3 winners, 2 losers from Chargers-Chiefs: Khalil Mack harassed Patrick Mahomes from whistle to whistle.

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Khalil Mack made Sunday night a rough outing for Patrick Mahomes.

and the Chiefs offense while Quentin Johnston caught his 7th TD of the season.

The Chargers were going to need Herculean efforts from their offense to stay competitive against .

the Chiefs without rookie wideout Ladd McConkey in the lineup.

While those efforts maybe weren’t quite of that size.

they still got just enough from the guys who did suit up to make it a back-and-forth game until the very end.

Let’s go ahead and check out my winners and losers from Sunday night’s 19-16 loss to the Chiefs.

Winners

EDGE Khalil Mack

After an extended stretch of zero sacks, Mack started the party early against the Chiefs with a sack on Patrick Mahomes in the opening quarter.

From there, he simply harassed Mahomes from the first whistle until the last.

Sunday night was not fun to be a quarterback for either team, but until the game was in hand.

Mahomes surely was not having a great time continuously running for his life.

especially after starting left tackle D.J. Humphries left the game with an injury.

Mack finished the game with a sack (shared with Tuli Tuipulotu), a pass deflection, a pair of tackles, and four quarterback hits.

 

 

WRs Joshua Palmer & Quentin Johnston.

 

In a game without Chargers WR1 Ladd McConkey, Justin Herbert needed someone — anyone — to step up in his place so the offense wouldn’t end up spinning its wheels for 60 minutes.

While their performances weren’t out of this world, both Palmer and Johnston stepped up just enough to give the Chargers a fighting chance in this one.

Palmer’s first catch went for 38 yards before finishing with a team-high 78 yards on six receptions.

Johnston caught his seventh touchdown of the season and with five catches for 48 yards, good for second and third on the team, respectively.

In the first half it seemed like absolutely no one could get open against man coverage.

In the second half, it was a different story and the efforts of these two, plus the next highlighted player.

went a long, long way in letting the Bolts retain a fighting chance until the end.

 

 

TE Stone Smartt.

 

Smartt had only three receptions all year entering Sunday night.

With Will Dissly getting leaving the game just before halftime with an injury, Smartt was asked to step up in his place.

The former undrafted free agent did just that, catching a trio of passes in the second half for 54 yards, good for second on the team.

His receptions came at very clutch times, as well.

On both of the Chargers’ scoring drives, Smartt caught a pass for 20 yards on either drive.

His performance was almost the most impactful of all the offensive players outside of Herbert.

and I would not be surprised to see his role increase going forward if Dissly remains sidelined.

Losers

CB Ja’Sir Taylor.

 

Taylor’s streak of poor play has extended into extremely concerning territory.

I honestly do not think it’s an overreaction to say that, if it wasn’t for all the injuries at cornerback.

that he would almost certainly would be benched outside of special teams duties.

On the Chiefs’ second-to-last drive of the game down 14-13, the Chargers had Kansas City facing a third.

and-three after Joey Bosa was called for his second offsides penalty of the game.

On that play, Mahomes found running back Samaje Perine two yards short of the sticks.

Tarheeb Still was right there as he turned but Perine jumped-cut forward to avoid him.

Just before the sticks, Taylor had a chance to bring him down.

but Perine seemed to phase through Taylor’s arms en route to rumbling for 16 yards.

The play would have shut down another Chiefs drive and gave the Chargers an extra opportunity at the end of the game to put more points on the board.

Since the Chiefs only won by two, you can imagine how much an extra field goal would have helped alleviate pressure from the Chargers defense.

I’m not sure what the answer is with Taylor.

He’s still one of the more experienced cornerbacks on the team and he plays special teams.

He’s going to be active on game days, but he’s allowing game-changing plays to occur on a weekly basis.

Cam Hart’s return did limit his snaps on Sunday, but he still found his way onto the field in a crucial time of the game.

At this rate, Deane Leonard likely deserves his snaps going forward.

We’ll see if the coaching staff agrees or not.

OG Trey Pipkins.

 

The interior of the offensive line has been a weak point all season.

Against the Chiefs on Sunday night, no link in that chain looked more rusty and frail than Pipkins at right guard.

The former third-round pick in 2019 has held dow a starting job for several years now, including as the starting right tackle.

the past two seasons before transitioning to guard under new line coach Mike Devlin.

It’s understandable to see some lumps taken while playing a new position.

but at some point the floor of your play has got to rise when you’re this far into your professional career.

Chiefs All-Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones was once again immensely disruptive against the Chargers and it’s not hyperbole to say that he had his way with Pipkins all night long.

Pipkins had no answer for Jones’ bullrush.

In most cases, it looked like Pipkins strapped on some roller blades with the way Jones simply walked him straight back into Herbert’s lap on multiple occasions.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen backup right guard Jamaree Salyer come in for short yardage situations, replacing Pipkins for quarterback sneaks.

That already tells us they don’t believe Pipkins can handle doing his job in those situations .

and I don’t know how much more they need to see to maybe give Salyer more opportunities.