After Shaky Start, Alex Smith Returns to Form

Unpredictability. It is one of the reasons we love NFL football. It is not uncommon to see teams go from worst to first in their division, and significant playoff turnover occurs every year. As we saw on Sunday, as little as one week can make a great difference. Yes, it is still really early, but a look around the league shows a lot unexpected developments. The Bills leading the AFC East, and Washington going from putting up six points, to hanging a whopping 41 on their opponent in the next week come to mind.

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Even if you think that the first two weeks of the NFL season as a whole are not terribly remarkable, the first two weeks of the Kansas City Chiefs schedule certainly are. After a lackluster preseason, week one brought an unexpected hit below the belt in the form of an ugly loss that saw three starters go down with season ending injuries. And the first meaningful game after signing a new contract, the always reliable Alex Smith was anything but reliable, tossing three picks to a Titans defense that isn’t exactly the toast of the league.

Now fast forward to Denver. After losing Jamal Charles and Eric Berry, the stage was set for the Chiefs to take a drubbing. And then that didn’t happen. On the road, against a high quality opponent, and missing numerous key players, the Chiefs competed and pushed the reigning AFC champions until the final whistle blew. They managed to score more points and allow fewer than against Tennessee, and kept Peyton Manning to the third lowest passing yards he has had in a game since 2012. In fact, Smith managed more passing yards than his opposite number. How many people would have guessed that one?

Unfortunately, aside from that comparison, Smith’s stats (26/42, 255 yds., 0 TD, 0 INT, 79.0 passer rating) are not going to wow anyone who stumbles across them. But he didn’t need eye catching stats to redeem his poor week one performance. Though Travis Kelce also had a good performance, and Knile Davis accounted for both touchdowns, it was Smith who really stood out to me on Sunday. Not because he did anything new, but because he got back to doing what he does best.

Sep 14, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith (11) talks with head coach Andy Reid during the first half against the Denver Broncos at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. The Broncos won 24-17. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports
I admit to being someone who begrudgingly thought Smith should get paid this offseason. “Yes, he is better than any QB the Chiefs have had recently. But do we really want to commit years and cap space to a 30 year old who won’t be elite?” I inevitably kept coming back to answering, “Yes,” but wondered what kind of value the Chiefs would end up getting out of the deal. If he continues to play like he did against Denver, the answer is quite a bit.

If you want to find that value in his stats, then you should look at the goose egg next to the “INT” category. Protecting the football is one of Smith’s biggest assets, and it helped keep the ball in the Chiefs possession for over 36 minutes. The defense played well, but the most sure-fire way to prevent Peyton Manning from scoring is to keep his offense off the field. This was especially true in the second half when the Chiefs took the first ten minutes off of the game clock with one possession in the third quarter, and then capped a another time consuming drive with a touchdown in the fourth.

Part of those long drives had to do with the organization’s decision to bring more focus to the run game (it came about one week too late, but I digress). With Charles out, Davis did an outstanding job coming off of the bench. But the Chiefs still attempted passes on 42 of the 75 plays they ran. That means the ball was in Smith’s hands for the majority of the game. And when he had it, he stayed calm and made smart plays.

Last week I noted that Smith targeted the tight end tandem of Anthony Fasano and Kelce combined less than he did Donnie Avery. That made no sense, especially with Smith under pressure because of an offensive line that still has several issues to work out. That pressure didn’t go away in week two, but Smith had the presence and awareness to move around the backfield in order to keep the pay alive repeatedly. The focus on Avery also went away as nine different Chiefs made receptions, and none was targeted more than nine times. With the exception of Davis (9), the injured Charles (1), and the third tight end Demetrius Harris (1), all of Smith’s targets saw the ball come their way on three and six plays. That is much more like the balance this team should be trying to achieve. Not to mention it worked a lot better.

The coup d’etat came on the final drive of the game. With time winding down, and the Chiefs driving into Denver territory, Smith was blindsided in backfield. The ball came loose and Denver emerged from the pile with the ball. At first I thought that was a horrible end to a hard fought game. Then CBS came back from commercial break and showed a magnified slow-mo replay revealing Smith forcing his arm just far enough forward to count as an incomplete pass. Thus, avoiding a turnover and keeping a potential game winning drive going.

We all know how that last drive ended. But without Smith’s return to resilience and making heady plays, it is very unlikely the Chiefs would have been in a position to tie/win that game. There is still work to be done all around, but amidst a shaky start and a myriad of injuries, Smith is looking more like the reliable leader he is known for, and the Chiefs more like a winning team.

HAIL TO THE CHIEFS!