Ten Reason's why The Chiefs Lost

[jjchieffan]

With my apologies to GBlowfish, I have my own 10 things list that I would like to share. Because there is plenty of blame to go around. I present, 10 reasons why the Chiefs lost…Again (Other than because Chiefs, that's obvious!)

10. Defense unable to make a stop. I would like to start by saying that the defense did well at keeping the Pittsburgh offense out of the endzone. Holding them to 18 points should have been enough. But it wasn’t/ The fact remains that they forced one punt the entire night. One! That is unacceptable. They force one more punt and the final score is 17-15 Chiefs and we win. So the defense is partly accountable.

9. Still on the defense here. Justin Houston on Antonio Brown?? Really??? You would think that Sutton would have realized that was a bad idea when Ben to Brown resulted in the longest play of the night in the first quarter. But not Sutton. Hey. I have a great idea. The game is on the line. Let’s try that coverage again. Surely it will work this time. SMH. Sutton has done well this year with covering losses to 4 of our front 7 to IR, but he deserves his share of the blame for this loss.

8. No pass rush. Dee Ford was tearing things up until Houston returned. Houston looked like his old self for exactly one game this year. He should be over his injury. VonDouchebag stepped up when it mattered for the Donks. Our passrushers were no where to be found. Unacceptable. They too share in the blame.

7. Special teams. This one actually belongs at number 10. They didn’t make huge mistakes, but they didn’t make any plays either. We have got arguably the best returner and best special teams coordinator in the league. Pittsburgh is known for not very good special teams. But it sure didn’t look that way in our failure of a game. Hill only got one chance at a punt return, so there’s nothing to say about that. But when he tried to return kicks, our blockers got blown up. He never made it to the 25, so every return was a net loss. With the way our offense was playing, we needed every bit of field position we could get and the special teams failed to deliver. Therefore, they too share in the blame. A much smaller share, but nonetheless a share of the blame is theirs.

6. Officiating. Again, a very small portion of the blame goes here. I hate to blame officiating at all, because it’s more excuse making than anything else. Good teams should be able to overcome it. That said, the refs sure weren’t doing us any favors. Pittsburgh was blatantly holding all night and never gets called, but we get called for a ticky tack hold to negate a game tying 2 point conversion? I call BS. Then there were 2 blatant DPI’s in the 3rd quarter that it is just unbelievable that the ref’s could just ignore them. Once again, we were capable of overcoming that. We did, in fact. A couple of times. But not nearly enough. So, even though I hate the excuses, I also award a small share of the blame to the officiating.

5. Travis Kelce. Kelce is a stud. Believed by most to be one of the best tight ends in the NFL. But dude, you have got to grow up. That 15 yard unsportsmanlike penalty was totally unacceptable. Luckily, Smith threw a 26 yard pass to overcome it and get the first down anyway, but those kind of things are hard to overcome, and we needed every yard last night. Kelce also had 1, maybe 2 critical drops last night. In the biggest game of his career, he let his team down. Travis Kelce, you too deserve your share of the blame.

4. The offensive line. For most of the first half, Smith was under constant pressure. The hit on Smith as he threw the ball resulting in the interception was completely on the line. Fisher may have had his worst game of the year last night. Maybe his hold that negated the 2 point conversion doesn’t get called 99 times out of 100, but it got called and it cost the Chiefs the game. They also were horrible at run blocking. There were no holes for our running backs all night. Offensive line., you too deserve your share of the blame.

3. Alex Smith. I am mostly neutral about Smith, but tend to leaning more in favor of him than against him. I’ve seen him step up and play like an elite quarterback, but those instances are rare. And that’s what frustrates me. I know that he is capable. But he just doesn’t do it enough. Last night, he was great on the opening drive. That drive was executed to perfection and gave us all hope for the night. But then he disappeared for the next 3 quarters. Granted, he was under a lot of pressure, but the franchise quarterbacks make some of their greatest plays under pressure. Smith did finally move the ball in the 4th quarter. He made some nice throws, like the 25 yard pass on 3rd and 25 after the Kelce screw up. And let’s not forget about delay of game. In the end, he didn’t do enough to bring us the victory, and he too deserves his share of the blame.

