Transcript of MNF Recap: DeAndre Hopkins Already Making a DIFFERENCE for Chiefs

This is third down and one. At the two-yard line, a shutdown, walks it off. Hand off, Kareem Hunt, right side. Powering. He is given time. Touchdown. Kansas City. It's a walk-off, a breakdown by Kareem Hunt and the Kansas City Chiefs. Stay undefeated at 8:00. The only unbeaten team in the National Football League. 14 straight wins for the Chiefs Kingdom.

That was Mitch Holtes of WDAF. The Chiefs are inevitable. 30 to 24 in overtime. Kareem Hunt, he's inevitable. Patrick Mahomes, he's indestructible. He can't get injured. And the Chiefs in overtime, you lose that toss, you're going to lose. Chiefs stay undefeated. I'm Greg Rosenthal. This is NFL Daily, and nick Shook, fresh off writing up the what we learned on nfl. Com. What did you learn, nick?

I learned what I already knew about the Chief's offense, which that it's a slow, methodical, grinded-out offense that's going to paper-cut you to death. But what I really learned is that occasionally, they can impose their will on you up front and just run it down your throats for touch downs in the biggest moments. We saw that tonight. As soon as they won the toss in overtime, you had a feeling it was going to look a lot like that touch down drive in the fourth quarter, and that's exactly what it ended up looking like.

Yes, and the overtime drive of the Super Bowl and the overtime drive that haunt our producer Eric's Nightmare Against the Bills and all the overtime drives, as long as they're on offense. Chiefs fans don't like to be reminded of that 2018 AFC Championship overtime. Sorry. I thought the ball control was It was really interesting tonight. And yes, this Chief's team isn't as flashy, and we're going to get to some new things. Like DeAndre Hopkins was such a big deal. But they had the ball for 83 plays on Monday night. The Bucks, 52. The Chiefs had 28 first downs in this game. They dominated time of possession, 40 to 25. We've seen that a lot. But what I think is different and interesting about this team is a lot of times these comebacks, nick, have started by running the ball. They were down 17,10 in the fourth quarter of this game. They've actually come back at some point in the game in seven of their eight wins. And a lot of times, it's the second quarter, it's the third quarter, and they actually come back by running the ball. They didn't run the ball that well in the first half of this game, but they had that drive when they were down a shutdown, and they just got it going.

And that interior line is just so good. And on a night where the Bucks pass rushers, I thought, did really well. And I think Todd Bulls had a pretty good game plan defensively. It still didn't It doesn't matter that the Chiefs get it done.

Yeah, it was interesting that Bulls' approach shifted, and I understand why, because with an offense like this, you can't blitz them to death and force them into mistakes because they're not trying to throw the football down the field. You have to sit back and trust your base rushes, play coverage, and really worry about stopping the run, especially in the second half. So that was a bit of a surprise. But what was more surprising is the fact that the Chiefs were able to still make it work with that happening. And you're right, the pass rushes for the Bucaneers did a good job, especially in the first half. And then you get to the second half, the Chiefs only put 10 points on the board, and they look like they have for most of the season. They're unimpressive. It's the reason that everybody gets on me about putting Patrick Mahomes so high. Oh, he's got more pics than touch downs, is what they said a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't matter because he plays within this offense at an expert level. The Bucaneers just got a firsthand experience with why he's ranked that high, because he just does it so well.

He's almost impossible to stop. Add in Kareem Hunt, who goes over 100 yards, which, by the way, it's great to see Kareem Hunt thriving relatively with the Chiefs again in a different fashion than he used to when he was there before. But you add that in, and suddenly, they're that much harder to defend, and it just puts that much more stress on the Todd Bulls defense. And that's how you end up with a drive like they had in the fourth quarter that goes 15 plays, 78 yards, takes eight and a half minutes off the clock. I mean, it was a death march of sorts. Just play by play, I'm just watching them going, Oh, they're just getting what they want in none of its big chunks. It's Mahomes on a bad ankle throwing to Travis on third down to convert, which, by the way, 12 for 18 on third down. This is how you win football games when you're not super explosive. This is a challenge of team.

It's not how anyone else wins football games. 12 out of 18 on third down is outrageous.

But what's the difference? The difference is Patrick Mahomes is the guy is operating this offense, which is why he should be regarded so highly, even if the numbers aren't there.

