Andy blames himself, not Alex, for Chiefs' sputtering offense
 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- When you're 6-0 and coming off a 2-14 season, there really shouldn't be any complaining.

There can't be a football fan or scout or executive anywhere on the planet who could have forecast the amazing turnaround general manager John Dorsey and coach Andy Reid have conducted with the Chiefs -- certainly not to the extent of a 6-0 start.

But -- and isn't there always a but? -- there is one small area of concern that even Reid himself continues to address: a sluggish offense.

The Chiefs are 25th in the NFL in offense, chugging along at just 326 yards per game, a remarkably low figure for a team unbeaten this far into the season.

No one is more aware of the offense's struggles than Reid. The offense is his baby.

"Listen, I'm never going to make excuses," Reid said Monday. "That's not how we roll here. But the reality of it is we're a little young, but we have to get better.

"I see some phases we're getting better at. But I've got to do a better job of getting these guys in the right position to succeed. We've all got a little piece of the pie to get things right. We're learning on the fly, but we're going to get better."

The Chiefs likely will have to. Fans in this area have seen this script before. They've seen the Chiefs' teams of the 1990s soar through the regular season on the strength of their overpowering defenses and elite special teams.

Then those fans saw the same teams misfire in the postseason, mainly because the offense couldn't step up and contribute when it had to.

To avoid revisiting that script, the Chiefs must get more production out of quarterback Alex Smith, whose numbers keep sinking.

Smith is 26th in the league in passing yards at just 221.7 per game. He's also 20th in the league with a passer rating of 79.8.

But if you're looking for Reid to point any fingers toward Smith, you'll have a long wait.

Reid knows what kind of team he has. He knows, outside of Jamaal Charles and at times Dwayne Bowe, he doesn't have an explosive offense.

Reid also knows you can win in this league simply by not messing up, and letting the opponent beat itself. The Chiefs are No. 1 in the league in turnover ratio at plus-12, and don't have the appearance of a team that will beat itself anytime soon.

"Not turning the ball over is very important to us," Reid said, "especially when you have a solid defense like we have and the kicking game we have, both from our punter and our kicker."

In that respect, Smith is giving Reid all he needs, even if the offense has that familiar conservative look of the '90s. After all, there is a fine line between wanting more offensive production, and opening the offense up so much that more turnovers occur. Reid isn't likely to stand for that.

"You want to always start off by protecting the ball," Reid said. "There's no fine line there for me. ...

"Alex is doing that. And we need to point out the way Alex continues to manage this offense."

And that is the key in Reid's mind: He simply wants Smith to manage the game, which also includes managing the different personalities in the huddle.

"We've got a guy at quarterback, this kid, he's a stud," Reid said. "The things he does for this team is unbelievable. He's making people around him better. He takes the blame for things -- that's what good leaders do.

"At the same time, he's able to teach and explain to other guys with a clear head. Those are valuable things for us as coaches to see. I'm very pleased with the job (Smith) is doing."

In Reid's mind, let the other quarterbacks around the league possess the pretty passing numbers; Reid will take the ultimate one that counts. That is, for now, 6-0.

Still, Reid also has been around long enough to know that his offense will have to improve as the season wears on, even if it's just incrementally.

And that will be up to Reid himself as the play-caller and architect of the offense, something Reid has mentioned almost every week.

"I think we have done some good things, but we have plenty to work on," Reid said. "I don't think I've done a very good job of putting guys in position to make plays. That has been obvious at times. I have to do a better job."



http://www.foxsportskansascity.com/n...75&feedID=5117


Sorry if Q

Tamba d player of the week per Gretz

So what he is saying is that we need the game manager to manage the game?

Pretty sure Q, but, I have a question, and a comment.


If that is the CASE, the GIVE WHATEVER ATLANTA wants to get Tony G.

I know this, other people know this, I don't know jack shit about the NFL but I know that the Chiefs probably have the worst collection of skill players in the league.

If this can be put out there by THE HEAD COACH himself, then something should be done......

This offense needs a game manager, because the talent on it after Bowe, and Charles, is pathetic. And the only people who think it is anything more than that, are blind homer Chief fans, or Alex Smith haters......

What he's kind of saying is that a man needs to know his limitations(Clint Eastwood style). They have a bunch and they are dealing with it.

Avery is a good enough 2.

Hemmingway needs to overtake Dexter in the slot for the most part. The offensive skill positions aren't as dearth as some make it out to be. We aren't the Broncos in terms of skill guys, but theres talent there. It's all about finding the mismatches and capitalizing when they are found.

They need to get guys like Knile Davis (if he can hold on to the football), Gray, Hemmingway and Jenkins ( I know some are down on him, I think there's something there) the football and give them some chances to develop now, so when December rolls around, they're ready to go.