2. Drops. If I remember right, we had 5 drops last night by 4 players. And most of those drops were game changers. We have some real playmakers on this offense. This was their time to shine. One or two of those drops get caught, and we’re likely preparing for New England instead of next season.

1. Andy Friggin Reid. Ugh! I am so frustrated with Reid right now. I could almost do a top 10 just on how he cost us the game. Where do I start? Let’s start with his play calling. Pittsburgh has an inexperienced secondary that is vulnerable to the deep pass. We have Hill, who is a legitimate deep threat. Yet we never even tried one deep pass the entire first half! Why?? Because of the pressure on Smith? Call it anyway. Once they see that we are willing to go downfield, they will have to respect that. Then the short yardage stuff will open up. Notice how we moved the ball downfield when we started going deep in the 4th quarter? If Reid had done that sooner, we would have won this game easy. Ugh! So frustrating. Speaking of the 4th quarter, don’t get me started on the 7 minute drive while trailing. While on the subject of time management, we blew 2 critical timeouts in the 4th quarter. Both of them I believe to avoid delay of game. We are the Home team!! That is supposed to happen to the road team. Could you not get the plays in quick enough? Totally Unacceptable. Then there was the decision to kickoff deep after the last touchdown. I know that the onside kick is a low probability kick. But when we had force only one punt all night and there we sat with 1 time out and 2:43 on the clock(again, thanks to poor clock management), stopping them was also a low probability. If the onside kick failed, well we gave up field position. They only needed one first down to ice the game anyway. Everyone deserves their share of the blame. But Andy Reid deserves the lion’s share.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

I don't think it's the game, but it's a microcosm of why they lost.

It's also why the "don't start a rookie, keep smith a year" crowd can suck my titties

I'm even backing off my 'Foles won't make a difference' stance.

If they can't move up to get a QB, deal Smith and re-structure Foles for 2-3 years.

I've never seen a play that soured me on a player more than that one.

[The Franchise]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

That's a lot more eloquent than what I was going to say to Pest.

Just tell me to **** off and shut the **** up. Most people do.

[O.city]

I still think he's looking at kelce and once it's ****ed he runs.

But deshaun Watson can't do what Alex smith does as a rookie my ass

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I'm even backing off my 'Foles won't make a difference' stance.

If they can't move up to get a QB, deal Smith and re-structure Foles for 2-3 years.

I've never seen a play that soured me on a player more than that one.

Ohhhhh sir.

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Edit for DJ's left nut: the play broke down but Maclin made a move to get open. Making chicken salad out of chicken shit is exactly what you'd think an 11 year vet should make.

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Edit for DJ again: Shit play call, but it's not like it's a Herculean demand for Smith to throw a low pass to O'Shaughnessy in the center after it's clear Kelce is bracketed over the left hash.

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A little more patience or anticipation of Conley breaking toward the goalpost and that's at least a good attempt with a little more than average chance of getting snared by the defense.

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[DJ's left nut]

See - that's the kind of shit that kept me from ever joining you clowns.

Nothing in any of those clips are egregious. Every QB in the league has a slew of plays like those on their ledger.

But none of them hold the ball that Smith held on Sunday. None of them.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

See - that's the kind of shit that kept me from ever joining you clowns.

Nothing in any of those clips are egregious. Every QB in the league has a slew of plays like those on their ledger.

But none of them hold the ball that Smith held on Sunday. None of them.

You say clowns like it's a bad thing and that we're both not mutual fans of a team sharing Ronald McDonald's color scheme; I'll have an edit responding to this in a second, but first

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Avant is wide open for a big gain with minimal risk yet Smith is seemingly locked on Kelce or waiting for the best option between Kelce and Charles to open up before any other option. Why isn't Avant getting looked at unless the safety playing just out of the frame is capable of closing the distance within two seconds?