Well, I'm glad you mentioned that. He did throw three shutdown passes tonight, so now he's finally over the shutdown interception threshold. He's now got 11 TDs, 9 interceptions. That's an overrated stat to evaluate It's okay to have there, but it's not the one thing you need to look at. Look, he went 11 for 13 himself on third downs with 10 first downs, three touch downs. The only third downs that they didn't get, and it's interesting, that overtime drive just felt so inevitable, the short passes and then the run on third and short to finish it. That was a five-minute, 52-second, 10-play drive. That was actually a drive that was the fourth longest drive of the night by the Chiefs. They had three other drives that were longer. An eight-minute, 15-play, TD drive that gave them the lead in the fourth quarter, a six-and-a-half minute, 12-play TD drive that tied the game. And then a couple of 10 plus play drives in the first half, one of which went for 70 yards and a shutdown and took over six minutes. So this is who they are. And Troy Akeman said it on the podcast, just like, they're an offense that they get into third and four, they get into third and six, and if they need six, they get seven.

And literally, as he was saying it, they hit a first down just too easy. And Kelsey's funny. I mean, he had 14 catches, tying the career high for only 100 yards. He's averaging seven and a half, eight yards per catch this season. And normally, you see that stat in an old tight end, and you say he's washed. But that's just what they need, or what they're going to need in this offense, because they don't have enough explosive plays. But they do now have DeAndre Hopkins. And just Just tell me what you saw out of DeAndre Hopkins. He goes 8 for 86 in two shutdowns. And this offense just feels different with him in it.

Yeah, it does. What I saw wasn't much different from what I've seen from him before. It's the way they used him that was different. They were moving him around. They were using him within the restrictions of sorts or just the bounds of their offense. It wasn't Hopkins going deep, say, for that 35-yard catch would set up that TD. That was a masterful catch. That's DeAndre Hopkins, as we've always known him to be, catching it in traffic two guys to set up a score. But otherwise, it's short passes, and he's there, he's making the catch. He wins a slant on the goal line. It's a five-yard shutdown catch that the defender had no chance of stopping. Because imagine, I try to put myself in that defender's shoes in that situation. You're one-on-one on the goal line with DeAndre Hopkins. You know that for the majority of his career, he's running that fade to the back corner of the end zone. But against these chiefs, it's a different story. So Akeman is like, You got to drive down and prevent that slant. Well, yeah. What am I going to, a cheat inside? I'm going to give up the fade that I've seen him catch a million times in his career?

No, I'm going to try to react, and I'm a step slow because it's DeAndre Hopkins. In his first game with them, it was quiet, 2 for 29. They still win the game, obviously, but this was a bit of a coming out party within the bounds of this offense in that he can still find a way to make an impact because he's still such a good receiver, and they actually know how to use him. And it gives Patrick Mahomes an option outside of the tight-end group because since they've suffered those losses at receiver, they just haven't gotten much production out of receiver. It's just been all tight-end short passes, and now he has another guy to go to that he can lean on consistently. That'll really not elevate this offense in terms of explosiveness, but elevate them in terms of options. Now he has other places to look.

He was perfect for tonight. He's his own beater, and that's what they need. And on one hand, it's like, wow, we're adding another slow big receiver to the Chief's offense, but he's way better than any of the other options, like a Juju Smith-Suster whenever he gets healthy. And they had great chemistry in terms of knowing what the other was going to do on that play that you mentioned. And that play where Mahomes steps into a completely crowded pocket and throws it despite getting hit into a window that just... You could tell the interview at halftime, Todd Bowles was so frustrated. That play even happened. How many times does it happen in the Mahomes era where the coach is just like, I can't believe that happened. All we got to do is knock down that ball, but it's Mahomes. And for a second, I was like, yes, this is the Mahomes we need to see more of. Like making actual magic Mahomes, exciting Mahomes. And he tried to uncork a deep pass later in the game. I forget, was that went to Watson? And I was like, oh, the old Mahomes is back, but it was overthrown by four or five yards.

