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Bobby Kownack’s insights:

1. Mahomes eats nails for breakfast. If questions still remained about whether Kansas City should play Patrick Mahomes On Saturday, he answered them in a hurry with a high ankle sprain. The two-time Most Valuable Player ran nine plays into the Chiefs’ first drive for 12 yards on a third-and-13 for a sensible fourth-down conversion, then ran for another 15 yards and a score shortly after, although he met an angry group of Texas players at the goal line. The hard end zone trip, his longest rushing touchdown of his career in the regular season, set the tone. He ended up leading the team until the final possession, and even though he didn’t look his best, he consistently navigated the pocket and found open targets. Xavier Worthy was particularly good. Similar Rashee Rice Last year, the rookie saw an uptick in performance toward the end of his freshman year, as he recorded double-digit targets for the second straight time (and second time in his career), adding up to 65 yards and a score. Marquise Brown also seemed capable of adding another dimension to the offense. His production was a modest 45 yards on five receptions, but he converted a fourth down on his first-ever catch as a Chief. On his next attempt he moved the chains with a third to go. There is something here for KC to build on, especially the tough Mahomes.
2. Houston is too sloppy when it comes to costly losses. Teams won’t beat the reigning Super Bowl champions and sabotage themselves in the process. The Chiefs made that clear by going 14-1, even in a season in which they never seemed to be at their best. Houston hung tough in this game, adding another one-possession win to Kansas City’s tally, but by the end of the game they were not even close to a football victory. CJ Stroud threw two ugly picks, the most egregious being an aerial throw that stopped a Houston drive into opponent territory and allowed KC to steal a field goal just before halftime. He also delayed two plays, needed a timeout to avoid another play, and suffered a sack in the red zone when he chose to run out of bounds rather than throw the ball away. The Texans’ defense had multiple coverage breakdowns and regularly failed to break through on offense, perhaps anticipating that Mahomes would be more stationary due to his ankle injury. Worst of all, the tenor of the game – and perhaps the Texans’ season – was changed by the team’s best play. Tank Dell grabbed a beautiful 30-yard throw from Stroud to tie the score, but appeared to suffer a serious knee injury in the process, leading to an emotional scene among his teammates. It’s especially devastating considering Dell also suffered a serious season-ending injury last year and began to look back on himself. The Texans scored just three points in the next 27 minutes, and their vaunted early-season WR trio could now be lost Nico Collins.
3. Chiefs D keeps the turnover party going. Kansas City’s defense continued its six-turnover performance last week with two picks against the Texans. While two interceptions may not necessarily stand out in the statistics, the Chiefs have been lacking takeaways until recently. Saturday is only their third game, which resulted in several turnovers. Both interceptions, one after the other Jaden Hicks on the first trip and one after the other Trent McDuffie With 52 seconds left in the first half, he led the way in points – 10 total in a game decided by eight. The D also became increasingly effective at making Stroud uncomfortable. Chris Jones And George Karlaftis were crucial in this regard, with six and five presses respectively Joshua Williams helped end Houston’s comeback attempt with a sack on a corner kick. Every time the Chiefs gave up a big play, they seemed to respond with a bigger one. It was a complete performance, and now they’re just one win or one Bills loss away from securing the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

Next-generation stats insight from the Texans Chiefs (via NFL Pro): The Chiefs applied pressure on nine of 16 dropbacks in the second half (56.3% pressure rate) and pressured CJ Stroud a little more than half as often as they did in the first half (eight of 27 dropbacks, 29.6%).

NFL Research: Kansas City’s 14 wins by 30 or fewer points this season are now the most in NFL history, tying the 1925 Frankford Yellow Jackets.