Second Thoughts

Free-falling Chiefs find ways to lose

Darrelle Revis of the Kansas City Chiefs leaves the field after the Chiefs lost 38-31 to the New York Jets. The loss was the Chiefs’ sixth in the past seven games leading a Kansas City-based columnist to say the Chiefs are in free-fall, showing an ability to fi nd a way to lose every week.
Darrelle Revis of the Kansas City Chiefs leaves the field after the Chiefs lost 38-31 to the New York Jets. The loss was the Chiefs’ sixth in the past seven games leading a Kansas City-based columnist to say the Chiefs are in free-fall, showing an ability to fi nd a way to lose every week.

The Kansas City Chiefs started the 2017 season 5-0 but have lost 6 of their past 7 games to fall into a three-way tie for first place in the AFC West.

Kansas City lost 38-31 to the New York Jets on Sunday, and Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger said the Chiefs are in a free-fall.

"The Chiefs' current reality would be unthinkable if it did not fit so neatly into what the franchise has been about for nearly 50 years. Letdown after letdown after momentary promise leads to letdown," Mellinger wrote.

"The premise would be laughable if it were not so agonizing. The best team in the NFL to a reliable and free-falling loser, all tightly wrapped into the same season.

"The failures would be simpler to address and trust would be easier to grant if a team five years in the making with a coach in his 19th season did not provide such a diverse and at times darkly comedic collective of ineptitude. Offense one week, defense the next, with stupid penalties and stupider mistakes.

"This group should be better, in theory, but instead the 2017 Chiefs are among the NFL's greatest disappointments because the men who swear they're better than this repeatedly make liars of themselves and fools of anyone who believes.

"This team once talked about winning the Super Bowl, and people once heard that without laughing, but a 38-31 loss to the Jets here on Sunday sticks out from past failures only for its creativity.

"Good teams find ways to win, bad teams find ways to lose, and so far this group has alternatively lost because it couldn't stop the run (Steelers), couldn't stop the pass (Raiders), couldn't do much of anything except a potato-sack dance (Cowboys), couldn't score against a team that had quit (Giants), couldn't score against a team that gave up 101 points the two weeks before (Bills), and couldn't keep Josh McCown from looking like John Elway and Jermaine Kearse from looking like Jerry Rice (Jets).

"Ugh. It's even worse when packed into one paragraph.

"Andy Reid has worked five years to build this team, finally with the speed and versatility and experience to best complement his scheme, and a confident defense with talent at every level, and the result at the moment is closer to the dysfunction he inherited than the Super Bowl champion he envisioned."

He's a 'coward'

ESPN analyst and former New York Jets coach Rex Ryan said Sunday that the New York Giants benching quarterback Eli Manning in favor of Geno Smith was a slap in the face to Manning.

"I love Geno Smith. Great guy. I just don't want him playing quarterback for me," Ryan said on ESPN Sunday Countdown.

Smith responded to Ryan, who coached him with the Jets in 2013-2014.

"I did see one of my ex-coaches say he didn't want me to be his quarterback, and that really upset me," Smith told reporters in Oakland, Calif., after the Giants' 24-17 loss to the Raiders. "For him to come out and say that shows how much of a coward he is."

With the firing of Ben McAdoo on Monday, it is unknown whether Smith will start for the Giants on Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys.

SPORTS QUIZ

Where did Geno Smith play college football?

ANSWER

West Virginia

Sports on 12/05/2017

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