Chiefs’ Smith to West for that 80-yard passing TD? Yeah, it set some career marks

The Chiefs took a 22-point lead in the third quarter against the Broncos. Peyton Manning was out of the game. The defense was rock solid.

But the Chiefs hadn’t scored a touchdown since their opening possession. A second one would be a definitive statement.

Alex Smith and Charcandrick West delivered the longest play of their careers.

After an interception return by Eric Berry, the Chiefs were set up at the Broncos’ 19 early in the fourth quarter. West bulled ahead for 1 yard to the 20. On the next play, he slipped out the backfield and found a seam, collecting Smith’s pass around the 35.

Smith was on the right side of midfield, slanted toward the left and turned on the afterburner. He raced past the last Broncos player with a chance to stop him, safety T.J. Ward, and into the end zone to complete an 80-yard play.

West’s career is eight games, so it was no surprise that this was his longest play.

But Smith had never completed a pass longer than 75 yards in his 10 seasons. That’s nearly 2,100 completions.

“Coach (Andy) Reid called a great play,” West said. “Offensive line did their job and I just did the rest.”

West, who has taken over for the injured Jamaal Charles, has come up big during the Chiefs’ three-game winning streak.

He rushed for 110 yards against the Steelers, added 97 against the Lions and had 69 rushing yards to go along with his 92 receiving yards on Sunday. He had a rushing touchdown in each of his first two games, and added a receiving and rushing touchdown on Sunday.

West got the Chiefs on the board with a 4-yard power run up the middle that followed Marcus Peters’ interception.

“He’s a factor, a definite factor,” Reid said of West.

In between came five Cairo Santos field goals, then West’s second touchdown — which ended with Ward getting ejected from the game after throwing a punch to the head of Chiefs wide receiver Jeremy Maclin.

Maclin had blocked Ward at the 5 and Ward retaliated in frustration.

By then, West was through the end zone, having completed the longest Chiefs play of both his and Smith’s careers, and the longest play by a Kansas City player this season.

The Chiefs would have preferred touchdowns to field goals in the middle of the game, but the first and last impressions were positive.

“We left some things there,” Smith said. “We would have loved to have a been a little better. But we made some plays in the fourth quarter when it mattered.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2015 at 9:50 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ Smith to West for that 80-yard passing TD? Yeah, it set some career marks."