Coaching And Quarterbacking Continue To Doom The Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs played a competitive game against the Denver Broncos, kind of. The final score was 17-9 and the Chiefs had the ball multiple times in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead. That’s a competitive game. However, the absolute ineptitude of the coaching staff and the quarterback play make even close games like this one against Denver feel impossible to win.
The Chiefs can’t score. They have talented playmakers like Jamaal Charles and Dwayne Bowe and they just can’t get in the endzone. The Chiefs are averaging a pathetic 14.6 points per game. Over the past seven games (all loses) they have only averaged 10.4 points per game and have failed to score more then one TD in any of those games. In fact, the Chiefs have only scored THREE offensive TDs in those seven games.
This scoring draught really goes all the way back to last season. In 2011 the Chiefs only averaged 13.3 points per game. That means that over the past 27 games the Chiefs have only averaged 13.8 points per game. It goes without saying that you just can’t win in the NFL if you can’t score points and the Chiefs can’t score points. By comparison, over those same 27 games the New England Patriots have averaged 34.1 points per game.
The biggest reason KC hasn’t been able to score has been the abysmal QB play. Anyone who has watched KC this season can see how bad the combined efforts of Matt Cassel and Brady Quinn have been. It’s not just this season though, the numbers put up by KC QBs since Scott Pioli took over are terrible. In four seasons the KC QBs have put up the following numbers:
57.6% completion percentage, 6.4 yards per attempts, 64 TDs, and 59 INTs.
That’s not mediocre QB play, it’s terrible QB play. In case you don’t believe me, look at how similar those numbers look to the career numbers of some of these recent “bust” QBs.
Mark Sanchez: 55.3%, 6.5 YPA, 56 TDs, 60 INTs
Matt Leinart: 57.5%, 6.5 YPA, 15 TDs, 20 INTs
Tim Couch: 59.8%, 6.5 YPA, 64 TDs, 67 INTs
David Carr: 59.7%, 6.4 YPA, 65 TDs, 71 INTs
I’ll spare you the agony of comparing those numbers to the NFL elite like Manning, Brady, Rodgers, Brees, etc. How about just comparing it to the career numbers of some of the good QBs in the league that may not be Hall of Famers (yet), but give their teams what they need to win games.
Josh Freeman: 59.7%, 7.0 YPA, 72 TDs, 53 INTs
Joe Flacco: 60.7%, 7.1 YPA, 93 TDs, 53 INTs
Matt Ryan: 62.0%, 7.2 YPA, 115 TDs, 58 INTs
Matt Schaub: 64.4%, 7.8 YPA, 117 TDs, 67 INYs
As much as everyone would love a Hall of Fame QB, not every team will find one, but that last group I listed is what GMs should be striving for in order for their team to have a shot at the playoffs year in and year out and for the past four years the KC QBs have come up painfully short.
In addition to not being able to score the Chiefs are the kings of shooting themselves in the foot with turnovers and penalties. The Chiefs are averaging 2.9 turnovers per game. Their turnover differential is by far the worst in the league. If you just look at the total penalty numbers this season the Chiefs aren’t one of the worst teams, but it seems that the Chiefs are masters at getting penalties at the worst possible time. This is magnified when the Chiefs offense can’t score to begin with, let alone when they nullify a rare big play with a costly penalty.
Penalties and turnovers are the result of undisciplined play and even though each individual player is responsible for his own play, when a team as a whole plays undisciplined that falls on the coaching staff. I wish I could say that was the only problem with the coaching staff, however its far from it. The Chiefs are a HORRIBLE game planning and adjustment team, specifically on offense. The Chiefs never come out on their opening drive with a well designed drive that attacks the weaknesses of the opposing defense. The Chiefs never come out in the second half and adapt their gameplan to what the other team is giving them. Brian Daboll has been a complete failure as an offensive coordinator. Finally, there are the horrendous in game decisions. Romeo Crennel is literally so clueless at key points in the game that he has to burn a timeout in order to figure out what to do. He did it again against the Broncos and it cost the Chiefs dearly. The really frustrating part is that he often burns a timeout to think about things and then comes up with the wrong conclusion.
Why would you punt the ball down 5 points with 6 minutes to go in Denver territory against Peyton Manning when you are 1-9? The Chiefs literally had nothing to lose and Crennel chickened out. I get it, his QB is terrible, but at least send your team a message that you are trying to win. As Patrick stated in his postgame piece, Crennel is clearly the worst head coach in the NFL and that’s just based on his in-game coaching, don’t even get me started on his “I don’t know” responses in press conferences!
The Chiefs have showed at times this year that there is enough talent on this roster (especially on defense) to compete with anyone. However, as long as their quarterback and coaching remains the same they will NEVER be a good team. The reason that I am so strongly in the “FIRE PIOLI” camp is because the coach and quarterback are the two most important positions for a GM to fill and in four years Pioli has failed miserably at both spots. If Pioli believed that Romeo Crennel was the best coach for this team and he’s been this bad do you trust him to hire the next coach? Another possibility is that Pioli didn’t have Crennel as his top choice, but none of the better coaches available wanted to work with a control freak. Again, do you still want that guy in charge if/when Crennel’s replacement is being hired? How about Pioli’s track record with QBs in KC, since his arrival four years ago Pioli has subjected Chiefs fans to Matt Cassel, Brodie Croyle, Tyler Palko, and Brady Quinn as the KC starting QB. If Pioli felt these players were good enough for KC to win games with do you trust him to evaluate which QB KC should draft and invest their future for the next decade in?
I don’t.
I believe that the Chiefs are one of the most talented horrible teams in the history of the NFL. The failure at the QB and coaching positions are so horrendous that Pioli has no business running this team for another day. I don’t care how much the rest of the team tries, works, etc. until they have a better QB and a better coach the Chiefs will lose most of their games.
It’s a hopeless feeling.
A feeling that KC fans all over are hoping that owner Clark Hunt will help remedy by firing his GM.
Even though my heart will be cheering for the Chiefs to beat other NFL bottom feeders like Carolina, Cleveland, and Oakland in the coming weeks. My head knows that more loses will probably increase the odds of Pioli getting fired and the Chiefs landing the coach and QB that they will need to compete in the NFL.
Then hopefully this hopelessness will end. Then hopefully we can get back to being one of the proud franchises in the NFL. Then hopefully we can get back to breaking down specific parts of the games and this team. That’s what these blogs are suppose to be about, right? I mean, how many ways can you say the GM, coach, and QB need to go before it starts to get tired?
Hopefully Clark Hunt will take action before we find out.
As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!