Football

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Patrick Mahomes did just about everything for the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. He even toted Tyreek Hill back to the sideline after a touchdown catch.In near-flawless execution of coach Andy Reid’s run-pass option attack, the reigning Super Bowl M.V.P. Award winner threw for 416 yards and five touchdowns, leading the A.F.C. West-leading Chiefs to a 35-9 romp over the winless Jets.“I mean, it’s always fun to go out and score touchdowns and do all that type of stuff,” Mahomes said, “but we’ve been saying it all year long, we have a lot of ways to beat teams. Today, they did a good job of stuffing up the run. We took it to the air and threw the ball and did it that way. It’s about taking what’s there and finding ways to win.”Hill wound up with two of the touchdown catches. On the first, he celebrated by jumping into the stands and tossing the football to a fan, and Mahomes was there to help him back onto the field. On the second, Mahomes claimed to see Hill “a little banged up” and decided to carry him back to the Kansas City sideline.“Just having a little bit of fun,” Mahomes said of the ride with a wry smile. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce added 109 yards receiving and a touchdown, Mecole Hardman and Demarcus Robinson also scored, helping the Chiefs (7-1) give Andy Reid his 229th win to move into a tie with Curly Lambeau for the fifth most in N.F.L. history.Le’Veon Bell, getting a crack at the Jets just a few weeks after they released him, was held to just 7 yards rushing with three catches for another 31 yards — though it wasn’t as if Kansas City needed him.Darnold, who was without top receivers Jamison Crowder and Breshad Perriman because of injuries, was just 18-of-30 for 133 yards as the Jets fell to 0-8 for the first time since the 1996 team of Rich Kotite. “It’s obviously not where we wanted to be,” said Jets Coach Adam Gase, whose team went three-and-out on five of its first six second-half possessions and finished with 221 yards of total offense. “I’m just like everybody else from the aspect of, I’m doing this job to win, not to go out there and get my face stomped in.”The Jets next face the New England Patriots (2-5), themselves reeling from a four-game losing streak, at MetLife Stadium next Monday night.The Chiefs were astounding 19-point favorites coming into the game, and the opening series made it clear that wouldn’t be nearly enough. Mahomes was 5-of-5 for 85 yards, and he finished off the 90-yard drive with a 30-yard pass to Hardman.While the Jets answered with the first of three first-half field goals, the Chiefs kept scoring touchdowns.Mahomes threw a dart over the middle to Hill for a 36-yard touchdown on their next drive, then he flipped a nifty pass underneath the Jets coverage to Kelce for his third touchdown pass of the half and a 21-9 lead at the break.Any hope the Jets could keep building some momentum with offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains calling plays for the second straight week evaporated in the second half. They went three-and-out on four of their first three series and, when they finally picked up a first down, they promptly fumbled the ball away on their next play.Darnold took a big hit late in the game and appeared to be favoring his right shoulder, which he sprained against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 1 causing him to miss two games. Gase said the quarterback will be re-evaluated but “seems to be OK.”It wasn’t unlike last week, when the Jets managed four yards the entire second half against the Buffalo Bills.There wasn’t much lull in the Chiefs offense, though. They may have squandered a scoring chance when Bell was stopped on fourth-and-1 at the Jets’ 14-yard line, but they reached the end zone a few minutes later anyway. Mahomes hit Robinson from 26 yards out for his fourth touchdown pass, giving Kansas City a 28-9 lead late in the third quarter.Mahomes capped his big day with his second touchdown throw to Hill early in the fourth quarter. His five touchdown passes were second only to a pair of six-touchdown games he had against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams — incidentally, the Jets have four touchdown passes all season — and his yardage total was the fourth most of his career.“It’s funny, we have this whole R.P.O. thing going on and some of those runs ended up being throws,” Reid said, “but we’ll just count them as yards. I thought it was a nice job by Patrick and again, he had complete command of everything going on. More

