Kansas City played without left tackle Josh Simmons and had DE Tyreke Smith inactive. Miami got Chop Robinson back from the concussion protocol. Then the Dolphins' injury list got worse during the game. The team ruled Achane out for the rest of the afternoon with a knee injury, and with Wright already inactive, Ollie Gordon II was left carrying the backfield until he went down with cramps. He did come back in the 4th quarter. By then Miami's run game had been reduced to whoever could still stand up in Miami Gardens in September.
For a quarter, none of the pregame gap showed up. Miami matched Kansas City 7-7 in the first quarter. The Chiefs added a touchdown in the 2nd to lead 14-7 at halftime, and a Dolphins field goal in the 3rd cut it to 14-10 going into the 4th. The market moved toward Kansas City all week and never priced this as a 1-score game into the final quarter, but that's what it was.
The 4th quarter belonged to Kansas City: 10 unanswered points, a touchdown and a field goal, while Miami went scoreless. That answers the question the preview raised about this defense. The Chiefs had let a winless Colts team put up 30 and needed overtime to finish them. Here they allowed 3 points over the final 3 quarters, and the only thing the Dolphins scored after the opening quarter came off the foot of their kicker.
On the individual headliners, the final score says more than the stat lines, which weren't reliably available at the time of writing. Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Xavier Worthy and Kenneth Walker III put up 24 points, Kansas City's lowest total of the season after 31 against Denver and 33 against Indianapolis, and 14 of those came in the first 30 minutes. The matchup the preview picked out as Miami's opening was Robinson and the pass rush against Mahomes with Simmons out. The Chiefs were held to 14 points through 3 quarters, so the Dolphins did something right up front for a while. The sack column will show whether Robinson was the reason.
The Chiefs are now 3-0 and have won all 3 games in different ways: a blowout of Denver, an overtime shootout with the Colts and a grind through the South Florida heat. Miami is 0-3, 0-6 counting the preseason. The Achane knee is now the biggest problem for a team that already lacked a 2nd reliable running back. If he misses time, Willis loses the one player the preview called Miami's steadiest source of yards.