A Magical Monday: By The Numbers
Nine days ago, the Kansas City Chiefs were 0-2 and staring down the barrel of a potentially disastrous season. In some circles, fans were already looking ahead to the 2015 NFL Draft. Today, the team is back to .500 and fresh off a drubbing of another conference opponent. The Chiefs rolled the Tom Brady-led New England Patriots 41-14 on ‘Monday Night Football’ last night. In case you’ve forgotten, they’re the team that played in the AFC Championship Game just seven months ago. Kansas City now takes momentum into a Week 5 game with the San Francisco 49ers and they have a real shot to save their season.
I’m not sure where to start with last night’s performance. It was simply magical. The Chiefs played their best game since general manager John Dorsey and head coach Andy Reid took office. On their home field, they outclassed a formerly 2-1 Patriots team in a game that only stayed close for about a quarter. It was as dominant a performance as I’ve seen from this franchise in quite some time. There were so many layers to this game. Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the “numbers.”
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Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
If you’re anti-Alex Smith, you might want to skip over this section. Last night, Kansas City’s starting quarterback only had six incompletions in 26 attempts. That’s even more impressive when you consider the fact that a couple of those were thrown away when pressure flushed him from the pocket. Smith was 20-for-26 with three touchdowns and no interceptions in the Monday night affair.
He’s turned in a passer rating of 136 or better for two straight weeks (he had a rating of 144 last night). Keep in mind that Smith had only six incompletions the previous week. Despite a makeshift offensive line missing two starters and an underwhelming group of wide receivers, he’s playing some of the best football of his life. In the past two games he’s thrown six touchdowns and has a 76% completion rate. At this point in the year, it’s tough to argue that his extension wasn’t money well spent.
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