1. Allen Bailey helps Chiefs defense shut down Adrian Peterson
It may have been the best game of Allen Bailey's career, but it unfortunately came in the form of a 16-10 loss to the Vikings on Sunday afternoon.
Without defensive lineman Dontari Poe, who was out with a high ankle sprain, Bailey and the Chiefs defense managed to shut down Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who finished with 26 carries for just 60 yards.
In the first half alone, Bailey had 7 tackles, 3 of which were for loss, 1 sack, 1 quarterback hit and a forced fumble.
He was all over the place for the Chiefs defense.
It's the second-lowest yards-per-carry average for Peterson since 2009 (min. 25 carries).
Bailey now has 4.5 sacks on the season, which is just a half-sack shy of his single-season career best of 5 (2014).
2. Chiefs running game without Jamaal Charles
It was the biggest storyline of the week.
How would the Chiefs running game look without their all-time leading rusher, Jamaal Charles?
As a group, they carried the ball 18 times for 57 yards with five different players finishing Sunday's game with at least 1 carry.
Charcandrick West – 9 carries for 33 yards
Knile Davis – 5 carries for 13 yards
Alex Smith – 2 carries for 10 yards
De'Anthony Thomas – 1 carry for 1 yard
Anthony Sherman – 1 carry for no gain
3. Safety Ron Parker comes up with huge play early in the game
The Vikings opening drive of the game took them all the way down to the 15-yard line of the Chiefs, but after a second-and-10 play resulted in a 5-yard loss due to a sack from defensive lineman Allen Bailey, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater was picked off in the end zone by Ron Parker.
It was only Bridgewater's third interception of the season and it was Parker's fourth pick of his career.
On that opening drive, the Vikings managed to pick up two big third-down conversions, both of which resulted in a nice chunk of yards.
On third-and-4 from their own 20-yard line, Bridgewater found rookie receiver Stefon Diggs, who was starting in place of the injured Charles Johnson, for 16 yards.
Diggs finished the game with 7 catches for 129 yards.
Just three plays later on third-and-7, Bridgewater found receiver Jairus Wright for 52 yards.
After converting three of their first four third-down attempts, the Vikings finished 4 of 10 in the first half.
4. Chiefs offense didn't get going until second half
"It was really a game of two halves," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after the game. "[We had] 51 total yards of offense in the first half and 50 yards of penalties. Completely unacceptable."
Alex Smith was sacked twice in the first half and the Vikings defense controlled the line of scrimmage without one of their best defensive players in defensive end Eversen Griffon, who was ruled inactive before the game after not showing up on the injury report all week.
Griffon was reportedly ill.
The Chiefs turned it on in the second half and finished with 328 yards of total offense on 57 plays, which gave them a 5.8 yards per play average.
5. Rookie DL Rakeem Nunez-Roches makes NFL debut
For the first time all season, rookie DL Rakeem Nunez-Roches was active for the Chiefs defense.
With Dontari Poe out due to a high ankle sprain, Nunez-Roches was given an opportunity.
6. Vikings come out firing in the passing game
Despite averaging just 165 yards passing per game through their first four of the season, quarterback Teddy Bridgewater and the Vikings offense came out throwing the ball on Sunday against the Chiefs.
In the first half alone, Bridgewater and the Vikings surpassed their season average.
Bridgewater was 11 of 19 for 176 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception through the first 30 minutes of play.
He finished 17 of 31 for 249 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.
Coming into the game, the Vikings had been one of the best teams in the NFL at not turning the ball over. The Chiefs finished with 2 takeaways.
7. Two key plays in the running game didn't go the Chiefs way
Charcandrick West had the first start of his career on Sunday, and he was a part of two of the biggest plays in the game.
Late in the third quarter and on fourth-and-1 from the Vikings 7-yard line, West took the handoff showed tremendous balance by using his hand to keep his body off the ground as the Vikings attempted to tackle him, and he appeared to have kept his leg from touching the ground but was ruled down by contact.
The whistle had already blown and the play was not reviewable.
Then, later in the fourth quarter with less than 5 minutes to play and the Chiefs trailing 16-10, Travis Kelce had picked up a huge 37-yard gain on first down.
On the very next play, West fumbled the ball on the first-down carry after being hit by his own guy in left tackle Donald Stephenson.
It was a tough blow in a key offensive drive in the game.
8. Justin Houston steps up in a couple of big situations
Late in the third quarter with the Vikings at their own 17-yard line, Houston got the pressure on Bridgewater on third down and batted the pass up in the air, almost coming down with the interception as well.
The Chiefs really needed a stop and Houston helped deliver on that play.
With the Chiefs trailing 13-10 with a little more than eight minutes to play in the game, Houston sacked Bridgewater on second-and-8 for a loss of 7 yards to force a third-and-long.
But the key play of the game came right after that, when Bridgewater found Diggs across the middle for 30 yards on third-and-15 from the Vikings own 15-yard line.
It was a dagger. There was 7:30 left in the game and the Chiefs trailed 13-10.
The Vikings would move the ball down the field and add another field goal from Blair Walsh—this one from 45 yards to extend their lead to 16-10.
9. Alex Smith and the passing offense find rhythm late in third quarter
After struggling for much of the early part of the game, the Chiefs offense seemed to find a rhythm in the third quarter.
Jeremy Maclin, who would later leave with a concussion, made a fantastic play down the field on a 41-yard reception that gave the Chiefs their first real chunk play of the game.
Kelce made several plays down the stretch to give the Chiefs a chance to win the game.
Smith finished the third quarter 9 of 12 for 120 yards, which was much improved from the first half, during which he completed just 7 of 11 for 43 yards.
Overall, Smith was 22 of 37 for 282 yards with a touchdown.
While it ultimately wasn't enough to win the game, which is the only thing that truly matters, the Chiefs offense did figure something out in the second half.
10. Marcus Peters with another huge interception
For the third time this season, rookie first-round pick Marcus Peters grabbed an interception for the Chiefs defense.
He was known as a playmaker throughout college and he continues to show an impressive display of ball skills early in his NFL career.
Early in the fourth quarter with the Chiefs trailing 13-3, Peters stepped in front of the pass deep in their own territory and gave the Chiefs a chance.
After the game, Bridgewater described Peters' play as a "veteran move."
Just a few plays later, the Chiefs would score on Albert Wilson's 42-yard touchdown reception.
But the best part of Peters' interception is what he did after the play, when he ran and over and handed the ball to Chiefs coach Andy Reid as if to say, 'Here you go, let's go do this.'
11. Albert Wilson's 42-yard touchdown changed the momentum
To say things weren't going the Chiefs way offensively for much of the early part of the game would be a understatement, but despite putting a couple of drives together that got near the red zone, the Chiefs couldn't put more than 3 points on the board.
But on third-and-10 from the 42-yard line, Chiefs coach Andy Reid called a quick screen to the outside and the play worked perfectly.
Albert Wilson took the pass from Smith, cut back to the middle and followed his line of blockers 42 yards down the field for the first touchdown of his career.
The Vikings had brought the blitz and it was a perfect play call in that situation.
It gave the Chiefs new life as they trailed just 13-10 after that score.
12. Mike DeVito, Jeremy Maclin leave early with concussions
DeVito left late in the third quarter and Maclin left just a few minutes later, both suffering concussions.
