s a good thing because he goes in there and locks down whoever he was across from. The depth of this group, we talked about it in training camp and people kind of laughed at us when we said this might be a deeper secondary than we had last year, even though we said goodbye to McDuffie and Brian Cook and Jalen Watson. I think it is because of the guys that we have that have this potential where they can go in and make plays even if they didn’t start the game. So I’m with you. I mean, The secondary was flying around all night long where it really begins, though, is the defensive line. And I mean, so exciting getting pressure with four consistently in this game against that offensive line. And then when you’re doing that, opened up the blitzes from Steve Spagnuolo consistently, whether it was Nick Bolton or Drew Tranquil, Jaden Hicks. Legereus Sneed fired out of cannons off the edge or up the middle. And Bo Nix consistently in this game, his motion was sped up and that led to incompletions. So, I mean, two for 12 on third down, Denver was, including nine straight failed third down conversions from the middle of the first quarter on. We could go on and on about this defense, but I’m glad they finally went out there and showed what they can do because we’ve been seeing it in practice for months now.
00:04:31
Speaker 1: Even the 23 team that was so good defensively that went on that really tough road to win the Super Bowl, they had struggles with getting past rush with four. This is the first time in a long time the Chiefs have had an effective rush with four, and it makes everything so much different and so much better. And then with aggressive DBs on the back end who are going to make plays, then all of a sudden you look like Denver or Seattle in the way they’ve looked the last two years. So we’ll circle back to the defense. But then one thing we can take for granted is the fact that Patrick Mahomes was out there. He scrambles for a 15-yard touchdown nine months from ACL, MCL, LCL surgery. Someday, hopefully, you’ll have grandkids. If you guys so choose, I already have grandkids. I love it that they saw that. And the fact that what many did not see is that for seven months, Pat, seven days a week, seven hours a day, was going to put himself on that field for that moment, for that game. And it’s so easy to look past that because it truly is remarkable.
00:05:40
Speaker 2: So driving into the game, I put like inner Sandman on loop just to get hyped up, you know, like the, the entry music for the guys and they run out. Cause I was thinking about when my homes is going to run out, this place is going to explode.
00:05:51
Speaker 1: And it did.
00:05:52
Speaker 2: It was awesome. Little did I know about 20 minutes later, the place would go even crazier. I mean, how about that? The whole drive was great. And we had joked around about it. Like we didn’t think it was actually going to happen where we’re going to run the ball like seven straight times. And then my homes will rush for a touchdown and the Broncos will say, what? That’s exactly what happened.
00:06:09
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:06:09
Speaker 2: And what’s fun is I was bummed out because he rushed for that touchdown initially. His callback for the hold, it’s like, oh, man, that would have been so cool.
00:06:17
Speaker 5: No problem.
00:06:17
Speaker 2: Just does it on the very next play. It was so cool and so big for him, I think, because. I don’t think he’s worried about the knee. I don’t think he’s worried about his mobility. But to do it in a game against that defense on the first drive, I think right away he’s like, OK, I’m good. I’m all right. I can go out there and do this. And man, from that moment on, it just felt like this is a new season. This isn’t like last year where anything that could go wrong is going to go wrong. This is the Chiefs that I remember. And it was pretty cool.
00:06:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I wonder how many Kingdom defenders are playing Inter Sandman on game day before the game. That may be a tradition.
00:06:54
Speaker 2: They’ll fire you up.
00:06:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, the neighbors will go, hey, turn that down. The other thing I’m going to mention here, I’ve never seen the offensive line this happy since the zero sack game in Super Bowl 57 when they busted out the zero sack t-shirts when they held the Eagles to no sacks. Because there was joy back in the face of Trey Smith or into Creed Humphrey. Kingsley Soumattia. This is something else we also saw. We can overlook the fact that Khalil Benson maybe played in high school. I don’t know. But never in college did he play left tackle. Really right guard a lot or right tackle. And then for Jalen Moore, only his fifth start ever at right tackle. And the fact that those guys, and then you throw in the scheme. Iris Tonga in as an extra blocker. Mike Caliendo coming in as an extra blocker. Those guys felt joy. We saw it as they walk out the tunnel to go home. There was pride back in their face. They loved it. And the fact that they took the fight to the Broncos.
00:07:56
Speaker 2: That’s what running the football will do because we were setting the tone throughout the game. We weren’t on our heels on second and 10 consistently. And the defense knows what we’re doing. And the offensive line, they’re at a disadvantage when you do that. When you’re running the football like we did, you’re dictating terms to the defense. And our offensive line took full advantage of that really throughout the game. It was awesome. And I’m with you on Khalil. I mean, how cool is that? What an amazing story. I was telling someone before the game, like, yeah, that’s one of the major storylines in this one, but it has the opportunity to be an incredible story post-game. And he took full advantage of his opportunity. You’re facing Nick Benito in that game. Only Myles Garrett has more sacks than Benito over the last two years. And you go out there the first time ever at left tackle. You’re protecting Patrick Mahomes coming off a torn ACL. You don’t let up a single pressure, according to Pro Football Focus. It’s so cool. And I think he’d be the first one to say there’s areas for him to improve. It’s not perfect. But with what he was asked to do, I think he did a great job. And just building from here. But again, it gets back to running the football because that gave our offensive line the chance to dictate terms to the Broncos defense. And Denver, I think they thought they were going to come in here and just rush the passer and sack Mahomes and do what they think that they did all last year. No, it’s a new season. And I think that’s what this year is all about. The whole tagline that Coach Reed’s come up with is mindset. We saw that mindset on Monday, and I don’t think Denver was ready for it.
00:09:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I closed out the radio broadcast at the very end of it. I said this statement made.
00:09:35
Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:09:36
Speaker 1: The fact that the 2026 Chiefs are much different. They’re feistier, they’re tougher, they’re meaner on both sides of the ball. And even Matt Ariza had his best game yet as a Chief punter. We overlook those things in the fact that he pinned them back. He struggled since he’s become the Chiefs punter. Remember when he came out of San Diego State, he was Mr. Thunderfoot guy.
00:09:57
Speaker 2: He’s punt God.
00:09:57
Speaker 1: He’s punt God guy. But he couldn’t get the ball inside the 10. He couldn’t get it inside the 20. He looked like Dustin Colquitt or Tommy Townsend at his best or Gerald Wilson because he pinned them back and made them go the field. And that just set up the defense then to do what they did. But… that was a positive sign to me as well something that’s a little bit of a under the radar that leads to winning games especially in close games we’ll get i want to get back to benson and the 11 rookies in a second because i’ll put out the danger alert we’ll get to that at the end of the podcast but there is a danger here uh and it’s danger signs of the nfl but uh the fact that To get four sacks in this game against a team that was the number one rated offensive line by Pro Football Focus last year, allowed six sacks. Felix Inudike Ozama looks like a new man. He looks like the guy that was at K-State when he was Defensive Player of the Year in the Big 12. He makes a play to get the strip and get the ball out from Nix. He’s attacking the ball. Nick Bolton was all over the earth last night in that game. And so, an aggressive defense. 14 takeaways in 17 weeks, two in this game. A team that didn’t allow sacks or pressures. The Chiefs were relentless defensively. So to attack a team in all three phases, things got to get cleaned up on the special teams. You can’t cover up the long snapper. That’s just, hey, it’s not college football. You can’t cover him up. That was a big problem because that led to the interception. And the fact that you can’t block a guy when he’s out of bounds. If he’s out of bounds, hey, he’s out of bounds. Just ride him until he comes in. He can’t touch the ball first. He can’t down it. It’s illegal touch. So understand the rules. They’re different than college football. That was four key special teams penalties. You got to get cleaned up.
00:11:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, got to clean that up. One thing that stood out to me, though, is that last year, one of those mistakes would have led to a loss.
00:11:59
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:11:59
Speaker 2: Particularly the one where… It led to the interception. And last year, I’m just envisioning it through the lens of last season. The Broncos would have scored there. That would have been the turning point of the game. We would have lost. And you and I would be talking today about how, hey, it was right there. We just can’t make those mistakes. What’s cool about this year’s team is right away, whenever a mistake like that is made, someone else picks up that person that made the mistake. The defense holding Denver to a field goal on that possession is crazy. Now, the penalty obviously helped, but that’s incredible for the defense to say, hey, we got you. It’s going to be all right. And after that, I mean, we end up scoring again and it was never close. So seeing different aspects of the team pick each other up is something that frankly just didn’t happen last year. Last year, things snowballed. When one bad thing happened, 10 more bad things happened. It was so refreshing to see the team go out there. And when something bad happens, something good happens soon after.
00:12:53
Speaker 1: Excellent point. It’s actually what popped in my head when you talked about the Mahomes touchdown getting called back. Exactly. That would have been a field goal. Yep. Okay. Maybe. But the fact you come right back and get a touchdown devastates a defense that’s number one on the earth for two years.
00:13:09
Speaker 3: All right.
00:13:09
Speaker 1: Ken Walker.
00:13:11
Speaker 2: How much time do we have?
00:13:13
Speaker 1: I don’t know. That’s a whole other podcast. Oh, my God. But did something that’s never been done by any Chiefs back. Abner Haynes. uh marcus allen it’s like we signed jim brown that’s what it felt like we signed jim brown yeah uh and the fact that over 150 yards he had 171 193 total 173 191 total then to have a 50 yard touchdown run it’s actually 60 come back with receiving touchdown how cool was the single wing play that was so great i knew he had it in i knew coach wanted to run it Pat wanted to be in a three-point stance with Justin Fields in a three-point stance. It’s a 1930s play. It’s basically that. Now, because you can snap the ball to either one of those guys. And then the spinner back would spin, but it’s in essence the same concept. And Zach Allen, who I respect, he’s the best interior defensive lineman people don’t talk about enough in this league, had no idea what was going on. Go back and watch that. He’s looking around like, what just happened here? And it’s a touchdown. It was great. But for K-9 to do all that, it’s never been done by a Chiefs running back in 67 years. For him to make that splash was, and it’s just the precursor of things to come.
