The Chiefs played a complete game and the Royals completed a season. Both are topics on SportsBeat KC, the sports podcast of The Star and KCUR. Chiefs beat writer Pete Sweeney breaks down Kansas City’s convincing 37-20 triumph over the Baltimore Ravens and what it means as they take on an a Jacksonville Jaguars team that suddenly looks rugged. The Royals finished their season with a winning record but missed the playoffs. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? And how does next year shape up? Beat writer Jaylon Thompson joins columnists Sam McDowell and Vahe Gregorian in the discussion. By Monty Davis| Randy Mason
The Kansas City Chiefs will be catching the Jacksonville Jaguars — and their first-year head coach, Liam Coen — on the heels of a buzz-worthy and heated exchange when the teams meet for a Week 5 showdown on “Monday Night Football.”
Following the Jaguars’ Week 4 win over the San Francisco 49ers, Coen stormed toward 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. Post-game microphones caught Coen’s vitriol.
“Keep my name out of your (freaking) mouth,” he shouted, not using the word, “freaking.”
So why did it happen? Well, the flare-up last Sunday stemmed from comments Saleh made heading into the game.
Previewing the matchup, Saleh snidely complimented Coen for what can be described as “legal sign stealing,” a practice in which coaches decode an opponent’s signals and tendencies by studying broadcast and All-22 film.
Of course, with the Jaguars next on the Chiefs’ schedule, head coach Andy Reid was pressed for his take on the situation Thursday.
“If you’re gonna put a sign out there — I just gave you one, you didn’t see it,” Reid said with a smirk as laughter filled the room. “If you’re going to put it out there, guys are going to look at it and try to sneak it from you. The headsets have taken away some of that, but that’s what it is. It’s all part of it. And you kind of move on.”
During Saleh’s first stint as 49ers defensive coordinator (2017-20), Coen competed against him as a Los Angeles Rams assistant in the same division.
“Those guys know each other — they’re buddies and they’re competitive,” Reid said. “It gets brotherly — they start arguing. That’s all right. They’re all right.”
During his turn to address the media, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes echoed his head coach’s playful perspective.
“I honestly don’t really understand,” he said, almost baffled by the argument. “I mean, we switch signals like every single week, so I guess maybe? I have no idea honestly. It’s something that I don’t necessarily understand, but we’ll make sure to switch our signals (Monday night), I guess.”
It sounded like Mahomes didn’t think the Saleh-Coen exchange was that big of a deal.
“For us, we just scout the defense,” he said. “We try to learn what we can from them — as far as our coverages. And like I said, we switch signals every single week knowing the game is on TV and teams watch that. We try to make sure we’re interchanging stuff so nobody gets a beat on what we’re trying to do.”
In the aftermath this past week, Saleh apologized, pointing to the fact that he should have used the phrase “film study” rather than “sign stealing.”
In terms of actual film study, Reid has an extra 24 hours to do that this week, something that historically boosts Kansas City’s odds of emerging victorious.