The Chiefs are good enough to give Andy Reid the Super Bowl he deserves

[Direckshun]

My body is willing.

https://www.sbnation.com/2017/9/18/1...bowl-contender

The Chiefs are good enough to give Andy Reid the Super Bowl he deserves
Andy Reid and the Chiefs look like the best team in the NFL right now, and I’m so here for it.
by Louis Bien @louisbien
Sep 18, 2017, 11:01am EDT

There are seven NFL teams sitting at 2-0, and none of them has looked as good as the Kansas City Chiefs. This is weird.

Not that the Chiefs being good is weird. The Chiefs have had a winning record each season and missed the playoffs just once in four years under Andy Reid.

But for the Chiefs to look utterly dominant is something else. Under Reid, the Chiefs have become the sort of high-floor, low-ceiling team that you wouldn’t really expect to see in the Super Bowl. They’ve gone down swinging (read: painfully, excruciatingly) in all three of their playoff losses under Reid and have yet to get past the Divisional round. They could be counted on to be pretty good in all phases — to rush better than most teams, to be frustrating to score on, and to not cough up the ball — but fall short when games are tight and matter most.

In two games against two good opponents this season — the Eagles finished last season fifth in DVOA, the Patriots were first and, like, won a Super Bowl — the Chiefs have scored 69 points and given up 47, rushed for 331 yards, passed for 519, and generally look like an enhanced version of the team we’ve come to know. A rising tide lifts all boats — or in this case, a rejuvenated Alex Smith makes the Chiefs a helluva lot harder to deal with. He has been spectacular through two games, throwing for 619 yards at 9.8 yards per attempt and a 134 passer rating.

With not even two weeks completed in the season, we have only enough data to overreact to what we see. That said, the Chiefs seem worth overreacting to. They have always been good. The idea that they may be great isn’t at all farfetched. They have been building toward this for years. On its current trajectory, this would be one of Reid’s finest teams ever — and oh, it’s bucking NFL conventions along the way, which is always good and never bad.

This is basically a college team

The axiom goes that champions are built through the NFL Draft. By my count, the Chiefs are starting 16 players who they drafted, with just one of those players — veteran linebacker Derrick Johnson — having been on the roster longer than Reid.

This team has been built in Reid’s image, particularly on offense where the Chiefs have finally stockpiled a critical mass of squat, fast-twitch, space-destroyers to hornswoggle the league.

The most shocking thing about the Chiefs’ season-opening win over the Patriots was that they did it while running what looked like a college offense. Early in the game Smith, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce formed a backfield, and Kelce stepped up to take the snap and ran the option:



And it worked! So the Chiefs kept running it all night, sometimes throwing three backs and two tight ends on the field to complete their Navy impression.

A rookie — running back Kareem Hunt — was maybe the most important player on the field. He finished with 148 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, and he looked explosive, and tough, and remarkably balanced in the process. The circumstances of general manager John Dorsey’s firing this offseason are somewhat cloudy, but he gave the cash-strapped Chiefs an incredible parting gift in the third-rounder.

Hunt and the running game opened up the downfield passing game, and Smith cleaned up, throwing for 178 yards on just three deep balls. He had two more deep passes for 79 yards against the Eagles, which is good for anyone and outstanding for a notorious dink-and-dunker. Smith looks like a brand new quarterback this season.

Alex Smith is playing with cuss

After rookie backup Pat Mahomes unleashed a series of spectacular passes in the Chiefs’ final preseason game, Smith was spotted on the sideline looking ... not enthused. The moment recalled his body language in the midst of losing his starting job to Colin Kaepernick with the 49ers.

Smith never got his starting job back in San Francisco. So far after stepping back into the Chiefs’ lineup, he has not only played well, but so unlike himself.

Smith is averaging 6.8 yards per attempt over his career, which is paltry given he’s completing 62 percent of his passes. Last season, just 8.16 percent of his passes traveled more than 20 yards through the air, according to Cian Fahey’s Pre-Snap Reads Quarterback Catalogue, fewer than every qualified quarterback except Sam Bradford and Jared Goff.

This season, Smith has attempted seven passes longer than 20 yards, roughly 11 percent of his attempts, and complete five of them. One of his best was a dime he dropped to a covered Chris Conley on the Chiefs’ final touchdown drive against the Eagles for a 35-yard gain.

