Cute no more: Chiefs have found an identity again -- and a running game, to boot
The problem, given the benefit of hindsight, wasn't so much a 16-point loss to Tennessee -- though that one still defies credulity -- as the how. In Week 1, the Kansas City Chiefs got cute.
And the 2014 Chiefs, like Randy Couture or Charles Bronson, don't really do cute well. At all. They are meat and potatoes and handoffs and Woody Hayes. Three yards and a cloud of used tires. In Week 1, coach Andy Reid got a little behind at home, two of his best defensive players were lost for the season with the same freaky injury within the same freaky hour, and he snapped. Or panicked. Or reverted back to Philly Andy.
To put it another way, you try to drive a monster truck like a Ferrari, eventually, the bleeping thing crashes. See: Titans 26, Chiefs 10.
And maybe that was, indeed, Reid's personal come-to-Earl-Campbell moment, the shame that finally stuck. Take Sunday. More often than not, the Chiefs ran out of a base of two tight ends in Miami -- and, occasionally, just for the hell of it, three. When 6-foot-6 Jeff Linkenbach came into the game, they would even line up with three tackles up front, pretty little elephants all in a row.
The end result: 41 carries, 174 rushing yards and a 34-15 victory at a place the franchise hadn't won since 2005.
Combine that with 133 on the ground in Week 2's 24-17 near-miss at Denver, and it adds up to the same thing: The Chiefs look like the Chiefs again -- or rather, they look like a bunch that won't run away (no pun intended) from their strength, a bunch with an identity, mission and mantra.
And no Jamaal Charles.
Think about that for a second. The Chiefs went out, on the road, and posted their best single-game rushing total since last Dec. 8 on the ice in Washington and their second-highest total in Reid's 19 regular-season games with Kansas City, and did it without arguably the best tailback in the AFC, without the franchise's marquee offensive player.
Flip through our photo album of Chiefs cheerleaders.
With Charles scratched because of an ankle sprain, second-year understudy Knile Davis took the lion's share of the dirty work (32 carries, 132 yards, one score), with a little help from Cyrus Gray (18 yards, another score) and quarterback Alex Smith (17 yards).
But the real wrinkle, the real revelation, was scatback Joe McKnight, the former New York Jets return ace signed under the cover of darkness this past January, doing all the things Dexter McCluster used to do, the kind of stuff injured rookie De'Anthony Thomas was drafted to do: 64 receiving yards, two scores, 65 kickoff return yards, and the kind of hands and quicks to make linebackers worried and safeties distracted.
Before this fall, the 26-year-old McKnight, who'd played 15 games each in 2011 and 2012 but none last fall, had appeared in five career tilts against Miami, racking up three catches for 34 yards in the process. Sunday: six grabs, and none bigger than a nifty 11-yard route over the middle for a score with 6:36 left in the third quarter that pushed the Kansas City lead to 20-10.
Chiefs general manager John Dorsey raised eyebrows by keeping five tailbacks on his opening-week roster, especially given the club's issues with depth in the secondary, along the offensive line and at wideout.
Against the Dolphins, three of them scored.
So maybe we're seeing a vision finally finding its feet, finding clarity after a rocky, convoluted start.
Or maybe it was just luck. Or good fortune. After all, it's easier to pound the ball, easier to play the heavy, when you've got the lead, and the Chiefs had slugged and chugged and bullied and defended their way to a 14-3 halftime edge.
Continuity is the biggest gift to an offensive line, so perhaps the season-ending injury to one of Reid's better linemen, guard Jeff Allen, turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise. With Allen in Week 1 playing right tackle instead of guard, and playing hurt, neither side of the perimeter of the pocket looked particularly sound. Over the past two weeks, though, a lineup, left to right, of Eric Fisher-Mike McGlynn-Rodney Hudson-Zach Fulton-Ryan Harris has appeared to consistently, if unspectacularly, steady the ship. At least on the ground.
Backpedaling, of course, not so much. The group's pass protection remains a work in progress, especially after Smith was dropped five more times -- that's 11 on the season already -- including a takedown in the end zone for a safety with 2:38 left in the third quarter. With this offensive front right now, it literally is three steps forward, two steps back and hide your eyes.
And yet Smith was good again -- 19-for-25 passing, three touchdowns -- despite the constant pressure, zeroing in on his forte of quick throws on short or intermediate routes, and letting targets such as McKnight and gifted tight end Travis Kelce (36 receiving yards, one score) do the heavy lifting.
On the flip side, a double-digit deficit remains a scary proposition with this crew, the run defense was gashed repeatedly by 'Fins back Lamar Miller (15 carries, 108 yards), and even more surprisingly, the Chiefs still have yet to record a takeaway through three weeks after getting 36 last fall, the most in the AFC.
The Dolphins forced two to the Andy Gang's zero, pushing the Chiefs' season ratio to a less-than-robust minus-5 through three weeks. That particular trend line needs some kind of rectifying, ideally: Of the 16 NFL clubs that posted negative turnover ratios (more giveaways than takeaways) in 2013, only two, San Diego (minus-4 on the season) and Green Bay (minus-3) reached the playoffs.
Although, while we're on the subject, a 1-2 record out of the gates -- with New England, in Arrowhead Stadium, on Monday Night Football up next -- still beats the living chinos out of the alternative. Since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970, only five teams have rallied from an 0-3 record to sniff the postseason: The '81 Jets, the '82 Buccaneers, the '92 Chargers, the '95 Lions and the '98 Bills. And, if you're Reid, there's not a damn thing cute about that.
You can follow Sean Keeler on Twitter at @SeanKeeler or email him at seanmkeeler@gmail.com.
