Alex Smith comes up big against the Houston Texans

The Kansas City Chiefs are 5-0. Quarterback Alex Smith deserves praise for getting them there.

The Kansas City Chiefs put the shellacking on the Houston Texans Sunday night. The 42-34 final score is quite deceiving, as this game wasn’t close. Unlike most games this season, running back Kareem Hunt couldn’t get much going. The Chiefs constantly found themselves in third and long situations, situations that the Chiefs of old would have folded under. These aren’t your same old Chiefs.

The biggest part of the change has been, surprisingly, the same man at quarterback. Alex Smith is being mentioned in NFL Most Valuable Player conversations for good reason: he’s playing on a level never before seen. He has 11 touchdown passes and 0 interceptions. He’s completing 76 percent of his throws, five percentage points better than the NFL record. Smith is a man on fire and he’s taken the Chiefs to a whole new level.

Check out a few plays from the game against the Texans. Below, you’ll see Smith keep his eyes downfield for a much needed third down conversion on a play that would never have even been attempted in years past.

That was a perfect throw by Smith. Only leading by six at the time, the Chiefs needed to put some points on the board. They would score later in the drive on a third down touchdown pass to Charcandrick West. Then there was this…

This throw was really impressive. The Texans were gaining a bit of momentum, and were about to get the Chiefs off the field. This was a dagger. If Smith is able to connect on these kinds of throws regularly, it completely changes the dynamic of Kansas City’s offense.

Many people will argue that Kareem Hunt or Andy Reid are responsible for the Chiefs’ offensive explosion, and they wouldn’t be wrong. Hunt has been nothing short of incredible while Reid’s game planning has been nothing short of a masterpiece. Yet, somehow we still want to overlook the quarterback who is running it all.