Chiefs improve in more ways than one
By Brandon Fry
Oct 25, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs running back Charcandrick West (35) celebrates after scoring a touchdown during the second half against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs won 23-13. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Greetings fellow Addicts and thanks once again for stopping by. I hope all of you are having a good week an enjoying this fall weather that I won’t see for another couple of months here in Texas.
Win #1 – Win Column Increases
Last Sunday Kansas City put together a pretty good game and defeated Pittsburgh 23-13. Now with that said, what pushed the Chiefs from OK to pretty good was mostly on the defensive side of the ball. Kansas City’s defense forced three turnovers and prevented a premier running back in Le’Veon Bell from getting in the end zone. Although it should be noted that Bell still ate up a lot of yardage gaining 121 yards on 17 attempts. A victory is still a victory no matter what way you can get it, in this case it was Kansas City taking advantage of a rare opportunity of playing a 3rd string quarterback at home.
Now onto the offense where things actually didn’t look horrific. I mean what I saw on Sunday was nothing too exciting in terms of an explosive aerial attack or a running back just going bananas but it wasn’t bad either which is HUGE step in the right direction.
Win #2 Offensive Line Improves
Alex Smith was able to stand in a pretty clean pocket for most of the day which definitely elevated his play quite a bit. This would be equivalent production wise to Trent Dilfer having one of his finest days throwing the football. Nothing spectacular, just efficient. Smith completed 21-of-32 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown to rookie wide receiver Chris Conley.
Win #3 Chris Conley Connection Develops
After Smith completed just three passes to Conley the week before against the Vikings for 16 yards, we watched Smith develop some more trust and chemistry with his rookie receiver which resulted in 6 caught passes for 63 yards and a touchdown. This is good news that Conley is developing trust with Smith and is just another victory for Kansas City on top of the win column.
Let’s Not Overreact
No, I didn’t stand and shout on top of a mountain “DRAGO” after the Chiefs ended the five game losing streak they were commuting on. I went on watching the rest of the games and didn’t really give it much more thought as it doesn’t really change my outlook too much on this season.
Even if we go on to win again next week against Detroit I’m not going to get too excited. “Why? We’d be on a two game winning streak!” Yes, we’d be 3-5 and still be alive so to speak in terms of playoff hopes but look at who those wins would be against? Our three wins would be against teams with a combined record of 7-14.
If my football hope is going to rise from the dead, it’s going to take a big jolt of electricity to do it. “I’m talking about a little place called” Denver (Dumb and Denver reference). If we can get a third win in a row in Denver you mind as well shout “IT’S ALIVE” because my hope would be instantly revived. This is a lot to ask of what’s been an under achieving team but hey we’ll see what happens.
Onto Detroit:
So let’s talk about Detroit for a minute. What do you guys think of them? They’re obviously struggling just as bad as we are and you could even throw them in the mix of teams that have talented rosters but are at the mercy of a struggling offensive line.
The top 10 sacked quarterbacks in the league are as follows:
1. Russell Wilson-31
2. Alex Smith – 25
Colin Kaepernick – 25
4. Josh McCown – 21
5. Blake Bortles – 19
Teddy Bridgewater – 19
Marcus Mariota – 19
6. Philip Rivers – 18
9. Drew Brees – 17
10. Tom Brady – 16
Ryan Tannehill -16
This is not a list you want to be on, 31 sacks going into the 8th week of the season!? Are you kidding me!? So Smith (25) and Stafford (16) have both been dealt some punishment as we’re not even including quarterback hits.
Last Sunday Detroit lost to the Vikings 28-19 but something that shouldn’t be lost in the score is that the Lions did have some success the first half. Stafford threw a touchdown on each on his first two drives which built up an 11 point lead but the lack of protection from the offensive line stalled them from any further success. Stafford injured his non throwing hand on one of the hits he took but it looks like he’ll be fine to play against the Chiefs.
Kansas City doesn’t have a great pass defense which should warrant some concern. Last week Antonio Brown caught 124 of the 209 yards Landry Jones threw against the Chiefs. Neither side of the field for Kansas City has lock down coverage thus far as Sean Smith is showing some rust from not playing the first three games and Marcus Peters is still learning as a rookie.
This will be an interesting game as both teams share similar problems and it will most likely come down to which team’s offensive line performs the best. It’s a coin flip for me, wouldn’t be surprised if Chiefs win or lose, much like last week’s match-up.
Here’s hoping for more wins! Have a great week, Addicts!