ShareMahomes and Kelce not on the same page early<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s something you don\u2019t see often during a Chiefs game: Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce not looking in sync.<\/p>\n
Kelce couldn\u2019t make a catch on either of his first two targets from Mahomes. On the first target, Mahomes missed a wide-open Kelce. On the second, Mahomes underthrew his tight end on a wheel route.<\/p>\n
ShareEarly issues for the Chiefs offensive line<\/p>\n
The Chiefs\u2019 offensive line hasn\u2019t always been stout this season, allowing four sacks through the first two weeks. <\/p>\n
On the team\u2019s opening drive, rookie left tackle Josh Simmons was called for a holding penalty trying to block Brian Burns. Kansas City was still able to pick up a first down on the next play, but how Simmons fares on the edge tonight will be an important subplot in this game. <\/p>\n
Share The Giants sustained their first possession for 10 plays and nearly six minutes but couldn’t drive into either the red zone or field-goal range before failing to convert on fourth down. But what it did show was backup running back Cam Skattebo, the rookie from Arizona State whose physical running style helped him emerge out of nowhere last season while in college. He has two carries for 10 yards thus far. He entered today with 13 carries for 42 yards.<\/p>\n Share The Chiefs bent but didn\u2019t break on the Giants\u2019 opening possession.<\/p>\n New York ran the ball 7 times for 33 yards on its first drive, yet opted to throw on 4th-and-3 from the Kansas City 28. A Russell Wilson pass was batted down at the line of scrimmage, and now Patrick Mahomes will take over with the game tied at zero. <\/p>\n The Chiefs won the toss and elected to defer, which gives the Giants the opening drive to start this game. This is a game between desperate, 0-2 teams. Who comes out on top?<\/p>\n Share Now in his seventh season as the Chiefs\u2019 defensive coordinator, Steve Spagnuolo is the longest-tenured defensive coordinator with their current team in the NFL. Spagnuolo has won four Super Bowls in his career (3 with KC, 1 with NYG), the most of any coordinator.\u00a0<\/p>\n Spagnuolo spent five seasons over two stints with the Giants, serving as their defensive coordinator from 2007-2008 and 2015-2017. He finished the 2017 season as the Giants\u2019 interim head coach following the firing of Ben McAdoo.<\/p>\n Spagnuolo was the Giants\u2019 coordinator when they beat the previously undefeated New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII in the 2007 season.<\/p>\n Share Travis Kelce, who turns 36 on October 5, is in the final season of his contract and potentially the final season of his career. <\/p>\n While Kelce led the Chiefs in both receptions (97) and receiving yards (823) last season, he did not catch a touchdown until Week 8 and finished the year with just three receiving TDs. It marked the third straight season that Kelce saw his receiving yards and receiving TD totals drop.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share Giants second-year receiver Malik Nabers has picked up where he left off from his stellar rookie campaign, collecting 14 receptions for 238 yards and two touchdowns through the team\u2019s first two games.<\/p>\n Nabers is the type of gamebreaking wideout the Chiefs have lacked the last couple seasons. Through two weeks, all of Kansas City\u2019s receivers (including backs and tight ends) have combined for two touchdowns.<\/p>\n The Chiefs\u2019 top wide three receivers have 289 yards combined \u2014 only 51 more than Nabers himself. <\/p>\n The Chiefs have reached the AFC Championship game in all seven seasons with Patrick Mahomes as the\u00a0starting QB (2018-2024). Since Mahomes, who turned 30 last week, took over as the starter, the Chiefs have an NFL-high 107 wins (including playoffs). That is 21 more wins than the 2nd-place Bills (86 wins).<\/p>\n The Giants will officially have their left tackle back for Sunday night\u2019s game against the Chiefs.<\/p>\n Andrew Thomas is active for the contest after he was listed as questionable for the contest. Thomas has not played since suffering a foot injury midway through last season.<\/p>\n Read the full article here.<\/a><\/p>\n Share Both teams feature elite groups of pass rushers whose production could swing Sunday Night Football in either direction. Kansas City’s Chris Jones has yet to produce a sack in the first two weeks for the first time since 2018, and is coming off a 2024 season in which he recorded his fewest sacks in eight years, yet is still among the league’s best threats off the edge. And he remains a threat because teams must also respect the presence of his teammate, George Karlaftis, who has sacked Giants quarterback Russell Wilson six times in five career games. <\/p>\n The Giants are even deeper, with Brian Burns, Abdul Carter and Kayvon Thibodeaux combining for five sacks and six tackles for loss. And that doesn’t count lineman Dexter Lawrence, who had nine sacks in last season’s first seven games but hasn’t produced another ever since. <\/p>\n Share Jason Garrett sits down with Andy Reid before the NFL season to discuss coaching quarterbacks and the evolution of the position while also diving into coaching philosophy on how to give players power in decision-making.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share The first-year Giants quarterback’s 618 passing yards led the NFL through Week 2, and the total \u2014 buoyed mostly by his 450 yards last week \u2014 is also the highest of the 36-year-old’s career through two weeks. <\/p>\n But can his arm still lead to wins? Going back to last season when Wilson was in Pittsburgh, he has lost seven consecutive games. <\/p>\n “I know what I\u2019m capable of. I don\u2019t need somebody to convince me of that,” Wilson said this week. “I don\u2019t need outside praise or criticism to convince me of what I\u2019m capable of.”