Patrick Mahomes' first game back from a torn ACL won't make a highlight tape. He threw two touchdown passes in the Chiefs' Week 1 meeting with the Broncos, and by his own account the play that mattered most was the one he ran.
A rushing touchdown, Mahomes said, gave him confidence that he could be himself again. That's the tell. Passing numbers can return before a quarterback trusts his knee on a scramble or a keeper near the goal line. Yahoo Sports framed the night the same way: not spectacular, but with one spectacular moment that offered Kansas City promise.
The Chiefs won 31-10, per NFL.com's recap of the Monday Night Football opener, and they didn't need Mahomes to carry them. Denver's offense did the heavy lifting in the wrong direction. Bo Nix finished 17-of-28 for 131 yards, a touchdown and an interception. He was sacked four times and fumbled three times, losing one. Zach Allen got home for two of those sacks, adding three quarterback hits.
That's the part of this game with a longer shelf life than Mahomes' knee. Kansas City's defense generated four sacks and an interception against a quarterback making his own early-season statement, and the Broncos never found a counter. Courtland Sutton caught two of five targets for 11 yards. Denver's leading receiver was tight end Evan Engram, four catches for 43 yards and the lone score. When a tight end outproduces the No. 1 wideout by 32 yards, the pass game has a problem that isn't about Week 1 rust.
Rookie running back RJ Harvey was one of the few bright spots, returning four kickoffs for 111 yards (27.8 average) and catching all four of his targets. Denver's staff should keep feeding him.
My verdict: the ACL stops being the story in Kansas City the moment Mahomes takes off running, and he just did it in Week 1. That's a win for the Chiefs regardless of how pretty it looked. In Denver, the story is Nix, and it's not a flattering one. Three fumbles and four sacks in a season opener is how a promising second year starts wobbling, and I don't think the Broncos' offensive line fixes it by October.