00:14:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think both what K-9 did the whole night and also that play that you’re talking about, they’re examples of the Chiefs having fun again. Last season wasn’t a lot of fun. It just wasn’t. I don’t think it was fun for the coaches or the players or for the fans or for us or for anybody.
00:14:38
Speaker 1: And 24 wasn’t even, 24 wasn’t fun.
00:14:41
Speaker 2: It wasn’t fun.
00:14:41
Speaker 1: There was so much pressure of getting the three-peat. And there was just pressure there. And a tired team that was just kind of grinding through it. And with 11, one score wins. But that didn’t seem like this. That didn’t seem like last night.
00:14:54
Speaker 2: No, last night there was like legitimate joy on the sideline. People were having fun. The players are into it. They’re smiling, rooting for each other. And that’s when the Chiefs are at their best. That was the championship runs of 2022 and 2023. And going back to 2019, the team was having fun. The guys were having a lot of fun last night. And that’s really scary news, I think, for the rest of the NFL. Some fun stuff on Walker. He broke 14 tackles on Monday, 14 tackles against the Broncos. It’s maybe the best defense in the NFL over the last two seasons. Team is top five in virtually every single category. It’s not like we were playing the worst team in the league or a team that was picking number one overall in the draft. And it’s like, ah, is there an asterisk there? It’s a Denver Broncos fresh off. You know, their training camp where they didn’t have a lot of injuries. They had a clean injury report. Yeah, I didn’t have Jonathan Cooper, but otherwise that was the Denver Broncos of 2026. And Ken Walker broke 14 tackles. He had 179 yards after contact. Just crazy. As a team, we had 220 total rushing yards. You know, the last time we had that many rushing yards in a single game. It’s been a while.
00:16:03
Speaker 1: Probably back in 2017, 18. I’m thinking just not quite that far. Oh, it was the Buffalo game.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: Yep, the Clyde game.
00:16:10
Speaker 1: Buffalo game in COVID year. Yep. Clyde went 161.
00:16:13
Speaker 2: Yep, that’s the last time we had at least 220 rushing yards as a team. I mean, Patrick’s never had this kind of consistent running game. Just incredible. And to break 14 tackles. The fourth down was fun, too, because that was in our own territory. The game’s hanging in the balance there. If we don’t get that, Denver’s down a touchdown, and they’re on our side of the field. Ken Walker says, don’t worry, I’m just going to run for a 60-yard touchdown.
00:16:36
Speaker 4: So.
00:16:37
Speaker 2: Man, it was awesome. And that’s going to make defenses like we talked about all offseason. They have to consider this now. It’s on tape. You can’t play us the way that you’ve played us the last five seasons because we have that guy in the backfield.
00:16:49
Speaker 1: Big change. Big change. Matt, what excites you about the Chiefs defense this year?
00:16:55
Speaker 2: I think it’s the blend of veteran players like guys like Chris Jones, George Karloftis with our rookies that we’re really excited about.
00:17:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, I kind of think kind of a new school, old school approach. And we need defense. And in the kingdom, we know that championship success starts with defense. Think of 2023, right? Our defense carried us to a Super Bowl title or helped carry us through that. Anyway, 10x. ai is the AI security operations provider protecting organizations from cybersecurity attacks at machine speed, but with human analysts on the loop 24-7. Experience cybersecurity that’s AI native and human-led, united against every threat. Visit 10x. ai for details. Sounds to me like what you want from the Chiefs defense.
00:17:38
Speaker 2: I love that idea. Let’s roll.
00:17:40
Speaker 1: How good was it to see Rashi Rice get to the end zone? The other thing is the receivers were blocking. Xavier Worthy, downfield block. Rashi Rice was talking, I mean, his physical presence as a blocker, or he could run the tunnel screens. but then to break tackles. Let me throw this out there before we forget it. Kelsey gets a 59-yard catch and run.
00:18:02
Speaker 2: Rumbling the black stumbling.
00:18:03
Speaker 1: The second NFL history for tight ends. Only T-guns with more. Kind of cool that it’s really both Chiefs. I know Falcons have claimed four years of it. But the point is, oh, let’s throw Kelsey in there for 59. But you go back. We talk about Pat’s rehab, but when we had Rashi on Rewind, He reminded us, and it was a great reminder how hard he had to work in the rehab. Clunky offseason, we know, some hiccups in there, but he looked strong again. And to break the tackle and get the touchdown is a terrific sign.
00:18:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. And for him to get involved, to find the end zone, but to do it the way that he did, it wasn’t just some schemed-up play where he was wide open and he catches the touchdown. He had to break two tackles on that to score.
00:18:49
Speaker 1: And….
00:18:50
Speaker 2: The frustration of Denver just kept mounting throughout the game. And one thing that we’ve talked about a lot over the last several weeks is we had a really tough training camp. Hot days up in St. Joe, all these padded days in a row, not a lot of days off. And Coach Reed really challenged the team because of how last year went. Like, hey, last year isn’t acceptable. We have to find a way to make sure that we are the team in the fourth quarter that’s dictating terms. And I think we saw that throughout the game where Our guys weren’t going to go down with an arm tackle or, oh, you’re right here. I’ll just go down. None of that. She’s like, if you want to tackle me, you better tackle me. Otherwise, I’m going to bounce off of you and run into the end zone. And that frustration just kept building on the Denver sideline. You could really feel it really at the end of the game. And I love the whole mindset of the entire team. It’s not just Ken Walker. It’s not just Rasheed. It’s not just Patrick. It is everybody has this mindset of last season’s not who we are. And I keep mentioning how it was an opportunity to set the tone. Breaking tackles like that, like Rasheed did, that’s setting the tone over and over again that it’s not going to be fun. I think about basketball coaches that run full-court presses the entire game. It’s exhausting. It’s not fun. But one team is in better shape than the other, and you’re just locked in hell for 40 minutes in college basketball. The Chiefs had the Broncos feeling that way throughout the game, and it was really cool, really, in all three phases.
00:20:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, all that training becomes a badge of courage. It becomes a badge of courage for this team. And the younger guys have seen it, and the older guys, okay. In defending the kingdom this year, I call them either points of glee or steering wheel pounders, right? You still think about it. You can’t get it out of your mind. What’s the one thing you’re still thinking about from the Bronco game you can’t get out of your head? This is a positive thing, right? Especially after last night, yeah. I don’t think of the only steering wheel pounders would be the special teams mistake. Like those are rules. You got to know the rules guys. Don’t cover up the long snapper. You got to keep both the gaps clean. Okay. That’s, but man, that’s too good a night to dwell on that one.
00:20:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:20:50
Speaker 2: I think the thing I’m still thinking about, and it’s kind of an extension of what I just talked about is just the want to that we saw from our guys. We broke 28 tackles as a team on Monday, 28 tackles. So I have some crazy numbers on this. If I could find it here, We had 247 yards after contact. That was the most in the next-gen stats era. The Denver Broncos. Again, we weren’t playing some team that was picking top five in the draft last year. The Denver Broncos have, on paper, and they’ve done it in previous years, one of the best defenses in football. And we went out there and we punched them in the mouth with 28 forced missed tackles and almost 250 yards after contact. Just incredible. And we talked about it in the preseason with guys like Emmitt Johnson and pushing the pile in a preseason game. Well, that’s want to, that’s desire, that’s a mentality. And we’ve talked about this a lot. You can’t just turn that on in the fourth quarter of a big game. Like, oh, I’m not going to really try here, but I’ll try later. You got to do it all the time. And we saw it from the first snap with Noel Williams blitzing and sacking Bo Nix to the fourth quarter when Emmett once again was pushing the pile up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. So that want to is exciting because that’s a culture thing. And we’ve seen that in previous Chiefs teams. And we know what that culture leads to in Kansas City when everyone’s bought in. And I think on the national stage, we saw our guys are bought in. And I can’t stop thinking about that.
00:22:16
Speaker 1: Mine is the fact, you know, there’s times you stare at the ceiling fan at three in the morning. I don’t know if you’re… Too often, yeah. And you’re just sitting there and you can’t get it out of your mind. Was third and 15 against the Broncos last year, 1919 tie. Third and 15 at their own 20. Thinking, a stop here, pass not hurt yet, go kick a field goal, win 22 to 19, and they get 20 yards.
00:22:41
Speaker 2: And changes the whole season if we get that.
00:22:43
Speaker 1: Whole season.
00:22:44
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:22:45
Speaker 1: Third down defense last year was a struggle. I talked about it. I went back and watched the video of 16 times of not making third down plays in the 11 losses at critical times. The glee that I’m feeling, In short night of sleep, and this time staring at the ceiling fan going, how cool was it to hold them for two for 12 on third down? And it was third and two, third and one, third and four, third and 11, third and seven, third and five. And the two they made were on the touchdown drive in the first quarter. After that, it was over. All the stuff that they ran to get 14 wins last year and get to the AFC championship game was taken away from them. Slants, bubbles, tunnels. Oh, pressure on Knicks. Oh, he’s uncomfortable. Oh, he’s got to bail out. Oh, there’s nobody open down the field. Third down stop after stop after stop after stop. I am just relishing in that because if this team, Chiefs defense can do that all year long, get ready for some really cool things to happen. Yeah, look out.
