The Kansas City Chiefs offensive line looks dominant

While Alex Smith deserves all the credit for playing as well as he did against the Patriots, his offensive line definitely helped him out. Smith has been known to get happy feet in the pocket if a team is consistently getting pressure on him. Against the Patriots that was not the case. Smith had clean pockets and plenty of time all night long. The one sack he took was because he fell down. The chart tweeted out below by Pro Football Focus shows just how good their pass blocking was.

As you can see, all five offensive linemen had a pass blocking efficiency of 94% or higher. Overall, Alex Smith was completely un-pressured on 80% of his pass attempts. That’s insanely good, I don’t care if New England doesn’t have an especially strong pass rush. You can see that Eric Fisher was technically credited with allowing a sack, but if Smith doesn’t fall down I firmly believe it doesn’t happen.

The other impressive thing here is that Laurent Duvernay-Tardif didn’t allow a single pressure all game long. When LDT signed his big contract extension, many (myself included) questioned if he had earned that kind of money. In hind-sight it looks like that may have been a great business decision as LDT seems to quickly becoming one of the better guards in all the NFL.

If you want to see this great pass protection in action look at this tweet from Nick Jacobs (a must follow for Chiefs fans). This is the long touchdown pass to Kareem Hunt. Did Smith make a perfect throw? Yes. Did Hunt make a great catch and run afterwards? Yes. However, it takes some time for this play to develop. Look at the time and space that Smith has to wait for Hunt to  come open.

If the offensive line wasn’t dominating the line of scrimmage that throw is never attempted. Smith would have quickly checked down or tucked the ball and scrambled. It’s the fantastic pass protection that makes that great play possible. Smith won’t always be perfect, but I believe that he’ll consistently get the ball down field to his play makers if his offensive line gives him that kind of time and security.

Now let’s look at the run blocking in action.