The Philadelphia Eagles shutout the Kansas City Chiefs in the second half of Monday night’s game to win by the score of 21-17.
This represented the third consecutive game that Kansas City has been shutout in the second half. The Chiefs also committed two giveaways in the red zone while their wide receivers just couldn’t hold on to the ball if their lives depended on it.
The end result was a comeback win for Philadelphia and a 9-1 record on the season. Meanwhile, Kansas City fell to 7-3 and is now mired in a dog fight for the top seed in the AFC.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from this Monday Night Football matchup.
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Winner: Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones shines big time
One area that has plagued Philadelphia’s offensive line this season is pass protection to an extent. That included Jalen Hurts being sacked 22 times in nine games after going down 38 times a season ago. Chris Jones and the Chiefs’ defensive front attempted to take advantage of that Monday night.
During a three-play sequence in the first half, Jones registered two sacks of Hurts to stall a Philadelphia drive in its tracks. The reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year finalist was not done there. In addition to those two sacks, Jones recorded four tackles for loss and six pressures of Hurts throughout the evening. It’s one of the primary reasons Kansas City’s defense was able to perform at a high level up until struggling in the end.
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Loser: Philadelphia Eagles offensive line comes up small
On the other side, Philadelphia’s offensive line did not come close to doing enough to protect Hurts in this one. Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo called multiple blitz packages throughout the game. That included cornerback Trent McDuffie recording two sacks of his own as he was sent after Hurts in the Eagles’ offensive backfield.
Sure, there was other issues on that specific play. But as you can see on review, Lane Johnson struggled with protection on Jones. It led to the pocket breaking down. That was the case all evening as Philadelphia’s quarterback was sacked five times and hit four other times until he went with a quicker passing game in the second half.
Winner: D’Andre Swift picks up the slack for Jalen Hurts
There has been one common theme for Swift in his first season with the Eagles. When the former Detroit Lions star puts up big numbers, Philadelphia is hard to beat. He tallied 175 yards in a win over the Minnesota Vikings back in September. Philly’s next game saw Swift put up 130 yards in a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
We know that strong rushing attacks typically equate to wins. But Swift’s ability to provide balance is going to be big for the Eagles moving forward. Monday night saw him go for 107 yards on 15 for an average of 7.1 yards per touch.
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We can question whether Philadelphia gave the ball to Swift enough Monday night. What we do know is that Swift is electric with the ball in his hands and provides the balance Hurts needs on offense. We should see an uptick in touches moving forward.
Loser: Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers struggles
Kansas City entered Monday Night Football having failed to put up as much as 300 total yards in each of the past two games. A lot of that had to do with some inexcusable drops from Chiefs pass-catchers. This came back to haunt the team big time late in Monday’s loss to Philadelphia.
Facing second-and-10 from near mid-field with less than two minutes remaining, Mahomes seemed to connect with Marquez Valdes-Scantling for what would have been the go-ahead touchdown. MVS saw the ball slip right through his hands.
This represented Valdes-Scantling’s sixth drop on the season on passes of 30-plus yards down the field. No other player in the NFL has four.
Later on that very same drive, Justin Watson dropped a would-be first down on fourth and long to put this game away. Through the first 11 weeks, Chiefs pass-catchers have dropped a league-high 26 passes. They caught a combined 14-of-25 passes from Mahomes on Monday. That’s not going to cut it.
Winner: Kevin Byard makes first real impact for Philadelphia Eagles
Byard was acquired from the Tennessee Titans ahead of the Oct. 31 NFL trade deadline. In the two games since, he had not really done much. In fact, the All-Pro safety had yielded a 88.9 completion percentage and 118.7 QB rating in those two games.
That changed big time on Monday night with the veteran putting up a game-changing interception of Patrick Mahomes in the end zone.
What an absolutely huge play from Byard here. It also represented the first of two takeaways Philadelphia forced in the red zone as it came back from a double-digit halftime deficit to win the game.
Loser: Patrick Mahomes’ struggles continue
We can talk about the dropped passes until we’re blue in the face. But Mahomes was not up to snuff in a rematch of the Super Bowl. He struggled with accuracy in completing a mere 24-of-43 passes for 177 yards. Decision-making was also a major issue for the reigning NFL and Super Bowl MVP, including an interception into the hands of the aforementioned Kevin Byard in the end zone.
Mahomes has now thrown nine interceptions in 10 games this season after being picked off a mere 12 times all of last season. We know he’s a gunslinger. But the decision-making process just wasn’t there as the Chiefs’ offense struggled for a third consecutive game.