Early on, Week 8’s “Monday Night Football” matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Washington Commanders was ugly — but the better team managed to pull away with a stellar second half. Some of it was just how the ball bounces. The Chiefs lost two interceptions after passes bounced off the hands of their intended receivers. They also fumbled twice, recovering both of them.
But when Kansas City came out of the locker room for the third quarter, the team once again looked like a Super Bowl contender. The defense pitched a second-half shutout, while the offense buried Washington with three more touchdowns on the way to a 28-7 victory.
There were plenty of standouts as the Chiefs took care of business, getting to 5-3 on the season. Here are a few of them.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes: Box-score scouts will see the two interceptions and doubt that Mahomes had a great game. They’ll be wrong. The absolute heater continues for Mahomes. He was brilliant — especially in the second half as the Chiefs pulled away from Washington and didn’t look back. He spread the ball around to tight end Travis Kelce and wideouts Rashee Rice and Xavier Worthy. They averaged eight targets, seven catches, and 81 yards each as Mahomes led four touchdown drives on a day when two probably would have been enough. He averaged 8.8 yards per attempt and ended with just under 300 yards passing and 30 yards rushing. That’s my quarterback
