|
 Kansas City raced to a 31-point lead barely 20 minutes into the
game.
A year after a 2-14 season that included linebacker Jovan Belcher's
homicide/suicide, the Chiefs improved to 10-3 with three games left.
"It's tough to lose three (consecutive) games in the National
Football League," said Chiefs coach Andy Reid, who was fired by the
Philadelphia Eagles after last season following a successful 14-year
run. "It seems like a year. For the guys to come back and rebound
after that. ... I thought they did a heck of a job."
The reeling Redskins lost their fifth straight game to fall to 3-10,
their fourth double-digit loss season in the last five years. It
comes in the wake of a pregame report that Shanahan contemplated
quitting last year because of his unhappiness with owner Dan Snyder
even as Washington won the NFC East title in 2012.
"It's not the right time or place to talk about my relationship with
Dan Snyder or the right time or place to talk about something that
happened a year ago," Shanahan said. "I'll get a chance to talk to
Dan at the end of the season. I'll give some viewpoints from me and
I'm sure he'll give me his thoughts in what direction we'll go."
Kansas City averaged 13 yards on the game's first four plays. The
last was a 13-yard burst by running back Jammal Charles (19 carries,
151 yards) to the Washington 15-yard line. The Redskins held from
there, forcing Kansas City to settle for a 33-yard Ryan Succop field
goal.
After the Redskins managed one first down, Sav Rocca's punt traveled
just 33 yards. Dexter McCluster returned it 57 yards to the
Washington 13 and then grabbed an 8-yard pass from quarterback Alex
Smith (14 of 20 for 137 yards). The Chiefs caught a break when the
officials failed to see the play clock expire on fourth-and-2.
Charles picked up the first down and then scored from 2 yards out on
the next play to make it 10-0 just 9:08 into the game.
Redskins running back Alfred Morris ran for a first down and wide
receiver Santana Moss made a nifty sideline catch. However, Griffin
threw his next pass to Chiefs linebacker Derrick Johnson, who raced
40 yards with the interception to the Washington 25. Three plays
later, wide receiver Dwayne Bowe ran through the tackle attempts of
cornerback DeAngelo Hall and safety Bacarri Rambo for a 21-yard
touchdown catch. Kansas City led 17-0 with 1:11 left in the quarter.
[to top of second column] |
The second quarter started in similar fashion as McCluster
returned the punt 24 yards. Bowe made a sliding catch on the
first play. Charles than carried twice for 17 yards before he
scored on a 5-yard screen to expand the margin to 24-0. After a
defensive touchdown was reversed by replay, McCluster raced 74
yards with another punt return for Kansas City's second
touchdown in 1:42.
"I never had a day (like this) especially as a punt returner
throughout my whole football career," said fourth-year man
McCluster, who came in averaging 9.7 yards per punt return, fell
just 30 yards shy of LeRoy Irvin's 32-year-old NFL record of 207
yards.
Washington broke the shutout on a 7-yard touchdown toss from
Griffin (12 of 26 for 164 yards) to tight end Logan Paulsen with
1:07 left in the half, but Quintin Demps returned the subsequent
kickoff 95 yards to make it 38-7. Washington's Kai Forbath
kicked a 50-yard field goal at the end of the half. Chiefs
rookie running back Knile Davis' 17-yard touchdown run with
13:37 remaining rounded out the scoring.
"I take full responsibility for this game," Shanahan said. "I
didn't have the players ready to play. I thought they were
ready. We were obviously horrendous on special teams, gave up
big play after play, couldn't tackle on defense, offensively did
a couple good things, (but) couldn't get anything going in the
second half. ... They made us look pretty poor today."
NOTES: Chiefs LB Tamba Hali's sack of Redskins QB Robert Griffin
III that started the second quarter was just the Chiefs' second
in their last five games. They recorded two more sacks on
Washington's next four plays and finished with six. ... The
35-point margin of victory was Kansas City's biggest since a
41-0 victory over San Francisco in week 4 of 2006. Kirk Cousins
relieved Griffin during the fourth quarter. ... Redskins RB
Alfred Morris went over the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the
second time in his two-year career while Redskins WR Pierre
Garcon topped 1,000 receiving yards for the first time during
his six seasons.
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