The Kansas City Chiefs faced an NFC opponent for the first time this season, and Sunday evening football certainly did not disappoint.

Week 3’s game in Atlanta against the Falcons saw a little bit of everything. Despite a sluggish start from the offense and some solid scoring drives from the opposition, Andy Reid’s team was able to rally in time to secure a victory. It’s a 22-17 win for Kansas City, which puts the back-to-back champions at 3-0 to start the season.

With that in mind, here are four lessons from Sunday’s match.

Patrick Mahomes struggled in Week 2’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals, and that carried over a bit into Sunday’s game. On the team’s opening drive, he threw a pass to Rashee Rice short and later missed Xavier Worthy for a touchdown. The two-time MVP seemed reluctant to add some juice to a few throws, and the deep ball to Worthy didn’t go far enough.

Later in the same possession, Mahomes threw a pass to Noah Gray for a nasty interception. It’s possible that a missed pickup forced him to throw the ball away a little earlier than he would have liked, but it was a bad decision nonetheless. A touchdown made up for it on possession No. 2, but it was a rough start for the NFL’s best player.

For much of last season, the Chiefs appeared to run their offense more through then-rookie Rashee Rice than Travis Kelce. Rice outplayed Kelce in a handful of games leading up to the postseason, then the future Hall of Fame tight end looked like his own guy in January and February. The priority targets were Rice to start this season, and while Kansas City did a slightly better job Sunday by adding Kelce, the former second-round pick dominated again.

Of Mahomes’ 39 pass attempts, 14 were intended for Rice. Rice finished with 12 receptions for 110 yards and a touchdown, and routinely found the weak spots in the Falcons’ defense. His patented contact balance and post-catch ability were also on display. With Xavier Worthy still earning a full workload, Marquise “Hollywood” Brown on the injured list and Kelce not rolling (yet?), Rice is the current favorite in Kansas City.

When running back Isiah Pacheco suffered a fractured fibula late in last week’s game, many wondered what the Chiefs’ answer would be at the position. It’s not easy to replace a leading rusher who goes on IR, and acquiring Kareem Hunt to the practice squad can only do so much. There was a lot of pressure on players like Carson Steele and Samaje Perine to step up. It’s only been one game since Pacheco’s injury, but they’ve been great.

As expected, Steele got the bulk of the carries with 17. He posted 72 yards on those totes, even factoring in pass protection and short-yardage schemes. Perine got far less work overall, but had nine total touches for 40 all-purpose yards. When you factor that in, as well as carries from Worthy, Rice and Mahomes, Kansas City did a good job of replacing Pacheco’s production. That’s a winning formula.

Kansas City was far from perfect on defense. In the first half, Trent McDuffie slipping led to a big play for Darnell Mooney, and a miscommunication between Drue Tranquill and Nazeeh Johnson led to an easy score. On Atlanta’s third possession, Chris Jones was penalized for roughing the passer and Justin Reid was burned by Kyle Pitts for a 50-yard chunk play. That drive also resulted in a touchdown. Here’s what happened next for the Falcons:

Spagnuolo’s group buckled down in half No. 2, giving up just three points to a talented offense. It felt like a cliché “bend but don’t break” kind of half, but that works when the defense ultimately does its job. It certainly did on the biggest stage of the week so far, holding the Falcons to 4.8 yards per play in the second half to pull out the win. Even a couple of penalties on the final drive couldn’t stop one of football’s best units from finally sealing the deal.

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