Chiefs rookies rise to the occasion vs. Chargers | KCSN Daily 11.21
Plus Week 12 stat preview, KCSN podcasts, quotes and more Chiefs news.
Welcome back to a brand new week of KCSN Daily, where we deliver the best Kansas City Chiefs content to your inbox.
When attrition struck ahead of and during the Chiefs’ Week 11 game against the Los Angeles Chargers, the team needed its young players to step up. And that’s exactly what they did.
The team had been grooming Isiah Pacheco for a lead role in recent weeks. When Clyde Edwards-Helaire went down with an ankle injury, Pacheco had a big opportunity in front of him. He seized that opportunity, recording over 100 rushing yards on 15 carries.
“His growth in the pass protection part of it, even though he had a tough one today when three [James Jr.] blitzed,” Chiefs HC Andy Reid said of Pacheco. “His pass protection, we are confident in that. His patience, I thought, was good. We’ve been working on that. I thought he did a nice job with that. Not necessarily speed to the hole, but speed through the hole. You could see him let the offensive linemen get it set up and work to the linebacker-level guys, and then go. Hit it, as opposed to being indecisive.”
One rookie who hadn’t seen much success to this point also had a bit of a breakout. Skyy Moore caught five receptions on six targets for 63 yards. It was the most receptions and yardage he has recorded in a single game in his NFL career.
“It’s great,” Reid said of Moore. “He had the punt returns that were a bit of a mess, but he had never done that. The guys kept encouraging him through this, whether it was his coach, Joe [Bleymaier], or [Offensive Quality Control] Connor [Embree], they just kept encouraging him. The players stuck by him. They could see how talented he was. Nobody looked at him cross-eyed. That peer pressure is the strongest pressure in that case.”
Overall, these were positive strides for the rookie draft class. As the Chiefs continue to deal with the battle wounds of an 18-week regular season, the confidence that Moore and Pacheco gained will be priceless. The trust they earned with their teammates and coaching staff will go a long way too.
“They have done a nice job of working hard,” Reid said. “It hasn’t come naturally easy. They have had to work their tail off to get themselves in a position where a quarterback trusts them and the coaches trust them to play them. We appreciate that effort that they put forward. I mentioned a little bit earlier that Brett Veach has done a nice job, and you are seeing the results of this with all of these young guys playing. We appreciate that, as a coaching staff.”
KCSN Live Postgame Show:
KCSN’s BJ Kissel, Kent Swanson, and more go live from the Kingdom Bar and Grille in Overland Park, Kansas following the Kansas City Chiefs game against the Los Angeles Chargers to break it all down.
Stats to know ahead of Week 12 vs. Rams:
Series history: The Chiefs lead the all-time series with the Rams 7-5. Kansas City has played this team twice during the Andy Reid era, once as the St. Louis Rams in 2014 and once as the Los Angeles Rams in 2018. The 2014 game was a dominant 34-7 win by Kansas City. The 2018 game was a shootout on “Monday Night Football” resulting in the third-highest-scoring game in NFL history.
Pressure key for Kansas City again: In back-to-back weeks, the Chiefs have recorded five sacks against offensive lines which are surrendering very few sacks and pressures. The Rams have surrendered 35 sacks this season, which is good for the second-most league. They’ve also allowed 101 pressures, which is good for third-most in the NFL this season.
Turnover opportunities: Los Angeles enters Week 12 with a -7 turnover differential, good for the third worst in the NFL this season. They have eight takeaways on the season, but they’ve coughed the ball up 15 times this year. For a Chiefs team that has struggled to create turnovers, this could prove to be an opportunity to get a few of them.
KCSN Update:
KCSN’s BJ Kissel sits down with ESPN's Matt Miller to get his stock up and stock down report from the Kansas City Chiefs' huge victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
10 Things:
KCSN’s BJ Kissel gives you his 10 things that stood out from the Kansas City Chiefs comeback win vs. the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.
Quotable:
“We’re a part of it, and that’s the fun part. You’d like it to last forever, but these guys grow old and it’s not [going to last forever]. So, what I do is I try to enjoy every minute of it, every play. Their chemistry is ridiculous. You know, coming into this game, that they had a plan for Kelce and he and Pat were able to work through it and make some nice things happen.” - Andy Reid on the duo of Patrick Mahomes & Travis Kelce
“We do this a lot. [Chiefs Head] Coach [Andy] Reid prepares us for these moments. We knew we had a lot of time on the clock. We knew we had some time outs, so we didn’t rush. We just kind of went through what we do every single day at practice and everything like that, and we executed. [Chiefs TE] Travis [Kelce] is Travis. He is the greatest tight end of all time. He makes plays like that that we win games. I thought lot of young guys stepped up and some guys that not necessarily have those major roles stepped up on that drive as well. It’s good to see with all of those young guys out there.” - Patrick Mahomes on the final offensive drive & Travis Kelce
Quick hits:
From the league annals: Travis Kelce has officially passed Rob Gronkowski with 33 games of 100 or more receiving yards. That’s good for the most such games by a tight end in NFL history. And guess what? He’s not done yet!
From Craig is Great: Our very own Craig Stout pointed out following the game that the Chiefs are now tied for fourth in the NFL in sacks through 10 games. That’s a big improvement over last season where pressure happened, but sacks were rare.
From El Jefe: One reason to become a paid KCSN subscriber is you get access to our discord server. There you can interact with and request information from our talented team. In this case, KCSN’s Joseph Hefner responded to a question about the Chiefs’ success rate with FB Michael Burton on the field.
Important dates ahead:
Sunday, Nov. 27 at 3:25 p.m. CT - Week 12: Chiefs vs. Rams - GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium - Kansas City, Missouri
Soul of KC Holiday Raffle & Toy Drive:
The Soul of KC Holiday Raffle & Toy Drive is back for another year. Through your raffle ticket purchases, the KCSN foundation will be able to get presents for Operation Breakthrough’s Christmas Store. Last year, we raised nearly $14,000 to benefit kids in the Kansas City community.
Raffle tickets can be purchased through the @KCSportsNetwork Venmo. You can find a list of prizes in the graphic above.
1 ticket = $20. 10 tickets for $100. Tickets will be on sale through December 6. Winners will be drawn LIVE on the KC Sports Network YouTube channel at halftime of the December 11 game when the Chiefs take on the Denver Broncos.
How does one get on the Discord server?