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When a team is winning, it is all smiles and agreement in the clubhouse. But when a team loses a lot, the camaraderie gets fractured.The Dallas Cowboys have lost five games, and fingers are pointing in all directions.On Sunday, the Cowboys lost to the Washington Football Team, hardly a worldbeater, by the dispiriting score of 25-3. Dallas (2-5) also lost its quarterback, Andy Dalton, to a concussion after a hit in the third quarter. Dalton had been a replacement for Dak Prescott, who was knocked out for the season earlier this month with a fractured and dislocated ankle.Coach Mike McCarthy took issue with his team’s nonreaction after Dalton received what many saw as a dirty shoulder-to-helmet hit from Washington linebacker Jon Bostic. While several players went to see if Dalton was OK, none confronted Bostic, who was subsequently ejected for the illegal hit. “We speak all the time about playing for one another, protecting one another,” McCarthy said, according to The Athletic. “It definitely was not the response you would expect.”Cowboys players were also looking for answers after the game.“We need more belief and more high spirits around this team,” DeMarcus Lawrence, a defensive end, told USA Today. “And really, more fight. That’s really, I feel like, one of our weaknesses. We need to build a stronger backbone, fight and also make sure that we brought everything possible to come out with a victory.”Lawrence’s remarks followed reports of dissension among the team in the week leading up to Sunday’s game. Players quoted anonymously by the NFL Network were sharply critical of the coaching staff, calling into question their preparation and capability to adjust.Those reported remarks gained enough traction that the players and staff took pains to disavow them in the days leading up to the game against Washington. “I don’t deal with all of that anonymous stuff,” linebacker Jaylon Smith told reporters. “If you got something to say, just put your name on it. All of that anonymous stuff is really trash to me.”Standing up for teammates and having “backbone” is all well and good, but a bigger reason the Cowboys are struggling is no doubt having lost the star quarterback Prescott, who threw for 450 or more yards in each of the three games before the one in which he was injured. The team’s offense took another steep downturn with the loss of Dalton this week, turning to Ben DiNucci, a rookie out of James Madison, to complete the game.Also contributing to the subpar season so far: a team defense that rates dead last in the league and a star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, who is averaging career lows at 4.1 yards per rush and 6.4 yards per catch.The low points of Sunday’s game were numerous. The Cowboys gave up a safety, an always embarrassing play somehow made even more embarrassing because it was the first score of the game for either team. In the end, Dallas managed just 3 points for the day, only the second time since 2004 it has been held to such a low total.The Cowboys trailed in yards, 397-142, and first downs, 21-12. They were 3 for 12 on third-down conversions and 0 for 1 on fourth down, when they mysteriously called a passing play on fourth-and-1. Dalton was pressured and threw it incomplete by a considerable distance.Dalton suffered much of the game from mediocre pass protection, a problem for Prescott before he was injured, too.As for DiNucci, it’s hard to read much into his 2 of 3 for 39 passing yards cameo. Dalton is for now listed as questionable for Week 8 with a concussion. The next quarterback on the depth chart beyond DiNucci is Garrett Gilbert, who has played for the Patriots, Rams, Panthers and Browns, throwing a total of six passes.A potential flash point in the misbegotten season is McCarthy, the former Green Bay head coach who many Packers fans still blame for Aaron Rodgers having won just one Super Bowl. Dallas hired him to coach over candidates that included Eric Bieniemy, the offensive coordinator of the Chiefs, who is often cited as a top candidate for a head coaching job. The decision to go with McCarthy was criticized at the time it was made, and the second-guessing is likely to increase.But Dallas fans find themselves in a strange situation when it comes to the head coach as scapegoat. For years, anything that went wrong was blamed on Jason Garrett, now the Giants offensive coordinator, and fans celebrated his dismissal. Now they might need to acknowledge that the team’s problems are deeper.Even at 2-5 the Cowboys still can win the woeful N.F.C. East. Indeed, they are only half a game behind the Eagles in a division which after seven weeks has produced just two wins against teams not in the N.F.C. East.But to do so, the Cowboys will have to find a reasonable answer at quarterback, improve in a number of other areas, and at least mute the internal dissension. It remains to be seen if they can pull off that combination. More

Bill Belichick blamed “offense, defense, special teams, running, passing, defending the run, defending the pass, ball security, tackling, blocking.” More