The Los Angeles Rams won the duel of the giants against the Kansas City Chiefs with 54:51. In an offensive fireworks display in front of home scenery, however, it was ultimately the defense that made the decision. A linebacker was outstanding.
The game had an extremely high intensity from the beginning and began accordingly with a 6-Play-Drive over whole three minutes and the first Touchdown of the game for the Rams by Robert Woods. From the beginning, the landlords focused on Play Action and Crossing Routes, and right at the beginning they played their Hurry Up Offense, with which KC had its problems.
The Rams defense also got off to a good start and forced the Chiefs to punt right at the start, whereupon the Rams immediately added the second touchdown – a short pass to Josh Reynolds. But then the guests also woke up and turned up the pace. Accordingly, they only needed four plays (75 yards) for their first score. Patrick Mahomes found Tyreek Hill for a 25-yard touchdown pass.
This was followed by drives on both sides, each ending deep in the Red Zone and with field goals, before the Chiefs took the lead for the first time. Allen Bailey made a strip bag against Jared Goff and the Chiefs immediately thanked him with a 21-yard TD match from Kareem Hunt after play action. The momentum then sloshed noticeably to the side of the guests, who then forced a punt.
This impression, however, was short-lived, as Ram’s superstar Aaron Donald, for his part, managed a strip bag against Mahomes. The resulting fumble was finally carried by Samson Ebukam to the final touchdown zone. This happened two minutes before the break, so KC had a chance to answer. And it was used! The Chiefs marched unbraked across the field before Mahome’s Chris Conley found him in the end zone. With 23:23 it finally went into the break – both kickers had awarded a PAT each.
At the start of the second half, the defense of the rams began to make itself more and more noticeable. Donald made his second strip sack of the game, then Goff ran into the final zone after seven moves. The guests hit back directly with a TD drive on their part and then stopped L.A. at a field goal.
But the joy about it was again within limits, because it followed a Pick-Six by Ebukam with the first Play of the series – 40:30 Rams! Punts on both sides followed, before the Chiefs set the next exclamation mark: Mahomes fired a spectacular deep ball at a completely open Tyreek Hill for a 73-yard touchdown. In the following drive, the rams seemed to be rather sluggish offensively and with a 3rd-and-long in front of their own end zone, the guests also managed a strip bag, which Allen Bailey immediately carried into the end zone. Touchdown and lead again KC (44:40).
But Los Angeles had a quick answer to that as well! In just six moves, Goff found Gerald Everett for another touchdown with less than ten minutes on the clock.
Again both sides exchanged Punts. The punt of rams came at 4th-and-short near the midline after Sean McVay thought longer about playing the attempt. In return, Andy Reid faced a similar decision in his own half at 4th-and-2. He played out the attempt and was finally rewarded with a touchdown by Conley. 51:47 with 2:47 minutes to play.
Too much time, of course, for the rams, which only needed six moves until the next answer: Goff on Everett over 40 yards to the touhdown! 54:51 Rams. However, it remained 1:49 minutes to play and the Chiefs had all three timeouts. But it shouldn’t be enough, because near the midline Mahomes finally threw an interception close to the midline to – of all people – Marcus Peters, the former Chiefs Cornerback. The Chiefs got the ball back again, but again the drive – and the game – ended with a pick from Mahomes.
What a performance by Ebukam! The Outside Linebacker was unstoppable. He scored two touchdowns and had the QB hit against Mahomes before his first pick in the fourth quarter. Also great: Aaron Donald with two strip sacks.
Six touchdowns, 479 yards, a great game overall. Patrick Mahomes gave an incredible performance. BUT: The Chiefs quarterback served a total of five turnovers (2 fumbles, 3 interceptions) and simply made too many mistakes in a game where even the smallest mistake was one too many.