The Chiefs problems Pt 1: The Offense

With so many failures on the offense, the Chiefs need to think about changing how they do things. Mandatory Credit: Mark Zerof-USA TODAY Sports

Summing it all up

Overall, the problems just compound one another.  Smith is not a top tier quarterback, and never will be.  He needs a respectable offensive line and a competent receiver corps to truly be effective.  That offensive line is not respectable.  In fact, it’s pretty pathetic.  The Chiefs aren’t able to hold up in the face of pressure, and it gets Smith hit a lot…enough to where he is ready to panic even when he does have time.  And, on top of all that, the receiver corps has not shown itself to be competent yet.  Sure, Maclin and Kelce are solid.  But the rest of the group is so far behind them that it’s just a joke.  And neither Maclin or Kelce have played to the level they need to.  So even when the offensive line does hold up, and Smith does make a good throw, there is still a good chance that the pass will be incomplete because of a mistake on the receiving end.  That just adds up to bad football.

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This is really highlighted in the Week 5 loss to the Bears.  I went back through and watched the passing game to see where the problems were.  I counted eight crucial mistakes by Alex Smith, nine by the offensive line, and seven by the receivers (including backs and tight ends).  Folks, that’s about five mistakes too many…FOR EACH GROUP!!!  24 crucial mistakes in a one point game that saw three sacks and 14 incompletions in the passing game.  See how that all builds up?  The Chiefs offense has got to execute better as a whole.  It isn’t as simple as “Alex Smith sucks”, which is what some folks want to believe.  It is a situation that is bad enough that we should be questioning the ability of any quarterback to succeed with how this team is playing right now.

We need a major change on this team.  Hopefully it can come at the player level, in the form of developing mental toughness and simply executing better.  If not, then we need to take a serious look at the leadership of this team and make some sweeping changes on the coaching staff and in the front office.  But whatever the solution is, don’t be naive enough to think that it will come from just benching or firing one person.