Chiefs lose CB Jaylen Watson, WR JuJu Smith-Schuster yet just keep winning as injuries pile up

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Kansas City Chiefs just keep winning, even as the injuries continue to pile up.

The latest came Sunday, when the two-time defending Super Bowl champions lost cornerback Jaylen Watson to a season-ending ankle injury and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster to a hamstring injury in their 28-18 victory over the 49ers. It was their 12th straight win going back to last season, and a whole bunch have come despite injuries to some of their best players.

“It starts with your locker room, your coaches, and just how do the guys like each other,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said Monday when asked about overcoming the adversity. "And that whole trust thing that they develop with each other is important.

“Everything isn't going to be roses when you're playing,” Reid said. “You're going to have ups and downs in games. Very few teams win every game during a season. You literally take it game by game. Make sure you're taking care of business this week. But I think the locker room has a big part of that. The coaches' attitudes have a big part of that.”

Watson had been a rising start in coordinator Steve Spagnuolo's defense, helping Kansas City shut down some of the NFL's best offenses through the first six games of the season. Nazeeh Johnson, who has made a comeback from a torn knee ligament, would be next in line to replace him heading into Sunday's game against the Raiders in Las Vegas.

Just as concerning is the injury to Smith-Schuster, given what already has transpired in the Chiefs' wide receiver room. Rashee Rice had knee surgery and Marquise Brown had shoulder surgery, and both are done for the season.

Reid said Monday that Smith-Schuster would miss at least one game. And given his injury history, and how many games remain this season, the Chiefs almost certainly will explore the market for reinforcements ahead of the Nov. 5 trade deadline.

The Chiefs also have Nikko Remigio, Montrell Washington and Justyn Ross available on their practice squad.

“Really all those guys on the practice squad we’ve got a lot of trust in, and feel good about,” Reid said. “We’ve talked about it a little bit. We’ll go through everything. But I just came out of an offensive meeting and had a chance to talk to those guys and see what their thoughts were. We’ll just see.”

The Chiefs ran for a season-best 184 yards, even though they continue to play without starter Isiah Pacheco because of a broken bone in his leg. Kareem Hunt has been a revelation, with 78 yards rushing and two touchdowns against the 49ers, while Mecole Hardman took two jet sweeps for 38 yards and another score.

The Chiefs have struggled most of the season to cover tight ends, and George Kittle was the latest to cause them problems. While they were busy shutting down a San Francisco wide receiver group thinned by injuries, Kittle was providing the team's only sustained offense, catching six passes for 92 yards.

Tight end Noah Gray, who signed a contract extension earlier this season, had a team-best four catches for 66 yards against San Francisco. As teams blanket Travis Kelce, and with so many injuries to the Kansas City wide receiver corps, the ability for Gray to take advantage of his one-on-one matchups will be crucial going forward.

Perhaps for the first time in his career, the arrow on Patrick Mahomes has been trending downward. He threw two picks against the 49ers and did not throw a TD pass for the second straight game. But the body of work, which includes just six TD passes and eight interceptions this season, must be viewed through the lens of the injuries to his supporting cast.

The Chiefs came out of Sunday healthy besides the injuries to Watson and Smith-Schuster.

3 — The number of time Kansas City picked off 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.

The Chiefs continue their West Coast swing when they head to Las Vegas on Sunday.

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San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, right, runs against Kansas City Chiefs safety Chamarri Conner during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle, bottom, catches a pass against Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, left, is congratulated by quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) after scoring against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, middle, celebrates after scoring against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)

Kansas City Chiefs running back Kareem Hunt, middle, runs for a touchdown against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)

San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jacob Cowing (19) catches a pass against Kansas City Chiefs safety Nazeeh Johnson (13) during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)

Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Christian Roland-Wallace, middle, celebrates after intercepting a pass with safety Justin Reid, left, and safety Nazeeh Johnson during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the second half of an NFL football game in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Eakin Howard)

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) celebrates after a touchdown by Mecole Hardman during the second half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid reacts on the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid speaks at a news conference after an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, Calif., Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jed Jacobsohn)

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel said late Monday it planned to carry out more strikes in Lebanon against a Hezbollah-run financial institution that it targeted the night before and which it says uses customers' deposits to finance attacks against Israel.

At least 15 branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan were hit late Sunday in the southern neighborhoods of Beirut, across southern Lebanon and in the eastern Bekaa Valley, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. One strike flattened a nine-story building in Beirut with a branch inside it. Smoke rose from several locations on Monday.

The Israeli military issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes. There were no reports of casualties.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said late Monday that Israel planned more strikes in the coming hours.

