Kansas City Chiefs show myriad issues on both sides of the ball

I knew the Chiefs would win a lot of regular season games this year despite one of the toughest schedules in the league, but it’s about what they do when it comes to playoff time. The first couple weeks made me really wonder if the Chiefs had finally hit a new level with their offense and gave hope to possibly not being a one and done team this year in the playoffs.

That same offense has found itself moving backward the last four games as it has really struggled outside of the game in Oakland against a weak defense. Games like the ones against Pittsburgh, Denver, and Dallas have looked more like the offense of the 2016 Chiefs.

Now there are problems on both sides of the ball no doubt but fans seem to only focus on the defense lately. They have no problem finding scapegoats on the defensive side of the ball but seem to get offended when you bring up problems on the offensive side. How dare I talk down about how Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith has played because of how great he looked in the first few weeks of the season right?

I hate to be the bad news messenger for everyone but Smith has looked pretty meh the last month. We have seen him getting more nervous and start to develop happy feet instead of being that calm and buy yourself time type of quarterback we saw the first part of the year. We have seen him make bad throws, get rid of the ball early to the check down, and panic before there is any real pressure on him.

Coach Reid has had some to do with the offense not being as dominant as it was the first part of the season as well. Reid abandoned the run game once again and we have seen time and time again the offense struggle when it becomes a heavy pass offense. I never understand why Reid abandons the run game when he has the leading rusher in the league. Especially when the Chiefs came back from half and rookie running back Kareem Hunt was starting to pick up some yards.

Unfortunately, the Chiefs only ran the ball three times in the second half. Reid tried to be too sneaky with his play calling and what most fans call his “cutesy” play calling and the offense failed to get much of anything going. Outside of the flukish touchdown play right before the half, they only managed to get in the end zone one other time.