Much like Stella, the Kansas City Chiefs got their groove back Sunday night in a 41-14 shellacking of the Las Vegas Raiders on the road.
Patrick Mahomes looked vintage, tossing for 406 yards and five TDs. Travis Kelce (8 rec, 119 yards) and Tyreek Hill (7 rec, 83 yards, 2 TDs) dominated, as usual. And the Chiefs got nine catches, 101 receiving yards and a TD from running back Darrel Williams. The defense held the Raiders to just 299 yards and intercepted Derek Carr, keeping Vegas off the scoreboard for the final 27 minutes of game action.
It marked the third straight win for Andy Reid's team after a 3-4 start to the year. But after back-to-back unimpressive victories, Sunday's blowout road win finally looked like the K.C. offense we're used to seeing, rather than the hiccupy operation it had been the previous three games.
"In this league, you're just as good as your next game," Reid said, via SI.com. "We're seeing this every Sunday, on Thursdays and Monday nights. The parity in this league is ridiculous, so you have to stay on your game and you have to continue to work to get better. Eliminate some of the mistakes that we had tonight. You've got to keep that going -- and enjoy it, because they're hard to get -- but just know where you're at and what this league is all about right now.
With the victory over Las Vegas, the 6-4 Chiefs leapt back into the driver's seat in the AFC West, but K.C. only holds a half-game lead over the Raiders and Los Angeles Chargers and is one game clear of the cellar-dwelling Denver Broncos.
"It's a good one to get against a talented football team," Reid said. "We've got so much room to improve still, and we have a little bit of season left to do that. So, we're going to keep chopping away at this thing and making ourselves the best we can be as it goes on."
As spectacular as Sunday's win was, there was still meat left on the bone by the offense. Mahomes missed a couple of deep shots, including one late to Hill that could have been a long score. But it was a reminder not to count out Mahomes and the Chiefs from making another playoff run.
"The whole team kind of got that swag back," Mahomes said. "And we're going to kind of try to keep it rolling."
With a Week 11 date with the Dallas Cowboys on tap, we'll see if the Chiefs indeed can keep it rolling against a postseason contender.