Alex Smith and Andy Reid bring Chiefs the bye week blues

Smith has taken more shots and keeping his eyes up longer than in years past. Unfortunately, Smith isn’t scrambling and gaining first downs running. If he can’t attack the defense in the air, he needs to remember how to attack with his legs

Andy Reid isn’t helping him either. The other half to the equation is that tried is calling a lot, and I mean a lot of plays that are not designed to go downfield. Reid isn’t calling enough running plays to grind on the defenses. The truth is that Reid is as out of sorts as Smith is and they have to work together to turn this offense around.

I might sound like a broken record because I seem to say this every year. The bye week is critical for the Kansas City Chiefs to figure out what kind of team they are going to be.

Concentrate on What Works

In a mild surprise, the passing game was able to gain some yardage last week. That was all at once encouraging and extremely tough to watch. Fully five Chiefs pass catchers ended the game with 5 catches or more. Jeremy Maclin was back, catching three of the longest 6 passes. Chris Conley led the team with six receptions and an 86% reception rate.

With the intermediate passing routes successful, the prudent plan would be to exploit them until the Steelers showed they could stop them. These downfield concepts worked against man or zone. Here’s an example:

That wasn’t in the original game plan. The problem is that Andy Reid didn’t recognize how effective these route concepts were working and repeat them. Reid generally spread the ball out to try and keep the defense guessing. By doing that in Pittsburgh, he left a lot of yards and valuable points on the table.

Only Reid can get a handle on this mentality of not attacking a defense with what is working. Chilly can help him, but in the end it is Reid’s responsibility.