Chiefs vs. Bears game preview: Six storylines to follow

The Chiefs offense continues to struggle in the red zone

The Chiefs offense has been somewhat of a mixed bag this season. They began the season very hot, tied with the Baltimore Ravens through the end of September in points per game with 33.8. They scored more than 30 points in three out of four games to start the season, missing that mark by only two points against the Oakland Raiders. They even scored 40 points against a fresh and talented defense in the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Yet, ever since September this unit hasn’t been the same. The following 10 games they have only scored 30 points twice, their streak of 26 point games came to an end, and the offense has averaged 25.9 points per game.

No doubt, injuries have played a significant factor in this stretch. Several games in a row the Chiefs played without multiple members of their starting offensive line, seemingly plugging in players off the street to protect Mahomes. Game in and game out, this resulted in Mahomes getting hit far too many times.

Then, there’s the play calling. No disrespect to Andy Reid, but this hasn’t been his best season. Reid is known to be one of the most creative offensive minds currently in the league, and arguably in the history of the league. Yet, he hasn’t seemed like his usual self this season. What usually took teams half the season or more to catch onto has been figured out much more quickly and more often.

I think one of the biggest factors plaguing this team has been their inability to score in the red zone. For whatever reason, considering they have one of the best sets of skill players in the league, they’ve struggled significantly to score touchdowns once reaching the red zone.

Through 14 games they rank 24th in the league and are only converting touchdowns on 51 percent of red zone trips. They’ve improved slightly in the last three games to 54 percent, but are still trailing teams like the Dolphins, Jets and the Bills. Considering how much better the Chiefs coaching and talent is than those three teams, that is pretty shocking.

Through 2018, this was one of the strengths of the Chiefs offense. They converted touchdowns on red zone trips at an insane clip of 73 percent. If Andy and company can figure this aspect out before the playoffs, that plus this next factor may tip the scales and make the 2019 Chiefs nearly unstoppable.