But Hopkins gives a guy they can trust at a moment where they can't trust Xavier worthy. If you watch that Raiders tape last week, he's just making mental error after mental error every week. And then he starts this game by basically giving up seven points by not knowing where he is on the field in a wide open breakdown steps out of bounds. Then he the ball one other time. And instead of continuing forward on what might have been a doomed trick play, he still stopped his feet and tried to change directions instead of using the speed. And he might have been able to outrun the defender. He's just not making good decisions. Those end up being the only two targets he has in the game. So Hopkins comes in and he gives them what they need. They've been a bad red zone team all year, nick. They're 25th in red zone efficiency coming in tonight. Tonight, 4 for 4. Hopkins has two of them. Let's actually listen to Hopkins's second TD.

Third down, goal to go at the five-yard line. 17-17 time. 4-24 to go in the game. Mahomes calls an audible and backs up behind Kareet Humphrey. Here comes a blitz, quick passes. Cut this side. It's down. Kansas City, DeAndre Hopkins on the quick left-side slant. The second time, D-Hop has tasted the sweet nectar of the Chief's Kingdom in zone. And the Chief's lead, 23 17.

The sweet nectar of the end zone. We're finally here. We're back.

The defender's name is Josh Hazen there. You can see him. Little stutter off the line, breaks inside, makes the catch. He fits in this often so well because they are so methodical. What I like in them, too, is a boa constricter just squeezing its adversary to death. That's what they do. I think that he works perfectly. Like you said, zone beater, finding the soft spots and coverage. That's what the tight ends have been doing. Now you have another guy with a ton of experience and trusty hands to be able to get the job done working with, arguably, the best quarterback on the planet. I just can't see a way in which you stop them. If you know that the deep ball is not there and you're going to try to play defense short, it's still going to be a challenge.

What a trade. And watching DeAndre Hopkins in a good interview after the game with Laura Rutledge of ESPN, he was so emotional. We think, Oh, this is another just win for the Chiefs. But he's been in Siberia for a while now. I mean, those Texans teams he was on early, they were good teams. He was in meaningful games. He made the playoffs a number of times. Was only on two teams that actually won a payoff game. But Arizona, that was a pretty dark run. He gets one payoff game there. The Titans, as irrelevant as it gets. And he was almost tearing up saying, Words can't describe what this means to me. I manifested it with my mom. We talked about this all the time, and I'm just going to stay present in this moment. And then right after that, Travis Kelsey's on with Scott Van Pelt, and he just says, what a difference having a guy like Hopkins adds to that locker room, especially some of the older guys like Kelsey or even Mahomes, that he has so much confidence. And then seeing it's like those championship teams that add a little extra player to the mix.

I had a not really well thought out tweet, nick, that the Chiefs are doing the Patriots dynasty in reverse, and they've now reached the 2003 Patriots team. And DeAndre Hopkins, in my mind, in this situation, is Cory Dylan. And they're just this team that's slugging you out, and it's a really good defense. But the offense is getting better, but it's opportunistic. I don't know if this even makes sense. No. But they're no longer like the 2007 or 2014 Patriots. They're now in 2003. But however, you're going to win. I really think Hopkins has some intangible qualities this year that really adds a lot to the season. Should we talk about Todd Bulls? Were you annoyed by Todd Bulls not going for two? They scored the game-tying shutdown. And yes, Bucks, we're going to... Fans, the ones that are out there, we're going to give you some flowers. They're showing up every week, just about this season, giving great effort. They could have won this game. They get the shutdown with 30 seconds left after a great jive by Baker. Did you think he should have gone for two? Did you want him to go for two?

Yeah, definitely. This is the second time that we've spent a Monday night talking about a Todd Bulls decision at the end of the game that hurt their team in one way or another. Last time, it was because Chris Gobben got hurt at the end of the game, they weren't going to win. This time, it's conservative approach just to get to overtime against a quarterback and a team that you know, and you just witnessed, by the way, is going to methodically drive down the field and squeeze the life out of you if they win the coin toss. So you essentially leave it up to a coin toss. Not a good call. You have momentum in your favor. You're in arrowhead. You're on primetime. It's wet. Go for the win, Todd. I hate to say this because I think that the Bucaneers obviously have a good chance to battle for this division title with the Falcons. But as it stands right now, when I think about the Bucaneers season in full with half of the season to go, I think about that moment against the Ravens where they lost their top two receivers. I think about tonight as the two big flash points in this season where you're going to look back and say, That defined our year.