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Conley is open here for just as much of a gain as the throw to Charles if not more. The smart thing here was it was a throw to the sideline so it's either a highlight reel catch by JC (which is what you what you want out of arguably the best or second best skill player on the roster at that point at time) or an incompletion. But it's like throwing to Conley is that big of an added risk than forcing it to Charles.

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... awful pass. I don't know how this is defensible unless you're giving Alex the kind of difference to having the occasional shit throw that is typically given to the upper echelon of QBs. And I think that would be a stretch. It's year three of Alex being in the Reid WCO that uses short tosses like the one to Kelce as akin to a run play that you're confident in earning 3-4 yards at worst with the upside of bigger gains without too much risk *assuming* the QB makes a throw that the receiver can gather up in stride. Nobody is catching that pass in stride.

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I don't recall the game situation and won't ass myself to figure out the context of why he made the decision he made, but:

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If it's a hail mary situation, then sure -not a wholly bad play by Smith. But if not.. then isn't hitting West on the left side of the field on a checkdown the type of play you expect Smith to make?

[Mr. Laz]

Agree with the OP top 10, covers most of the key points.

Another thing that is on Reid is the delay of game call because we got the play calls in soooooooooo slow that we were snapping the ball with 1 second left all game long. We just kept barely getting the ball snapped on time because Reid only gave Alex Smith 6 seconds to read the defense and make any changes.

[jjchieffan]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Jesus - I'd hoped it was a blown read. It wasn't - he just refused to throw it.

GIF

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Looked right at him. Had the read right and locked in on Hill. Smith absolutely had to have seen him pull even with a flat-footed Sean Davis, he still tucked and ran.

It was gutless, brain-dead football. Like I said, it was a play that completely vindicated every negative thing ever said about Alex Smith. It was a completely inexcusable play that even SHITTY quarterbacks make with ease. I'm still at a loss.

I get more pissed off the more I watch it. What the **** even caused him to roll out? There was NOBODY THERE!! Sure, Fulton blocked nobody in particular but still, Harrison is too busy trying to put a shot on Kelce. Stand in, make the throw. You probably wouldn't have even gotten hit.

God dammit that play pisses me off. That's the play that will stick with me from this game. The hold means ****-all if he doesn't botch this easy pitch and catch.

Yup - I'm out on Alex Smith. Might not be fair, but I'm done with him. I absolutely cannot believe he didn't let that ball go.

Wow! He rolled out so quickly that I had thought it was a designed rollout. But that is obviously not the case. Ugh! What was ge thinking?? that was an easy easy touchdown!!

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

You say clowns like it's a bad thing and that we're both not mutual fans of a team sharing Ronald McDonald's color scheme; I'll have an edit responding to this in a second, but first

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I don't recall the game situation and won't ass myself to figure out the context of why he made the decision he made, but:

Spoiler!

So now you're just going to bitch about every bad throw he makes?

You're pretty shitty at this. None of the plays you're posting are anything other than rank and file mediocre plays that literally every quarterback in the league makes. Any argument that doesn't serve to strongly establish your point only serves to detract from it.

You're not doing anything to strongly make your point here.

Being on your side of a debate is god-awful.

[KC Hawks]

I'd rather watch Kevin Ware's compound fracture than see that GIF again.

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

So now you're just going to bitch about every bad throw he makes?

You're pretty shitty at this. None of the plays you're posting are anything other than rank and file mediocre plays that literally every quarterback in the league makes. Any argument that doesn't serve to strongly establish your point only serves to detract from it.

You're not doing anything to strongly make your point here.

Being on your side of a debate is god-awful.

