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Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes dominate struggling Bears with Taylor Swift in attendance: Reaction and anal

The Chiefs rout the Bears 41-10. Join The Athletic's team of experts and insiders as we break down all the action.

Nate Taylor, Adam Jahns, Kevin Fishbain, Jon Greenberg and The Athletic's NFL Staff

September 25, 2023 at 7:15 AM EDT Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes dominate struggling Bears with Taylor Swift in attendance: Reaction and analysis

Cooper Neill / Getty Images

It’s the Bears, they’re the problem (Matt Eberflus’ version)

Taylor Swift, welcome to your Eberflus Era.

And yes, it always looks like this.

Swift might have gotten some inspiration for new sad-girl music by watching the Bears get thoroughly rolled 41-10 by the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

Or perhaps the Bears could just borrow her song “Anti-Hero” for a more realistic team song. The lyrics, “It’s me, I’m the problem,” seem to fit this franchise better than any talk about thrilling the nation with their T-formation.

Now and seemingly forever, the entire organization is the problem, starting with ineffectual ownership and ending with the players on the field, who seem

Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs happy to ‘get the whole offense going’ in blowout of Bears

Some days are perfect. Sunday’s game for the Kansas City Chiefs was one of them. The NFL loves to boast about its parity, its idea that every week is a challenge for every team and its love of the phrase, “any given Sunday.”

The Chiefs, though, were given a gift on their schedule: The floundering Chicago Bears.

The weather was perfect, too, a sunny 82-degree afternoon at kickoff. The Arrowhead Stadium atmosphere is as close as the league comes to that of an important college football game, thousands of fans tailgating with the biggest sensory accent being the smell of barbecue. In a rare occurrence, Sunday’s game resembled a college homecoming, the Bears being the perfect overmatched opponent for the Chiefs to put up their first complete, dominating performance of the season.

The Chiefs’ 41-10 victory — in which they scored the first 41 points — was the ideal game for their offense to fully awaken and show its full capabilities.

Just how bad can this get for Matt Eberflus and the Bears?

This is bad.

And it can get worse.

Much, much worse.

The Chicago Bears were outclassed by the Kansas City Chiefs at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday. The Chiefs have the better quarterback, the better coach, the better everything — and all of that showed in the Bears’ 41-10 loss.

But this isn’t rock bottom.

With the Bears, there is no such thing.

It’s more like a bottomless pit.

It can always get worse.

An example of that could be just one week away if the Bears lose at Soldier Field to quarterback Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos, who got spanked 70-20 by the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Despite losing by 50 points, the Broncos opened as a 2 1/2-point favorite over the Bears.

The Chiefs’ beatdown of the Bears will stick with the team, even if they win a few games against other struggling teams in the coming weeks. It tells you how bad things can be against the best teams and how many changes might be needed to even compete with average squads.

Hoge & Jahns react to the Bears' 41-10 loss to the Chiefs

Join Adam Hoge and Adam Jahns as they break down the Bears' frustrating loss to the Chiefs on Sunday, what went wrong and where the team can turn next.

Join the live stream here.

Bears off to historically slow start

The Chicago Bears became the 62nd team since the NFL merger to start 0-3 and have a point differential of at least minus-50.

At minus-59 points, the Bears are tied for the 29th-worst point differential after three games and have second-worst start in team history. The worst belongs to 2019 Miami (minus-117) followed by 2001 Washington and 1973 New Orleans (both minus-96). The Bears’ worst was in 2003 (minus-68).

Following along with The Athletic for live coverage of Steelers-Raiders on 'Sunday Night Football'

Join The Athletic's writers and insiders as they break down all the action in today's matchup between the Steelers and Raiders on "Sunday Night Football."

Follow along here.

KC Joyner’s fantasy takeaways

Patrick Mahomes finally got a plus matchup, and it led to him moving from very good to great in fantasy points. His 25.68 points land in the top-10 for a quarterback in single-game scoring this year.

The matchup also helped Travis Kelce post his first true impact game of the year with 19.9 PPR points. Any thoughts about his not living up to expectations can now be forgotten.

It’s tough to know what Jerick McKinnon’s two touchdowns might mean for him or for Isiah Pacheco going forward, but getting a strong production level out of the Chiefs backfield should finally mean fantasy managers can once again consider them as flex candidates.

It may not be too early to start calling Justin Fields a bust candidate, as his continued lack of rushing production has caused him to post three consecutive games with fewer than 15 points. The only hope is that next week’s matchup against the Denver Broncos, a team that has allowed 105 points over the past two weeks, can be the plus matchup Fields needs to break out of this scoring slump.

Any hopes of the Chicago backfield producing a consistently viable fantasy running back are fading away each week and again trended in that direction with 3.5 PPR points from Khalil Herbert and 6.9 PPR points from Roschon Johnson.

The Chiefs D/ST posted a double-digit point total for the second consecutive week and should be started in all leagues next week in a matchup against the mediocre Jets offense.