This offense needs an elite QB.

So it's elite or bust huh?

How many elite Qb's do you think there are in the NFL?

No. That's where you are wrong. And you would understand just how wrong you are if at ALL Jamaal Charles misses any time.

There is a severe lack of weapons on this team.

If you look at what I would consider to be the 6 or so teams that you could legitimately could win the super bowl this year.

The Chiefs are so far at the bottom of that list when it comes to offense.

It really is a bad offense skill position wise, and that's not even incorporating how bad the oline has played at times, and how piss poor Alex Smith has played the past two weeks.

When your slot receiver is a combination of Chad Hall, McCluster, Aj Jenkins. That aint good.

The tight end position is very weak as well.

While I agree with you, Avery is a nice number two, he is probably better as a three.

I also wonder if Bowe, wouldn't do better in the slot. I am seeing that a lot in the past two years where teams are moving their better options into the slot.

The 49ers did it last year with Crabtree, the Cowboys move Dez everywhere, Justin Blackmon was in the slot almost exclusively vs the Broncos.

maybe that is what Andy means by not putting his guys in the right positions.

The skill positions on offense, are VERY bad.

If Charles goes down, I don't know how this team would score on offense at all.

That's just too much pressure on a guy.

packers,
Saints,
49ers,
Seahawks,
Broncos,

those are those legitimate teams to me along with the Chiefs that have a chance. All have VASTLY more weapons than the Chiefs.

With the Seahawks, and 49ers having similar defenses.

Of course Reid blames himself. That's his job.
All this offense needs is a solid #2 running back and a decent tight end.

I'd seriously doubt ATL would give up TG...
That pipe dream needs to be put to bed.

The WRs probably need to be upgraded or others need to be given more chances (Hemmingway and Jenkins). The key to this offense getting better and as much as I love what McGrath is contributing an upgrade at TE would do it.

Every offense would like to have an ELITE qb.

The problem with having an Elite qb, as the Ravens are finding out, is that other areas of your team, struggle, and struggle mightily if you wrap 20 mil into your qb.

Im in the minority, and I recognize that, id rather have a complete team, with a good to above average qb, than to just have an elite qb.

Sad thing is, most of the elite qbs, have that.

Denver, Green Bay, New Orleans.

Zach Sudfeld was released by the Pats. Really surprised they didn't take a look at him.

and no. This team needs a slot receiver in the worst way. Like a Davone Bess type.

no offense needs a game manager

every offense needs to score points...when you can't score because your QB sucks, you call him 'a game manager' and pretend you like not scoring points...

but i like the 'we're young line'....hilarious

we sure as hell didn't hear any of this 'we're trading 2 seconds for a game manger who can't score points' crap before the season...

I say go all in on this year and trade for Nicks and Gonzales. Both players more than likely won't be here next year, but at 6-0 I say take a shot.

It depends really. Look at those teams who you have listed having better weapons.

Look who they have under center.

Save the 9ers, who I don't think have better weapons than the Chiefs TBH, they all have guys who do a really good job distributing the ball and getting it to guys in space to make plays.

Alex hasn't done a good job doing that recently.

I do think the skill positions could be upgraded, sure. But it's not nearly as bad as you are saying.

You might be right.

I laugh at the 49ers comment. I stated they needed weapons when Alex was the qb, and got told I was an idiot.

All of a sudden, they go back to playing Alex Smith type offense, and they are destroying people.

Something called the Cap. So you wanna give up a First for Nicks then let him walk after this year? Chiefs in 2014 are a mess with cap.

another classic post from the Talking Can.

Wrong as usual.

But, still classic.

You can score all the points in the world. The Packers marched up and down the field on the 49ers week one, Tony Romo threw for 500 yards and 5 tds against the broncos, and both lost. And the Cowboys lost because Romo turned the ball over at the worst time imaginable.

Of course you want to score points, but you also have to know your limitations as a team.

All of the Chiefs talent save Jamaal Charles, is on the defense. The offensive talent is poor.

You play to the strengths of your team. But of course, if Tom Brady was on this team, this team would be scoring 40 points game because, well, with a similar situation in New England they are doing just that.

Oh, WAIT. No they aren't......

Guess Tom brady is now a game manager too.

I think a bigish problem is that we havne't been able to sustain drives and give any of our other offensive players a chance to make plays. We're always in 2 and 3 and long and seem to always be fighting uphill.

That's a very true point. I would love to see the offense focus more on the run game early. use more playaction.....Too many passes for my liking.

I'm fine with the passing game to be quite honest early, but I think it needs to be more predicated on taking some deep shots, EARLY. Loosen up the secondary etc.

Well yes.. pretty much. If your team has no elite QB, then there is room for improvement at that, the most important, position.