Maybe it took a much younger, rocket-armed existential threat to draw out this new, aggressive Alex Smith, or maybe it’s the fact that he’s finally playing in an offense that he’s truly comfortable in ...

“One of the things we did when Alex came here was we went back and kind of looked at some of the stuff he had done in college and was familiar with,” Reid said, referring to what would become part of the base offense.

Whatever the case, the Chiefs’ offense is well-positioned to go much further than it has in years.

And yet there are two things that could bring the Chiefs to a screeching halt

he first: The Chiefs lost Eric Berry for the season to a non-contact Achilles injury in the season opener. Perhaps no defensive position is as heaped with responsibility as safety in today’s NFL, and Berry plays it as instinctually and beautifully as anyone in the league.

He was a big reason why Rob Gronkowski couldn’t get open against the Chiefs’ secondary. Should they face the Patriots again this season, Berry’s absence could be costly.

The second: This is still an Andy Reid team, and for all the good that means — his teams are as consistent and well-balanced as they come — the Chiefs will be hamstrung in late-game situations.

This is the Reid Paradox: He is somehow both the best and worst thing to happen to NFL teams. There is nothing more to do than to point at the team’s last two playoff losses. Reid is hardwired to make egregious game-management mistakes. And yet, it’s not like we ever see him panic. You get the sense that Reid is a laborious thinker who is uncomfortable being sped up. At some point this season, the Chiefs will enter the final minutes of the fourth quarter with either too many timeouts or not enough, and when they lose by one score, Reid will be the only person who isn’t miffed.

I can’t help but make this personal: I love Andy Reid

I love that his players love him, I love that he loves Hawaiian shirts, and I love how he tweaks the game. He and Bill Belichick are perhaps the only two NFL head coaches who you can count on to truly innovate a game plan rather than simply iterate on a few guiding principles. Every week, they’ll do something that no other NFL team is doing, and it’ll work. And unlike Belichick, Reid is a person. Bill Belichick has never looked this happy.

I’m a Lions fan, so every year I pick another team I want to win a Super Bowl since mine won’t. I am so here for a Chiefs title run. Innovation deserves to be rewarded. Time — not just Reid’s near-20 seasons, but Smith’s quest to be deemed worthy and Berry’s constant battle against his body — deserves to be rewarded. Fun deserves to be rewarded, and it’s been so long since that has felt like the case in the Super Bowl.

This is a team in Reid’s image. It is quirky, and disciplined and unassuming for how good it has been. This is what his tenure in Kansas City has been building up to. The roster is of the team’s own design, and now it’s up to Reid to guide it. He is the biggest reason why this might the Chiefs’ year, but he’ll be the biggest reason if it’s not.

[rocknrolla]

Originally Posted by Simply Red

Never have been able to get through the first minute of this guy, gave him a chance and watch the full 20 min. He has some really good takes and hilarious quotes. Love the "turtler" and "big dick" on the 2 different Smiths, and the Hunt bloodline is golden.
And yes Andy Reid, if any head coach in the league deserves a SB win its him. I think we definitely have the making, barring injury and which AS shows up, the turtler or the big dick. With what Reid has dealt with in his personal life and to stay as focused and detailed on the game is amazing.

[threebag]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

I look forward to revisiting this in January...

You will have time since you won't be playing in February

[O.city]

https://twitter.com/jacobs71/status/910179878502305792

DJ here's the overthrow.

I think smith missed it a little bit outside but it does look like hill misread it a touch

[pugsnotdrugs19]

I do believe there might be some real premise to SB talk for this team.. talent, playmakers, game changers, playoff experience, great coaching, battle tested...

If we can avoid losing more key players to injury for extended periods, I think they have a real shot. The front 7 looks fantastic, although the secondary needs to patch some things up. Steven Nelson should help down the stretch quite a bit.

Offensively, they look good enough right now... they boast three star playmakers at different positions, a solid OL, and a seemingly newfound version of Alex Smith... hopefully that continues because the sky is the limit right now.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

https://twitter.com/jacobs71/status/910179878502305792

DJ here's the overthrow.

I think smith missed it a little bit outside but it does look like hill misread it a touch

The back end zone view is a good one - I don't think it's a miss as much as it is just a 'shit happens' moment on a throw. Hill drifted inside on the route (you can see him angling in) and Smith puts it right over where his inside shoulder would be on a true vertical.

