Clyde Edwards-Helaire and the Kansas City Chiefs rolled to a Week 1 win.
Football. Is. Back. And I’m not talking about Marshall-Eastern Kentucky. That’s nice and all but I think we’d all prefer Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson to *checks notes* Grant Wells and Parker McKinney. And on Thursday, the NFL offered us the former matchup to kick off the 2020 season.
The grandeur of Thursday night’s season opener can’t be understated. I don’t need to remind you about the particularly painstaking wait between Super Bowl LIV eight months ago and Thursday Night Football. Through thick and through thin, the NFL season has prevailed. After months of speculation, sadness and chaos, we finally got some good ol’ fashioned football.
And man, what a football game it was. The expectations were already sky-high for the reigning champions. And breaking news: The Kansas City Chiefs are still very good.
On the flip side of that coin was the Houston Texans, who have been widely cast out from the annuls of playoff predictions. That tends to happen when you trade your generational wide receiver for a bag of beans.
All kidding aside, the Texans looked somewhat lost in their 34-20 defeat to the Chiefs. But maybe that wasn’t so much on Bill O’Brien’s squad. It took them a couple of possessions, but Mahomes and the magic men of Kansas City pulled out all the tricks against Houston. Perhaps the most impressive player of the night was first-round rookie Clyde Edwards-Helaire.
Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have another star in Clyde Edwards-Helaire
I won’t say the rookie looks like the next Jamaal Charles yet — the jersey number doesn’t help — though Edwards-Helaire really shined in his debut. He had 25 carries for 138 yards and a touchdown, which was enough to earn Mahomes’ praise in his postgame interview. And how could he not? This juke alone is worthy of all the praise.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1304244489905553408?s=20
Listen, football fans love to overreact. People on Twitter also love to overreact. So can you blame me for showing some more love to the guy who I said would ball back in March?
The best part about Edwards-Helaire’s night? The Chiefs didn’t even use him in the passing game. Maybe he hasn’t gotten to that stage yet, maybe the team felt like they didn’t need to throw as much or maybe both statements are true.
Either way, there’s no denying Edwards-Helaire’s prowess in the passing game. Just turn on his tape from LSU. This is a guy who should be a staple in Kansas City’s offense throughout the season.
Of course, Edwards-Helaire wasn’t the only new bright spot for the Chiefs. How about L’Jarius Sneed, the fourth-round rookie from Louisiana Tech? Aside from one interception, Sneed was making plays all night. And he wasn’t even a starter. Again, I’ll cool down on the overreactions, but Sneed would be a scary addition to a secondary that led 2019’s seventh-most effective passing defense, per Football Outsiders.
As for Houston, well, we may have a problem. And not because they got burned by arguably the best team in football on national television. It just seemed like Deshaun Watson really, really missed DeAndre Hopkins. Having Will Fuller fly downfield is a decent consolation prize, but Fuller’s reliability should still be questioned; he has yet to play a full season in four injury-riddled seasons.
Honestly, the whole offense could use some bubble wrap. The one offensive player who has avoided any serious health concerns — Duke Johnson has played in all 64 games of his career — left the game with a leg injury.
If Fuller, Brandin Cooks, Randall Cobb and David Johnson can stay healthy, the Texans should be in a solid enough position to challenge for the AFC South crown. That’s a big “if.” This team runs through Watson, and if Thursday night’s loss was any indication, he’ll need a bit more help if Houston wishes to compete with the big boys again.
All in all, this game could have been a 50-point blowout and I would still be happily conjuring 500 words about it. I’m just grateful to write about live football again.