Kansas City Chiefs

Chiefs vs Chargers: Making sense of the madness!

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Kansas City Chiefs beat the San Diego Chargers 33-27 in overtime on Sunday. While that sentence is a factual statement it is still hard for me to comprehend and even harder for me to put into words. If it was considered acceptable for a piece here at Arrowhead Addict to be just 36 words long this post might have just been:

“Woo hoo Chiefs won! The Chiefs won! I can’t believe it! What just happened? I can’t feel my legs! The first half was awful. The fourth quarter and overtime were amazing! Woo hoo the Chiefs won!”

That’s really kind of my general response to this game. I’m going to try to go into a little more detail but as I sit here writing this just a couple of hours after the game ended its still hard for me to wrap my head around it. Here in a moment I’m going to talk about what went so horribly wrong in the first half (maybe even three quarters). However, I want to be very clear about this and get it on the record so listen up.

While there were things that were REALLY bad early in this game none of them take the joy of this win away. The win is all that matters and it was amazing. I was literally running around my house like a crazy person yelling when they won. It was fun. It was great. Chiefs fans should enjoy it. Period.

That having been said, there were some things in the first half of this game that Kansas City needs to clean up going forward so they don’t have to continually come back from 21 point deficits. If for no other reason than the fact that I don’t think my nerves can handle that happening every week. You can choose to ignore those things and just enjoy the win, that’s fine. I personally can enjoy the win while looking back at BOTH the good and the bad. So I’m going to split this post into two sections the rest of the way. The first section will be what went wrong in order for the Chiefs to fall behind 24-7 and then the second section will be about what they did right to finish the game on a 30-3 run and come away with the overtime win.

Let’s start with what went wrong early.

Sep 11, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid reacts to a call during the first half against the San Diego Chargers at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

What Went Wrong Early

Making a list of everything that went wrong in the first two or three quarters of Sunday’s game is a daunting task, but here goes.

Bad pass blocking, especially on the interior against stunts
Bad handling of interior pressure by Alex Smith
Bad offensive play calling that didn’t consistently get the ball in the hands of KC’s best players
Bad all around run defense
Bad angles and gap discipline by both Derrick Johnson and Justin March
Bad tackling by the KC secondary after backs (or receivers) got past the front seven
Zero outside pass rush
Poor pass coverage by the Chiefs cornerbacks
Poor all around effort and execution

You could probably add some more to that list but I think those nine are a pretty good summary of what went wrong early that lead to that 24-3 lead for the Chargers. It was about as bad of football as I’ve seen Kansas City play. I’m talking Tyler Palko quarterbacked kind of bad. I’m talking 2-14 season and fans are wearing black to Arrowhead kind of bad. If you’re reading a Chiefs blog like this then you know what I’m talking about. We’ve seen some REALLY terrible football played here in Kansas City and that first half was as bad or worse than anything I’ve seen before.

I’ve already established that ultimately what matters from this game is that they overcame that horrible start and won and I’ll address how they did that in a minute. Before that happens I do think its worth taking a minute to stop and discuss how many of those early problems we should be worried about popping back up throughout the season? Was this just a case of everything going wrong early and once they snapped out of it those issues are gone forever? I wish I could say that, but I do have some concerns going forward.

What I do believe was an isolated incident was the perceived lack of effort and execution in the first half. The Chiefs looked completely flat and uninterested in playing football. That is unlike the Chiefs team we saw most of last season. Yes, they had issues during their early season losing streak but the team we saw down the stretch last year played with great heart and effort. It’s a little concerning that we started our home opener flat (again) but the heart and fight that they showed in coming back from such a deficit is encouraging. I don’t think we’ll see KC start that flat on a regular basis.

The run defense is a concern though. It was just not good. The dominant defensive line was not that dominant, the inside linebackers were not good and the secondary didn’t tackle very well if the ball carrier got to them. I still believe in the defensive line and frankly, if the defensive backs are making the tackles you’ve got issues even if they do tackle well. What will be the deciding factor of how good or bad this run defense will be this season is the play of the inside linebackers. Both DJ and March were undisciplined and constantly out of position. That’s rare for DJ so I’m going to chalk that up to him having a bad day. What is a concern is the play of March next to him. He doesn’t need to be a star out there he just needs to be Josh Mauga-esqe and KC should at least be average on run defense (assuming DJ isn’t this bad all year).

