Chiefs’ ceiling contingent upon the fate of Alex Smith

In an odd way, Smith’s contribution to winning teams has been a gift and a curse. The more perennial prosperity, the more responsibility he’s asked to shoulder. Winning begets expectation. The Kansas City Chiefs have built a stellar, championship-caliber defense. With it, they’ve managed to keep pace with the AFC’s top two teams (New England and Oakland). The Chiefs are just one game shy of the conference lead with five weeks to play.

They’re in as good a position for the division title, as the sole 3-0 team in the AFC West, and one of the top two seeds in the AFC playoff picture. Kansas City will get another crack at Oakland and Denver on their home field. If they can take care of business in both contests, they stand as a good a chance as any team in the conference at a first-round bye.

The question becomes, can Alex Smith play well enough under postseason lights to advance beyond the wildcard round? Smith’s played three postseason games since coming to Kansas City and in those games, he’s 76-of-118 for 814 passing yards, six touchdowns and just one interception.

If you’re scoring at home, that’s a 64% completion rate and a passer rating of 97.91. Overall, that’s a rock solid postseason stat line that seems to suggest the biggest stages aren’t too much for Smith to handle. Though, it’s worth noting that only one of his postseason performances as a Chief can be characterized as anything more than efficient. That game, to no fault of Smith’s, resulted in a loss (to Indianapolis).