Five things that stood out about Chiefs’ win vs. Saints on Monday Night Football

At last, a conclusion without anxiety.

Well, for one Kansas City team.

The Chiefs beat the Saints 26-13 on Monday Night Football, a game they dominated more than the score indicated.

They wrapped up the win less than an hour after the Royals, their parking lot neighbors at the Truman Sports Complex, beat the Yankees in Game 2 of the American League Division Series. The Yankees brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning.

A pretty good sports night for Kansas City, huh?

Here are five observations from immediately after the game played in KC:

1. The passing game solution

It’s going to be a makeshift answer for the Chiefs at wide receiver without Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown.

Or maybe the answer won’t come completely from that room.

The Chiefs’ opening script Monday — and entire script, for that matter — featured a heavy dose of tight end sets.

And, in turn, tight end targets.

The first eight passes Patrick Mahomes threw targeted tight ends, not wide receivers. (He completed six of them.) At one point, and then again later in the game, the Chiefs put four tight ends on the field at once.

The matchups always dictate some of the scheme, but the Chiefs’ personnel is dictating much of it, too. They have used “13 personnel” — those are three tight-end sets — 13.8% of their plays, per Sumer Sports, a rate that ranks 13th in the league, and a rate that might be increasing.

It did Monday.

Until ...

2. The return of JuJu

Well, there is one solution in the wide receiver room, apparently.

A player the Patriots couldn’t use.

A player the 1-4 Patriots couldn’t use.

JuJu Smith-Schuster caught 7 passes for 130 yards, the most yards for any Chiefs receiver this season.

There has to be an asterisk — Smith-Schuster couldn’t corral a pass at the goal line that former Chiefs defensive lineman Khalen Saunders intercepted. A fun play, by the way.

But Smith-Schuster filled in for Rice admirably, particularly in one area: after the catch. Smith-Schuster had 80 yards after the ball was already in his hands.

It’s Rice’s strength, and it remains the biggest concern about how the Chiefs will replace.

For one night, he did.

3. The run-stopping Chiefs?

The Saints run the ball on 57% of their snaps, more frequently than any team in football.

And there was a time in which that would have provided the exact matchup the Chiefs didn’t want to see.

No longer.

Week after week, the Chiefs have shut down an elite running back, and now Alvin Kamara is the latest.

Kamara, who entered the week four the in the league in rushing, was held to 26 yards on 11 carries. And that still led the team.

The Chiefs entered the day fourth in the league in yards per carried allowed, and then promptly decreased that number.

And when you erase a team’s preferred option, guess what, the offense tends to struggle — especially when that plan activates Chris Jones.

About that ...

4. Hey, an interception

Bryan Cook made a terrific play on the football to secure an interception — just the second pick the Chiefs have had this season and the only time they’ve had an opening-drive stop.

A great play.

Here’s why he made it:

Pressure

Derek Carr, and this isn’t the first time you’ve heard this, panicked when George Karlaftis broke into the backfield and just hurled a pass up for grabs. So Cook went up and grabbed it.

It’s not just about the sack. It’s about the threat of it. And while he’s made improvements in the opening month of the season, Carr has rarely been good under pressure.

Which made it all the more relevant that the Saints were playing without two interior starting linemen. Matching up against Chris Jones is not exactly the ideal time to be mixing in the backups.

5. Kareem Hunt, the workhorse

Kareem Hunt was watching football from his couch just three weeks ago.

He’s a lead back now for a team vying for the NFL’s first-ever three-peat.

And an effective one.

All of the underlying metrics showed Hunt was one of the least effective running backs in the league last season. Heck, most showed him as the very worst.

But it’s clear he’s got some burst left, and the physicality hasn’t left. Hunt had 27 carries for 102 yards and a touchdown. The total numbers don’t tell the full story, though. Hunt’s running style avoids negative plays.

Among his initial 18 carries, all but one of them gained at least two yards. I know that seems like an odd number to pick, but there’s a reason behind it.

The Chiefs were at the 2-yard line, ready to put the game away, when they opted for a pass on the goal line.

As I mentioned, Smith-Schuster needs to come down with the ball, but when you pass the ball over the middle at the goal line, there’s a lot of traffic there.