It was the decisions made by the coach in those moments that maybe will to find our year. This one, you have to give him a pat on the back because I thought Liam Cohen did a fantastic job as an offensive coordinator of adjusting this offense, knowing he doesn't have the verticality with those receivers anymore, knowing Kade Otton is your best pass catching option. You have this three-headed attack that combines for less than 100 yards. They each go for 20-ish a piece. None of them have a really good average. One of them Sterling Sheppard, 2 for 21. They're getting creative to stay alive in the run game, but they adjusted their offense well enough to still find success on a wet night, on the road against the Chief's defense that has been known to carry them to Super Bowl victories in the past. They made it a competitive game because of Liam Cohen and his understanding of Baker Mayfield's strengths and how they can still move the football. So you feel good about that. But at the end of the day, you still lose a game that you could have won against the defending champs, against a team that's undefeated.

And now you're four and five, and you're just like, Man, can we get out of our own way?

Right. And how about the Thursday night game against the Falcons? It wasn't necessarily a coaching decision other than just Kirk Cousins eating up their blitz all night. But these are three massive games in primetime where you really have a chance, and the margins are so slim, and Todd Bowles is not winning on those margins. The way he answers the questions after the game annoys me almost more than the decision itself. Let's listen.

We wanted to get it to overtime with the wet conditions on the field. We felt like we had to go in overtime instead of go for two. We had our shots. We lost the game.

Did they advise you not to go for two?

No, we went for one. We took our shots. We had our chances all game. We just lost the game. It didn't come down today. It did. It never comes down to one play, but you had the chance to win the game right there.

Okay, so that whole sequence was both impressive and frustrating. First of all, half that drive was just Baker Mayfield throwing out routes to Sterling Sheppard. Sheppard made a couple of great catches. Mayfield's timing was It was really good all night. I've been critical at times of Baker this year. I thought Liam Cohen, as you said, called a really good game. I thought he outcoached Spagnolo. It's crazy because the Bucs got way more quarterback hits. They sacked Mahomes four times without blitzing. And the Chiefs blitzed quite a bit more, didn't get a lot of pressure on Baker. And there were open receivers, and they moved the ball pretty well. It was an evenly played game. Like I said, the Bucs defense couldn't really get off the field either. They were just dying a slower death. But they did a really good job of coaching. And I think Bulls just hasn't realized this is an offensive team. Go look at the DVOA. Sign up for the He got the FTN subscription over there at FTN fantasy. The DVOA tells you they're the 27th defense in the league, and they're the number eight offense in the league. And oh, yeah, well, they don't have Chris Godwin and Mike Evans.

I don't know. They look pretty good the last Last two weeks, they just played quite well against the top five defense. This is not just about those receivers. Now, they'll be much better when Mike Evans returns. Unfortunately, they're not going to get Godwin back. But Kade Otton is making great catches. And the offensive line at this point, there's no way I could come up with five offensive lines that are better right now than the box. They weren't perfect tonight, but they play well together. They have enough high graphics. Everyone's playing well. And so embrace being an offensive team. There were three spots in this game where he didn't He didn't go for a fourth down conversion or could have been more aggressive. Two fourth down conversions in the two-point. So right before halftime, there's a fourth and four around midfield. It's 30 seconds left. You're in that in between where you don't want to give the Chiefs a chance, but maybe have a little confidence because you're not going to win just punting the ball away. They punt the ball away. Second half, they don't go for it on fourth and two. They're at their own 38.

I know that's hard for Todd Bulls to wrap his mind around. In the year 2024, but they punt it away. And the Chiefs are back on that 38-yard line on their way to scoring a shutdown. Eight or nine plays later. Takes them a while, but they get there. They score a touch on. You're probably not going to stop him anyways. Go get the two yards. I promise you can do it. And then at the end of the game, I understood them not going for two a little bit more, only because Todd Bowles had already botched the situation by taking a time out when they got to the one-yard line on first and goal. And Troy Akeman was all over this. You got to let the clock run there. You just gave Mahomes a whole extra possession. If the clock is running there and they end up running that play on second down, let's say with 10 seconds left, then I'd feel more comfortable going for two. You'd know that the Chiefs probably aren't going to score anyways. It's even more worth the risk. One thing that you worry about going for two is that you can get the two and still lose the game with 30 seconds left.

