Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs Destroy Andy Dalton, Bengals as Kareem Hunt Scores 3 TDs

The Kansas City Chiefs stayed red-hot offensively with a 45-10 blowout win over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night at Arrowhead Stadium.

Patrick Mahomes had 358 passing yards and four touchdowns, while Kareem Hunt scored three times as the Chiefs recorded at least 38 points for the fifth time in seven games. The effort helped the team bounce back from its first loss of the year in Week 6 to move to 6-1 on the season.

Andy Dalton had just 148 passing yards in the Bengals’ second straight loss after a 4-1 start to the year.

Kareem Hunt Is NFL‘s Most Underrated Superstar

Mahomes has been one of the biggest stories of the NFL season and is the face of the Chiefs’ success so far in 2018. However, Hunt showed against the Bengals that he should not be overlooked as a major factor in this attack.

Mahomes had his numbers, but Hunt was the best player on the field Sunday.

The running back had a pair of receiving touchdowns that required impressive work after the catch:

Meanwhile, his best run of the day didn’t even score a touchdown but required a high degree of difficulty:

You know the play was especially good when it got the attention of arguably the best running back in history:

The Chiefs have enough weapons that Hunt sometimes gets overlooked, but he had 185 yards from scrimmage against the Patriots last week and followed it up with 86 rushing yards and 55 receiving yards against the Bengals.

More importantly, he did a lot of the work himself with broken tackles and strong finishes on each play, rather than relying on schemes and blocking.

Hunt led the NFL in rushing last season and continues to improve as an overall player. He is not just a cog in the machine but instead a bona fide superstar who is not getting enough respect. You put him in any situation, and he would succeed, though he will probably be fine benefitting from an elite offense at the moment.

Improved Chiefs Defense Provides Real Hope for Contention

The Kansas City offense has masked the terrible defense at the start of the season, at least until the 43-40 loss to the Patriots last week. The strategy of simply outscoring opponents won’t work against elite competition, especially in the playoffs.

On the plus side, the defense took a major step forward this week while keeping the Bengals offense in check.

Dee Ford and Chris Jones brought pressure on Dalton, forcing him to usually look at his first read or nothing. The quarterback finished 15-of-29 for 148 yards and a 63.6 quarterback rating. The Bengals offense only had 188 yards of offense with the starters on the field.

The group then got itself on the scoreboard with a Ron Parker interception returned for a touchdown:

Kansas City entered the week ranked dead last in the NFL with 468.2 yards allowed per game, which wasn’t a good sign against a Bengals offense that was sixth in the league in scoring. However, the unit was aggressive throughout the night and continued to make plays on the ball.

If Justin Houston and Eric Berry return to the field and play to their ability, this defense could go from worst in the league to respectable. This is enough to transform the Chiefs from a fun story into legitimate Super Bowl contenders.

Bengals Defense, Not Andy Dalton, Will Be Team’s Downfall

There is no denying Dalton was terrible against the Chiefs. He was going against a bad defense and couldn’t move the ball with any consistency, while the biggest chunks of yardage were mostly thanks to A.J. Green.

However, the quarterback and the offense have done their jobs, for the most part, this season. It has been the defense that has been holding the squad back, and that was apparent throughout the night against the Chiefs.

The problems were clear by halftime Sunday:

Another 21 points in the second half showed things did not improve.

While the Chiefs are a difficult team for anyone to stop, the Bengals were making things harder on themselves by consistently missing tackles and always being in the wrong position. Players were wide open down the field, and the squad had no answers for Mahomes’ ability to spread it around.

Though head coach Marvin Lewis and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin deserve a large portion of the blame, it also is up to the players to simply make plays on the ball, which they didn’t do Sunday.

A healthy Nick Vigil and Darqueze Dennard would have helped a little, but this unit wasn’t going to slow down the Chiefs regardless of who was in the lineup.

Cincinnati is now allowing 29 points per game in seven weeks with three opponents topping 30 points, which shows this wasn’t a one-week fluke. This group looks too old and too slow to match up with the better teams in the NFL, and that will continue to be a problem all year long.

Dalton is an easy target, but the defense will cost this team more wins than the quarterback.

What’s Next?

Things will get easier for the Bengals in Week 8 thanks to a matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Chiefs will have an important divisional battle at home against the Denver Broncos.