NFL Week 9 Game Recap: Kansas City Chiefs 20, Tennessee Titans 17

The Kansas City Chiefs entered Sunday Night Football as double-digit favorites over the Tennessee Titans, but it took an overtime finish for Patrick Mahomes and Co. to get the W.

Offensive spotlight: These two offenses played two different games tonight. Kansas City threw the ball on over 85% of their plays, while Tennessee dropped back on less than 40% of theirs.

The Titans defense didn’t throw a ton of blitzes at Mahomes, and they did a good job of covering one-on-one to limit what Mahomes could do downfield. With tight coverage and small windows all over, the Chiefs QB spent a large chunk of his dropbacks under duress.

Mahomes was hyper-efficient from a clean pocket, completing 33-of-45 attempts for 343 yards, one touchdown and one interception. And he didn’t have a ton of high-level plays under duress until it mattered most, near the end of the game. In overtime, he connected on multiple low-probability throws under pressure to help seal the win.

Defensive spotlight: With Tennesee leaning on the ground game as expected, the defensive line only had so many opportunities to rush the quarterback. But when rookie quarterback Malik Willis did drop back to pass, the Chiefs' front won consistently. Kansas City got pressure on 48% of their pass-rush opportunities and came away with multiple sacks in overtime to help ice the game.

Star interior defensive lineman Chris Jones is the Chiefs’ highest-graded pass-rusher on first review, with four pressures — one of which was a sack — and two other wins on his 21 opportunities.

Rookie spotlight: Malik Willis was much of the same in his second career start as he was in his first — he showed the tools but also showed the steps he's going to need to take in order to become a viable passer.

The threat of his legs adds value to the designed run game, and that showed on Sunday Night with the number of zone-read runs called. In the passing game, Willis was holding onto the ball for far too long. His average time to throw for the night was 3.65 seconds. 

Offensive line spotlight: Willis’ playstyle will always put stress on his offensive line. And the offensive line couldn’t handle it tonight, as three of the five starters turned in a poor pass-blocking grade below 51.0 on first review.

Box Score

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

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