Kansas City Chiefs

Smith and Reid bring Chiefs the bye week blues

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 10:14 p.m. ET

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Aug 27, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith (11) talks with head coach Andy Reid during a time out during the first half of the preseason game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

After finishing the first quarter of the 2016 season at 2-2, the Chiefs need time to regroup.

These Chiefs don’t recognize the face in the mirror. Going into the bye week, they are not close to knowing what they are as a team.

Flaws abound on this team that, after 4 games, is still in disarray. The pass rush is nearly non-existent without Justin Houston. the running game has become less effective with the neglect of 3 games running the ball less than 30% of the offensive plays. It doesn’t know if it can win when it has to. After week 1, the team thought they could do anything, fight back form any deficit. After Week 4, they are not sure they can win again. This roller coaster is drastic.

Matt Derrick from ChiefsDigest.com joined Chris and I on our podcast to give some insight on the Steelers. Here’s the show:

In a lot of ways, the team is a reflection of its quarterback.

Alex Smith’s play is falling short. The passing game has been too short-sided both to his tendencies as well as to the play calling of Andy Reid. It is not as cut and dry as Smith opting for the check downs or locking onto one target; although both of those things are happening. Smith has taken more shots and keeping his eyes up longer than in years past. Unfortunately, Smith isn’t scrambling and gaining first downs running. If he can’t attack the defense in the air, he needs to remember how to attack with his legs

Andy Reid isn’t helping him either. The other half to the equation is that tried is calling a lot, and I mean a lot of plays that are not designed to go downfield. Reid isn’t calling enough running plays to grind on the defenses. The truth is that Reid is as out of sorts as Smith is and they have to work together to turn this offense around.

I might sound like a broken record because I seem to say this every year. The bye week is critical for the Kansas City Chiefs to figure out what kind of team they are going to be.

Concentrate on What Works

In a mild surprise, the passing game was able to gain some yardage last week. That was all at once encouraging and extremely tough to watch. Fully five Chiefs pass catchers ended the game with 5 catches or more. Jeremy Maclin was back, catching three of the longest 6 passes. Chris Conley led the team with six receptions and an 86% reception rate.

With the intermediate passing routes successful, the prudent plan would be to exploit them until the Steelers showed they could stop them. These downfield concepts worked against man or zone. Here’s an example:

That wasn’t in the original game plan. The problem is that Andy Reid didn’t recognize how effective these route concepts were working and repeat them. Reid generally spread the ball out to try and keep the defense guessing. By doing that in Pittsburgh, he left a lot of yards and valuable points on the table.

Only Reid can get a handle on this mentality of not attacking a defense with what is working. Chilly can help him, but in the end it is Reid’s responsibility.

Coverage Confusion

The Pittsburgh crash was even more negative than the New York pick-fest was positive. What had looked like an elite secondary against a hapless Ryan Fitzpatrick one week before, looked like a train wreck in progress against Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers quarterback capitalized on over-aggressive secondary and it got ugly.

Yes, the corners were young, inexperienced and toasted by the Steelers receivers’ speed. The more surprising fact was that the safety play was atrocious as well. Eric Berry still looks out of place as deep safety. Dan Sorensen is still a liability in coverage. Even Ron Parker, whose play has been top notch in 3 of 4 games, was pulled out of position in Pittsburgh.

The common thread could be communication. Two plays stand out in my eyes that explain that the communication is not there for this defense. Whether its player-player talk on the field or Bob Sutton and Al Harris getting the correct calls to the players. They cannot fix their pass defense without fixing the communication.

Here, the deep safeties, Berry and Parker, drop as though the call is Cover 3. The problem is that the two underneath defenders drop into short zones as though they are playing Cover 2. It left one deep third unmanned and Berry let the receiver cross his zone without challenging the route.

Which zone defense to play? #Chiefs didn’t agree.
Berry & Parker play Cover 3, Sorenson & White go shallow-like Cover 2 pic.twitter.com/2RtCtTw66r

— Ryan Tracy (@RyanTracyNFL) October 5, 2016

Here, Ron Parker is already at a disadvantage in coverage. Brown is faster than Parker. Ford is set to drop into coverage (don’t even get me started on that) and the two are not coordinating. Brown wisely uses Ford as a screen and gains a step the shallow cross. If Ford and Parker are on the same page, Ford jams the receiver and destroys the plays timing, while giving Parker a chance to get in his hip pocket.

Communication. It is imperative on plays like this. #Chiefs have to figure this out to get back on track. Rub route w no jam from Ford pic.twitter.com/fVc0BrYQLK

— Ryan Tracy (@RyanTracyNFL) October 6, 2016

Stat of the Week

Twelve. Yes, the Kansas City chiefs gave up 12 chunk plays to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Those are plays of 15 yards or more. They eat up yardage as well as a defense’s confidence and the Steelers had a ton of them.

Kansas City had a season high seven of there own. the problem is that against Pittsburgh they were unable to keep up. Ending up -5 in chunk plays is the type of deficit this team is not built to overcome.

AFC West Power Rankings

Chiefs Flip flop with Oakland after week 4 in the AFC West. If the teams played today on a neutral field, this is how its plays out at this point in the season.