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Winners and Losers from the Chiefs’ Week 4 Victory Over the Chargers

Published

1 year ago

September 30, 2024

Winners and Losers from the Chiefs’ Week 4 Victory Over the Chargers

Another week, another close Kansas City Chiefs victory to help keep the team’s undefeated record intact.

This time around, the back-to-back Super Bowl champs took down a battered Los Angeles Chargers team at SoFi Stadium. After some back-and-forth in the first half, Kansas City ultimately pulled away with a big-time offensive score and the defense shut the door on the home squad. It’s a 4-0 start for the Chiefs, and one that left plenty of room for growth.

With that in mind, let’s point out some of the Chiefs’ biggest winners and losers from the fourth week of the regular season.

Chris Jones, the unquestioned closer of the Kansas City defense, was fantastic on Sunday. Not only did the All-Pro defensive tackle get a sack to kill a Chargers drive late in the first half, but he also had another one late in the game to help bring things home. Jones’s pressure of Herbert to force a throw in the final frame resulted in a turnover on downs. It’s been a great start to the season for the CEO of ‘Sack Nation,’ and having another productive interior rusher like Tershawn Wharton (who had a good game in his own right) next to him surely helps the entire line.

Carson Steele is a perfect example of how life in the NFL comes at you fast. A week ago, the undrafted free agent was coming off an inspiring performance on Sunday Night Football against the Atlanta Falcons and seemed to be the unquestioned top option to replace Isiah Pacheco. This past weekend, he had just two carries on offense and one of them was fumbled. Head coach Andy Reid opted for Kareem Hunt (more on that later) for the rest of the game. Steele also got his wires crossed with quarterback Patrick Mahomes on a play extension in the passing game. Reid says he isn’t down on Steele by any means, but his workload will be worth monitoring.

It isn’t too common for a punter to end up in the “winners” section, but here we are again with Matt Araiza. He had his best game as a pro on Sunday, amassing 200 yards on four punts and landing all of them inside the 20-yard line of Los Angeles. Two of them were inside the 10, putting the home team behind the proverbial eight-ball to start their drives. The ability to flip the field is an important aspect, even in the modern NFL, and Araiza displayed to to near-perfection in the fourth week of the season.

Speaking of the fourth week, that’s how long it took Skyy Moore to get his first target in the passing game this season. He logged a second one later on, although it was more of a throwaway by Mahomes. The one he did get a chance on, however, was a third-down pass that got dropped. If Moore’s role is already in question, not converting on his only real opportunity thus far is not the way to solidify things. The former second-round pick continues to underwhelm in his Chiefs tenure.

With Rashee Rice suffering a knee injury early in Sunday’s game, Kansas City desperately needed other options to step up in the passing game. Luckily for them, Travis Kelce and Xavier Worthy did exactly that. The former looked like himself in the box score for the first time all year, hauling in seven passes for 89 yards. Worthy, the Chiefs’ first-round pick, took advantage of a rare deep ball thrown by Mahomes and caught it for a 54-yard touchdown. The long-term viability of these two should Rice miss serious time is questionable, but they kept the offense afloat during a critical time in Week 4.

Let’s preface this by saying Jawaan Taylor has largely been nothing short of awesome in his second season with the Chiefs. His play isn’t represented by his Week 4 performance. With that said, the veteran right tackle got beat by Bud Dupree for a sack in the first half and committed a pair of false start penalties overall. That, combined with a holding infraction, made for a rough game. The worry scale is still hovering around zero, though, moving forward.

Many expected Hunt to have some sort of duty in the Kansas City backfield, but it’s hard to have envisioned him looking as solid as he did on Sunday. The former third-round pick seemed to have a lot more burst than he did last year with the Cleveland Browns, and he amassed 69 rushing yards against the Chargers’ defense. The Chiefs are happy with what Hunt was able to do on the ground and in the passing game and with Steele struggling, it’s reasonable to anticipate a decent role for Hunt moving forward.

In a very out-of-character start to the season, Mahomes continues to play surprisingly poor football and is even holding the Chiefs’ offense back at times. On Sunday, he overthrew an ugly interception intended for Travis Kelce and accidentally took out Rice on the same play. Mahomes’s overall numbers were pedestrian – 245 yards, a touchdown and a pick – and advanced numbers like EPA per play (-0.08) reflect the same. His pocket presence is all over the place right now. Kansas City can clearly still win with this version of Mahomes, but they’ll surely be hoping for better outings in the future.

Published

2 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Deadly 4-car crash kills 2 people, injures others in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) – A crash near a busy highway killed two people and injured two others.

Emergency crews responded to the crash at U.S. 71 Highway and Meyer Boulevard around 12:40 p.m. on Monday, March 2.

When crews arrived they determined four cars were involved in the crash.

Police are investigating how the crash happened.

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Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

Published

14 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Homegrown Jayhawk stars ready to shine at Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City

LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) – As Kansas women’s basketball prepares to enter the postseason at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, they’ll be led by two Overland Park natives who have been two of the most electrifying players to watch in the country this year.

Junior guard S’Mya Nichols and freshman forward Jaliya Davis have played integral roles in the recent growth of the program. Both cite the desire to help grow the Jayhawks into something special as reasons for committing there.

“Where we wanted to take Kansas women’s basketball, I wanted to be a part of that growing evolution,” Nichols told KCTV5.

“We [my family] were also really big Jayhawk fans. We came to a lot of games,” Davis said about her childhood.

The two were both 5-star recruits in high school, and their commitments marked historic recruiting victories for the KU women’s basketball program.

