Arrowhead Pride
Sunday’s Week 6 action concluded with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Detroit Lions on GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Kansas City moved to 3-3 on the season with a big 30-17 win — its third multi-score victory of the season.
As the game began, the Lions sought to remind Kansas City fans — and the rest of the league — that even top teams with league-leading offenses can make bone-headed mistakes.
In its opening drive, Detroit had its way with the Chiefs’ defense, driving 60 yards on 14 plays. The Lions’ offense looked unstoppable. But the Kansas City defense finally stiffened, forcing a fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line. Naturally, Lions’ head coach Dan Campbell opted to go for it, calling a play where quarterback Jared Goff went into motion to the left flat, where he caught a pass from running back David Montgomery, who had taken the shotgun snap. Goff scored behind his wide receiver’s block.
But after the officials conferred, a flag was thrown. When he stepped away from under center before the snap, Goff had neglected to set his feet before going into motion — which is required in that situation.
After the penalty, it was fourth-and-goal from the 5-yard line — and it appeared that Detroit couldn’t decide whether to send the field goal team onto the field or take another shot at a touchdown. As Goff began appealing to officials for more time on the play clock, they threw the delay-of-game flag — and even Campbell had no stomach for a fourth-and-10 scoring attempt.
These back-to-back mistakes — which any Kansas City fan would have called inexcusable if they had been made by the Chiefs six days earlier — cost the Lions four points. They never recovered from them
And at least in this game, the Chiefs got the penalties under control. Kansas City called for just one penalty — an offside call on Chris Jones. It was declined.
Few players have been the recipient of more criticism during the last week than Kansas City’s placekicker, who added an out-of-bounds kickoff to his season-long list of miscues during Week 5’s “Monday Night Football” loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The night didn’t start well for Butker, who badly missed his first kick of the night: an extra-point attempt that was shanked as badly as any kick he has attempted with the Chiefs. In a game against the league’s top offense, it wasn’t unreasonable for fans to be concerned that the missed kick could play a pivotal role in the game’s outcome.
But in the end, it didn’t. Butker easily made his next four kicks — and had no difficulty putting his kickoffs where they needed to be.
Still, he hasn’t been up to the standard we have come to expect from him. He needs to get things under control. And as we have seen before… it’s very...
