Chiefs vs Jets: Kansas City Team Grades
By Andrew Jones
Offense: C
The Chiefs struggled to move the ball after their second series due to poor offensive line play and questionable decisions. The offensive line was unable to open up the middle and the Chiefs had to bounce it outside too often to have any real success. With the guards of the Chiefs continuing to suffer from injury it was the third combination of big men in as many games. For the most part the pass protection could not give Alex Smith enough time to read more than two routes. This resulted in two two sacks and several pressures, forcing the Chiefs to rely on the slant and short crossing routes. Once the Jets began to shut down the short passing game the offense was extremely limited.
Outside of the offensive line, the Chiefs played well enough to win the game but not to impress anyone. Smith played poised and accurate but missed high on at least two throws that would have been first downs. Some of his best throws were unfortunately wasted by good coverage and Jeremy Maclin’s recent inability to hold on to a football. One in particular that Maclin would love to try again was a perfectly thrown fade by Smith over the middle with under a minute left in the first half. Maclin had one arm up for the ball and though the defender was close, I saw no reason he couldn’t get his other arm free. He dropped the pass and the Chiefs took another sack to end the half.
Andy Reid’s play-calling was suspect yet again in the redzone and with little time left. After a Marcus Peters interception, the Chiefs worked the ball inside the Jets’ 10 yard line. They had Ware ready but instead decided screens and the speed option were the way to go. Not only did they not work, they lost yardage and settled for the field goal. Later on, with two minutes left in the half the Chiefs had a chance to go up another score on the Jets and get the ball back to start the second half.
So what does Reid call? A run, waste 40 seconds of game time, call timeout, then throw two deep shots to Maclin. The deep shots were promising as neither were bad passes from Smith, so why the 40 second runoff? Trent Green in his broadcast booth sat just as baffled as the rest of us.