First came Nichols in the Class of 2023, picking KU over Tennessee and Oklahoma.

“I genuinely wanted to go to Kansas,” she said.

Then Davis became the highest-rated player to ever commit to KU as part of the Class of 2025.

“When you go back to S’Mya Nichols being a local, Kansas City, Overland Park product, a nationally respected player, Jaliya was really the next one that was very important for the Jayhawks to keep home,” said head coach Brandon Schneider.

Now as a junior, Nichols has established herself as one of the most consistent scorers and physical guards in the nation.

But it’s the Shawnee Mission West’s alum’s leadership that defines her legacy in Lawrence.

“The team leader, the quarterback,” Coach Schneider described Nichols. “I think oftentimes the player that everybody looks up to off the court.”

“I mean it means everything. Knowing that I’m important to the team, and that they see me as that as well,” said Nichols with a smile.

Both Nichols and Davis were recruited by the Jayhawks for years, going all the way back to seventh grade.

“Well, we offered her in middle school,’ Coach Schneider said with a laugh about Davis.

“Oh he put in a lot of work,” laughed Davis. “I mean, obviously, seventh grade, that’s a long time.”

It was that dedication from Coach Schneider that led her to choose the Jayhawks over Texas, South Carolina, Baylor, and Oklahoma – where he dad played ball.

“I think it really was the relationship we had and grew. He was always there, every single one of my games,” Davis said about Schneider.

After just one practice as teammates, Nichols voiced a big belief about Davis into existence – and it’s probably going to come true.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.(KCTV5)

“I saw her first practice, and I sent her a text, and I’m like ‘I think you can win Freshman of the Year’, and I still stand by that,”

Davis is averaging 21.0 points per game, and has been named the Big 12 Freshman of the Week for eight weeks in a row. That sets a power conference all-time record.

“I think it’s really cool. I mean obviously it’s a team effort, they’re always looking for me,” Davis said about her historic accomplishment.

“Just a phenomenal stretch of basketball for her, and so well deserving,” said Coach Schneider.

Now these two homegrown stars are at the forefront of a late-season push to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Right now, CBS Sports bracketology has them as a ‘First Four Out’ team.

But a few wins in the Big 12 Tournament could certainly help seal their invite to the big dance.

“Obviously we’re not in the position that we were hoping to be in, but I think we can make the most out of it, and get to where we want to be,” Davis said about the opportunity at hand in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.

The Overland Park kids are especially fired up about starting the postseason in their own backyard.

“I have a big support system. So I bet my family will take a big chunk of that area during that tournament,” Davis laughed.

“I remember being younger, and the College Basketball Experience is right next door. So I felt like at one moment that was the big stage, when I got to play my little AAU tournaments in there. And then all of a sudden I’m literally in T-Mobile Center on the actual big stage, so it’s pretty cool,” said Nichols.

The Jayhawks are the 11-seed in the Big 12 Tournament, and will face 14-seed UCF in the first round on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.

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Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

Published

2 days ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Why Matthew Driscoll continues to say Kansas State is ‘close’

MANHATTAN — David Castillo sank his free throw to finish off a three-point play to cut TCU’s lead to two late in the second half. Kansas State had a chance to play spoiler to a team that was on the NCAA Tournament bubble.

For the previous 36 minutes, the Wildcats were more engaged than they had been all season. You wouldn’t have recognized they were just under two weeks removed from their head coach getting fired. The Wildcats were in the middle of a competitive basketball game when there haven’t been many this season.

And then the final four minutes happened, and the Wildcats lost once again.

Kansas State pulled within one score six different times in the second half against the Horned Frogs, only to never take a lead, and then go 4 minutes, 4 seconds without a point after Castillo’s late bucket, leading to a 77-68 loss.

K-State interim coach Matthew Driscoll compared the loss to a broken record, when the Wildcats have been close late, only to fall apart in the end.

“We get there, and then, for whatever reason, we can’t break through,” Driscoll said. “When we got it to a one-point game, I thought that this was when we were going to turn the corner. It just seems like we keep getting close, and we can’t break through that wall.”

Kansas State (11-18, 2-14 Big 12) has been within striking distance in a handful of games this season, only to go on lengthy scoring droughts and come up short in the end.

While there are plenty of games in which the Wildcats were blown out or didn’t show half the effort they showed against the Horned Frogs, there have been enough games that if the Wildcats finished, they wouldn’t be fighting to not finish at the bottom of the Big 12 standings.

K-State’s Feb. 25 loss to Colorado is another example, having two five-plus-minute spurts in which it didn’t score a point. The Wildcats held late leads against West Virginia and Oklahoma State, and in their first game against TCU, only to choke away those leads.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” Khamari McGriff said. “It’s been a fight to continue to focus on the next right thing and let whatever has happened in the past, and just try to get to a point where we can compete for 40 minutes. We gotta look at it with the perspective that we’ve been close a lot of times, and we just gotta figure out how to take that next step.”

Kansas State is running out of opportunities to achieve that “next step.” The Wildcats have a home game on Tuesday, March 3, against a beatable West Virginia team before closing the regular season at Kansas on March 7. After that, it would be surprising if the Wildcats get more than two games at the Big 12 Tournament.

But Driscoll hasn’t seen his team quit, which is almost all he can ask for after what has been a season to forget.

“We just haven’t completed the deal,” Driscoll said.

Wyatt D. Wheeler covers Kansas State athletics for the USA TODAY Network and Topeka Capital-Journal. You can follow him on X at @WyattWheeler_, contact him at 417-371-6987 or email him at wwheeler@usatodayco.com

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