For one half, Jets vs Chiefs looked like it might be the upset of the week. New York won the turnover battle, controlled the clock and moved the ball almost at will. Then the Jets kept kicking field goals, Kansas City kept scoring touchdowns, and the Chiefs pulled away for a 35-12 win at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday.
Kenneth Walker scored three touchdowns, Patrick Mahomes threw two of them before an elbow scare, and Kansas City snapped a two-game losing streak to move to 6-2. The Jets fell to 2-7. Next up for New York: the Buffalo Bills, who come to MetLife Stadium on a short week.
Four field goals, zero touchdowns
The story of this game is what the Jets did with their chances in the first half, and what they didn’t do.
They got a gift early when a Justin Fields fumble on a quarterback sneak gave them the ball, but the offense couldn’t pick up a first down, and Jason Sanders kicked a field goal. Another drive reached the Kansas City 20 before three straight plays lost yardage. Field goal again. By late in the second quarter, Gang Green Nation noted, the Jets had scored on four of five drives and still trailed 14-12.
Sanders was the Jets’ entire offense. According to CBS Sports’ play-by-play, he made field goals of 23, 48, 49 and 54 yards and missed from 53. That miss mattered. It came right after New York’s best defensive moment of the day, a strip sack of Mahomes that the Jets recovered with Kansas City driving late in the half. It was a chance to take the lead into halftime, and they came away with nothing.
Kansas City, meanwhile, made its trips count. Mahomes found Walker for a 7-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter, then hit him again after Braelon Allen fumbled for the Jets. That was the difference: two Chiefs touchdowns against four Jets field goals.
The Mahomes scare
The strip sack could have changed Kansas City’s season. Rookie edge rusher David Bailey hit Mahomes’ throwing arm mid-release, and his right elbow bent awkwardly. He walked off with the arm hanging at his side.
He came back after halftime and didn’t miss an offensive snap until the game was decided. An MRI after the game showed no major injury, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported. We covered what Mahomes and Andy Reid said in our Mahomes elbow MRI story.
Mahomes finished 23 of 31 for 242 yards and two touchdowns.
Chiefs take over after halftime
Whatever the trainers did at halftime, it worked. Kansas City opened the third quarter with a touchdown drive capped by a short Mahomes pass to Travis Kelce, making it 21-12. Walker added a 2-yard run late in the quarter for a 28-12 lead, and Emmett Johnson scored on a 6-yard run with 3:35 left to finish it.
The Chiefs outscored the Jets 21-0 in the second half. Their defense sacked Geno Smith five times, according to the AP, and kept New York out of the end zone all day.
Walker was the best player on the field. He ran for 102 yards, caught two touchdown passes and finished with 143 yards from scrimmage. For a Chiefs offense still looking for a consistent run game, it was exactly the kind of day they needed.
Jets vs Chiefs by the numbers
| Chiefs | Jets | |
|---|---|---|
| Final score | 35 | 12 |
| Total yards | 391 | 229 |
| Touchdowns | 5 | 0 |
| Field goals | 0 | 4 |
| Second-half points | 21 | 0 |
Yardage via VAVEL’s final box score. On the other side, Bailey sacked Mahomes twice, per CBS Sports.
What it means for Kansas City
This was a much-needed reset. The Chiefs came in off consecutive losses to Seattle and Denver, and they’re now 6-2 and 4-0 at home. With the Broncos on a bye in Week 10, Kansas City has a chance to gain ground in the AFC West.
The elbow is what Kansas City will be watching all week. If Mahomes is fully healthy, this offense has enough to beat anyone. The Chiefs have also been linked to receivers before Tuesday’s trade deadline, including Jacksonville’s Brian Thomas Jr., which tells you how much they want to give Mahomes more help down the field.
Kansas City plays at Atlanta on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on CBS.
What it means for the Jets, and why Bills fans should care
The Jets have lost four straight and are 2-7. Gang Green Nation wrote that a 16th straight season without the playoffs is all but certain. Head coach Aaron Glenn’s team keeps finding ways to play competitive football for a half and then fall apart.
The end of the first half has been a particular problem. Entering Sunday, the Jets had been outscored 107-9 in the final two minutes of the first half across Glenn’s 25 games as head coach, according to the AP’s pregame notes. This time they did get points in that window, a field goal to pull within 14-12, but they let a better chance get away moments later with the strip sack and the missed kick.
There were a few positives. Breece Hall was back after missing five games with a quad injury, and Bailey looks like a rookie pass rusher who can make a difference. But a team that can’t finish drives isn’t going to beat many good opponents.
That brings us to Sunday. Buffalo visits the Jets at 1 p.m. ET on CBS, less than six days after Monday night’s game in Minnesota. On paper, a 2-7 team at home is the kind of game a contender should win. But short weeks and division road games have a way of getting messy, and the Jets’ pass rush just proved it can get to an elite quarterback.
Sunday’s lesson: you can’t give the Jets free possessions and expect them to waste every one. Kansas City got away with it. Buffalo will want to avoid finding out whether it can.
See our full NFL Week 10 schedule and TV guide for every game this weekend.
Join the conversation