Matt Moore wishes he came “out of the gate rolling”

[KC Wolf]

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The Chiefs found themselves down 14-0 in the first quarter to the Packers on Sunday night and that seemed like a very bad spot to be given that Patrick Mahomes wasn’t running the offense as they tried to get back into the game.

That job fell to Matt Moore, who was making his first start since 2017 after Mahomes dislocated his kneecap against Denver in Week Seven. As it turned out, Moore was able to help the Chiefs to 17 second quarter points to grab a halftime lead. The Chiefs would relinquish that lead, but tied the game again in the second half before the Packers put away their 31-24 victory.

Moore said after the game that he wished he “would have come out of the gate rolling” and avoiding the early deficit would have surely helped the Chiefs avoid a loss. Moore never turned the ball over, though, and he wasn’t responsible for covering Packers running back Aaron Jones out of the backfield, which left head coach Andy Reid with a mostly positive review of the quarterback’s work

“He hadn’t played a lot of football in the last couple of years, so for him to come out and do what he did tonight, I thought that was respectable,” Reid said, via the Kansas City Star. “He battled and made some plays for us. He’ll go back and look at it, and there will be a couple he’ll want back, but, heck, he did a pretty respectable job there.”

Signs point to Mahomes returning sooner rather than later, so Moore will likely be headed back to the bench. Sunday’s outing should make the Chiefs more comfortable about turning to him again in the future if circumstances should require it.