The Chiefs jumped out to a 17-0 lead over the Jets on Sunday Night Football.
But things have shifted since Kansas City right tackle Jawaan Taylor was flagged in the end zone for a safety. And now the Jets appear to have energy on their side, though the Chiefs still lead 20-12 at halftime.
Taylor’s tenure with the Chiefs continued its rough start when he was flagged for a facemask with 13:20 left in the second quarter for grasping a facemask in the end zone. The Jets got two points and the ball back and then scored a field goal to make it 17-5.
Patrick Mahomes then threw his first of two interceptions in the second quarter, with Jets safety Ashlyn Davis coming down with an easy pick.
Quarterback Zach Wilson hit tight end C.J. Uzomah with a 1-yard touchdown pass to make the score 17-12.
The Chiefs did get a 37-yard field goal out of Harrison Butker to make the score 20-12.
The Jets had a chance to make the score closer with about 30 seconds left in the second quarter. But Greg Zuerlein sent his 52-yard field goal attempt off the right upright, keeping the score at 20-12. New York had fourth-and-1 at the Kansas City 34 and the crowd did not seem pleased that head coach Robert Saleh elected to try a field goal.
But Mahomes threw his second interception of the half to give New York another opportunity, with linebacker C.J. Mosley coming up with the takeaway on a pass to tight end Travis Kelce.
The Jets, however, could not do anything with it, as Chris Jones sacked Wilson to end the half.
Wilson is 18-of-26 passing for 141 yards with a touchdown. Garrett Wilson has six receptions for 43 yards.
On the other side, Mahomes is 8-of-16 passing for 135 yards with a touchdown and two picks. Isiah Pacheco has been the Chiefs’ most productive offensive player, taking eight carries for 84 yards — including a 48-yard touchdown in the first quarter. Pacheco has also caught both of his targets for 42 yards.
Kelce has three catches for 37 yards on six targets.
The Jets will receive the second-half kickoff.
The Jets are making it a game.
Down 17-0, New York has scored 12 straight points to make it 17-12, Kansas City, with 6:26 left in the second quarter.
Patrick Mahomes tossed a rare, poor interception on the first play of Kansas City’s possession after the Jets had scored a field goal to make it 17-5. Mahomes was looking for tight end Noah Gray but didn’t put nearly enough air under the pass to complete it. Safety Ashlyn Davis came down with an easy interception, returning it to the Kansas City 41.
Mahomes immediately patted his chest after the interception, blaming himself.
With good field position, the Jets got into the end zone in seven plays. Randall Cobb kept the drive going with a 5-yard catch on third-and-5. And on second-and-goal at the Kansas City 1, quarterback Zach Wilson hit tight end C.J. Uzomah in the end zone for a touchdown.
Wilson is now 13-of-18 for 109 yards with a touchdown, good for a 106.0 rating.
The rough start to Jawaan Taylor’s tenure with the Chiefs has continued on Sunday night against the Jets.
Now Taylor has directly cost Kansas City points, as he committed a facemask penalty in the end zone for a safety.
Taylor was ruled to have grasped and twisted the facemask in the end zone. While a replay showed Taylor’s grasp started in the field of play at about the 1-yard line, Taylor’s twist of the facemask did occur in the paint.
Taylor has been intermittently benched at certain points over the last couple of games for his repeated false starts and lining up too far in the backfield.
Entering Sunday’s game, Taylor had been flagged seven times so far in 2023 — three false starts, two illegal formations, and two offensive holds.
The safety made the score 17-2 and the Jets drove down the field on their ensuing possession and had third-and-3 at the Kansas City 13. But Zach Wilson’s pass to Tyler Conklin in the end zone was incomplete and the Jets settled for a 31-yard field goal to make the score 17-5 with 9:50 left in the second quarter.
The Patriots pulled quarterback Mac Jones during Sunday’s 38-3 loss to the Cowboys, but there are no plans to consider a lasting change at the position.
In his postgame press conference, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said that Jones remains the team’s starting quarterback heading into next Sunday’s game against the Saints. Belichick also said that he pulled Jones because there was no benefit to continuing in a game the Patriots had no chance to win.
“I didn’t think there was any point in leaving him in the game,” Belichick said, via Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald.
Jones was 12-of-21 for 150 yards and two interceptions. One of the interceptions and a lost fumble on a sack were returned for touchdowns before Bailey Zappe replaced him.
When Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson caught his second touchdown pass of the day on Sunday, his celebration included the “too short” gesture.
After the 21-13 win, I asked him whether it was a message to the Panthers, for assigning five-foot, nine-inch cornerback D’Shawn Jamison to cover one of the best receivers in football.
“I mean, that’s a message to the league,” Jefferson said. “I’ll go out there to show that it doesn’t matter who’s out there to stiff me. I’m gonna make a play, I’m gonna make a catch. I’m gonna do whatever it takes for my team to win.”
That he did on Sunday, both on the field and on the sideline. After an opening drive touchdown pass to Jefferson was wiped out by a penalty and then followed by a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Following that 14-point swing, Jefferson made sure he justified the “C” on his jersey by trying to get his teammates to believe things can turn around.
