The Kansas City Chiefs had a roller-coaster game, and that was especially true for their wide receivers.
The group’s top performance came from a duo of speedsters: wide receivers Xavier Worthy and Tyquan Thornton combined for 181 receiving yards on nine catches. Worthy battled tight coverage to catch a jump-ball pass for 41 yards, while Thornton caught passes for 41 and 55 yards along with two red-zone touchdowns.
Unfortunately, the dips were extreme: Thornton suffered a serious ankle injury at the end of a 55-yard bomb in the fourth quarter. That came after wide receiver Rashee Rice (hamstring) left the game in the first quarter after limping after a catch-and-run.
Thornton’s injury unfairly overshadowed what could be considered his best career performance. Thornton scored on third-and-goal to open the scoring, then caught a nice pass down the left sideline from quarterback Patrick Mahomes during a two-minute drill before halftime.
To start the fourth quarter, Thornton caught another great throw from Mahomes, this time off a well-executed shoulder fake in the red zone. If his day wasn’t heroic enough, he made the most important play in the entire seconds of the game before suffering a brutal injury.
As Thronton’s heroic effort unfortunately turned into a sacrifice, it was immediately followed by two touchdown runs from running back Ken Walker, the game’s two decisive scores. Walker acknowledged some motivation stemming from a terrible moment for his teammate during his post-game press conference.
“You never want to see that happen to anybody,” Walker began. “It’s kind of motivation in a sense where you have to play for your brother harder.”
Walker is heroic in himself; he finished with 177 rushing yards — and 76 of them came on a game-changing play at the end of the third quarter. An off-tackle run to the right created a huge hole, and Walker wasted no time running through it through the third level of the Las Vegas defense. He flew to the sideline for the longest run of any Chiefs player in seven years.
He came through after a first half that offered less open space for Kansas City’s offense. Walker was stuffed on a fourth-and-short run in the first quarter, capping an opening drive in which the Chiefs failed on third down twice.
The team continued to deliver on Walker, who finished with 22 carries, and that commitment was crucial for the Chiefs’ pass rushers to have one-on-one opportunities downfield.
With Worthy’s big play, Mahomes intentionally put air under the ball, appreciating the opportunity for Worthy to strong-arm a defensive back for a completion instead of potentially overshooting a deeper pass on the run.
“The early one with Xavier, I might have tried to throw more,” Mahomes recalled. “But I was just trying to give him a chance to make a play versus another cover zero-type look, and he stepped up and made a big play.
“My throws weren’t always perfect,” Mahomes said. “It’s about giving guys a chance to make plays.”
Worthy saw the play coming and knew his quarterback would give him a chance to complete the explosive play.
“Everybody blitzed,” Worthy recalled at the podium. “I knew Pat was going to put it in and we went up and made a play.”
Whether it was Thornton, Walker, Worthy, or any of the other seven Chiefs who touched the ball on offense, it was an outstanding performance by Mahomes’ supporting cast in Las Vegas.