Winners and losers from the KC Chiefs’ Week 4 win over the LA Chargers

Another week, another close win for the Kansas City Chiefs to maintain the team’s undefeated record.

This time, the back-to-back Super Bowl champions defeated a struggling Los Angeles Chargers team at SoFi Stadium. After some back and forth in the first half, Kansas City finally came away with a great offensive result and the defense put an end to the home team. It’s a 4-0 start for the Chiefs that leaves plenty of room for growth.

With that in mind, let’s highlight some of the Chiefs’ biggest winners and losers from Week 4 of the regular season.

Kansas City’s undisputed defensive end, Chris Jones, was fantastic on Sunday. Not only did the All-Pro defensive tackle get a sack late in the first half to kill a Chargers drive, but he had another late in the game to bring things home. Jones’ pressure on Herbert to force a throw in the final frame resulted in a turnover on downs. It’s been a great start to the season for the Sack Nation CEO, and having another productive interior player like Tershawn Wharton (who had a good game himself) on his side certainly helps the entire line.

Carson Steele is a perfect example of how quickly life comes at you in the NFL. A week ago, the undrafted free agent had an inspiring performance Football on Sunday evenings against the Atlanta Falcons and seemed to be the undisputed best option to replace Isiah Pacheco. Last weekend he only had two tackles on offense and one of them was a fumble. Head coach Andy Reid chose Kareem Hunt for the rest of the game (more on that later). Steele also came into conflict with quarterback Patrick Mahomes during an overtime game in the passing game. Reid says he’s by no means inferior to Steele, but his workload will be worth keeping an eye on.

It’s not too often that a bettor ends up in the winner category, but here we are again with Matt Araiza. On Sunday, he had his best game as a pro when he gained 200 yards on four punts, all of them landing inside the Los Angeles 20-yard line. Two of them were inside the 10, putting the home team behind the proverbial eight-ball to launch their attacks. The ability to flip the field is an important aspect even in the modern NFL, and Araiza had a near-perfect performance in the fourth week of the season.

Speaking of week four: That’s how long it took Skyy Moore to score his first goal in the passing game this season. He later scored a second goal, but it was more of a miss by Mahomes. The one he did get a chance on, however, was a third-down pass that was dropped. If Moore’s role is already in question, not taking advantage of his only real opportunity so far is not the way to cement things. The former second-round pick continues to be a disappointment in his Chiefs tenure.

With Rashee Rice suffering a knee injury early in Sunday’s game, Kansas City desperately needed other options moving forward in the passing game. Luckily, Travis Kelce and Xavier Worthy did just that. The former looked like himself in the box for the first time this year, completing seven passes for 89 yards. Worthy, the Chiefs’ first-round pick, took advantage of a rare deep ball thrown by Mahomes and caught it for a 54-yard touchdown. It’s questionable whether these two will be viable long-term should Rice miss serious time, but they kept the offense afloat during a critical time in Week 4.

Let’s preface this by saying that overall, Jawaan Taylor has been great in his second season with the Chiefs. His play is not represented by his Week 4 performance. However, the veteran right tackle was hit by Bud Dupree for a sack in the first half and committed a total of two false start penalties. Combined with a holding violation, this made for a tough game. However, the concern scale is still hovering around zero and continuing.

Many expected Hunt to fill some sort of duty role in Kansas City’s backcourt, but it was hard to imagine he would look as solid as he did on Sunday. The former third-round pick seemed to have a lot more offense than he did last year with the Cleveland Browns, racking up 69 rushing yards against the Chargers’ defense. The Chiefs are pleased with what Hunt has done on the ground and in the passing game, and with Steele struggling, expect Hunt to have a good role going forward.

In a very uncharacteristic start to the season, Mahomes continues to play surprisingly bad football and even holds back the Chiefs’ offense at times. On Sunday, he failed an ugly interception intended for Travis Kelce and accidentally picked off Rice on the same play. Mahomes’ overall numbers were pedestrian – 245 yards, a touchdown and a pick – and advanced numbers like EPA per play (-0.08) reflect the same. His pocket presence is everywhere right now. Kansas City can clearly still win with this version of Mahomes, but they’re certainly hoping for better performances in the future.

Read more: Four takeaways from the Kansas City Chiefs’ 17-10 win over the LA Chargers