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.

[penbrook]

Originally Posted by O.city

I didn't see the deep miss to Hill. Was it a bad throw? what happened.

Idk if Hill stopped or what but it would be near impossible for Smith to overthrow Hill

[Deberg_1990]

Hard to believe that guys like Kubiak, Switzer and Billiack have titles and Andy Reid does not.

Heck, Schottenheimer and Chuck Knox were better head coaches than those 3

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

His interviews might eventually get old, but right this very second he sounds like a hell of a leader.

"We were fine but not as good as we have to be to become the defense we say we are..."

"Yeah, Jones played great but who cares? If I go out there and have 20 sacks but we don't dominate, it's a mediocre day?"

"Sure, Hunt looked good, but that whole offense has to play for the team to do what it needs to do. Teamteamteamteamraaaaarr......"

Yeah, so I paraphrased a bit but the guy sounds like someone who's taken on that veteran leader mantle and will swallow one of those ****ers whole if they don't do their jobs. That's a scary, scary man and I damn sure wouldn't want to be the guy he walks up to after a game if he doesn't think I held up my end of the bargain...

Yeah, he's awesome.

We actually live in the same townhouse complex as him when I was in dental school and he was a lowly rookie etc. People don't realize it because they see them out on the field with other guys, but he's freakin huge. Like, just a monstrous mother ****er. Pretty intense too.

[sedated]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Like you, I hate losing Berry. But I'd trade Berry for getting Houston back every time.

This season might have been the last chance to have all 3 healthy for the playoffs. Man, they have all had terrible luck.

Berry ACL 2011
Houston 2013 elbow
DJ 2014 Achilles
Berry 2014 cancer
Houston 2015 knee
Houston 2016 knee
DJ 2016 Achilles
Berry 2017 Achilles

.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I haven't seen an all-22 of it yet but I'll be curious if it supports what I saw.

When Smith released it, it looked done - TD all the way. But around the 10 yard line Hill slowed up a bit like he lost track of where he was. He geared it back up and tried to adjust when he found it, but adjusted a tick late and then lost his footing just as the ball got there (so it looked like he dove but he mostly just kinda fell).

Smith made a beauty of a throw but for whatever reason he and Hill just weren't quite on the same page. They had it and that throw landed right where you'd want it, it just looked to me like Hill had trouble locating the ball and was feeling for it a bit. I think if he sees it out of the hand it hits him right on the button for the easy 6.

Like I said, I'd have to see all-22 if it every surfaces because I can't swear by it on a real-time showing, but me and the folks around me all saw the same thing there.

Yeah, Mitch thought on the radio it was basically signed sealed and delivered in the air.

I haven't been able to find it anywhere.

Crazy how that would have changed the narrative.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Yeah, he's awesome.

We actually live in the same townhouse complex as him when I was in dental school and he was a lowly rookie etc. People don't realize it because they see them out on the field with other guys, but he's freakin huge. Like, just a monstrous mother ****er. Pretty intense too.

yeah, we got down on the practice fields during training camp one year and got near him.

Christ alive, that man is terrifying. Even on a field with people who are barely human, he just stands out. Even near Bailey he's still just the more intimidating presence.

I read something years ago that cracked me up. A guy was talking about his greatest fears as a father and he said something to the effect of "Look, I know I'm not ready to be a parent because if my kid ever said 'daddy, what if Mike Tyson is under my bed' I'd say 'son I don't know, but if he is you're on your own because I want no part of that cat...'"

If Justin Houston is under my kid's bed....sorry kid, you're just gonna have to talk him down because I'm going to be cowering in a corner hoping that 30 lbs of pre-schooler is enough to fill him up. If not, I'm going to start throwing labradors at him and hope that tides him over long enough to find my car keys.

It's going to be really embarrassing if he ever swings by my house to borrow a cup of sugar...

[O.city]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

yeah, we got down on the practice fields during training camp one year and got near him.

Christ alive, that man is terrifying. Even on a field with people who are barely human, he just stands out. Even near Bailey he's still just the more intimidating presence.

I read something years ago that cracked me up. A guy was talking about his greatest fears as a father and he said something to the effect of "Look, I know I'm not ready to be a parent because if my kid ever said 'daddy, what if Mike Tyson is under my bed' I'd say 'son I don't know, but if he is you're on your own because I want no part of that cat...'"

If Justin Houston is under my kid's bed....sorry kid, you're just gonna have to talk him down because I'm going to be cowering in a corner hoping that 30 lbs of pre-schooler is enough to fill him up. If not, I'm going to start throwing labradors at him and hope that tides him over long enough to find my car keys.

It's going to be really embarrassing if he ever swings by my house to borrow a cup of sugar...

Yeah, he's a bad man. Thats a pretty funny analogy.