Look at where Hill's standing when Smith releases - right at in the middle of the 20 (top to bottom). He has inside position on the DB and a major speed advantage so I think Smith just put it straight out there. I think he expected Hill to flatten out at the top of the yard number. Look where it lands - virtually dead in line with where Hill was when Smith started to release and Hill got position.

If Hill isn't drifting towards the goal-post on his route, it's an easy six. But you can also see why Hill might have done that once he put the WR on his outside shoulder - buys him a little more room. Instead it added another stride to his route (explains the overthrow; the stride came after the ball was released) and why he had to make an adjustment. Hill also drifted - push play from the 21 second mark and watch Hill - there was no reason at all for his route to continue to slide towards the middle there - the CB is done. I understand why you'd take it a little deeper early in the route but by then it really does look like he doesn't realize he's angling in. That's that 'losing where he was on the field' feeling I got.

I have a hard time chalking that up to much more than 'deep passes are hard, man'. I can see why Smith would've wanted to put it a little more towards the middle - that's where the space was. But he also knows that Hill has a clean release and insane speed - there was really no cause to do so and the nearer he puts it towards the safety over the middle, the more likely he gets his guy hit. Didn't matter here, but as an operating principal you don't go towards the middle of the field if you don't have to.

Give them the tape of that play, have them discuss it and when all is said and done they'll hit that next time. That looks a whole lot like a WR and QB that just haven't quite figured each other out yet.

Thanks for the clips.

[O.city]

Yeah just missed it on both ends. It happens.

That's also where having a mike Evans kind of wr comes in handy with his catch radius but he's not burning corners like that. Jesus.

They've really got some weapons here. I'm hopeful Conley really keeps coming on because that's makes 4 and that's tough to stop

[O.city]

I'd really like to see them add a real blazer scat back type guy. Hunt has been awesome and maybe west can be it, but a Sproles type dude would be legit with this athletic ol in the screen game

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by O.city

https://twitter.com/jacobs71/status/910179878502305792

DJ here's the overthrow.

I think smith missed it a little bit outside but it does look like hill misread it a touch

You know the CB had to be thinking, "Thank ****ing Christ he missed that!"

[penbrook]

Tony Gonzalez was on Colin Cowherd and just compared Alex Smith to Aaron Rodgers. Damn who knew we had Aaron Rodgers on our roster and it wasn't Mahomes!

[ThaVirus]

I assumed that was a miss on Alex's part during the game and, having seen that clip, still stand by it.

But it's not a big deal. You're not going to hit every play, especially on passes 40 yards downfield.

I liked the aggression.

[O.city]

Once the safety bit on Conley I wish alex would have led him a little more towards the MOF

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by O.city

Once the safety bit on Conley I wish alex would have led him a little more towards the MOF

Agreed. I'm only a fan of those over-the-outside shoulder passes on the sidelines.

If you're going over the top of the safety just put that baby on the inside shoulder.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by O.city

I'd really like to see them add a real blazer scat back type guy. Hunt has been awesome and maybe west can be it, but a Sproles type dude would be legit with this athletic ol in the screen game

Akeem Hunt

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Once the safety bit on Conley I wish alex would have led him a little more towards the MOF

Yeah, I think he tried to be too fine there in a situation that didn't call for it. Once the middle cleared, you'd have liked to see more air under it and more towards the middle. Like I said - his throw wasn't perfect either. There was an easier way to make that work.

But again, I think Smith's natural inclination is to avoid the middle to avoid the contact if the throw doesn't need it. I think he tried to make the perfect throw and put it right where Hill's route would've gone had he flattened it out instead of putting it out where there was more green to work with.

This isn't 'Smith missed' or 'Hill ****ed up' it's a situation where neither guy did exactly what you'd want to see and it didn't work out. On a 50 yard pass, you need it to go 90% right or better and I'd say that was about 75% right. That's gonna get you an incompletion.

But there's not 'blame' here - it's just a situation where the two players need a little more experience with each other. The guy who's brand new to the whole WR thing needs to be more precise on his turns upfield. The guy who doesn't throw many passes downfield needs to make them easier to catch by feeding it to where there's more open field to work with.

Both guys could've done things differently to make the play work. I think in the future they will.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Akeem Hunt

He looked good in the return game. I'm sure he's a bit off with the actual offense but maybe