Cardinals stun Cowboys as Joshua Dobbs gets first NFL win

The Arizona Cardinals stunned the NFL by toppling the previously unbeaten Dallas Cowboys 28-16 in Arizona on Sunday. Here’s what you need to know:

Cardinals QB Joshua Dobbs finished 17-of-21 for 189 yards and a touchdown to pick up his first career victory as a starter.
The Cowboys offense, which came into the game averaging 35 points and 327 yards per game, was doomed by red zone inefficiency as Dallas came away with just one touchdown from five red zone attempts. With three minutes to play, Dallas QB Dak Prescott was intercepted in the end zone from the six-yard line.
Arizona entered the week 0-2 after losing one-score games to the Washington Commanders and New York Giants.

GO FURTHER

Cardinals stun Cowboys as Joshua Dobbs gets first NFL win: Why Dallas only has itself to blame

Bears suffer another blowout loss

The Kansas City Chiefs close out the Chicago Bears 41-10. The 31-point loss is tied for Chicago’s worst in two seasons under head coach Matt Eberflus (also Week 17 2022 vs. Lions) and is their third by 30-plus points in the last three seasons.

The Bears’ three losses by 30 points or more since the start of the 2021 season are the most by any NFL team.

Chiefs D/ST stepping up in fantasy production

The Kansas City D/ST wasn’t on the radar screen of most fantasy managers headed into a Week 2 game at Jacksonville. But after the Chiefs posted 11 points in what looked like a difficult matchup, it provided enough evidence to make this a viable stream start defense going forward.

That led Kansas City to be one of the most added teams last week, as the Chiefs roster rate skyrocketed by 58.2 percent in ESPN leagues. That investment has paid dividends, despite a late garbage touchdown by the Bears. The Kansas City D/ST has still posted 12 points on the strength of an interception, fumble recovery, three sacks and only ten offensive points allowed.

This D/ST will also be highly sought after as a start candidate next week when Kansas City goes to New York to face the Jets.

Fields connects with Moore for 6

DJ Moore catches his first touchdown pass as a Bear. Chicago now trails 41-10

Mahomes reaches 25,000 passing yards faster than any player ever

Patrick Mahomes is done for the day but not before he made some NFL history.

Including his 272 passing yards today, Mahomes now has 25,044 for his career in 83 games played. The 83 games are the fewest needed by any player to reach 25,000 career pass yards in NFL history.

Fewest games to throw for 25,000 career yards - NFL History

Patrick Mahomes: 83 <<
Matthew Stafford: 90
Dan Marino: 92
Peyton Manning: 97
Kurt Warner: 97
Jared Goff: 97

>> Topped 25,000 yards today

Fields walks off with trainers as Bears trail 41-3

In the "yes, things can get worse" category, Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields had to walk off the field with trainers after a hard hit on third-and-goal. Fields went to the blue medical tent briefly before joining his teammates on the bench.

He ran it six times after Jack Sanborn's interception, setting up Cairo Santos' field goal to avoid a Bears shutout. They trail 41-3, have already lost Jaylon Johnson for the game, and linebacker Tremaine Edmunds also went to the locker room.

Mahomes doesn’t need 3 quarters for top-10 fantasy numbers

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is done for the day with Kansas City up 41-0 in the late third quarter. That didn’t do anything to hurt his fantasy numbers, however, as Mahomes posted 25.68 points while in the lineup.

For perspective, that is the eighth-highest point total tallied by a quarterback in a single game thus far this season and was half a point away from ranking sixth in that category.

The Chiefs top skill position players also fared well, with Travis Kelce posting 19.9 PPR points (no word on if he is on Taylor Swift’s fantasy football team), Jerick McKinnon had 16.9 PPR points, and Isiah Pacheco had 15.8 PPR points when Mahomes headed to the bench.

Taylor Swift provides much-needed garbage-time material

Honestly, Taylor Swift is a gift from the heavens for Kevin Burkhardt, Greg Olsen, Erin Andrews and the rest of the Fox broadcast team. This is extended garbage time and they have content.

Chiefs' Prince Tega Wanogho starts third quarter at RT

David Eulitt / Getty Images

The Kansas City Chiefs started the third quarter with a new right tackle: Prince Tega Wanogho. For the second consecutive game, coach Andy Reid replaced right tackle Jawaan Taylor, a five-year veteran who joined the Chiefs in March on a four-year, $80 million contract, for Wanogho.

Once again, Taylor committed two illegal formation penalties, the result of him lining up too far off the line of scrimmage. The second penalty nullified a 50-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

With Taylor watching from the sideline, Kansas City still scored on its first possession of the third quarter, an 11-play, 64-yard drive that ended with an easy 3-yard connection from Mahomes to tight end Travis Kelce in the back of the end zone.

The Chiefs were not penalized on the drive, either.

An update from Arrowhead

With Fox cutting away from the game, here's something from Kansas City. The broadcast showed Taylor Swift celebrating Travis Kelce's touchdown.

She seemed to scream, "Let's freaking go!" At least, that's what many thought in the press box before laughing.

Chiefs' thrashing of Bears takes backseat to Cowboys-Cardinals

The Chiefs-Bears game is such a blowout, Fox has already cut away from it in favor of Cowboys-Cardinals in most of the country despite the star power of Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift.

The Kansas City leads 41-0 after Kelce's 3-yard touchdown catch.

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