KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs closed the preseason with a stirring 33-32 victory Saturday at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
Kansas City spotted Cleveland a 19-point first-quarter lead — yup, that information is accurate — before coach Andy Reid’s squad, which played without a handful of key starters that included Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, mounted a furious second-half rally to the delight of the fans who celebrated the break in a weeklong heat wave by taking in the Chiefs’ only home preseason game of 2023.
Credit Chris Oladokun for engineering the game-winning drive, which culminated in Harrison Butker's game-winning 44-yard field with 1:48 remaining.
Now for the real thing: Kansas City opens the regular season on Sept. 7 back at Arrowhead against the Detroit Lions, another game you can watch on KSHB 41.
THE GOOD: Mahomes didn’t get hurt. He also didn’t play.
No starters on the offensive line got hurt. They played one series.
That counts as a win 12 days before the NFL opener, no matter the final score.
THE BAD: Two picks-sizes from backup quarterbacks weren’t great. More on that below.
Defensively, the pass rush produced five quarterback hits in the first half.
So, why is that bad? Three were from Charles Omenihu, who the NFL suspended for the first six games of the regular season.
With defensive tackle Chris Jones yet to report this offseason, Kansas City may be trotting out a wildly unproven defensive front for Week 1.
KEY MOMENT: Pick your favorite Rashee Rice drop.
Midway through the second quarter, Rice found himself all alone up the right sideline, where Blaine Gabbert lollipopped a pass that should have gone for a touchdown.
As Rice adjusted to the ball, it clanged off his facemask for a brutal drop, the latest in a series of pass-catching blunders for the rookie second-round pick from SMU.
It wasn’t even his first drop in the preseason finale.
On third-and-1 midway through the first quarter after back-to-back interceptions led to back-to-back touchdowns for Cleveland, Buechele fired a pass to Rice on an out route.
It was a catchable ball, but Rice couldn’t snag it.
Later, Rice was unable to come up with a catch to start the next drive on a catchable ball. He also had a pronounced drop in last week’s win at Arizona, a discouraging sign for one of the brightest rising stars of Chiefs training camp.
All of the missed passes may not have been officially recorded as drops, but they are the kind of plays that could make the difference between winning and losing when the results count.
KEY STAT: Quarterback Shane Buechele finished 8 of 17 for 89 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions, an inauspicious finish to an otherwise sterling preseason.
Midway through the first quarter, Buechele threw into double coverage on a third-and-inches play-action rollout to his left.
Buechele was trying to force an intermediate pass to Justyn Ross, but former Chiefs safety Juan Thornhill crashed hard and intercepted the errant ball.
Thornhill, a former second-round pick by Kansas City who signed with Cleveland in the offseason, weaved his way 34 yards for a touchdown.
Buechele was picked on the next drive, too.
He fired a pass up the left seam for Cornell Powell, who rounded off an in-breaking route and was hit as the ball arrived.
Browns safety Rodney McLeod caught the ball after a couple caroms for Buechele’s second straight drive-ending interception and third pick of the preseason.
BACKUP QB RACE: The race to back up Mahomes heated up last week when Buechele got the first crack after Mahomes.
Veteran Blaine Gabbert had been the second QB to play in the preseason opener at New Orleans and has remained No. 2 on the team’s depth chart.
But Buechele’s usage hinted that he’d surpassed Gabbert.
He also started Saturday’s preseason finale against the Browns, providing more evidence that Buechele had emerged as the heir apparent to Chad Henne as Mahomes’ backup.
Buechele’s lackluster performance was a splash of cold water on that idea.
Gabbert also threw a pick-six shortly before halftime when a pass he threw a bit behind tight end Matt Bushman got tipped for an interception, but he showed better command of the game overall than Buechele did.
The former first-round pick from Mizzou finished 10 of 18 for 169 yards with touchdown passes of 20 yards to La’Mical Perine and 43 yards to Ihmir Marsette-Smith.
TOUGHEST CUT: It's hard to imagine the Chiefs keeping eight wide receivers — impossible really.
If Kadarius Toney lands on injured reserve to start the season, which would sideline him for at least the first four weeks, the Chiefs may wind up keeping an extra receiver.
But it's hard to see Ihmir Smith-Marsette's path to the roster under any other scenario.
After another standout performance — Smith-Marsette had four catches for 101 yards, including the long TD from Gabbert — it's also going to be hard to swallow jettisoning the former Iowa star ahead of the 3 p.m. Central roster-cutdown deadline Tuesday, when all NFL teams must trim their rosters to 53.
Smith-Marsette has been a preseason playmaker with added value in the return game. GM Brett Veach will have a lot of difficult decisions to make over the next three days, but perhaps none more than thinning out the wide-receiver room.
ROOKIE WATCH: Despite limited reps, defensive end Felix-Anudike Uzomah had a tackle for a loss and a quarterback hit as he continues his assimilation to the NFL.
Anudike-Uzomah, a first-round pick from Kansas State in April, missed the offseason before training camp as he rehabbed from injury.
That stunted his transition from college to the pro game, but he has flattened the learning curve considerably during camp with the latest evidence coming against Cleveland.
INJURY REPORT: Chiefs linebacker Leo Chenal came up favoring his hip after recovering a first-quarter fumble and didn’t play the rest of the game.
He was the only new addition to an injury list that includes wide receivers Kadarius Toney (knee) and Nikko Remigio (wrist), cornerbacks Nic Jones (hand) and L'Jarius Sneed (knee), guard Nick Allegretti (shoulder) and defensive tackle Matt Dickerson (toe).
Browns wide receiver Jakeem Grant Sr. appeared to suffer a potentially serious knee injury on the opening kickoff. He remained down after a 23-yard return and left the field on the back of a cart with his right knee immobilized.
Linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk (knee) and defensive tackle Jordan Elliott (hip) also picked up injuries for Cleveland.
THE DNPS: Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling didn't play in the game, though MVS did see the field when he ran down to celebrate Smith-Marsette's touchdown.
Defensively, linebacker Nick Bolton and defensive end George Karlaftis got a day off.
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