00:23:48
Speaker 2: I love when there’s like poetic symmetry in football. So one reason of the many that the 2022 championship game is so special to me, is that it was almost a redo of the 2021 championship game. Lose to the Bengals in 21, you get another shot in 22, and you win that game where you faltered the year prior. Same thing with the Broncos that you’re talking about, where every way that we lost that game to Denver last year that changed our whole season, we succeeded on Monday. And we beat them doing the things that we couldn’t do last year. And again, it’s not like We still struggled on third down, but Knicks threw a pick in the end zone and we won and that would have been fine. But to win the way that we did, running the football effectively, breaking tackles, punching them in the mouth, wanting it more than they did clearly and getting off the field on those third downs, man, it’s so cool. And it just gives me a lot of confidence moving forward because that feels like a new team. They learned from their mistakes last year. They’re not going to make those mistakes this year.
00:24:52
Speaker 1: We talked about the 11 rookies on this team, but to see the immediate impact. Or Mason Thomas gets a sack. We talked about the lane interception. Hopefully that shoulder’s not too bad. When you go down, it’s like that’s exactly where he got hurt during minicamp. And we saw it like, ooh, okay. Oh my gosh, Emma Johnson. Yeah. They’re still trying to tackle him. A lot of those broken tackles and yards after contact are Emmett’s.
00:25:19
Speaker 2: He had seven forced missed tackles. It’s incredible.
00:25:23
Speaker 1: Peter Woods. Peter Woods, the tip pass. You know how much I love tip passes. The most devastating defensive play no one talks about. When I saw that, that’s a play where you stop Bo Nix. The ball’s coming out fast. What did we talk about? Change the physics of the throw or knock it down or get immediate pressure on him. The Chiefs did all of that. They block it in the oval of all of the above. And a lot of it was done by rookies. So I’m going to get to the danger point here later in the podcast. But that’s a really good thing that those guys could lead to a victory in their first ever game.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: And on the defensive line, it wasn’t just Chris Jones or George Karloftis. It kind of feels like in the past, like Chris will make a bunch of big plays or George makes a bunch of big plays. That’s awesome. Like those are stars for a reason. But it was the fresh legs of consistently like who made that play? Oh, that was Peter Woods. Oh, our Mason Thomas made that one. Oh, Felix came up with a play. That’s exciting. And you can replicate that where we have multiple guys along the defensive front that you have to account for. You can’t just say we’re going to triple team Chris Jones and make these guys who we don’t think can beat us, beat us. That wasn’t the case. And again, against that offensive line, one of the best offensive lines in football. I mean, we could talk forever about it, but there are so many positives to take out of this game. And now the challenge is finding a way to keep it going because, I mean, we’re riding high. That was great. After, you know, really being disrespected all offseason while the Broncos were kind of hailed as the AFC West champion already. To beat them by three touchdowns feels awesome. But we got to turn the page. You got to turn the page and get after Indianapolis this week.
00:26:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. Turn the page is the phrase. But we talked about Roshni Rice getting into the end zone. The fact that he worked hard to get back on the field. His power. is an asset even when he does not touch the ball. So it’s only, you talk about symmetry or poetry. Let’s bring in number four for this podcast. He’s back. He’s back in the end zone. He’s back on defending the kingdom. He is back running around and doing a little bit of everything. I see rice with this. I’m going to start with an apology because I don’t think we’ve talked enough about your rehab and how you busted it. And The fact that you worked so very hard, much like Pat, to get back. Tell us about that and what drove you to keep on pushing to get on the field for week one.
00:27:46
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, for one, I had surgery and I had time to where I didn’t get to, you know, get the full recovery and put in the work that I needed right away. And it just, I kind of had a lot of time to, you know, think about, how I was going to take the approach once I was able to work on my knee. And then just coming back to Kansas and, you know, showing up every day, every morning to do rehab.
00:28:18
Speaker 5: Pat was already, you know, in there first.
00:28:21
Speaker 6: So the second I get in there, he’s already, you know, full of sweat and, you know, working real hard. So it was just kind of easy to, you know, follow everything he had going on just to, you know, make sure my knee healed as quick as his, because he had a longer recovery than me. So I really didn’t have an excuse to be behind. If that’s what you could say, be behind as far as recovering and being ready when he was going to be ready.
00:28:48
Speaker 2: With all that in mind, how good did it feel to break those tackles and get in the end zone on Monday?
00:28:52
Speaker 5: It felt great.
00:28:53
Speaker 6: That was my first catch of the game too. So I was doing a lot of blocking throughout the game and I was just kind of, it was still in my head because I hadn’t been tackled yet. So I was still thinking like, I just want to, you know, get a catch and get tackled one time. But I guess catching that screen and having the, I mean, making a move inside using my knee and then having the DN come hit me. He tried to hit stick me to be honest. So, him just hitting me and then me being able to bounce off of that and then run to the end zone and then obviously putting the ball.
00:29:30
Speaker 5: So I was like, oh yeah.
00:29:31
Speaker 1: It was a good punt. My knee already.
00:29:33
Speaker 6: I was like, that’s all I needed right there. First play for me to, you know, have an impact in the game. So it felt real good.
00:29:39
Speaker 1: You ever punted? You ever punt in high school? North Richland Hills?
00:29:42
Speaker 5: Nah, I did punt return, but I never kicked the ball.
00:29:48
Speaker 1: When I saw the touchdown and called it, things were kind of flashing in front of me. That play you had against the Raiders your rookie year when you turned the corner. And Matt was with me in the booth that day. And I’m like, okay, this feels like a start. and then your play against Miami in that minus 28 windchill game. But seeing that touchdown was different for me. How much does it feel like a restart for you in your career?
00:30:14
Speaker 5: Uh, it feels like a complete restart.
00:30:16
Speaker 6: Um, obviously this is a big year for me, but, uh, we’re just kinda, I’m just kinda really focused on what’s going on right now. Uh, everything’s gonna, you know, take its own course because we’re gonna take care of business each week. And, um, I kind of had the right guys around me to, you know, kind of make me want to work as hard as them. So as much as it is a restart, I know that I have to come back as if I’ve been here. I mean, obviously I’ve been here four years now, so I got to come back like a pro, like a vet, but also know that, you know, I’m, you know, working through a previous injury to, you know, continue to succeed.
00:30:55
Speaker 2: Mitch, mentioning those plays that you’ve made in the past reminded me of your catch in the Super Bowl on third down. We haven’t forgotten about that one either. People need to talk about that more. But you’re mentioning kind of the mentality of the team. The whole tagline this year is mindset. And I think we saw that on Monday where 28 broken tackles in that game. Where’s that mindset come from? Honestly, the mindset comes from EB. He sets a high standard for us. It’s the first time I’ve had a coach like that. And, um, it’s just kind of somebody that he has a lot to say. He expects a lot out of you, but it’s because like how much he loves the game. And so that his mentality transfers to us and the way he loves.
00:31:39
Speaker 5: The game, it kind of makes you, you know, want to work as hard as you can for him.
00:31:43
Speaker 1: Rushie, this offense, and you’ve been at, you said four years, sometimes you’ll get 10 targets. Sometimes you’re asked to block for canine.
00:31:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:31:52
Speaker 1: What about handling all that stuff and try and do it at a high level?
00:31:56
Speaker 6: Yeah.
00:31:57
Speaker 5: I mean, we, we practice it every day.
00:31:59
Speaker 6: So if we’re not, basically if you’re, if you’re not getting all the mental reps in, you’re out there on the field and, uh, like I said, our mentality on the field, it, it transfers from the meeting room and from the coaches, basically just if you had the ball or not, you’re going to find a way to, you know, go block. Uh, every time we take the field in the games, um, The EB says it’s a family feast. So you already got the family, family mindset the second you take the field.
00:32:27
Speaker 2: What’s Coach O’Shea been like in getting you back to where you want to be?
00:32:31
Speaker 6: He’s been he’s been a great coach for me. Just help me with the little things, helping me, you know, lead as much as I can. He’s been helping me as far as, you know, focus on certain plays and being able to still help, you know, my teammates in the room. And just, you know, taking the next step to my game and approaching, you know, just in different ways as far as, you know, taking the playbooks and stuff like that.
00:32:59
Speaker 1: It’s interesting to hear your perspective. You’re saying, man, it’s four years, I’m a vet now. There’s 11 rookies on this team. I mean, you got Cyrus in your room. To get a quick turnaround, Monday night is ancient history. What have you learned in the NFL of where you’ve got to be able to flip the switch and turn it into the next week?
00:33:19
Speaker 6: I think that would come with, obviously, you said that’s Angel History Monday.
00:33:24
Speaker 5: Also, last season is.
00:33:25
Speaker 6: So we kind of have the mindset of, you know, remembering, you know, what happened for us last season and didn’t go how we wanted it to go. And just kind of knowing that we’re just going to take it week by week and, you know, not think about the game ahead of next week or the game previously. We’re just going to take each day and focus on what we have going on now.
00:33:48
Speaker 2: I won’t talk too much about the game last week, but when K-9 gets 191 yards from scrimmage that gets your attention, how can having a running back like this and a rushing attack like this help you in the passing game?
00:33:59
Speaker 5: It helps in a major way.
00:34:01
Speaker 6: Obviously, just having somebody like that coming out of the backfield next to Pat in general, those two guys back there, that’s huge for the offense, but it kind of makes the defense have to fill in the box, even when we’re not blocking or if we are blocking. We have so many looks. Coach Reed is always dialing stuff up. So even if they are coming down, we get a lot of one-on-one opportunities with the corners. And even K-9 can get out there and play receiver. So it just hasn’t, you know, only one game in.