Israeli ground forces invaded Lebanon earlier this month. The military said it aims to push Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon so that Israelis can return to their homes nearby after more than a year of cross-border rocket and drone attacks. Israeli airstrikes have pounded large areas of Lebanon for weeks, forcing over a million people to flee their homes.

Hezbollah has been launching rockets into Israel nearly every day since Hamas' deadly raid into Israel last year that sparked the war in Gaza.

The United States is hoping to revive diplomatic efforts to resolve both conflicts after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, but so far all sides appear to be digging in.

The Arabic language spokesman for the Israeli military, Avichay Adraee, said Hezbollah stores hundreds of millions of dollars in the branches of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, without providing evidence, and that the money is used to purchase arms and pay fighters. The strikes were aimed at preventing the group from rearming, he said.

The institution, which has more than 30 branches across Lebanon, tried to reassure customers, saying it had evacuated all branches and relocated gold and other deposits to safe areas.

Many customers are civilians unaffiliated with Hezbollah. Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which is sanctioned by the United States and Saudi Arabia, has long served as an alternative to Lebanon's banks, which have imposed restrictions since a severe financial crisis that began in 2019.

Bulldozers cleared mounds of rubble at the site of one strike. Clothes, furniture and the remains of a beauty salon were seen in the debris. Al-Qard al-Hassan documents were scattered across the area, but there was no sign of cash or other valuables.

Hagari, the Israeli military spokesperson, said Iran funds Hezbollah by sending cash and gold to the Iranian embassy in Beirut, though he did not provide any evidence.

Hagari also said, without providing evidence, that Israeli intelligence had discovered a bunker belonging to former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah now being used as a finance vault under a hospital in southern Beirut, and that it held millions of dollars of gold and cash.

A member of Lebanon’s parliament who is the director of the hospital, Fadi Alameh, denied the claim, and said the hospital has underground operation rooms. Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated in anticipation of strikes.

Hagari said Israeli strikes in Beirut in early October and in Syria on Monday had also killed people responsible for transferring money between Iran and Hezbollah. Syrian state media said an Israeli airstrike hit a car in the capital of Damascus, killing two people and wounding three.

Israeli airstrikes killed 17 people in Lebanon on Monday, including four first responders, according to the country's health ministry.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, who has spent much of the past year trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, was back in Lebanon on Monday for talks with senior officials.

He said U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, was “no longer enough” to ensure peace and a new mechanism was needed to enforce it.

The resolution called for Hezbollah to withdraw from the border with Israel and for U.N. peacekeepers and the Lebanese army to control southern Lebanon, without any Hezbollah or Israeli presence.

Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up extensive military infrastructure right up to the border. Lebanon has long accused Israel of violating its airspace and failing to abide by other provisions of the resolution.

“1701 was successful at ending the war in 2006, but we must be honest that nobody did anything to implement it,” Hochstein said after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a political ally of Hezbollah who is involved in cease-fire talks.

The United States has expressed hope that last week's killing of Hamas leader Sinwar could give new impetus for a cease-fire in Gaza, which would give a major boost to parallel efforts to halt the fighting in Lebanon.

The head of Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, Ronen Bar, visited Egypt for the second time in less than a week and met with Egyptian officials on Sunday, according to an Egyptian official who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official said Egypt, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, remains opposed to any Israeli presence along the Gaza-Egypt border, a key sticking point in talks that sputtered to a halt in August.

Hamas has said its demands remain unchanged after the killing of Sinwar. The militant group has said it will only release dozens of Israeli hostages in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, a lasting cease-fire and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to destroy Hamas and recover all the captives, and says Israel must maintain an open-ended security presence in Gaza to keep Hamas from re-arming.

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250. Around 100 captives are still being held in Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who don’t distinguish combatants from civilians but say most of the dead were women and children. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced about 90% of its population of 2.3 million people.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Julia Frankel in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A truck driver walks between trucks carrying humanitarian aid just before they cross into the Gaza Strip at Erez crossing in southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

An Israeli soldier waves from a moving tank near the Israeli-Gaza border in southern Israel, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, center, arrives at the government house ahead of a meeting with Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A destroyed apartment is seen in ruins at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Documents of Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Residents check destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a skid loader to remove rubble at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A bust of late Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, stands in front of a destroyed branch of the Hezbollah-run Qard al-Hassan at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A man checks his destroyed car at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A destroyed apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

A destroyed apartment at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Documents of Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Documents of Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Documents of Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Documents of Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan are scattered at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run Qard al-Hassan Association in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Flames and smoke rise form an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Rescue workers use a bulldozer to remove rubble of destroyed buildings at the site of an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that hit several branches of the Hezbollah-run al-Qard al-Hassan in Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)