The pass rush is also a concern. There was no outside rush at all early and only a little during the late comeback. Dee Ford has to be a more consistent factor in the pass rush and Frank Zombo needs to be off the field on passing downs in favor of Dadi Nicolas. I get that Nicolas is unproven and a rookie, but Zombo is a proven non factor in the pass rush. Let him play in the base defense but get the rookie in there on passing downs. Either that or we have to hope that Hali is able to do more as he gets back into full conditioning.

The corner play was actually about what I thought it would be. Marcus Peters had a bad day and I think we’ll see better from him overall but the rest is probably about right for KC’s young corners. If the Chiefs want better results in pass defense its going to be because they stopped the run better, forced longer third downs, and got more pressure on the quarterback. If they do that then the corner play we saw today should be adequate.

On offense the only real concern I have is the interior offensive line in pass protection. The Chargers had guys in Alex Smith’s face consistently and it was mostly off of basic stunts that the Chiefs failed to pick up. I’m on record as being concerned about Parker Ehinger’s strength, but it was more a matter of communication and recognition in this game and that was supposed to be what KC was going to be better at with this same unit working together all preseason. I have hope that this can be improved as the year goes on. If not, get Jah Reid out there ASAP.

So that was my concerns with what went wrong early in the game. Now let’s talk about what went right in KC’s comeback.

KANSAS CITY, MO – SEPTEMBER 11: Travis Kelce

How The Chiefs Turned Things Around

For as bad as the first half of the game was the end was that much better. I started out just wanting the Chiefs to make things respectable. I didn’t even give a full comeback any consideration. My thinking was that if they went from down 24-3 and playing the worst football I have seen in a while to something like 27-17 that would be enough progress to give Chiefs fans some hope moving forward. As the game got closer and closer it was like an inner of battle of “They might just pull this off” and “No way, don’t get your hopes up, just appreciate that they’re playing much better.” Then once the Chiefs got the ball back down 27-20 I was all in. I was jumping up and down, going crazy and pacing the floor. I had to put the dogs outside because I was scaring them and at one point I was sitting on the floor in front of the TV with my son in some kind of half hug half headlock beside me. It was great.

So how in the world did it happen?

There were six major factors that caused the comeback in my opinion.

1. The Chiefs woke up from their self induced coma.

2. They started getting the ball to their top playmakers: Maclin, Kelce, and Ware.

3. Alex Smith stopped being conservative and let the ball fly.

4. The defense upped their all around play.

5. The Chargers really missed Keenan Allen.

6. The Chargers offense choked under the pressure late.

If you were to ask the question “Did the Chiefs come storming back or did the Chargers choke the game away?” my answer would be about 66% Chiefs comeback and about 33% Chargers choking the game away. I felt like the Chargers offense broke down after the Keenan Allen injury. Part of that was missing their best wideout who was having a field day against the Chiefs secondary and part of it was mental. Yes, they missed Allen’s production but he wasn’t their entire offense to that point. The Chiefs deserve more of the credit for this win in my opinion, especially the offense.

The defense did a great job late as well, but I felt like it was more a case of KC’s offense putting the pressure on San Diego and the Chargers not being able to answer. The Chiefs started moving the ball at will late in the game and Alex Smith really played fantastic. When he consistently gets the ball to Maclin, Kelce, and Ware the offense looks fantastic. The Chiefs need to stop getting cute and focus on those three guys. Spreading the ball around to multiple targets is great and sometimes “gadget” plays can work but when things are going poorly like it was early on they need to focus on getting the best players the ball and let them go to work. That’s what KC did in the fourth quarter and overtime and it worked like a charm. Side note: Spencer Ware is legit. That guy needs to be a featured part of this offense even after Jamaal Charles gets back. I would even be fine with a 50/50 split of the workload and if they can get them both on the field at the same time that would be great.

Then there was the play of quarterback Alex Smith. The guy was shaky early when the play calls were questionable and the interior line was struggling, but once he loosened up and started slinging the ball around he was fantastic. We all know he’s not Mr. 50 yard bomb, but he spread the ball around brilliantly late in that game and was arguably THE number one player responsible for that comeback. I’ve already said I think this will be a record season for Smith and if this game was any indication that could certainly be the case. If Smith and the offense can execute like they did late and the KC defense can just be solid (not spectacular) like they were in the second half then I believe this is still a playoff team.

So what do you think Addicts? Is it finally sinking in that the Chiefs really did pull that game off? Are you still on cloud nine? Do you think this will propel them going forward or do you think the problems they showed early on could come back and haunt them? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the game in the comments below.

As always, thanks for reading and GO CHIEFS!!!!!!!