As St. Louis enters its third season since the Rams departed, it is time to look West, folks.
You don’t have to look all the way to Los Angeles, where the Rams have pieced together one of the best teams in the NFC and are a Super Bowl contender.
One of the most exiting stories in the NFL – and American sports, is less than 250 miles away.
Patrick Mahomes II, Tyreek Hill and the Kansas City Chiefs are a national hit and you’d be a fool not to want to see them.
The Chiefs throttled the host San Diego Chargers 38-28 on Sunday in Mahomes’ second start of his career. He won a meaningless game at Denver last December, but this was the real deal. He showed what coach Andy Reid and the Chiefs’ hierarchy already knew – he is really good.
Mahomes passed for 256 yards and four touchdowns. He put up one of the best quarterback performances in the NFL’s first week. And the black, handsome, witty, smart quarterback remains humble.
“There is stuff that I have to keep learning from,” Mahomes said following the game.
“I’ll see that from the film, but just from being out there, there’s just little stuff like that that you have to keep improving in order to have success in this league.”
Hill, who snagged a sidearm laser beam slant pass from Mahomes and turned it into a 58-yard touchdown, said the young QB was in control.
“Every time Pat stepped into the huddle, he was very comfortable. And the play calling, he was like ‘Okay guys, let’s drive this ball down their throat.’ And the receivers, tight ends, and offensive lineman were like ‘Okay, we’ve got a great leader in our huddle,’” said Hill, who caught seven passes for 169 yards and also returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown.
“Pat showed great confidence, great leadership today, and he was awesome.”
Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star, the state’s best sports columnist by far, wrote, “This was Mahomes’ moment, and everyone understood that, including Mahomes. But the line works as more than irony, because really, this game was less about Mahomes than what the Chiefs can be around his head-shaking talent.”
Rave reviews are coming in nationally, too.
“Mahomes is an athletic, strong-armed quarterback capable of hitting targets at every level of the field and generally wreaking havoc in an efficient and explosive manner on a weekly basis. That’s what we were led to believe this offseason, and based on one week’s worth of work, it wasn’t a lie,” wrote Will Brinson of CBS Sports.
Danny Heifetz of The Ringer titled his story Monday, “Patrick Mahomes II is the NFL’s must-watch player.”
“Mahomes’ early success is like Christmas morning to the fans and fantasy owners who bought into the hype, but his play also represents something larger than himself: teams’ increasing openness to college offenses.
“Right now, the Chiefs are the most fun team in football, and Mahomes is the star of the show.”
The Chiefs travel to Pittsburgh on Sunday and Kansas City fans won’t outnumber Steelers fans like they did in San Diego last week. It will be Mahomes’ toughest test. I’ll be watching. It’s must-see TV and it’s coming to K.C. live and in color in two weeks.
Ups and downs
The NFL’s fraternity of black coaches experienced some respective highs, lows and the unusual last Sunday.
Todd Bowles’ New York Jets traveled to Detroit with rookie quarterback Sam Darnold starting his first game. The Lions were a solid favorite, but the Jets spanked the Lions 48-17 behind five interceptions from a fired-up defense, two touchdown passes by Darnold and a long TD punt return.
After his first pass as a pro was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, Bowles told Darnold, “Don’t flinch. The game just started.”
He didn’t and neither did Bowles’ team.
“It’s a new era. It’s a new team. It’s a new swagger. And we’re excited,” said safety Jamal Adams.
By the way, Lions coach Matt Patricia, 2017 New England Patriots defensive coordinator who replaced African-American Jim Caldwell in Detroit, got embarrassed in his first game at the helm.
Vance Joseph is not responsible for his unenviable quarterback situation in Denver, but he begins the season in need of victories to ensure his job status. He got a big 27-24 victory over the visiting Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
The Broncos controlled the game early, then almost let it slip away. But Joseph had his troops prepared.
“We talked about it (Saturday), when adversity shows its head, just play right through it,” Joseph said after the game. “Last year, we had some chances where adversity showed, and we didn’t play through it.”
Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals, the dean of the NFL’s black coaches, took his squad to Indianapolis to face Andrew Luck and the Colts. A late defensive touchdown sealed the 34-23 win for the Bengals and brought a rare sideline smile to Lewis’ face.
His team had trailed throughout the game, made too many turnovers and penalties and was watching the Colts drive to a potential game-winning TD – but it prevailed.
