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The Kansas City Chiefs opened their 2023 Super Bowl defense with a shocking Week 1 loss to the Detroit Lions. During this game, Chiefs head coach Andy Reid twice opted to kick field goals instead of going for it on short first downs, which could have made the difference in this one-point loss. While there were several solid reasons for making these decisions, Reid’s choice to not trust Patrick Mahomes is why his team lost.
The opening game of the 2023 NFL season got off to a relatively slow start, and the second half began 14-7 Chiefs. A pick-six by Lions defensive back Brian Branch knotted the score at 14, and that ball bouncing off the hands of Kadarius Toney may have made Andy Reid gun shy moving forward.
With 2:10 to go in the third quarter, the Chiefs faced a 4th-and-2 on the Lions’ 17-yard line, and Reid sent out Harrison Butker for a 35-yard field goal. That was at the end of an eight-play drive that started at the Kansas City 10.
Yes, a big Lions pass interference call helped out there, and Mahomes couldn’t connect with Toney or Skyy Moore on the two previous plays, but that close to the end zone, trusting your MVP QB seems like the right move.
After that drive, the Kansas City defense forced a punt, and Mahomes went from his own 32 down to the Detroit 21. Again, the team faced a 4th-and-2 before Butker trotted onto the field. That kick gave the Chiefs a 20-14 lead, but one drive later, the Lions scored a touchdown, and that was the ballgame.
In a vacuum, it’s understandable that Reid had concerns about his offense. The team’s best weapon, tight end Travis Kelce, was on street clothes on the bench with a knee injury. And as the Chiefs’ Week 1 game went on, it was clear that this year’s receiving corps is not great.
Toney and Moore, two of the team’s three top WRs on the official depth chart, were horrible all game. Moore had three targets and no catches while Toney had one catch on five targets and kept the Lions in the game with his inexcusable drop that led to the defensive touchdown.
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All that said, the one factor that makes Reid’s decisions bad is that he still had a full-strength Mahomes under center, and that should be enough to make him more aggressive when points are on the line.
We’ve seen time and time again in the NFL that when two good teams play, the team that goes for touchdowns instead of settling for field goals usually wins. This is something Andy Reid knows well, as his team was second in the NFL last season in converting red zone trips to touchdowns, finding the end zone 69.4% of the time.
However, it’s not all that surprising that Reid didn’t go for it on 4th-down. Last season, his team went on their final down just 12 times. They did convert at the second-highest rate in the league (75%), but it is not something they did all that awesome.
The Chiefs have spent the last two seasons jettisoning veteran receivers and trusting that Mahomes will make the young and unproven players around him better. Last season that worked out to the tune of winning the Super Bowl.
This season, as teams catch up to the Chiefs, talent-wise, like the Lions did in Week 1, Reid needs to trust Mahomes to convert on 4th-downs, even if Kelce isn’t in the mix. That’s the only way Kansas City can stay on top.
