Kansas City Chiefs: Another unbelievable win

Right there next to the play of Alex Smith, the play calling of head coach Andy Reid was in contention for the award of the most frustrating thing about watching the Chiefs in recent weeks. Andy Reid is an absolute genius when it comes to his knowledge and ability to design plays. However, recently it seemed that he was his own worst enemy as he over thought things and got “too cute” with some of his calls.

Against the Atlanta Falcons Reid seemed to understand that a conservative offense wasn’t going to cut it. The play designs seemed to shift the focus from passes that travel towards the sideline to passes that travel down the field. While Smith deserves credit for executing the passes, Reid deserves equal credit for dialing up these plays in the first place. While Smith has been guilty of not pulling the trigger with some down field targets, part of the problem in recent weeks has been that the plays themselves seemed too conservative in nature. That too was fixed this week.

Just like with Smith, I REALLY hope that Reid understands how much better this offense works when they are a little bit more aggressive. Reid HAS to keep this approach going forward. A few other things I really appreciated about the game Reid called today include:

* How he really designed the offense to go through Travis Kelce. With Jeremy Maclin out Kelce is the clear go to guy, but the Chiefs hadn’t taken full advantage of his abilities in recent weeks. Against the Falcons Kelce ended up with 8 receptions for 140 yards. Even if Maclin is back against Oakland I hope Reid keeps dialing up plays for his star tight end.

* How he wasn’t afraid to make gutsy and aggressive play calls. Wether it was picking up a fourth down early in the game or the fake punt that ended up going for a touchdown, Reid wasn’t afraid to be aggressive and it’s a big reason why the Chiefs won.

* On a related note, when KC lined up to go for it on fourth down at midfield in the third quarter it forced Atlanta to use a time out. While KC decided to go ahead and punt that burned time out would have come in handy for the Falcons at the end of the game. Reid usually loses the battle of time out usage and clock management so winning it this week was huge and he deserves credit where it is due.

Finally, a few thoughts about Eric Berry.