Do you agree?

I agree. From what I've seen from Avery and Junior, they are more than adequate. I think we should take a deep shot to Avery with the first throw of every game. Even if it's 10 yards overthrown, we need the "threat" of going deep.

Avery has been getting open on the deep routes but Smith is just missing him. Last week he had a long TD if the ball isn't overthrown.

Jenkins has shown absolutely nothing. IMO, Davis should be cut and placed on the PS. No one is going to claim that fumbling machine. It's too bad Draughn is a member of the Ravens.

Dorsey needs to continue to churn the roster.

Fisher and the rest of the line will come around and then Alex will be unstoppable

Don't want to sound like one of the weeping vaginas but we should have taken K Allen in the third Draughn and Gray would have been fine, we needed a wr.

Draughn got cut by the Ravens.

Draughn got cut because the Cyrus Gray was better. And he's still on the roster.

Everyone involved with the offense should blame themselves.

Blame yourself,Self-evaluation, work hard to get better

At this point, I think Draughn would be more productive than Davis.

Every single time he touches the ball, he fumbles. At this point, he's wasting a roster spot.

Davis needs carries. One carry, actually I think it was a catch isn't going to cut it. Let him play, the only way we know if he can or can't get the job done.

For as much as Dorsey has absolutely killed it with UDFA's and Free Agents, his first draft sucked ass and rivals Pioli's 2009 draft.

He touched the ball once on Sunday and fumbled forward, out of bounds.

He's a PS guy at this point. I wouldn't let him anywhere near the field until he rectifies his fumbling problem. The guy should be made to carry a football everywhere and sleep with it, too.

Unfortunely I have to agree

well if it's anything like Pioli's 2009 then that means we will get two good players out of it after 4 years of development

I agree with Dane as well on the draft.

I think Talking Can's point about the role of a game manager, is amusing and fair. Going three and out for three quarters, kicking field goals when the defense gets turnovers in the red zone, and sustaining drives mostly on penalties against the opponent, is not an effective game manager.

Alex Smith is a known game manager; but, he is doing a crappy job for us. Going three and out, but not turning the ball over, is not to be applauded. We can rehire Herm Edwards if we want to applaud that.

Whatchootalkinbout? This ain't no 'rena football!!

About the only strength of this offense right now is not turning the ball over. We can't afford to give Davis carries when he coughs it up about every time he touches it.

fumbled it out of bound, fumbled it and recovered it himself ... probably more


lucky so far


rather have Gray get carries

Had a couple of thoughts on this.. and granted, you could be right...


True or false? Every QB.. even the best.. overthrow a receiver once or twice a game. The difference is, those other QBs throw plenty more deep ones that DO connect... so you tend to forget about the one or two that doesn't connect.

Now, I can't say what happened down the field.. but Avery's a fairly small guy. Could be that he was disrupted on his route early on.. which could throw off the timing and accuracy of a deep pass. Doesn't take much.. could be a quick stumble that makes an accurate ball look to us like it was a couple feet too long. Could just be an excuse, I don't know. I do know that Alex's deep passes to Vernon Davis were almost always right where they needed to be... whether on a seam or wheel route. There were a couple deeper passes that moved the chains for us, but via D.P.I... so fans tend to forget about giving the offense credit for those.

Tons of people have already brought this up, but it bears repeating.

"Game manager" is code for "shitty QB" these days, but that's not what the term originally meant.

If you're looking for the term of a QB whose only good qualities are playing it safe, not turning the ball over, and keeping the offense on track and commanding the huddle, it's far more accurate to use the term "placeholder."

Right now Alex Smith is being a placeholder for the offense, which absolutely sucks if that's all he can do for us. He can be and has been a very good game manager in the best sense of the word, which is really putting him in the top 10-15 discussion of QBs.

Wow.... agreed. Who are you and what have you done with the real SNR?

This. I've always thought that a QB who was smart, methodical and accurate, and occasionally take a shot was a game manager. No gunslinging, willing to throw it away, or even take a sack. Alex is like that on steroids. He's really looked bad the last couple of games. Hope he can get back to actually being a game manager and not a survivor.

link?

The keyboard geniuses in here who keep ragging on Alex and the Chiefs offense need to sut the **** up and learn the virtue of patience!!!!!!! This is ****ing YEAR ONE of Dorsey & Reid's rebuild with Alex at the helm of a POS 2012 2-14 disaster leagues worst NFL team!!!!!!! Give them all a chance to improve the product you ****ing reeruns it takes time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Collectively they are all just 6 games into YEAR ONE OF A REBUILD Alex is only 29 just hitting his prime Reid is a good coach and Dorsey is a good talent evaluator. Going forward things are looking way up for the Chiefs now. In the off season expect lots of fine tuning to the offense the OL the WR group will all be upgraded YEAR ONE it's going to get better you dumbass bitches!!!!!!!

