The Kansas City Chiefs overcame errors to defeat the Tennessee Titans 20-17 in overtime in Week 9, starting the post-bye week 10-game stretch on the right foot.
The offense played 100 total snaps, which is the most in a regular season game during the Patrick Mahomes era. They played 98 total offensive snaps during the Week 15 win against the New Orleans Saints in 2020. The disparity in defensive snaps shows you just how often they got off the field and gave the offense chances in the second half.
What else can we learn from the weekly snap numbers? Here’s a look at how the snaps came down in Week 9:
*Snap counts via NFL Game Statistics and Information System
Observations
- Travis Kelce and Juju Smith-Schuster tied for the most snaps by an offensive skill player in Week 9. It’s no surprise that they were both atop the receiving yards leaderboards as well.
- Jerick McKinnon by and large played the most snaps of a running back on Sunday night with 62 snaps, largely for his pass-catching and pass-protection ability. The “starter” Isiah Pacheco earned 22 snaps, while Clyde Edwards-Helaire had his second game with fewer than 20 snaps.
- Kadarius Toney played just nine snaps in his Chiefs debut. He had two receptions on two targets and made a few key blocks in the running game and the passing game.
- Trent McDuffie played a full helping of snaps in his return to action for the team, playing 96% of the defensive snaps for Kansas City. Mike Danna similarly saw a lot of action in his return from a calf injury with 84% of the defensive snaps.
- L’Jarius Sneed, Nick Bolton and Juan Thornhill were the only players to play 100% of the defensive snaps.
- Malik Herring saw just eight snaps, which is surprisingly low given that Frank Clark was out of the lineup. The Chiefs basically stuck to a three-man rotation of Danna, Carlos Dunlap and George Karlaftis.
- Jaylen Watson played just six defensive snaps in Week 9 with Joshua Williams getting the vast majority of the snaps when three corners were on the field. This was in part due to Watson leaving the game with an eye injury, but also just because the Titans don’t utilize personnel that requires three corners on the field often.
- Khalen Saunders appeared in just 19 defensive snaps in what was one of his best games as a professional. It feels like he needs to be out there more frequently with the effort in which he plays.
- Chris Lammons, Jack Cochrane, Deon Bush, Marcus Kemp, Geron Christian and Prince Tega Wanogho were the lone non-specialists to play special-teams-only snaps.
