Chiefs have a jolly good time in 45-10 win over Lions in London

Right before the national anthem Sunday, a fellow Chief saddled up to safety Ron Parker. Together, they stared at the sellout crowd of 83,624 that turned out to watch the two-win Chiefs take on the one-win Lions.

“Somebody came to me and they said, ‘Man, it’s a lot of people out here,’ ” Parker said. “Everybody kind of felt the same way. It was unexpected.”

It was appreciated, however. Over 4,000 miles away, Arrowhead Stadium ― the official home of the Chiefs ― sat empty due to the team’s decision to surrender a home game to play in London. But Wembley Stadium still proved to be a very welcoming environment for the Chiefs, who fed off the energy of a crowd in a convincing 45-10 win over the Detroit Lions.

“I think it shocked everybody when we first came into the stadium at the beginning of the game,” inside linebacker Derrick Johnson said. “We saw how packed it was. It was shocking. It was good.”

The seats were red, and many the signs adorning the field were, too. Even the curve of the sombrero-shaped upper bowl resembled Arrowhead Stadium.

“It’s a huge stadium, it seems bigger than it probably is,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “I can tell you when the fans cranked up when they sang their national anthem, I’m going ‘This could be a loud one.’ ”

And it was. But the Chiefs didn’t record their biggest margin of victory since 2009 because of the crowd.

They did it, several players said, because of a commitment to play with a lot of enthusiasm in their final game before the bye week, knowing that a win would improve their record to 3-5 and give them a fighting chance at reviving their playoff hopes alive.

But the London fans’ enthusiasm certainly didn’t hurt, especially as the Chiefs spent most of the game gyrating, celebrating and soaking in the love while they strung together big play after big play against the struggling Lions, who fell to 1-7.

“London brought out a lot of celebrations (in us),” Johnson said. “It was almost like a Pro Bowl crowd. It was kind of cool. It felt like a home game, you know? When we scored, there were a lot of yells.”

The Chiefs found this out pretty quickly. Parker set the tone on the Lions’ first drive, when he sacked Stafford, rose to his feet and started dancing, much to the delight of the crowd.

“I had to ‘Wipe Me Down’ a little bit, had to wipe me down,” Parker said, referring to a dance from a popular song eight years ago. “Like ‘I’m fresh, I’m clean, I’m out here making plays.’ ”

Parker’s sack helped the Chiefs force the Lions to settle for a field goal that gave them a 3-0 lead, it was all downhill from there for Detroit, as the Chiefs responded by taking a 7-3 lead on their drive, courtesy of a 10-yard touchdown run by De’Anthony Thomas, who scooted scot-free into the end zone on a jet sweep.

The Chiefs stretched their lead to 14-3 in the second quarter when quarterback Alex Smith capped a seven-play, 73-yard scoring drive with a 12-yard scramble.

It was not the only time Smith hurt the Lions with his legs. Earlier on the drive he scrambled up the middle for a career-long 49-yard gain to set up the score, and he finished the contest with five carries for a season-high 78 yards.

“We felt like there were some opportunities there (to run), just the way they way,” Smith said, referring to the Lions’ defense. “QBs had made some plays, either with their feet scrambling and making throws or running.”

But while Smith was busy flummoxing the Lions by extending plays with his legs, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was not nearly as fortunate.

Detroit axed three assistants earlier this week, but the changes — a new offensive coordinator and two new offensive-line coaches — seemed to do little good for one of the league’s worst offenses, as the former No. 1 overall pick spent the last 3  1/2 quarters being hurried and knocked down, all the while mixing in the occasional panic throw.

One of them, an interception thrown directly to cornerback Sean Smith, who punctuated the pick with a demonstrative three-point dance popularized by Cleveland Cavaliers’ swingman J.R. Smith, directly led to a 33-yard field goal by Cairo Santos that increased the Chiefs’ lead to 17-3.

It was the first interception of the season for Smith, who had been waiting to break out that celebration for a long time.

“I knew someone was going to get what that was,” Smith said. “That is the greatest celebration I’ve ever seen in my life, and I knew, once I had a moment to do it, I was doing it. When the season started, I knew I was doing this my very first interception. That was predetermined.”

But Stafford wasn’t done turning the ball over yet, and the Chiefs weren’t done scoring. On the Lions’ next drive, Stafford — who has outstanding arm strength — attempted to fire a ball over the middle to tight end Brandon Pettigrew. Parker made a play on the ball, which deflected in the air, and outside linebacker Justin Houston, who was in coverage, hauled it in.

Six plays later, running back Charcandrick West, who rushed for 97 yards in 20 carries while filling in for star Jamaal Charles, scored from 8 yards out on a decisive, darting run up the middle to give the Chiefs a commanding 24-3 lead with 3:31 left in the half.

If anyone didn’t know how good the Chiefs felt about themselves by then, it became very clear when West punctuated the touchdown run with hip-swaying touchdown dance reminiscent of former professional wrestler, “Ravishing” Rick Rude.

“Score a touchdown in the NFL, it’s big, so you’ve just got to express your emotion,” West said with a laugh. “(The dance) is something I’ve been doing forever.”

By halftime, the party was on at Arrowhead East, and Lions never came close to shutting it down, as the second half provided more of the same. Smith, who completed 18 of 26 passes for 145 yards and two touchdowns, continued to guide the offense efficiently, even in the red zone.

That had been a weak point for the Chiefs in previous weeks, but on Sunday, the Chiefs were 6 for 7 in red zone efficiency, with two of them — a 2-yard touchdown pass to Travis Kelce and a 17-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin coming in the second half, when the Chiefs led 38-3 early in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Stafford was under siege until he was pulled with minutes left. He was hit eight times and sacked six, with five players — Parker, Houston, Derrick Johnson, Dontari Poe and Tamba Hali — each getting in on the sack action.

“You get into a situation where you’re down 24, 31-3, whatever it is, that’s a defense’s dream, that’s their favorite time of the game,” Stafford said. “They’re unloading every blitz they have, showing stuff they haven’t done in a very long time and knowing that they they’ve got some wiggle room to play with.”

The win was certainly an encouraging one for the Chiefs, who have managed to put together a two-game winning streak heading into the bye after a disastrous 1-5 start. On the other side of the bye awaits a road test at Denver, a team that started the Chiefs’ five-game losing streak with a 31-24 win at Arrowhead on Sept. 17.

To beat Denver — and snap their seven-game losing streak against the Broncos — the Chiefs will have to go into Sports Authority Field, a place far less accommodating than the one they played in against the Lions, which may not have been a traditional home game, but was probably the next best thing.

Afterward, the locker room buzzed with the sounds of laughter. You also have to rest up.

But as players steadily bounced out the locker room in preparation for their nine-hour flight back home, Parker allowed himself to survey the room one last time and think about all the fun they’d just had, in front of a lively crowd that took them all by surprise.

“We’re out here trying to have a good time, man,” Parker said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So while we’re over here, we just wanted to make the most of it, have fun.

“And the crowd, it was a different energy. It felt almost like a soccer match, just by the way they were chanting. So we kind of fed off that.”

This story was originally published November 1, 2015 at 11:39 AM with the headline "Chiefs have a jolly good time in 45-10 win over Lions in London."