00:34:34
Speaker 5: So we’re going to dial up a lot this season.
00:34:36
Speaker 1: We haven’t even seen Brashard yet. You know that’s coming. Final question deals with the Colts, Oscar Arner. they got some capable dudes over there, uh, in your prep early on, what do you guys have to do to take on the Colts?
00:34:52
Speaker 5: Well, you know, it’s a short week for us.
00:34:53
Speaker 6: So we’re just today, you know, mostly mental, um, coach is going to do everything he can to make sure our bodies are ready for Sunday, but we’re going to take a, a series of mental approach for today. And then, you know, just kind of focus on us and work as hard as we can so that when we get out there Sunday, uh, What’s in front of us, we’ve already done in practice.
00:35:15
Speaker 1: We’re just guessing it won’t be his last time in the end zone.
00:35:17
Speaker 2: Just a thought.
00:35:21
Speaker 1: Again, a great sign for Rashi Rice to get involved, not only get to the end zone, but to see what he can do to help this team in so many ways.
00:35:29
Speaker 2: And really, the passing game is the one area, especially in the first half, you look at the game against the Broncos, like that can improve. We know that they will. And I’m glad that Rasheed got in the end zone. I’m glad Kelce got the big play. Xavier Worthy had a couple. As the year goes on, the running game is going to open up those things in the passing game. And remember, the Broncos secondary is really good. Patrick Sertan is out there. Hufunga is out there. Riley Moss is a good corner. A really good secondary. They were not expecting what we rolled out there with our game plan. And I think as the season goes on, when teams have to respect the running game, things will open up in the passing game.
00:36:07
Speaker 1: Now’s the danger zone. Danger zone, danger zone, danger zone. The Chiefs were so good in week one. Dominant against the division opponent. Playing a team now in the Indianapolis, it’s the National Football League. And so often, every season, you’ll see a team that has to flip the switch again in a quick amount of time on a short week, from Monday night to Sunday night. And I know the Colts gave up 41. They gave up 31 in the first half against the Ravens. But this is a Colts team. What’s interesting, they’re only one of three teams in the league that did not change. The head coach, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special teams coordinator, or starting quarterback. And this is a team, when you look at the Colts, they started 7-1 last year. They had an end of the season like we did. But there’s a lot of pride on this team, and there’s a lot of really good players on this team, starting with Jonathan Taylor. So put the flare out right now. Right now. You’ve got to get ready and flip the switch. Bronco game is ancient history.
00:37:08
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of steering wheel pounders, maybe the most inexplicable game in the Patrick Mahomes tenure in Kansas City is the loss to the Colts in 2022. You go back and look at the 2022 season. I think that’s one of the best teams ever. And just fun, like all season long. 2023 wasn’t always fun. Like a lot of weird things happened in 2023. 2022, the Chiefs mainly just steamrolled through the season. And we lost to the Colts. How many games did the Colts end up winning that year?
00:37:38
Speaker 1: Two? Two or three. I think they were three and 14. Yeah.
00:37:42
Speaker 2: Really weird. And just goes to show that it’s the NFL. And anything can happen any week. It doesn’t matter how great you were the previous week. You could lose to anybody if you don’t play your style and brand of football. The Broncos are feeling that way right now. I’m sure they feel better than what they showed against us on Monday. So I think, yeah, the challenge is we feel really great, but it doesn’t mean anything on Sunday night against the Colts. And particularly with our young players, our rookies, you’ve got to know how to look at your performance, be happy with how you performed, but also file it away and say, we have to now do that again and build on it. And now there’s tape on us. So opponents are going to be game planning for us when maybe they weren’t in week one. That’s the challenge. I have confidence our guys can do it, but it is a mindset thing. And that’s why I feel good about it, where we saw a great mindset on Monday, but now the mindset part is carrying that into the next game.
00:38:37
Speaker 1: Your veterans have to be key here. Patrick, Kels, even guys like Noah Gray, guys that have been around have got to be the key people. The 11 rookies on this team, the ones that played in this game that had the impact, there is a natural inclination. It’s not an indictment. It’s just a natural human nature to go, okay, I’ve got it figured out. It’s the NFL and I played great. What a great win. I’ve got it figured out. Well, the Colts will spend every second of their time looking at you on tape, knowing when you floss your teeth, You know, when you belch after eating food, they’ll know about it. I’ll just give you a couple stories. And it’s my first year in the NFL. I’ve been doing college sports for a long time, right? And I remember the first year, and I’m replacing a very popular announcer. And I’m thinking, I’m just going to play for the nil-nil tie here. And it went great. the first year. We had the Monday Night Football, Montana Magic. Marty Schottenheimer got in my face and said, you better be twice as good your second year as you were your first year. Wow. Because now you think you have it figured out. And that’s when the NFL will take you to your knees.
00:39:46
Speaker 3: Yes.
00:39:47
Speaker 1: The second thing happened that year, actually. We got off to a 2-0 start. Montana’s the quarterback. We played the Rams and they weren’t very good. They did have Jerome Bettis, but they weren’t very good. Montana got shut out the only time in his career.
00:39:59
Speaker 4: 16-0.
00:40:01
Speaker 1: I sat there and did that game going, what’s happening here? Because the Chiefs are stuck in mud. Why? National Football League. So the veterans bring in the old man stories here, right? But you’ve got to announce a warning because… The Colts did have that win in 22. They’ve had other wins and upset the Chiefs. And back in 19, when Pat got hurt, actually he got hurt against these guys. That was Shady McCoy screwing up the screen pass and fumbling. The point is the Colts will come in with pride. They will come in desperate. The Broncos are desperate. The 0-1 teams are desperate. We know what 0-2 means. There’s only twice we have not made the playoffs yet. in 14 seasons with Andy Reid, and they were both 0-2 starts. The numbers start working against you. Now you’re going to play a desperate team, and you cannot be complacent. You’ve got to figure out a way to flip that switch and keep all of the electricity going.
00:40:59
Speaker 2: I’m glad we’re at home for this game. I’m also glad it’s in primetime. Kind of strange to start the season with two primetime games, but How often would it happen where you have this emotional electric win on Monday night football to kick off the season, and then you’re at noon on a Sunday the following week, and you’re just flat? I think having a Sunday night game will get the juices flowing a little bit and hopefully have the right mentality that we need. But I’m with you. This is a tough week where it’s a short week, and you have to not only get your body right, because guys are sore, but also you have to get your mind right about everything that you’re saying. It doesn’t matter what we did against Denver. a completely clean slate for everybody. We have to go out there and attack the Colts just like we did Denver with the same kind of intensity that we were thinking about all offseason, all summer. We want to beat the Broncos. Got to have that same mindset now against Indy.
00:41:49
Speaker 1: It’s physical, it’s mental, it’s emotional, even spiritual. You have got to get yourself ready to go. Speaking of primetime, Patrick Mahomes is now 30-13 in primetime games, only Peyton Manning. And let’s see, I think Jared Goff, winning percentage on primetime is just a shade better Then Patrick, that’s 30 primetime wins.
00:42:08
Speaker 2: Do you ever sit down and think about, like, they all just blend together at this point, but what? You’ve been there for all of them. I know.
00:42:17
Speaker 1: And it’s just so easy to take all that for granted. Yeah.
00:42:20
Speaker 3: Okay.
00:42:21
Speaker 1: It’s just like a great spouse and great friends. You can take them for granted.
00:42:24
Speaker 2: Well, and that’s where the perspective of the last three games from last year, where we’re at a playoff contention, we don’t have Pat, and… I think for both of us, it’s like, oh yeah, like this is what can happen in the National Football League. I think that’s part of why one of the many reasons Monday was so much fun. Like, hey, we’re back to doing the kind of thing we enjoy doing. No question about it.
00:42:48
Speaker 1: The other thing we enjoy doing is checking in with our wolf of the AFC West. Our wolf scans, spies, watches, analyzes. Let’s check in with the wolf in the west and see what he thinks.
00:43:03
Speaker 4: Hello to everyone and welcome to episode two of out west and wow what a difference a week makes matt mcmullen so good to see you you seem even more handsome after the monday night football win last night what a performance what an atmosphere it feels like the whole trajectory of this season has already changed after just one.
00:43:23
Speaker 2: Game Yeah, you know, Mitch and I and you, we talked for like weeks and weeks about the opportunity to set the tone. And it’s one thing to say that, but to go out there and win the way that the Chiefs did, I mean, it’s beyond my wildest dreams of how the season could have started. It was so awesome. And to beat Denver, that team, to do it the way that they did with the running game, for all the rookies to step up like we talked about in the preseason, like a training camp, I kept telling you, like, I feel like there’s potential here. You just want to see them do it in a game that really matters. And they seemingly all had this incredible game. It was so awesome. So now the challenge is to replicate that. But yeah, I’m still kind of vibrating after that one.
00:44:02
Speaker 3: We’ve seen the formula.
00:44:04
Speaker 4: And I think if you recall from last week, my biggest hope was there would be a real commitment to the run game, which, you know, and there was.
00:44:12
Speaker 3: I wrote it down.
00:44:14
Speaker 5: I mean, they they they.
00:44:16
Speaker 4: Ran it 38 times and threw it 27 times. I think you’d have to go back in history for Andy Reid. That ratio has got to be the exception to the rule. I mean, he never has that kind of ratio to the running of the football, the commitment to the run game. And look, I thought Ken Walker III was going to be a huge upgrade. I mean, he looked like a first ballot Hall of Famer on Monday night. On a fourth down play that looked pretty much well defended, he saw that the safety took a bad angle and balances it to the outside and shows off that speed and goes 60 yards. So all the things we’d hoped for, and we talked a bunch last week about the running back room, because while Walker was great, Emmett Johnson was the stud too last night. So to have that one, two punch. And also I loved all the shots they had of Walker beaming when Emmett Johnson was playing well, because that tells me a lot about chemistry. It tells me a lot about leadership and about how these guys feel about each other. And look, I’ve always said people overreact to week one. Well, I want to overreact to this week one performance because it was so good.
