A long, frustrating night for the Detroit Lions inside Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, ended with Brian Branch delivering a punch to Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster on Sunday, setting off a brief fistfight among players from both teams.
It was about as much fight as the Lions showed all night.
They were dominated on both sides of the ball by a Kansas City team coming off a mistake-filled mess in Jacksonville, Florida, with no interest in falling two games below .500. Indeed, the Chiefs shut down the prolific Detroit offense, holding it to less than half its season scoring average, and their own offense romped up and down the field on the way to a 30-17 victory.
Photo: AP
“We got worked pretty good,” Lions coach Dan Campbell said afterward.
Afterward is when the real fireworks happened.
As red ones were set bursting over the stadium to celebrate the Chiefs’ victory, Patrick Mahomes tried to give a high-five to Branch as they met near midfield. The Lions safety walked right past the Kansas City quarterback and JuJu Smith-Schuster took umbrage with the move, walking up to Branch and having a few words with him.
Branch responded by throwing a right hook that knocked Smith-Schuster to the ground.
The veteran wide receiver leaped to his feet and went after Branch, who played through an ankle injury that had kept him out of practice most of the week. Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco tried to get between them, but Branch succeeded in ripping Smith-Schuster’s helmet off as dozens of players from both teams converged on the scrum.
“I did a little childish thing,” Branch said. “But I’m tired of people doing stuff in between the play and refs don’t catch it. They be trying to bully me out there, and I don’t — I shouldn’t have did it. It was childish.”
Eventually, coaches and players managed to separate the parties, and they finally left the field for the locker room. Branch could be facing yet another hefty fine — he was docked US$23,186 for face-masking and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against Green Bay last month — and perhaps even a suspension for his actions.
“I love Brian Branch, but what he did is inexcusable, and it’s not going to be accepted here,” Campbell said. “It’s not what we do. It’s not what we’re about. I apologized to Coach [Andy] Reid, and the Chiefs and Smith-Schuster. That’s not okay. That’s not what we do here. It’s not going to be okay. He knows it. Our team knows it. That’s not what we do.”
Smith-Schuster came away with a bloody nose from the punch.
“The guy came up and hit JuJu for what looked like no reason,” Reid said. “That’s tough, but pretty good damage on JuJu’s nose.”
Chiefs linebacker Nick Bolton was on the sideline getting tape cut off when he caught sight of the fracas.
“The big thing for us is make sure our guys are safe,” Bolton said. “Make sure our quarterback is good and our guys taken care of.”
The loss snapped a four-game win streak for Detroit, which was trying to pull off a rare feat by winning two consecutive games in Arrowhead Stadium. Instead, the Lions allowed 355 yards of total offense, forced just one punt, and were unable to make the stops they needed late in the fourth quarter to give their offense a chance to mount a comeback.
Jared Goff finished with just 203 yards passing, but he did have touchdown throws to Jameson Williams and Sam LaPorta, while Amon-Ra St Brown was held to 45 yards receiving. Jahmyr Gibbs needed 17 carries for 65 yards, and nine for 32 came on the game’s opening drive, when Detroit marched right down field for what looked like a touchdown.
David Montgomery took a direct snap near the goal line and threw to Goff, who had gone into motion, caught the pass and then barreled into the end zone. However, long after the play had finished, the officials huddled and decided that Goff never got set — even though no flags were thrown on the flag — and the illegal motion penalty wiped away the touchdown.
After a delay-of-game penalty, the Lions had to settle for a field goal and a 3-0 lead.
It was just the start of a frustrating night for Campbell and his team.
“It doesn’t matter if I agree or disagree [with the penalty],” he said. “They said he never stopped. He stayed in motion. You can’t stay in motion, but that had no bearing on the game. We lost by 13 points.”
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