The Kansas City Chiefs played the Detroit Lions in each team’s second game of the year. Chiefs tickets sales started off slow for this game because the Chiefs were coming off a 41-7 loss in its opener against the Buffalo Bills. The Chiefs struggled from the get-go against the upstart team from the NFC. The Lions drove down the field in their first drive, finishing it off with a 15 yard touchdown pass from Mathew Stafford to Calvin Johnson. The Lions took just two plays to complete the touchdown drive. The Chiefs answered, however, with their only score of the game, going 65 yards before slowing down in the Lions red-zone, settling for a 33-yard Ryan Succop field goal.
After allowing the Lions first drive to go for a touchdown, the Chiefs actually held Detroit to three consecutive punts, but were unable to generate any offensive momentum of their own. On Kansas City’s second drive, it went 41 yards in seven plays before missing a 50 yard field goal. The Chiefs would have only one drive of 25 or more yards the rest of the game.
Starting in the second quarter, the Lions began to dominate, scoring on three consecutive possessions to go up by 17 points heading into halftime. None of the Lions drives in the first half went over 60 yards, but they were able to capitalize on short fields created by a fierce defense that forced that finished with four total turnovers, and threatened for many more. Quarterback Matt Cassel struggled throughout, but threw two interceptions at the end of the first half that led to Lion scores.
In the second half, the Lions put together three consecutive touchdown drives, the first going 84 yards in ten plays, finished with a touchdown pass from Stafford to Johnson on a short, one-yard fade route to the corner of the end-zone. The Lions once again took advantage of short fields provided by an impotent Chiefs offense, as its final scoring drives totaled just 75 yards. While it was a one-sided affair, the Lions managed to put up 41 points with just over 400 yards on offense, which points to the Lions defensive dominance. With three interceptions, Cassel threw for only 133 yards, completing just 15 of 22 passes and finishing with a quarterback rating of 40.
The Chiefs were surprisingly good on the ground, accumulating 151 rushing yards on over five yards a carry against one of the best defensive lines in the NFL. While the Lions had just two sacks, the pressure generated from its front-seven forced many of the Chiefs turnovers. Defensively, Kansas City gave up nearly 300 yards of passing to Stafford, who mostly handed the ball off in the fourth quarter. Four of the Lions touchdowns came against a beleaguered Chiefs secondary, and many of the Lions scoring drives were set up by explosive plays of the twenty yard or more variety. The Chiefs were relatively better against the Lions running attack, holding them to under 100 yards and just three yards an attempt. Bright spots for Kansas City included receiver Dwayne Bowe, who finished with five receptions and over 100 yards. The Chiefs were led in tackles by safety Jon McGraw, as the Lions were often not stopped until reaching the Chiefs second and third levels of the defense. If the Chiefs play continues to remain poor, you should find some great deals on Chiefs tickets.