Funny story about how big those dudes are..

When we lived in our townhouse complex, I'm guessing due to the proximity to Arrowhead and such the Chiefs put alot of younger drafted guys and such there so we got to know quite a few of them. Our first year, David Mims lived right next door to us and we talked quite a bit. My wife didn't really know him as she was always gone when he would be around so I talked to him quite a bit more. Anyway, she made him some cookies or brownies or something and I took them over there in a tupperware thing. I guess he ate them, or threw them away or whatever. But he brings the bowl back one night I was in the library studying about 10 pm and it's just my wife home. It was dark around the door and she got a little freaked out. Same deal with her when she told me about it and said she wanted me to come home.

I was like the guy is 6'7 320. What am I gonna do to him?

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Like I said, I'd have to see all-22 if it ever surfaces

Coach's film hits tomorrow. I'll grab it ASAP.

[JakeF]

Originally Posted by O.city

I didn't see the deep miss to Hill. Was it a bad throw? what happened.

Hill looked over his right shoulder but Smith threw it over his left shoulder. Smith only missed by 3 or 4 feet but since it was over the wrong shoulder Hill couldn't adjust. It was Smith's fault but it wasn't terrible.

[Halfcan]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

yeah, we got down on the practice fields during training camp one year and got near him.

Christ alive, that man is terrifying. Even on a field with people who are barely human, he just stands out. Even near Bailey he's still just the more intimidating presence.

I read something years ago that cracked me up. A guy was talking about his greatest fears as a father and he said something to the effect of "Look, I know I'm not ready to be a parent because if my kid ever said 'daddy, what if Mike Tyson is under my bed' I'd say 'son I don't know, but if he is you're on your own because I want no part of that cat...'"

If Justin Houston is under my kid's bed....sorry kid, you're just gonna have to talk him down because I'm going to be cowering in a corner hoping that 30 lbs of pre-schooler is enough to fill him up. If not, I'm going to start throwing labradors at him and hope that tides him over long enough to find my car keys.

It's going to be really embarrassing if he ever swings by my house to borrow a cup of sugar...

Houston is off to a great start and has already made a ton of great plays. The one that stands out to me was last week against the Pats.

It was a run to his side- Houston takes on the blocker-plants himself to cut off the inside edge, forcing the runner to go outside- pushes the blocker off with one arm and makes the tackle. He threw a 300 plus pound man with one arm and then had the speed to catch the RB for a loss.

Houston is the complete package.

[TigeRRUppeRRcut]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Seriously - 1 pt lead in the 4th quarter and he throws this ball into a tiny window that's closing fast:



Your argument is that he threw it because he had to and that's just not right. The checkdown to the RB gets them near a huge FG and may be the 'smart' game manager decision.

That throw to Conley took serious stones and was an outstanding strike.

That isn't a guy playing with his hair on fire, it's a guy that trusts his ability to fit that ball in there.

2 of his best 4 throws have gone to Conley this season. He's developed into a reliable 2b receiver after Tyreek and Kelce.

[O.city]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

Coach's film hits tomorrow. I'll grab it ASAP.

Thanks for the gifs my good man.

Let me know if the dating life slows down. I've got a few female dentist friends in KC I went to school with who are looking for a fine young man.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

Coach's film hits tomorrow. I'll grab it ASAP.

Good deal. The 'other shoulder' theory is a good one; the whole play just looked odd.

Like I said, we could see the whole thing unfolding and I saw Hill pull even, looked up to Smith to see if he saw it and he was uncorking just as I looked - out of his hand I knew it was 7 so I looked back to Hill and he'd just slowed up then tried to recapture his speed.

I missed whatever it was that caused it; he just had the look of a guy that was trying to locate the ball or lost track of where he was on the field (I actually wondered if he was feeling for a sideline or something).

[TigeRRUppeRRcut]

Originally Posted by penbrook

Someone gif up the flying Dirty Dan?

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I haven't seen an all-22 of it yet but I'll be curious if it supports what I saw.

When Smith released it, it looked done - TD all the way. But around the 10 yard line Hill slowed up a bit like he lost track of where he was. He geared it back up and tried to adjust when he found it, but adjusted a tick late and then lost his footing just as the ball got there (so it looked like he dove but he mostly just kinda fell).

Smith made a beauty of a throw but for whatever reason he and Hill just weren't quite on the same page. They had it and that throw landed right where you'd want it, it just looked to me like Hill had trouble locating the ball and was feeling for it a bit. I think if he sees it out of the hand it hits him right on the button for the easy 6.

Like I said, I'd have to see all-22 if it every surfaces because I can't swear by it on a real-time showing, but me and the folks around me all saw the same thing there.

Smith needed to lead him a little inside to the right. He threw it straight over the top . Smith should know better.