00:45:21
Speaker 3: Uh, Let’s talk about Patrick Mahomes.
00:45:24
Speaker 4: People may think that, you know, the numbers weren’t there, but I thought that he did a tremendous job. And when you watched him run the football for that opening touchdown of the game, showing the speed, the willingness to potentially there could have been real contact at about the one yard line. He didn’t shy away and just dove right in there. So if Mahomes isn’t asked to do as much as he has in the past, we’re looking at a level of balance and an offense that really spreads the wealth. It seems that there’s a real recipe for success here.
00:45:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I’m with you. That’s why really all offseason, I talked about how I think adding Walker and finally have an explosive run game is going to have ripple effects throughout the entire offense because this is all on tape now. So if you’re any other team in the NFL preparing to play the Chiefs, you have a huge problem to worry about that you didn’t have in the past where they’re going to unleash this running game and just go under center and run the ball over and over and over again until you prove that you can stop it. And if you want to load up the box, that’s where I think this passing game can really open up a little bit. It was good to see Mahomes get some passing yards in the second half, hitting for She-Rice for that touchdown, the big play to Travis Kelsey. Not a lot of downfield stuff, but that will come in time. I just think having this explosive running game is going to change everything for this team. And to go on Monday Night Football against the Denver Broncos, one of the best defenses in football and a great run defense to last year. Keep that in mind. And to just commit to the running game the way that they did was so cool. And how about all the broken tackles? Twenty eight foursmiths tackles in that game. So I think the Chiefs had like I talked about it with Mitch earlier, like two hundred and seventy yards left. after contact as a team, it was the most in the next gen stats era against the Broncos. Like, are you kidding me? So just incredible stuff. And I really do think that performance sets the tone for the entire year.
00:47:14
Speaker 3: And let’s talk.
00:47:14
Speaker 4: About our starting left tackle. The guy is an undrafted guy. He’s playing left tackle, protecting the blind side. I had nightmares about Nick Benito.
00:47:24
Speaker 1: I’m not kidding.
00:47:25
Speaker 4: I thought Benito was going to have like a three and a half sack night. He was going to terrorize my homes. That didn’t play itself out. Now look, he got a little bit of help on some plays. They would chip a little bit with Travis Kelsey, but for the most part, he did.
00:47:38
Speaker 3: Really well at left tackle.
00:47:40
Speaker 4: And then all of a sudden you think about Simmons coming back and then shifting Khalil over to the right side. And suddenly you’ve got a starting five offensive line that I think can be one of the best in football.
00:47:51
Speaker 2: Did you see what Khalil’s mom said on Twitter?
00:47:54
Speaker 1: What’d she say?
00:47:54
Speaker 2: It was so great.
00:47:55
Speaker 1: You’ll love this.
00:47:55
Speaker 2: She just tweeted, Nick Benito who? Question mark, question mark, question mark. Hashtag proud mama. That was so great. Yeah, it was so cool to see him accept that challenge. You know, we saw it in OTAs. We saw it in training camp. Like this guy belongs. Sure, he fell through the cracks a little bit of the evaluation process, but he doesn’t care about that. Like he has the opportunity here. He’s making the most of it. clearly had the athletic ability and we knew he was a great run blocker coming into the game on Monday. That really wasn’t in question. How is he going to hang up against or hold in there against Nick Benito? And I think the way that she’s committed to the run was a, benefit for the entire offensive line. It kept that defensive front of Denver off balance. But whenever Benito was coming his way, Benson, he held his own. I mean, really, the mandate coming in is just don’t let the game be a total disaster. And it was far from that. He held his own. He was competent. I mean, zero pressures allowed, according to Pro Football Focus. So, so happy for him. Let’s see him keep growing as we proceed here. But yeah, you couldn’t ask anything more of Khalil Benson in week one.
00:48:58
Speaker 4: And now let’s focus on the defense. The defense eliminated a very explosive Denver offense. I mean, that offense looked pedestrian last night. We talked a lot about rookies who are going to have to step in and play. And I didn’t realize that the Chiefs now have the youngest 53-man roster in the league. When they talked about that on the broadcast, that was news to me. I knew they had gotten a lot younger. I didn’t realize it was the youngest team. When you look at the guys, Mansour Delane, hopefully their shoulder’s okay, but he comes up with an early pick. R. Mason Thomas flashed in the game. Peter Woods got good pressure. You got rookies making plays all over the field on the defense. If you want to maintain a dynasty, you got to win the draft. Let me tell you, Brett Beach must be feeling pretty good about himself on the defensive side of the ball after last night.
00:49:41
Speaker 2: When you came up to camp back in August, I think I told you, R. Mason Thomas is the guy that I think can change a lot for us because he has that speed around the edge. But really, this is something else Mitch and I talked about. It’s not just one guy. We’re not counting on just Chris Jones to make the play, just George Karloff to make the play. Peter Woods was in there making plays. Felix Inudike Uzama in there making plays for the defense.
00:50:01
Speaker 1: Of course, R.
00:50:02
Speaker 2: Mason as well. When you have all these different guys that can come in there, give you fresh legs and get after the quarterback, it’s a big deal. And how about getting pressure with four on Monday? We just haven’t seen that in a couple of years where we can consistently get pressure with four. We had to have a design blitz. We were getting pressure with four against one of the better offensive lines in the league. That allowed Spags then to open up his bag of tricks and unleash blitzers from the slot, from the edge, really throughout the game. Bo Nix was never comfortable on Monday.
00:50:29
Speaker 1: Never.
00:50:30
Speaker 2: Man, it’s just refreshing because it kind of seems like last year we couldn’t make that extra play with our pass rush. It was third and 15. The quarterback had all day. Not the case on Monday. Nix was never comfortable. I think he was pressured 51% of the time, according to PFF. Let’s keep that rolling.
00:50:46
Speaker 3: Let’s keep that rolling.
00:50:47
Speaker 4: Look, I think we could gush about this game, the entire podcast within the podcast, but our focus is here on the entire AFC West.
00:50:55
Speaker 3: So I’m not sure who had a.
00:50:58
Speaker 4: Bigger disaster in week one, the Denver Broncos or the Los Angeles Chargers. Let me just tell you, the Chargers were the biggest favorite of any team playing at home against Arizona Cardinals. I don’t want to go crazy here and bury the Chargers, but, you know, Ladd McConkie was Is there a threat at receiver? He goes down in the second quarter after that. There’s just not really any weapons that scare you. All of a sudden, you look at the Chargers and you thought, OK, McDaniels coming in, but the offensive line wasn’t very good. They didn’t create explosive plays. How concerned would you be if you’re a Chargers fan?
00:51:31
Speaker 2: Well, let’s see how the offense progresses here over the next several weeks. Maybe it’ll all work out great by week five and it just takes some time. But it did have me thinking about what my philosophy is, and this comes from Coach Reed, in terms of how you should build your offense, is you should build your offense around your playmakers, around your quarterback. Peter, what your offense is going to do based on who you have personnel-wise. Think about early in Coach Reed’s tenure here in Kansas City with Alex Smith. Totally changed the offense. Let’s go back and look at Alex Smith at Utah. What did he do best? Let’s make this offense based on that. That had created a lot of success for Alex. Same thing with Patrick Mahomes. Hey, what did Patrick Mahomes do best in college? Let’s play to his skill set with our offense. Let’s not just try to fit him into what we’ve done previously. And my fear with the Chargers and with McDaniel is he just has this system that he ran in Miami and it scored a lot of points. Let’s now put the Chargers into it and it’ll just work. And again, maybe it will. I’m not saying it won’t, but I think we saw an offense like very out of sync. on Sunday. Like Herbert looked totally uncomfortable. It just did not look to fit his skill set at all. Maybe it’ll just take some time, but that’s my takeaway from that game is it just looked clunky and not at all in sync.
00:52:47
Speaker 4: Now let’s focus the Raiders hosted the Dolphins. And I do feel like the Dolphins are hoping to have the number one pick. I mean, this is a team that I think across the board lacks elite talent, but I’ll say this about the Raiders. They functioned at a pretty good level. They were able to run the ball. Ashton Dent, he looked good. Kirk Cousins, he did throw two interceptions, but I thought they didn’t ask that much of him. He goes 21 of 30, under 200 yards, but throws three touchdowns. They looked at least like a team that was functioning at an NFL level offensively. It seems that the offensive line’s a little bit better. We’ll learn a lot more this week. We’ll talk about the Raiders at the Chargers, but I sort of looked at the Raiders and thought, OK, this bunch looks better.
00:53:29
Speaker 3: Like they were awful last year.
00:53:31
Speaker 4: And they seemed to at least played at a level that was a respectable level for an NFL football game.
00:53:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, they looked competent and scrappy and could be a problem at times. Jenty had nearly 150 yards of scrimmage. That’s what they thought they were getting when they drafted him last year. And they did all that without Brock Bowers, which I thought was interesting.
00:53:49
Speaker 3: Yeah.
00:53:50
Speaker 2: Michael Mayer stepped up and had a nice game. Interested to see them do it against someone other than Miami, who might be the worst team in the NFL. But, I mean, you can only play who’s on your schedule. They played pretty good football and looked like a competent football team. That’s an interesting game with the Chargers and the Raiders because the Raiders really have nothing to lose here. They’re just going out there trying to develop and see what they have. The Fernando Mendoza meter is staying at zero. I don’t think people are calling for Fernando just yet. But the Chargers, meanwhile, going into that game, I mean, doing a lot of pressure, I think.