So you're almost between a rock and a hard place. Either way, I just don't think it's playing to your strengths. And so it's just very frustrating. And everyone, apparently who knows the Bucks better, knew he was never going to go for two there. Ryan Fitzpatrick tweeted it out like with two minutes before they even got to that point. It was like, there's no way Todd Bowles is going for two.

Yeah, and that's my concern with them going forward, too, is that this is a defensive-minded coach for the defense that doesn't stack up. For him to force himself out of his traditional ways, which is, All right, let's tie the game and lean on the defense. You can't do that when your strength is your offense, like you just said, and not going for two there. I don't care if there was 30 seconds left There's five seconds left because this Chief's offense, while it's Patrick Mahomes still back there, have not shown the explosive verticality of previous years. That's true. Yes, they had three timeouts, but it was a wet night. Essentially, what you end up doing is forcing them into a position where they have to try to get within Harrison Bucker's range on a wet night. That field goal is not guaranteed no matter how good of a kicker he is. So take the chance. Go for the win instead of leaving it up to a coin flip in overtime, which obviously they ultimately lost.

The two worst drives of the night by the Chiefs were the last two in regulation, where they got three and out twice, once to give the Bucks a ball back. And once again, Baker played well, got that excellent shutdown drive, and then they get it back with 27 seconds left. And man, first of all, the Bucks did the thing where they just kicked it and gave them ball at the 30. I'm annoyed by that each and every week. But Mahomes almost threw the ball away there a couple of times. One time, Antoine Winfield almost made a great play on the ball. It could have intercepted it, and the Chief's undefeated season would be over. But it's not over, partly because Patrick Mahomes is doing crazy things, like creating space as he does, drawing defenders up to come after him in the red zone, and then throwing a shutdown to Samajay Piran on a play that he got injured. Let's listen to the call, and then we're going to listen to Patrick Mahomes talking about the injury right after that.

Hopkins goes in motion, left or right. Tight wing, right side. Mahomes on third down and goal to go. Now, he'll scramble to the right side. Now, he'll flip it late, and it's... Cod, touch down. Kansas City, and Mahomes is down. Mahomes is down on all floors as he flipped the ball forward to Samajay Perine for a touch down. Kansas City, but at what price?

I was obviously running for the goal line, was committed to running the football, and at the last second, saw some Ajay, and so awkwardly rolled the ankle a little bit. Definitely scary. I think it hurt more just because it's the same ankle I rolled last week. So it scared me a little bit. But once I took my breath and calmed down a little bit, ended up being not too bad. We were able to go in there, get the re-spat, and go back on the football field. Shout out to Eric, in Roberts' behind the Glass, having a great week after this Dodgers' Championship. We didn't plan that ahead, that you're going to do those two in a row. Gets the injury talk during the show. That was like him being Mahomes, flipping the ball at the last second to Samaj P. Ryan. So thank you for that, Eric. Good job. And yeah, I guess Mahomes, he's indestructible, nick.

Yeah. It just takes me back to the Super Bowl a couple of years ago when he's got this bad ankle and everybody's worried about his ankle. And then all of a sudden, he takes off for a long run to set up the... We know how that game ends, the holding call and the field goal and everything else. It's just like this guy can be hobbled and he can have foot issues going He can have ankle issues going into games. And you roll the inside of the ankle, it freaks you out because it's an unnatural movement. And yet he just bounces right back and leads. There was a sequence in the next drive where he scrambles forward, and I'm like, oh, God, he's going to run on that ankle. And then he immediately finds Travis Kelsi for a first down. And I'm just like, man, this guy, whether he's an indestructible or superhuman, I don't know. But I would hate to be coaching defense against him.

Yeah, and he's playing better. And it's okay to say that Patrick Mahomes can play better. These guys aren't just robots. Hall of Famer is the best of all time. Tom braided has good games, bad games. There's ups and downs within all of his seasons and throughout his career. The last two weeks leading into this game, I thought were probably the best two games of his season, maybe week one against the Ravens. And then this was another excellent game by him, too. So I think Mahomes was playing at a lower level, even if he shouldn't have been... I'm not saying he should have been ranked that low on QB index, but I do think he's playing better now. And that's great news for Chiefs fans, as if they need more.