Two weeks ago the Kansas City Chiefs surrendered two 50+ scoring plays from Miles Austin of the Dallas Cowboys. That, among other things, prompted Chiefs safety Mike Brown to say the following:
"We just have to play our defense and make sure we don't give up any big scoring plays. That's seemed to be our Achilles heel is the big scoring plays. We gave up two big plays against the Skins but we kept them out of the end zone. It's important that we tackle them before they cross the goal line but we don't want to give up big plays."
Mission failed.
The Chiefs defense gave up two 51 yard passes to receiver Vincent Jackson and a 58 yard touchdown pass to running back Darren Sproles. Somehow that's more impressive than Austin's 59 and 60 yard touchdown receptions en route to a record setting day.
Unlike the Cowboys game, those big plays didn't decide today's game. The San Diego Chargers jumped out to a three score lead and never looked back. The Sproles touchdown pass was just icing on the cake.
The feeling in the locker room? I think head coach Todd Haley nailed it: 'Mad and disappointed'.
"We just didn't play well at all. Nobody did," Glenn Dorsey said.
Dorsey echoed Brown's statements from earlier this week about big plays.
"You don't want to give up big plays," he said. "That's our goal not to give up big plays. When they do it's discouraging but you've still got a lot more to play and you gotta keep on working."
New nose tackle Kenny Smith hasn't seen the field in the regular season since 2003 but is still bothered by the 30 point loss.
"Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some," new nose tackle Kenny Smith said. He emphasized that it's important to build off of the positive in this game.
"No, it's just tough," newly activated receiver Lance Long said when asked if the team was down. "A loss is a loss in everybody's mind. Each week we come in and coach Haley gets us prepared. We put that last week behind us, whether it's a win or a loss."
The Chiefs are putting out the right attitude when the press is around but, geez, these losses have to begin to sting. I've already noticed that it's getting harder and harder for some of these players to point to the positives and build off of what they've done each week.
Tough loss today for the Chiefs and a tough one to build off of.