00:54:23
Speaker 4: Well, right, which leads me to what’s next for the AFC West. I was going to go Jags-Broncos, but let’s stick with the Raiders-Chargers. It feels like for the Chargers, this game suddenly has a lot of pressure.
00:54:34
Speaker 3: I mean, you’re at home.
00:54:35
Speaker 4: You start your season 0-2 with two home games. I’m not suggesting you hit the panic button. But you do have to think to yourself, is this the right combination? Is a Harbaugh McDaniel approach going to work? There’s no guarantee when you bring in two guys as different as those two guys to come in and that it’s going to mesh. Like you said, the Raiders have nothing to lose. This is actually one of the more fascinating Week 2 matchups to me because the Raiders should come in all loosey-goosey, feeling good about themselves. Playing a Chargers team, it’s got to be feeling at least some pressure. I realize it’s only one game, but it’s the way that they lost. And now you suddenly have a division game at home against the team you’re supposed to beat. Suddenly this game seems a lot more interesting than it.
00:55:19
Speaker 3: Did a few days ago.
00:55:20
Speaker 2: Have you seen the Chargers schedule?
00:55:22
Speaker 1: Yes.
00:55:22
Speaker 2: I’m going to rattle this off. This is insane.
00:55:24
Speaker 3: It’s brutal.
00:55:25
Speaker 2: So after this Raiders game, they go to Buffalo. They host the Seahawks. Sorry, I screwed that up. Go to Buffalo. Go to the Seahawks. Host the Broncos. Come here. Then they get a bye week. Then they go to play the Rams on the road. Host the Texans at Baltimore. They get the Jets. Host the Patriots at Tampa Bay. I mean, if they don’t. win this game against the Raiders, they’re in some real trouble, I think, just looking at their schedule.
00:55:52
Speaker 4: Their season could be over by the halfway point, which is wild because there was so much enthusiasm about this marriage of McDaniel and Harbaugh and suddenly given the schedule.
00:56:03
Speaker 3: I mean, with the exception of the Jets game, and by the way, the Jets looked pretty.
00:56:06
Speaker 4: Good in week one going on the road and winning against the Titans.
00:56:09
Speaker 1: Sure.
00:56:10
Speaker 4: The Chargers are likely, after this Raiders game, to be underdogs in all.
00:56:14
Speaker 3: Of those games.
00:56:15
Speaker 2: Like, you just can’t drop two home games in a row to the Cardinals and Raiders before going on that stretch. So, I mean, I do think that the Chargers will win that game, but there’s going to be a certain amount of pressure, more than you would expect when the season began, looking at the schedule. And can the Chargers protect… I’m not sure what to expect from the Raiders’ pass rush. They got Malik Willis five times in that game. Again, I don’t know if the Dolphins’ offensive line is very good. But Max Crosby is on the other side. Quiddy Paye, good player from the Colts, is now on the Raiders. He’s on the other side. And the Chargers couldn’t block last week. So I don’t know. It’s pretty tense right now for the Chargers. I’m going to enjoy watching this one.
00:56:52
Speaker 1: All right.
00:56:52
Speaker 4: Well, next up, we’ve got the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Denver Broncos. They had an important late-season game last year. The Jaguars go to Denver. They win 34-20. Lawrence was 18-24, 278 yards and three touchdowns. Trevor Lawrence looked really good this week. Now, granted, the level of competition wasn’t all that difficult playing the Cleveland Browns.
00:57:17
Speaker 3: But also, you’re Denver.
00:57:18
Speaker 4: You’re 0-1. You look terrible on Monday night. And then you got the Jaguars coming to town. I got a feeling things might be a little tense this week in the.
00:57:27
Speaker 3: Mile High City.
00:57:28
Speaker 2: I feel like it’s the same thing and maybe even up an ante, like we’re talking about the Chargers, but with the Broncos, because I mean, this is a team that has serious like Super Bowl aspirations based on the expectations they’ve set for themselves. And yeah, the Jags are no slouch. Dunked on the Browns last week. To your point, who knows how good the Browns are? But still, the Jags looked really good last week. And now they’re feeling great going into Denver, playing a Denver team that’s kind of picking up the pieces, trying to figure out what went wrong on both sides of the ball. Super curious about this one because it’s a similar deal with the Broncos schedule. After this game, they play the Rams, then the 49ers, the Chargers, and the Seahawks in their next five games. I mean, that’s tough. And you’ve got to win these games early in order to not get behind the eight ball like we did last year.
00:58:14
Speaker 3: And man.
00:58:15
Speaker 2: It’s tough to say like a game is a must win in week two, but for both the Chargers and the Broncos, based on the expectations they’ve set for themselves, kind of feels like a must win for both teams.
00:58:24
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this.
00:58:25
Speaker 4: If someone said to you, is the answer to this true or false? Will Sean Payton become the offensive play caller again during the 2026 season?
00:58:34
Speaker 3: You say true or false?
00:58:36
Speaker 2: I say true. Nothing against Davis Webb, but just I think Sean Payton, I think probably can’t help.
00:58:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, and also Troy Aikman was very clear last night. Obviously, you were there at the games. You can get to hear the broadcast. I respect Troy, and I think that he had interesting things to say.
00:58:53
Speaker 3: He said Ernie Zampezi. He said Norb Turner.
00:58:56
Speaker 4: They were guys who got you prepared, but they just had a knack for finding the right play call at the right time.
00:59:01
Speaker 3: He’s like, some guys can prepare you all week.
00:59:03
Speaker 4: You can have a great game plan, but it’s time and situation about how to call a play and how to how to call something in the first quarter that may have an effect on a play in the third quarter and he’s like in his view Sean Payton is one of the best of his generation so it’s just an interesting decision again it brings me back to I wonder about the dynamic between Bo Nix and Sean Payton because from the outside looking in it wasn’t broken that offense last year excelled So I’m with you. I think Sean Payton at some point resumes play calling duties, but we’ll take a wait and see. Which brings us to the Chiefs and the Colts. And I know we always used to say last year that I’ll leave the deep dive on this stuff to you and Mitch, but we’re going to deep dive right here on this matchup.
00:59:47
Speaker 3: So we got Sunday night football.
00:59:50
Speaker 4: First, let’s talk about the Chiefs offense versus the Colts defense.
00:59:54
Speaker 3: The Colts defense.
00:59:55
Speaker 4: Had a terrible day against the Ravens. They gave up 202 rush yards, four rushing touchdowns. Lamar Jackson threw for 324 yards.
01:00:06
Speaker 3: Baltimore scores 41 points.
01:00:09
Speaker 4: So when you look at that matchup, the Chiefs offense against the Colts defense, it’s easy to feel bullish that the Chiefs, with their combination of the ability to run the football, and we know that the passing game, I think, is going to get better and better, especially now the teams know they’ve got to defend the run. What do you think about when you think about the Chiefs offense versus the Colts defense?
01:00:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I’m with you. I mean, the Colts, they were second in the NFL in rushing defense last year. Kind of funny is the Broncos were top five last year as well, and it was going into the game saying, how does that match up with Ken Walker? We found out the answer to that question. But the Colts’ defensive line and their front seven in general looks a whole lot different this year than it did last year. Zaire Franklin’s a Packer now. Woody Paye is a Raider now. They’ve lost some other names, too, and it didn’t really go well against the Ravens, like you said. Ravens ran for 200 yards on these guys. Now, it’s a little bit tricky. Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry, they’re kind of an outlier. But still, we’ve got a guy now in Ken Walker where we’re not really saying, hey, can we do that?
01:01:09
Speaker 1: I don’t know.
01:01:10
Speaker 2: I think we can. So it’s a little scary in a way where we ran for all these yards in week one. They allowed all these yards in week one. Seems pretty simple, right? I’m sure it won’t be simple. I’m sure the Colts will have some things up their sleeves. We have to be ready for their defense because it was good last year. But I do think What we saw in week one, committing to the running game, is going to be the recipe for this team in 2026. And as the year goes on, it will open up the passing game. But based on what we saw in week one, this Colts defense struggled against the run. And also play action, they struggled last week with Lamar Jackson. He was 8 of 11 for an average of 16.4 yards on play action. Dave Flowers helped a lot with that with yards after the catch. But we’ll love to see the play action game get going against these guys on Sunday.
01:01:53
Speaker 3: All right, let’s flip it.
01:01:54
Speaker 4: The Colts offense led by Daniel Jones and Jonathan Taylor against the Chiefs defense. Jonathan Taylor has consistently been a really solid running back. What they want to do offensively, and remember last year when they started 8-2.
01:02:07
Speaker 3: 8-3, I mean, they were scoring points in bunches.
01:02:10
Speaker 4: It tailed off quite a bit at the end, and obviously Daniel Jones had the injury. But this Chiefs defense looks stacked, especially up front, the ability to affect the passer. What do you think is key for this Chiefs defense in slowing down the Colts?
