Ex-Jets RB Le'Veon Bell barely a factor for Kansas City against his former team

Le’Veon Bell may have had his sights set on revenge against the Jets on Sunday, but Patrick Mahomes and Co. were more interested in getting an easy win — and that’s just what happened as Kansas City rolled over the Jets, 35-9, at Arrowhead Stadium.

"Listen, these guys make it easy — or as easy as it can be in the NFL," Kansas City coach Andy Reid said. "There’s such great competition out here."

That was nice of Reid to say, don’t you think? Kansas City may face "great competition" at some point this season, but it didn’t happen on Sunday.

Bell, who was released by the Jets on Oct. 13, was barely a factor for the defending Super Bowl champions. He rushed six times for 7 yards and caught three passes for 31 yards.

Mahomes didn’t use his running backs that much as Kansas City ran for a total of 50 yards. He threw for 416 yards and five touchdowns and punter Tommy Townsend threw for 13 more yards on a fake punt in the second quarter.

Townsend’s first pass since high school led to Kansas City’s second touchdown and seemed a bit like piling on even at that early point.

Bell’s highlight was an 18-yard gain on a screen pass on Kansas City’s first possession. He had run for 2 yards on his first carry on the previous play.

After the screen pass, Mahomes hit Mecole Hardman for a 30-yard score to get Kansas City off and running to the expected rout of the winless Jets.

"The offense was able to move the ball well in the air," Reid said. "I thought it was a nice job by Patrick, again. He had complete command of everything going on."

Mahomes was 31-for-42 and hit 10 different receivers.

The Jets signed Bell to a four-year, $52 million contract before last season. But it never worked out as the former All-Pro couldn’t recapture the form he had with the Steelers and clashed with coach Adam Gase.

Kansas City then signed Bell to back up Clyde Edwards-Helaire. In Bell’s Kansas City debut Oct. 25 in Denver, he carried six times for 39 yards.

The Jets got their own moment of "revenge" against their former teammate when Henry Anderson stopped Bell on a fourth-and-1 at the Jets’ 14-yard line in the third quarter.

It was Bell’s last touch of the day. The score at the time was 21-9. The Jets then went three-and-out and, on the next possession, Mahomes hit Demarcus Robinson for a 26-yard touchdown to cap a six-play, 83-yard drive. Mahomes went 6-for-6 on the drive as Kansas City didn’t bother running the ball.

Bell did not address the media after the game. Safety Tyrann Mathieu did have some things to say about facing the Jets, and they weren’t quite as nice as Reid’s comments.

"I thought our guys took it seriously the whole way through," Mathieu said. "And that’s what you want. You never want to stoop down to the level of any opponent if you feel like you’re the better team."

By Anthony Rieber

anthony.rieber@newsday.comAnthonyRieber

Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.