A season after going 6-11 and losing Patrick Mahomes late in the year with a ACL injury, the Chiefs finally decided it was time to give Mahomes a running game. And their signing of Kenneth Walker III was a master stroke.
Last year’s Super Bowl MVP ran 23 times for 173 yards to beat the Broncos, 31-10. Now Mahomes doesn’t have to carry the team, even though he made a remarkable comeback to be ready for the opener.
Instead of waiting for the swelling to go down, Mahomes had surgery immediately and got a fast start to his rehab. He even ran the ball seven times. It wasn’t a vintage Mahomes performance, but he was good enough.
Since there isn’t a dominant team in the AFC, the Chiefs are back in the Super Bowl conversation and Mahomes has a shot at becoming just the sixth quarterback in history to win four Super Bowls in a decade along with Sid Luckman, Otto Graham, Bart Starr, Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana. And it would give him a 4-2 record in six Super Bowls (Tom Brady was also 4-2 after his first six and went 3-1 in his last four).
Of course, the Chiefs will have plenty of competition with Buffalo, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Houston and the winner of this week’s Jacksonville-Denver game all looking good enough to be super.
More observations on the first weekend of the season:
–The big losers were the Rams, Patriots, Chargers (who lost as the biggest favorite against the Cardinals and knocked countless players out of their elimination pools), Cowboys, Packers and Colts. All were expected to be contenders but if any of them lose this weekend, they fall to 0-2, and teams with 0-2 starts historically make the playoffs only 25 percent of the time.
–Josh Allen again looked like a strong early MVP contender by shredding the Texans defense for 36 points but he needed a dropped interception just before his game-winning touchdown pass to win it because the Bills gave up 31 points. Buffalo has to play better defense if Allen is to finally get to a Super Bowl.
–Both Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow got off to good starts as the Ravens beat the Colts, 41-23, and the Bengals edged the Bucs, 33-27.
–The Saints looked competitive as they came back from a 21-0 deficit to barely lose to the Lions, 31-30, on a missed two-point conversation at the end of the game. Lions coach Dan Campbell doesn’t like to play conservative even with a big lead. The Cardinals also looked competitive by upsetting the Chargers, 26-14.
–The Vikings lost Kyler Murray early with a concussion but Carson Wentz came off the bench to lead Minnesota to a 39-22 win over the Packers.
–Bears coach Ben Johnson seems to have forgotten he is not the offensive coordinator. He said he wants to win the scoring title and the Bears took a step in that direction by beating the Panthers, 59-37, but they don’t give trophies for scoring titles. The defense has to improve.
–The worst teams in the league appear to be the Browns, Titans and Dolphins. Tennessee and Miami don’t have enough talent, while for some reason new Cleveland coach Todd Monken is starting Deshaun Watson at quarterback even though Watson isn’t even good enough to be a backup.
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