01:02:25
Speaker 2: I said this all offseason. I said, I think our defense might actually be deeper than it was last year. And people would look at me funny like, OK, Chiefs guy. Like, sure they are. I’m telling you, with all the young players that we have, all the potential this group has, the ceiling is sky high. And I’m so glad we saw it in week one against a good offense in Denver and need to keep it going here against the Colts. The key, really two keys for me, and they’re obvious. Got to make sure Jonathan Taylor doesn’t take over the game. So Jonathan Taylor last year, when the Colts were really doing their thing, he was obviously the engine that made their whole offense go through week 10 of last year. He led the NFL on rushing by more than 200 yards. I mean, he was a legitimate MVP candidate before Daniel Jones got hurt and their season kind of fell apart. He had 28 runs of 10 or more yards last year through week 10, led the NFL by a wide margin. That’s why the Colts were eight and two. Now, Before Monday night, the Chiefs’ last win was against the Colts in what, mid-November? It had been a long time as a therapeutic experience winning that Broncos game. But why did the Chiefs beat the Colts? Primarily because they shut down Jonathan Taylor. He had just 58 rushing yards on 16 carries. Got to find a way to simulate that same kind of performance against Taylor on Sunday night. And then once you do that, it’s got to create pressure on Daniel Jones. Even last year when the Colts’ offense was humming, when he was under pressure, he was not the same player. particularly coming off the Achilles. I don’t know if he’s going to be very mobile here in this game. He really struggled against the Blitz last week and struggled against that Ravens defensive front. 147 of his 166 passing yards last week were against four-man rushes. The Chiefs even got pressure with four-man rushes last week, so let’s see what we can do there. Really, if you’re looking at the Colts last year, they have to stay on schedule. The Colts’ first down offense last year, they averaged 7.2 yards per play through week eight of last season. That was a historic pace, also unsustainable. That’s why they were so good prolific offensively. They were getting so many yards on first down, and the whole playbook was open. As the season went on, that number went down. The Chiefs were really good on first down against the Colts last year. Let’s make sure we don’t let them have big gains on first down, force Jones to throw the football, and unleash these pass rushers after Daniel Jones.
01:04:35
Speaker 4: In fact, the Colts were so good at the beginning of last year, they reminded me of when the Rams were in St. Louis. And they were playing that crazy offense with Kurt Warner and Mike Martz, the mastermind.
01:04:45
Speaker 3: It felt like they.
01:04:45
Speaker 4: Were quick hitting pass plays, just gashes in the run game. Instead of Jonathan Taylor, it was Marshall Falk. Instead of Daniel Jones, it was Kurt Warner. I mean, they were so impressive. They were the darlings of the league through the first 10 weeks last year. All right, here, I want to go in an X factor. And bear with me here, because this is more the psychology that I’m worried about than X factor. The Chiefs had the whole off season to think about the way their season went. and how they felt like they were being disrespected and written off. That’s incredibly motivating, right? Well, then you play on Monday night, and you play far beyond anyone’s expectations outside of the building. How do you then maintain that same level of, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder, right? Because I think it’s human nature to be like, oh, we’re pretty good now. And maybe you lose some of that edge. And you’ve got a Colts team that people, I think, think was going to be decent.
01:05:36
Speaker 3: They get blown out at home.
01:05:37
Speaker 4: And so they’re going to have this psychology of, hey, we better get this win at home or suddenly we’re 0-2. They can’t really afford to come to Kansas City. I think on paper they’re supposed to lose a game, but I guess I’m just one of the psychology. You don’t want people to congratulate you too much if you’re the Chiefs and you know you’re going to be playing a desperate, hungry, cold team.
01:05:58
Speaker 2: You and Mitch are in lockstep on this. He was talking about that earlier. It’s a total Mitchism where he’s like, yeah, I’m excited about the rookies, but they have to remember that nothing matters from week one and now you’ve got to turn around and do it all again in week two. I’m with you because for a young team after an emotional win, the game that we’ve all been thinking about for months and months, you get the job done in phatic fashion against Denver. You can’t then, you know, lay an egg against the Colts. We were talking about the 2022 game against the Colts where the Colts were not good that year and the Chiefs were a 14 win team and went on to win the Super Bowl. We lost to the Colts on the road, like totally inexplicable. NFL is crazy. Anything can happen. Have to be ready with the same mentality and energy and hunger that we showed in the game against Denver, because I think we wanted it more than Denver did in week one.
01:06:44
Speaker 1: Yeah.
01:06:45
Speaker 2: I think that’s pretty clear. Got to have that same mindset going into this one. So I’m with you for my X factor. I’m going to give you a player. How about Emmett Johnson? So yeah, A lot of talk about Ken Walker, deservingly so. He broke 14 tackles in that game against the Broncos. Well, Emmitt Johnson broke seven tackles. Emmitt Johnson was pushing the pile up three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Like that guy just loves playing football. He’s going to give it everything he has. And that gives me some comfort and some confidence with the mentality that you’re talking about. The guys like Emmitt Johnson aren’t going to take a week off because he’s like, oh, I was really good last week. I don’t think these guys buy into that. So Emmitt Johnson is a player that when Ken Walker is getting all the attention nationally, it’s cool that we not only have one guy, we also have this guy. And keep in mind, Rashard Smith didn’t play at all in week one. I believe in Rashard Smith based on what I saw in the preseason and training camp. I think Coach Murray’s done wonders with him. This running back room is so exciting and it’s just night and day from what we’ve had in.
01:07:43
Speaker 3: The It’s incredible what Beach has done with that room.
01:07:46
Speaker 2: All right.
01:07:47
Speaker 4: The best game of last week has to be Buffalo at Houston. A 36-31 Bills win. Josh Allen, 34-yard touchdown pass with a little over 90 seconds to go in the game.
01:07:59
Speaker 3: Allen looked like the MVP.
01:08:01
Speaker 4: 334 yards passing, two touchdown passes, two through the air. We talked last week about how we both think Houston’s a Super Bowl contender.
01:08:09
Speaker 3: The Houston defense is one of the best in.
01:08:11
Speaker 4: The National Football League. Well, they gave up 36 points. They were getting gashed all over the field. It was great. It was in the early window, and it just went back and forth. There were so many big plays. To me, that was the game of the week and certainly a terrific start for Josh Allen and the Bills.
01:08:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, great game. And the Texans had a chance there at the end. I thought they were going to do it. They were knocking on the door. But, you know, the way the Bills won that game is, in a way, kind of how the Chiefs won games in 2024. And I feel a lot better about how we won our game against Denver on Monday than how the Bills won. Because the Bills deserve credit. They kept with Houston. They scored on that great defense. They went back and forth. But I don’t want to win a game because the opposing quarterback fumbles the snap on the 10-yard line with a chance to win the game as time expires. We’ve done enough of that. It was great to see the Chiefs win a dominant game on Monday. For Buffalo, they’ll take them however they can get them, but their defense did allow a bunch of points to that Texans squad. That’s a concern in my opinion.
01:09:09
Speaker 4: Now, I think the best matchup this week comes early this week. We’ve got the Lions at Buffalo.
01:09:16
Speaker 3: Yeah.
01:09:16
Speaker 4: They’re opening the new stadium, Highmark Stadium. There’s always a lot of extra juice when you open a stadium. Bill’s Mafia is a real thing. I mean, they’re, I think, the closest thing to Arrowhead in terms of a home field advantage. The Lions last week looked great in the first half and then pretty pedestrian in the second half. I mean, the Saints failed on a two-point conversion in overtime where they could have come back, all the way come back to win the game. I’m not totally sold on the Lions, but let me remind you the last time these two teams met. Buffalo won 48-42. Josh Allen had 430 yards of total offense, four TDs. Jared Goff threw for 494 yards and five TDs in a 48-42 thriller. So look, I don’t know if we’re going to get that level of excitement, but on paper, this should be a really fun Thursday night.
01:10:04
Speaker 2: It’s crazy. This is a Thursday night football game to open up that slate. I saw the ad for it a few days ago and I’m like, what? Like this is the first Thursday game. No disrespect to Thursday night football, but bills and lions is a crazy way to open things up. You know, speaking of the lions, the way they won is kind of similar to how the chiefs won games in 2024. Like, thank goodness they didn’t catch that. Uh, that was a crazy one, but, uh, yeah, it should be interesting. Uh, Buffalo at home probably has the edge here, but for Detroit, you know, they can score a bunch of points. I will see. I’m intrigued by it. I’m going to miss the old Buffalo stadium. I’m probably in the minority here, but I don’t know. I love to go into that place. It felt like a high school stadium and not in a bad way, like in a good way. Their atmosphere was awesome. Nothing beats winning there in the playoffs. That was something else.
01:10:51
Speaker 4: Let me tell you my favorite story of being up in Buffalo. So let’s circle back. This is probably like 2004. I’m doing TV sideline for Fox. At that time, I was living in Philadelphia. I drove from Philadelphia to Buffalo. I had read the forecast and the forecast looked really good. So, you know, I had like a light jacket pack and I’m good to go. Well, we wake up Sunday morning and there’s a blizzard. I mean, a full blown, like the heavy, thick kind of snow. So I don’t have a jacket. There’s not really time for me to go shopping. So then the question is, well, what are we going to do during the game? Well, our analyst on Fox was a guy named Tim Ryan who played in the league for the Bears. He’s about 6’4, 270. He has like an overcoat. He’s like, you’re welcome to wear the overcoat. So I had no other choice. I put this coat on. You got to find this on YouTube or somewhere.
01:11:46
Speaker 3: It’s a picture of me.
01:11:48
Speaker 4: Doing a sideline hit in his jacket i look like i was in somebody’s dad’s jacket i was a tiny little boy but it just goes to show a buffalo you never know what’s going to happen with the weather i think the game was on maybe right around the end of october near halloween went up there it was supposed to be 60 and sunny instead it was a blizzard and your boy looked like a complete fool so.
01:12:09
Speaker 3: I don’t know yeah i will always have fond memories of that state.
01:12:12
Speaker 4: Get that lake let’s go to A new thing we’re adding to the pod, which is what was the craziest thing you.
