The Kansas City Chiefs Lost For The Wrong Reasons
The Kansas City Chiefs lost to the San Francisco 49ers by the final score of 22-17 on Sunday. That end result is nothing to be ashamed of. The 49ers are a good team, a physical team, a team that has played in three consecutive NFC title games. So having the ball with two minutes to go and a chance to beat a team like that on their own home turf is respectable. However, as the final seconds of the game ticked away I didn’t want to give the Chiefs an “atta boy, good hustle!” for their effort. That game was 100%, no doubts about it, completely winnable for Kansas City and they blew it time after time with stupid mistakes, mainly from the coaching staff.
As I sit typing this an hour after the game ended I’m still incredibly frustrated (although Alex Gordon hitting a three run triple in the first inning of the Royals/Angles game helped a little). After two consecutive games where Andy Reid looked like the best play caller in all of the NFL, Reid started off once again looking like a genius with a masterfully designed opening touchdown drive. Unfortunately, at that point “Good Andy” left the building and Chiefs fans were left with the same “Bad Andy” that refused to run the football in the season opening loss to the Titans. On multiple occasions Reid refused to run the ball on short yardage plays. While the 49ers do have a good run defense, it’s not as if the Chiefs weren’t having success. The Chiefs as a team averaged 4.7 yards per carry and Jamaal Charles averaged 5.3.
SO WHY DIDN’T YOU RUN THE BALL ANDY REID???????
WHY??!?!?!?!??!?!
2nd and 1: pass
3rd and 1: pass
4th and 1: go for it, pass, but it doesn’t matter because of a false start penalty
SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?
(At this point I’m going to have to step away from the computer for a minute because a post of nothing but caps lock and exclamation points isn’t what any of us want)
Ok, I’m back and feeling a little better. Related side note: if you’re ever feeling really frustrated by a Chiefs loss having your wife make breakfast for dinner helps. Seriously, try it some time.
So we’ve established that Reid refusing to run the football when the Chiefs were having some success doing it was a major frustration and a huge contributing factor to KC wasting an opportunity to win this game. The other moment in this game that had me absolutely wanting to break my television was the penalty for 12 men on the field on the 49ers FG attempt that gave them a first down.
That is absolutely ridiculous. Absurd. Nauseating.
I’d go on another tirade now, but Billy “Country Breakfast” Butler just stole a base in the Royals game which just reminds me of my own breakfast/dinner so I’m in a happy place at the moment.
The other thing that frustrated me to no end was how KC got away from making a conscious effort to get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers. In the passing game Alex Smith had 31 attempts and Jamaal Charles, Knile Davis, Dwayne Bowe, Travis Kelce, and DeAnthony Thomas only saw a combined total of 13 targets.
That’s unforgivable in a close game.
The fact that Anthony Fasano, Junior Hemingway, AJ Jenkins, Anthony Sherman, and Demetrius Harris saw more targets than that first group of five makes me feel like my head is going to explode!
(A well timed Mike Moustakas HR brings the blood pressure down a little)
In the Chiefs blowout win over the Patriots on Monday night Bowe, Kelce, Charles, and Davis had a combined 20 targets on Alex Smith’s 26 pass attempts. In that game KC targeted it’s best players on 77% of Smith’s passes (compared to just 42% Sunday). That is how KC is going to win on offense. Run the football. Get the ball in the hands of their best playmakers. I believe you can win football games, a LOT of football games, maybe ALL the football games with Alex Smith as your starting quarterback.
BUT……..
You have to have a game plan that fits his abilities. Alex Smith is not a guy that you just drop back over and over and wait for him to make something happen with his off the chart elite God given abilities. That’s not his game. Alex Smith is a QB that can smartly and efficiently distribute the ball to playmakers that……wait for it……MAKE PLAYS!
GASP!!!!!!!
Shocking, I know.
DeAnthony Thomas had one target and scored a TD.
Travis Kelce had three targets and scored a TD.
Anthony Fasano and AJ Jenkins had a combined nine targets for a whopping 35 yards!!!!
In the words of the not so immortal Herm Edwards……
“Hello???”
Since I’m clearly using this post as a means to vent my frustrations I’d also like to take a moment to point out what was probably the most impressive display of incompetence in the entire game, if not the history of Chiefs football (and that’s saying something).
WHAT
WAS
THAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?
I think I’ve watched it on loop for like five minutes straight and I don’t no if I should laugh or cry?!?!
Dee Ford was either so scared of making a tackle that he literally turned around and ran away from the ball or he has the worst field awareness of any player in the history of football. It actually looked like a glitch in Madden when a player inexplicably just takes off and runs completely out of a play for no reason. I just…….I can’t……..(sigh).
Anyway, despite that horrific display of football by first round draft pick Dee Ford the defense as a whole did a pretty commendable job considering that they were playing a smash mouth football team without Derrick Johnson, Eric Berry, and Mike DeVito. Marcus Cooper continues to disappoint, but Sean Smith and Hussein Abdullah have been playing well and if KC can get Eric Berry back I think they’ll be okay. Tamba Hali, Justin Houston, Dontari Poe, and Allen Bailey continue to make life miserable for opposing QBs. I’ve also been pretty happy with Bob Sutton’s defensive calls after having some real doubts about him coming into the season. The Chiefs may be 2-3, but I don’t think you can put that on the defense, especially considering all the injuries that they’ve suffered.
I’m also pretty happy with how the young offensive line is coming together. Against a powerful 49ers defensive front the Chiefs OL didn’t allow a single sack and as was mentioned earlier rushed for 4.7 yards per carry against one of the best run defenses in football (they were only giving up 3.5 yards per carry coming into the game). No, this game wasn’t on the offensive line either.
This game was on Andy Reid (with a little Dave Toub thrown in for that 12 man on the field penalty). If Reid did a better job of putting his offense in a position to succeed the Chiefs might have walked away with a victory. That is what is so frustrating. I actually picked the 49ers to win this game in my FanSided Armchair Quarterback picks by a score of 23-20. So the loss doesn’t shock me, I knew that KC had their work cut out for them. If anything, I didn’t give KC enough credit. I thought it would take Andy Reid making good play calls to keep it that close. Instead Reid continually handcuffed his own team and they still were one drive away from getting the win.
I like Andy Reid. I believe he deserves the bulk of the credit for turning the 2-14 Chiefs into a team that can now play with anyone in the NFL. His game plan and play calling the previous two games were masterful, and as I said earlier, the first drive was a thing of beauty. He just HAS to learn to stop outthinking himself. The opposing team’s defense isn’t taking away KC’s best players, Andy Reid is. If the Chiefs can get “Good Andy” to run this team the rest of the way they can absolutely compete for a playoff spot. I 100% believe that. Overall, the team that has taken the field the past four weeks has shown the ability to beat anyone. Over those four games they have played three of the four teams that were in the conference championship games last season. They blew one of them out at home and in the other two they were one final TD drive away from pulling off an upset road win.
The Chiefs now enter their bye week with the most difficult part of their schedule in the rear view mirror. They have to put the frustration of this loss behind them. Andy Reid has to see the error of his ways and get back to getting the ball to his best players. If the Chiefs can do that there should be a lot less frustrating games like the one on Sunday in their future.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to finish watching the Royals game and see if I can banish this frustration all together.
As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!!!!!!!