By MATT PIKE
The season opener for the Kansas City Chiefs started, and ended, as the Kenneth Walker show, with the former Super Bowl MVP helping the Chiefs score a dominant 31-10 win over the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football at Arrowhead Stadium.
The opening offensive drive of the game saw Walker carry the ball seven times, the drive ending with Patrick Mahomes showing no signs of last season's season ending torn ACL and LCL, rushing five yards for a score, that was called back due to holding on rookie Khalil Benson, then running again from 15 yards and diving into the endzone for a go ahead touchdown. The score by the Chiefs came after an interception on the third play of the game, by first round pick Mansoor Delane.
Overall Walker rushed for 173 yards on 28 carries and added three catches for 18 yards scoring twice, once on the ground and once through the air. The Chiefs went into the halftime break up 14-7, after Mahomes connected with Rashee Rice on a 13 yard touchdown pass. In the third quarter, after starting the drive with a run of no yards, Walker capped a four play drive with his longest run of the night, 60 yards bouncing to the outside of the offensive line and bursting down the sideline, extending their lead to 21-7.
Mahomes says he is not surprised in the least by the production Walker showed in Monday night's opener. In fact, he's been saying since day one something like this would be coming.
"I told you all literally first press conference, you all were asking what's the difference in our offense and I said K9, it's just that simple, the way he's able to run the ball, catch the ball, I threw one a little hot to him there on that read that was probably going to be a big play, " Mahomes tells reporters at the podum following the win.
"But it's just a special ability to run the ball tough between the tackles, and then when he does bounce it he has the speed to go all the way, and so we'll utilize him."
Will Lutz and Harrison Butker exchanged field goals to end the third quarter scoring, Lutz hitting from 31 yards and Butker from 28. To set up the final score, Kansas City again stepped up on the defensive side of the ball. With the Broncos facing a long third down, defensive end Felix Anudike-Uzomah worked his way behind Denver quarterback Bo Nix and punched the ball loose, forcing a fumble which defensive tackle Chris Jones jumped on top of.
The reovery, set up the final scoring drive in the fourth quarter, which ended on an unconvential trick play, with both Mahomes and backup quarterback Justin Fields lined up in the backfield with Travis Kelce lined up at fullback, and Walker almost like a tight end, a run pass option style play turning into a shovel pass from Mahomes to Walker for a two yard score.
Kelce moved up in the history books with the longest of his three catches on the day. In the third, on a third and six play within the drive that set up Butker's field goal, Mahomes connected with Kelce wide open just outside the left hash mark and Kelce cut up field taking the all 59 yards to the Denver four yard line. The catch and run was the longest for Kelce since the 2021 season, and moved the future Hall of Famer into second on the charts for most career recieving yards by a tight end, passing Jason Witten and trailing only Tony Gonzalez, with 13,067 at the time..
Kelce finished the game with 13,073 career yards behind Gonzalez's 15,127. He waved the accomplishment off after the game, to both ESPN's Laura Rutledge and reporters, saying it just feels good to get the first win of the season and everything else is "hoopla now", focusing on turning his attention to a short week and a Sunday night matchup with the Indianapolis Colts.
On top of Kelce's historic moment, two other members of the Chiefs hit milestones with the win over the Broncos. Head coach Andy Reid earned his 150th win as the coach of the Chiefs, while general manager Brett Veach hit win number 200 in the National Football League.
Mahomes finished the day 15-for-27 for 184 yards with two touchdowns and an interception adding seven rushes for 23 yards and a score. On top of Walker's rushing performance, Emmett Johnson ran eight times for 24 yards while catching two passes for 44 yards. Kelce had three catches for 71 yards and Rice had two catches for 19 yards and a touchdown.
The Chiefs are now 1-0 on the season, and 1-0 in the AFC West, sitting just above the Las Vegas Raiders who are also 1-0. Kansas City will now gear up to face the Colts on Sunday Night Football on Sunday night at 7:20pm. Pregame will air at 6pm on both KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM) and Q Country 92.7 (92.7 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.