Die in a fire.

Not having explosive players does not preclude an offense from being either efficient or productive.


Although, frankly, they do have explosive players. Avery certainly is. Christ, he's averaging 17 yards a catch. And he actually has been behind the defense a number of times, but Smith simply can't get the ball there. That has to be a major part of the problem at this point: when your QB physically can't throw a pass longer than about 30 yards, the defense doesn't have to work real hard to keep everything in front of them.

But I think the biggest problem right now, aside from the line play on the first three drives Sunday (which did clear up after that point) is that Smith has suddenly become wildly inaccurate. He's even missing on the short passes now.

Andy Reid confirms right here everything i have been telling the Alex haters...

"Alex is a stud!"...hahaha suck that haters!!!!!!!!!!!

You morons bashing Alex for the offense sputtering shut the **** up Alex doesn't call the ****ing plays and that is another huge factor Reid has been calling a conservative game not Alex you fools!!!!!!

IT IS A WORK IN PROGRESS REBUILDING OFF OF A 2-14 POS...

Hey look, it's a new mult. Who is it this time?

Barrysmethpipe

KCCrusader sure is a miserable user.


Make it happen, Mods!

Been here a week and here's the biggest ****ing creep so far Pestilence i seen on the board, and there have been many, he looks like a ****ing pedophile in a van selling candy from where else Nor Cal LMFAO!!!!!!!

im afraid your chances of surviving another week, aren't so great.

I will go straight to the blackbob.

I have no idea what you're talking about.





wink wink

KCCrusader in 1 week has easily proven to be one of the most knowledgable and loyal Chiefs fans on the board. Zero chance the great KCCrusader ever gets banned asshole!!!!!!!!!

Is it a mult or just an idiot?

My vote is going to have to go with BOTH.....

KCCrusader in 1 week has easily proven to be one of the most knowledgeable and loyal Chiefs fans on the board. Zero chance the great KCCrusader ever gets banned ****face!!!!!!!!!

Doesn't look like it's a mult.

Certainly reads like one. But if the IP isn't a match, then :shrug:

Maybe higher than zero.

Welp.........


ROFL

MOAR Andy Man boobs!

Don't know about mult but if not its a banned user returning. He has already given himself away with posts that contain information only someone from CP would know about.

So it isnt actually Barry?

Wow, i would've sworn that was a LOCK.

No fine line for Andy, yet he had no issues with McNabb and Vick slinging the ball all over the yard, making mistakes.

This might be one of the dumbest things I've ever read on this board.

The Packers and Cowboys marched up and down the field in both your examples, yet still lost.

Why?

Because they don't have our defense.

If they did, they'd be favorites to win the Super Bowl.

Just like if we had their offense, WE would be favored to win the SB.


If THIS team could score "all the points in the world", they'd be damn near unbeatable.

"Not turning the ball over is very important to us," Reid said, "especially when you have a solid defense like we have and the kicking game we have, both from our punter and our kicker."



At this point field goals are our friend.

**Truefan gif.**

Draugn is exactly the type of guy we need. He just pounds away at what the line gives him, and would be ideal spelling Charles.

I think the problem with regards to this topic is Reid is getting too cute trying to fill these support roles. He's trying to find sleeper homerun hitters, when we might be better served by guys that can dependably get base hits. Give me Draugn and Hemmingway over guys like Davis, McCluster, and Chad ****ing Hall.

LOL exactly.

But I'm not entirely sure that what either of you said is mutually exclusive.

I dont give a shit who Andy blames as long as he knows it needs fixed.

And how to fix it.

Tom Brady's qbr rating was lower than Alex's before this last week, now Im not sure but , Could it be from no welker? No gronk, hernand, or a true #1 wr? Maybe... If you look at the elite qbs they have a shit ton of weapons to throw to on offense and then have shit defenses so they have to throw all game and put up shiny stats.. We can get rid of Hali, berry, Poe, Johnson, and then sign a shit load of offensive weapons and put a bunch of plugs in on defense.... People need to learn you can't have a elite d and a elite o. And if you do it doesn't last for long once u have to resign the players that broke out or rookies that exceeded expectations...

Can we at least have an okay offense? Because there's no ****ing reason we shouldn't.

The Chiefs were last in scoring in 2012 with an average of 13.2 points.

While they added Alex Smith and Donnie Avery, Fasano hasn't played in 4+ games, Kelce's on IR and the interior of the offensive line has been awful.

Yet, they're scoring 19.2 points a game this year offensively, which is a 32% increase over last year.

They're improving, but they've got a long way to go before they're above average.

.