01:12:18
Speaker 3: Saw last week? And I’ll lead the way here.
01:12:21
Speaker 4: It was the Chicago Bears scoring 59 points, rushing the football for almost 300 yards. And then Ben Johnson, after the game, openly stating their goal is to be the highest scoring team in NFL history. And for those of you who don’t remember, it’s the Denver Broncos in 2013 averaged 37.9 points per game. Well, needless to say, the Bears are off to a flying start.
01:12:46
Speaker 3: To eclipse that. I don’t know if it’s sustainable.
01:12:50
Speaker 4: It looked like a college football game where there was absolutely no defense played. But I mean, the Carolina Panthers won the division last year and they absolutely got destroyed. So the craziest thing I saw was a team scoring 59 points in week one. And then their coach openly stating that they hope to be the highest scoring team in NFL history after one game.
01:13:12
Speaker 3: That’s crazy.
01:13:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, just bonkers. I think for me, there’s a few different directions I could go here, but we haven’t talked since the Rams lost that game in Australia. And for all of the hype and the excitement around that team, for them to go to Australia and kind of just lay an egg, and for the Niners to dominate them from start to finish, I don’t know if it’s the craziest thing I saw, but it’s maybe the most surprising. And it gets back to what we were talking about. I mean, the Rams could go on to have a great season, but they probably will be very good. But whenever you build a super team, it’s just tough sometimes. I mean, one thing I love about this Chiefs team is it’s so many players that have come together and it’s a team. It really feels like a team, right? And the Rams really at this point seems like a bunch of really good players that are just on the same team. So we’ll see if they come together as a team over the course of the year, but It was interesting, and honestly, the fun part of the NFL is to see a team with all this hype then be in a nationally televised game, and they just don’t put it together at all. I was happy for the 49ers. I thought it was a cool performance by them.
01:14:14
Speaker 4: Well, I think one of the things that I just want to tag on that is I’ll take a homegrown team, which I mean by that is when you draft your own guys and you develop them, have these guys come into league together and grow together. And hopefully this rookie class will go down as one of the great rookie classes. It’s different when you go and just pluck free agents or you trade for elite players. You may have great players, but that doesn’t guarantee you a great team. So I will take homegrown talent where you develop your own guys every time, every week, every season. All right, it is time for parting thoughts, and I’m going to let you lead the way.
01:14:50
Speaker 2: Well, you know, one thing that Mitch and I talked about that I’ll share with you, too, is my parting thought is Monday was a lot of fun. And this job is always fun, but some days are more fun than others. And frankly, you know, we’ve been spoiled, right? I know that. But the back end of the season last year was just a bummer. It was just tough. And to be in all these games and to come up short, to know all the work that the players and the coaches and everyone in this building puts in, and to have a season that falls below expectations, it’s not a lot of fun. And particularly the last three games of the year, like going to Tennessee, going to Vegas, being at a playoff contention, Mahomes being hurt, you don’t know when he’s going to come back. In a way, you do kind of bond even more with each other as a team when that happens, because you go through those tough times, but it’s hard. And I think what it added was perspective. And to have all that perspective in a long offseason, and then for Mahomes to run out of the tunnel on Monday Night Football at Arrowhead without missing a game, for him to scramble for a touchdown and to flex in the end zone on national television for the Chiefs’ first touchdown of the year, and for the Chiefs to beat the Broncos by three touchdowns at Arrowhead on Monday Night Football, it was a lot of fun. And frankly, it’s probably something that we would have taken for granted if last season hadn’t happened. So my parting thought is, you know, last year added some serious perspective and there was a payoff on Monday. Let’s keep that going.
01:16:13
Speaker 4: Well, I’m going to tag on that because my parting thought is last night when we first turned the game on, I had my wife, God, I had my kids, Layla and Jordan. And the first thing God has said was, wow, is it loud at Arrowhead? Like it’s just the buzz, the din of the sound there. It’s just different than almost any other stadium. So look, we know that there’s an expiration date for Arrowhead now, right? We’re five years and counting before we go to the new stadium. So my parting thought is, Let’s soak up every single second of every single moment of every game that’s going to be played at Arrowhead between.
01:16:48
Speaker 3: Now and the opening of the new stadium.
01:16:50
Speaker 4: Look, getting a new stadium is one of the most exciting things that can happen to a franchise. But between now and then, Arrowhead is someplace that is truly special. It has a level of history in the National Football League, a level of respect. It is beloved, not just by Chiefs Kingdom. Anybody who, anywhere in the league who goes there, it’s unique. It is one of the toughest places to play in the National Football League. And just seeing it back on full display, seeing everybody celebrating, it was the perfect game.
01:17:19
Speaker 3: The crowd was incredible.
01:17:21
Speaker 4: So my parting thought is Arrowhead is awesome. And let’s soak up every single moment we’ve got over the next five seasons. So that’s our parting thoughts. Episode two, I feel like it flew by, Matt. We’re just getting started. You tell that Mitch Holtis. I need to see him here on Out West in the near future. I know it’s tough with everything he’s got going, but Matt, great job today, and I look forward to talking to Chief Kingdom next week.
01:17:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, Ari’s the best, man. I like how he keeps his radar out. His antenna’s out, man. He’s just looking forward. And brings up some really thought provoking things to make you think beyond the obvious.
01:17:55
Speaker 2: So Ari is so into this and he does so many things. He is a contractor for the tennis channel. So he’ll be, it’s really interesting. He doesn’t actually travel to these tennis matches anymore. He’ll go to like a little hut in LA and just watch these tennis matches on TV and he’ll call it. and they’re all over the world. They’ll do like eight hours of tennis matches. He told me that to get ready for our segment for this podcast, he was doing the tennis matches and just had like NFL red zone watching it at the same time. So the guy’s committed for sure.
01:18:26
Speaker 1: And so he loves it so much when he can come to camp or whatever, because he actually interacts with humans.
01:18:31
Speaker 2: Yes.
01:18:32
Speaker 1: Instead of doing things, believe me. Not like a dark room. Yeah. The Colts though. I mean, the Ravens had 31 at halftime, could have had 38.
01:18:40
Speaker 4: Yeah.
01:18:41
Speaker 1: They get a touchdown called back. They turned it over once. Could have had 45. But I’m not going to put an indictment on the Colts here. And the Ravens were still… just 3 of 10 on third down defensively. There’s so many good players on this team. Grover Stewart’s good. Sauce Gardner only had 7% target rate against him in the game. On the offensive side, Daniel Jones. We talk about guys coming back from injuries. That’s an Achilles injury in week 14. If Mahomes has had a miracle return, which he has, we talk about Bo Nix and the broken fibula. In fact, the three quarterbacks, you could say the biggest injuries coming into this season were the three that are involved in these first two weeks. Because that’s a week 14 Achilles. They were kind of cooking along. Then they got off and then things just collapsed on them. They’ve gone five straight years without making the playoffs. This is a critical time for the Indianapolis Colts.
01:19:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is. It’s one of those things where even though they haven’t made the playoffs, you still respect them. And when you have Jonathan Taylor in the backfield, you have to do that. Talked about this with Ari a little bit, but it’s interesting and also kind of scary in a way that if you look at the areas we really excelled against Denver, those are the areas that the Colts struggled against Baltimore. So the Colts allowed a bunch of rushing yards. against Baltimore and offensively, they really struggled against the blitz and just in general, protecting Daniel Jones. And even when Daniel Jones was cooking last year, he wasn’t super great under pressure. So it leads you to think, okay, well, let’s just do the same thing we did against Denver. Let’s run the football effectively. Let’s get some pressure after the quarterback. It’s not always that easy though. So the things we did well last week, that’s great. Let’s try to replicate it now against the Colts, but you can’t assume it’s a given and it’s back to your point earlier about turning the page and These guys are going to be tough because, like you said, they’re desperate.
01:20:24
Speaker 3: Yep.
01:20:25
Speaker 1: And Taylor’s just amazing. Last year, 20 touchdowns total, 18 led the NFL on the ground, almost 1,600 rushing yards. He’s ineffective as a receiver.
01:20:36
Speaker 5: All the stuff we saw.
01:20:37
Speaker 1: K-9 do against the Denver Broncos, he can do against anybody. Jonathan Taylor’s amazing, and he’s withstood the stand of time here. But Alec Pierce, you look at Alec Pierce, he’s the only guy in the league last year when you look at his ability to get the deep ball that had over 900 yards in the fewest amount of targets. So Alec Pierce, Josh Downs is good. Tyler Warren is good. This is a capable team. So anyway, got to be ready to go against the Colts. Okay, let’s go around the world. What do you got? Anything as we close out?
01:21:08
Speaker 2: Well, here’s the deal with a short week. I did not have a lot of time to write down all the people that wrote in. I did talk to one guy named Steve in the parking lot, though, after the game. He was very fired up. So thanks for saying hi, Steve, and shout out to you.
01:21:19
Speaker 1: All right, Steve.
01:21:20
Speaker 2: I like meeting people in person. That’s always the best.
01:21:21
Speaker 1: Do we make up where he’s from?
01:21:22
Speaker 2: Do we make it from Tremecostown?
01:21:23
Speaker 1: It was very quick now.
01:21:24
Speaker 2: It was at like… Steve from Tremecostown. 11.45 at night, leaving the stadium, but said that he loves DTK. So shout out to you, Steve. Thanks for watching.
01:21:30
Speaker 1: Appreciate all of you Kingdom defenders. Again, an incredible start to the season, but it’s the National Football League. Week two is here. Week one is ancient history. So get ready for the Colts, this time on Sunday Night Football.
01:22:17
Speaker 4: Thank you.