“You don’t get time to hiccup or flinch,” Lewis said. “You’ve just got to keep playing.”
“There’s a lot of stuff we can do better. Too many penalties in critical situations … it could really hurt us.”
At least Lewis is 1-0. A pair of black coaches started the year with stinging losses.
As mentioned before, Mahomes and the Chiefs handed the Chargers a 38-28 setback and left Chargers coach Anthony Lynn in choppy water when it comes to job security.
While the Chiefs showed the nation how explosive they can be on offense, the Chargers were plagued by untimely dropped passes.
“You keep playing. Those guys, they’re good receivers. They’ll bounce back. I don’t dwell on it,” Lynn said. “I try not to beat a guy down because of it. I try to encourage these guys so they can make the next play.”
Chiefs fans took over StubHub Center in Carson, Calif., last Sunday. If Lynn is to survive as coach, he better start winning.
Rookie head coach Steve Wilks watched the visiting Washington Redskins rip his Arizona Cardinals 24-6 in his debut. Surely, it wasn’t what he imagined for his first game as a NFL team leader.
“All night we were playing catch-up and that was really the issue, that we were never really able to get into a rhythm when we got behind,” Wilks told AZCentral.com on Monday.
“Guys (were) trying to make plays when it’s not their play, and they’re getting out of their gaps.”
There has been a gap of almost two years since Hue Jackson’s Cleveland Browns won a football game. With the Pittsburgh Steelers visiting for Sunday’s season opener, the odds were against the Browns getting a victory. With less than a minute remaining in overtime, the Browns were a short field goal away from a stunning upset. It was blocked, and Jackson and Steelers coach Mike Tomlin had to settle for a 21-21 tie.
Jackson’s team rallied for 14 fourth-quarter points to tie the game, but he was far from satisfied with the result.
”We did not play very well yesterday, let’s just be honest. We need to play better,”
While also disappointed, Tomlin brought his usual rye humor to the postgame press conference.
“It was an awkward feeling after a game like that,” Tomlin said. “You don’t know what to feel or to say or think.
“They say a kiss like kissing your sister. That sounds kind of (odd). We’ll find somebody else to kiss and get ready for next week.”
The Reid Roundup
Carlos Ramos, the chair umpire who docked Serena Williams a point, then a game because he was offended by a black woman challenging him, should be suspended indefinitely. …Congratulations to Naomi Osaka, who dominated Williams even without the shady umpire helping her effort, for winning the U.S. Open women’s title. … In a column for the Washington Post, Billie Jean King wrote “The ceiling that women of color face on their path to leadership never felt more impenetrable than it did at the women’s U.S. Open final on Saturday. Did Ramos treat Williams differently than male players have been treated? I think he did. Women are treated differently in most arenas of life. This is especially true for women of color. And what played out on the court yesterday happens far too often.” … With Kirkwood’s Arvel Ferguson joining teammate Maurice Massey and Lutheran North’s Jack Buford in Mizzou football’s 2019 recruiting class, the Tigers are finally making some St. Louis inroads… The K.C. Star reported that that Missouri’s top basketball recruits, E.J. Liddell and Mario McKinney, were taking official visits to campus last weekend. McKinney canceled a visit to Kansas State to join Liddell and coach Bruce Weber is not pleased… Would the Nike shoe burners please consider giving them to Goodwill or a similar clothing outlet? … Nike online sales jumped 31 percent after the Colin Kaepernick ad made its debut. Nike stock has made up the 2 percent loss from last week… NFL ratings were up for Sunday afternoon games. The late afternoon window on FOX (mostly Cowboys-Panthers) drew a 15.7 overnight rating, up from 15.6 last year. In the early afternoon, CBS was up with a 10.6 this year compared to an 8.6 last year. FOX was up 8.8 this year from an 8.4 last year. The prime-time Bears-Packers on NBC got a 14.4, down from 15.8 for Giants-Cowboys last year.
Alvin A. Reid was honored as the 2017 “Best Sports Columnist – Weeklies” in the Missouri Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest and is a New York Times contributor. He is a panelist on the Nine Network program, Donnybrook, a weekly contributor to “The Charlie Tuna Show” on KFNS and appears monthly on “The Dave Glover Show” on 97.1 Talk.” His Twitter handle is @aareid1.