“Just keep stressing to keep going, you know?” Jefferson said. “It’s a long game. It’s a lot of time to go out there and make something happen(. So, it’s really just don’t get discouraged by the turnover or the bad plays that we have on the field. We just gotta reset and just have that confidence to go back out there, have a better drive and put points on the board.”
Still, it didn’t look good for the Vikings until it finally did, when safety Harrison Smith forced Panthers quarterback Bryce Young to fumble, and defensive lineman D.J. Wonnum ran it in for a touchdown that gave the Vikings a 14-13 lead in the second half.
“I feel like that changed the whole game around,” Jefferson said. “You know, us going back on top. Just us having that momentum from that play. I felt like we kind of leaned on that play and kind of played the rest of the game with more tempo, more energy.”
They’ll need both next weekend, when the Chiefs — and presumably Taylor Swift — come to town for a late-afternoon game. A win over Kansas City could be exactly the thing the Vikings need to believe that they can climb out of their early-season hole and compete for a playoff berth.
Patrick Mahomes has set another NFL record.
His first touchdown to tight end Noah Gray was the 200th of his career. That made Mahomes the fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 200 touchdowns in his career, accomplishing the feat in just 84 games.
The touchdown capped a six-play, 89-yard drive. Gray found a hole in the coverage on the right side on third-and-2 and easily gained 18 yards after the catch for the score.
Mahomnes has started the game 5-of-7 for 104 yards with a touchdown — good for a 153.3 passer rating. He also has 17 yards on two carries.
At the end of the first quarter, the Chiefs lead the Jets 17-0 on Sunday Night Football. The Jets still have not scored a point in the first quarter through four games this season.
The Cowboys sent Tom Brady into retirement in January, beating the Buccaneers 31-14 in the wild card round. Sixteen days later, Brady announced he was calling it a career.
On Sunday, the Cowboys handed Bill Belichick the most lopsided loss of his career.
The Cowboys won 38-3.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called that fact hard to believe.
“Surreal is what it is when you look at how well they have competed all these years, and so again that is the case where you have all the respect in the world for them,” Jones said. “Couldn’t have pictured being able to have the score like this, but again, it’s kind of inspiring because again knowing what a great coach, what a great organization they’ve got. We’ll build on that. That did us some good.”
Jones admits concern after the Cowboys were upset by the Cardinals 28-16 last week. They rebounded Sunday, moving to 3-1, with their three victories by a cumulative 108-13.
“Yes, I did [have concern] after last week. I felt like that we had a lot of work to do,” Jones said. “I almost felt like coming in today was similar to the way I felt when we had our first game this year with the Giants when this group hadn’t been together in a preseason game. I was anxious to see how we were. I felt that way before the kickoff tonight. This was meaningful. Absolutely I had a question in my mind of how this thing would turn out today and the meaningfulness of it later this season.”
The Cowboys took it to Belichick and the Patriots on Sunday.
Belichick’s previous worst loss was by 31 points to the Bills in 2003. He also had a 29-point loss to the Bills in 2020.
“I would say that we will take it,” Jones said. “We will take it, and it will be that meaningful to us and is that meaningful to us even though we know he’d like to have few things different than they are with that team. It’s still beating them and getting the win from him. It’s got everything that’s good to go with it.”
Another week, another travel delay for the Steelers.
The Steelers endured an hours-long delay before they could fly home from Houston after today’s loss to the Texans, although they’ve now been cleared for takeoff, according to team spokesman Burt Lauten.
“We were delayed this evening due to a mechanical issue with our charter plane following the game in Houston. We have now been cleared to safely fly back to Pittsburgh,” Lauten wrote on social media about four and a half hours after the Steelers’ game ended.
The Steelers also had a long delay last week, when their flight home from Las Vegas had to make an unscheduled landing in Kansas City. They got home about seven hours late on Monday.
The good news for the Steelers is that they’re home against the Ravens next week and have their bye after that. It will be three weeks before they’re on the road again.
For as good as the Chiefs have been, they’ve oddly had issues with third-and-short in recent years.
But at least early on in Sunday night’s game against the Jets, Kansas City had no such problems.
Running back Isiah Pacheco took a handoff to the left on third-and-1 and burst through for a 48-yard touchdown to give the Chiefs a 10-0 lead with 8:29 left in the first quarter.
Right guard Trey Smith pulled and had a key block to spring Pacheco, who then went the distance.
The Chiefs also got points on their first possession, with kicker Harrison Butker connecting on a 37-yard field goal.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes has started the game 2-of-4 for 29 yards, with both of his completions going to tight end Travis Kelce. Mahomes has also rushed two times for 17 yards.
Pacheco has 53 yards on four carries.
On Sunday against the Raiders, Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert did the thing that no quarterback should do, but that few can resist. He tried to make a tackle after a turnover.
The end result was an injury to the middle finger of his non-throwing hand.
The finger was wrapped, and he didn’t miss a play.
After the win, he said he got the finger caught in a helmet. And he brushed it off as a “flesh wound.”
An observer pointed out that half of the reporters in the room got the reference, and that it was funny watching those who didn’t.
If only Herbert had walked away from the podium like this.