KC Chiefs rookie review, Week 5: Draft class struggles against Raiders

Tommy Townsend

Just one week after punting four times for an over 60 yard per attempt average, setting a new franchise record and ascending to second on the all-time list for single game punting average, rookie punter Tommy Townsend followed up his performance, to be sure, but not in a good way.

Surprisingly, the Chiefs called on their rookie punter more, a staggering five times, in the team’s Week F5ve loss to the Raiders. This, despite scoring over 30 points in the contest.

Unfortunately, Townsend was not nearly as effective this time around. The rookie punter averaged only 48.8 yards per punt on Sunday. That, in and of itself, is pretty pedestrian considering that it’s nearly 12 yards per attempt less than just a week ago. But, the other problem here was that Townsend looked bad. Often, you can excuse a low average if punts are pinning opponents deep or if you’re avoiding a stellar return man. Neither were the case this week. The former Florida Gator just didn’t play very well.

In an ideal world, this is an irrelevant footnote for most Kansas City games, for the season, and for Townsend’s career. We are a long ways away from the panic button on this one.

After all, on Sunday it did not appear to matter if Las Vegas had to travel nine yards or 99 yards down the field. The Chiefs defense was disinclined to consider stopping them anyway.