<\/p>\n Share New York’s Week 2 loss at Dallas could be attributed to many factors, but one that was impossible to ignore was its lack of discipline. (For example, the six it drew on its opening possession alone.) <\/p>\n When all was said and done, the Giants had been called for 14 penalties, the most by the franchise in a single game since 1949. <\/p>\n Share Through two games, the Carolina Panthers lead the NFL in an ignominious category \u2014 they have not led for a single second all season. That’s a poor start, not that one wasn’t unexpected for this Panthers team. <\/p>\n Yet Kansas City hasn’t been much better, leading for just 2 minutes, 44 seconds out of 120 minutes of football, the second-lowest amount of time leading. <\/p>\n Share The Giants traded three draft picks to move up and use the 25th pick in April’s draft to select Dart, the quarterback from Mississippi. Dart did not play in Week 1 but was used in a specific package in Week 2, playing six total snaps. Giants coaches told him “red-zone-wise, just to be prepared,” Dart said after the Giants’ loss to Dallas. “Short-yardage stuff.” <\/p>\n Share In Week 1, the Giants were the only team in the NFL that failed to score a touchdown, scoring a league-low six points in their loss at Washington. They came to life in Week 2 at Dallas, scoring 37 points and putting up 506 yards of total offense.\u00a0<\/p>\n Share Only six teams ever, and just one this century, have started 0-3 and made the playoffs. While the Giants didn’t begin the season with Super Bowl ambitions, the Chiefs certainly did. To keep their 10-year playoff streak \u2014 the second-longest in NFL history, behind only the Patriots, who appeared in 11 consecutive postseasons \u2014 alive, the Chiefs seemingly must win this weekend to avoid trying to make a desperate playoff push, something few 0-3 teams have ever pulled off. <\/p>\n Those six teams:<\/p>\n 2018 Texans1998 Bills1995 Lions1992 Chargers1982 Buccaneers1981 Jets<\/p>\n To look just as the Chiefs’ own history, being 0-2 has routinely signaled trouble ahead. Of the 16 seasons where the Chiefs started 0-2, 15 resulted in the team missing the playoffs. The lone exception was in 2006.<\/p>\n Share Mike Florio and Nick Wright spell out why if the Chiefs lose Week 3, it\u2019ll suggest they\u2019re \u201cjust not that good\u201d and that could change expectations from them this season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share An 0-2 start? The Giants have now done that 10 times in the past 13 seasons. <\/p>\n Yet this is the first time Kansas City has endured back-to-back losses to begin a season since 2014. KC hasn’t started 0-3 since 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, we\u2019ve never been 0-2, but we\u2019ve had times where we\u2019ve dealt with challenges before,” Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said this week. “The guys that we have in this locker room will go back to work with that mindset of, \u2018We\u2019re going to continue to work even harder.\u2019 <\/p>\n “So that when we step on that field this next time, we can find a way to win in those big moments, like we haven\u2019t in these first two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Share Reid’s 301 career victories, including the postseason, ranks fourth all-time behind George Halas (324), Bill Belichick (333) and Don Shula (347). He could tie Shula and Belichick atop another coaching leaderboard this season if the Chiefs reach double-digit victories, which would be his 20th season with 10-plus wins, matching Shula and Belichick for most all-time. <\/p>\n Share Fantasy Football Pregame unveils its TD scorer parlay on DraftKings Sportsbook for Week 3.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share Kyle Dvorchak shares how Cam Skattebo’s arrival in the Giants offense hurts Tyrone Tracy’s fantasy value after taking a backseat to the rookie in Week 2.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nOpening drive offers look at Giants’ Skattebo
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250903-andrew-greif.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nChiefs make a fourth-down stop!<\/p>\n
![\"Chiefs](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250921-giants-chiefs-mn-0840-6dd355.jpg\")
New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo struggles for yardage as Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton defends.Adam Hunger \/ APShareGiants will get the first possession
<\/a><\/p>\nSpags is back in New York<\/p>\n
Kelce in final year of contract<\/p>\n
Malik Nabers is the type of player the Chiefs are missing<\/p>\n
![\"Malik](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250921-malik-nabers-mn-2020-fce049.jpg\")
Malik Nabers of the New York Giants warms up Sunday.Sarah Stier \/ Getty ImagesShareMahomes has always gone to AFC title game<\/p>\n
![\"Patrick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250921-patrick-mahomes-kansas-city-chiefs-mn-2200-b582ad.jpg\")
Patrick Mahomes before tonight’s game.Elsa \/ Getty ImagesShareAndrew Thomas is back for the Giants<\/p>\n
Sack artists will be key
<\/a><\/p>\nAndy Reid on evolution of the quarterback position<\/p>\n
Russell Wilson putting up big yards but no wins
<\/a><\/p>\nGiants aiming to clean up worst penalty performance in decades
<\/a><\/p>\nIt’s not only that the Chiefs haven’t won. They’ve barely led.
<\/a><\/p>\nGiants gradually introducing backup QB Jaxson Dart
<\/a><\/p>\nWhich Giants offense will show up?<\/p>\n
Both teams desperate to avoid 0-3 start
<\/a><\/p>\nIt’s a make-or-break game for the Chiefs<\/p>\n
This is new territory for KC. Not so much for the Giants.
<\/a><\/p>\nKansas City coach chasing coaching greats
<\/a><\/p>\nHampton, Williams lead Week 3’s anytime TD parlay<\/p>\n
Giants switching things up at RB<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/241017-steve-kornacki.jpg\")
<\/p>\n