I guarantee that's not every bad throw he makes, but all of these gifs were from games KC lost. Further, the Bears and Vikings games were losses where they defense allowed 18 and 16 points. Blame the defense till the cows come home, but at some point you have to look at the offense. If we're going to castigate West, Ware, Maclin and Kelce for drops as a big reason why KC doesn't win when it matters, then why should Smith get a pass for throws that are specifically bad?

Unless you're assuming that these are all selections of plays that only Brady and Rodgers could miraculously pull off and that no other QB currently playing can imagine making.

[Go Royals]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Jesus - I'd hoped it was a blown read. It wasn't - he just refused to throw it.

GIF

Spoiler!

Looked right at him. Had the read right and locked in on Hill. Smith absolutely had to have seen him pull even with a flat-footed Sean Davis, he still tucked and ran.

It was gutless, brain-dead football. Like I said, it was a play that completely vindicated every negative thing ever said about Alex Smith. It was a completely inexcusable play that even SHITTY quarterbacks make with ease. I'm still at a loss.

I get more pissed off the more I watch it. What the **** even caused him to roll out? There was NOBODY THERE!! Sure, Fulton blocked nobody in particular but still, Harrison is too busy trying to put a shot on Kelce. Stand in, make the throw. You probably wouldn't have even gotten hit.

God dammit that play pisses me off. That's the play that will stick with me from this game. The hold means ****-all if he doesn't botch this easy pitch and catch.

Yup - I'm out on Alex Smith. Might not be fair, but I'm done with him. I absolutely cannot believe he didn't let that ball go.

I don't wanna rub salt in any wounds, but West gets behind both of those DBs and the only defender behind West has his back turned to look at Hill. Hill is a touchdown no doubt, and West would be a huge gain if he could lob it where West can run under it.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Discuss Thrower

I guarantee that's not every bad throw he makes, but all of these gifs were from games KC lost. Further, the Bears and Vikings games were losses where they defense allowed 18 and 16 points. Blame the defense till the cows come home, but at some point you have to look at the offense. If we're going to castigate West, Ware, Maclin and Kelce for drops as a big reason why KC doesn't win when it matters, then why should Smith get a pass for throws that are specifically bad?

Unless you're assuming that these are all selections of plays that only Brady and Rodgers could miraculously pull off and that no other QB currently playing can imagine making.

I'm arguing that a sane, reasonable position has always been that "Alex Smith is a middle of the road quarterback that doesn't actively hinder his team's ability to win football games."

You showed a bunch of plays that middle of the road quarterbacks miss all the time. Why? Because at some point you developed this weird straw man whereby every QB that isn't Brady and Rodgers must suck a big ol' chili dog. You couldn't even manage to avoid the same stupid tripe in a thread where Smith actively shit down his leg.

You just showed 10ish plays, half of which were pretty easily defensible and the other half of which are just plays that average quarterbacks miss on occasion. So? I have NEVER argued that Smith was a great quarterback; only that he was an active impediment. Missing on plays that an average quarterback occasionally misses on is expected.

That's not the issue. None of those demonstrate a quarterback that would stare at a wide open guy breaking on a go route and not pull the trigger (at most, a couple demonstrate poor vision, but that wasn't what killed him here).

You've essentially completed a deflected pass to a guy 10 yards away from your intended receiver. Despite your best efforts, you've backed into a correct answer.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by KC Hawks

I'd rather watch Kevin Ware's compound fracture than see that GIF again.

Spoiler!

Y'know what...you're right.

I'm far less likely to retch looking at that then watching that GIF again...

[Discuss Thrower]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I'm arguing that a sane, reasonable position has always been that "Alex Smith is a middle of the road quarterback that doesn't actively hinder his team's ability to win football games."

You showed a bunch of plays that middle of the road quarterbacks miss all the time. Why? Because at some point you developed this weird straw man whereby every QB that isn't Brady and Rodgers must suck a big ol' chili dog. You couldn't even manage to avoid the same stupid tripe in a thread where Smith actively shit down his leg.

You just showed 10ish plays, half of which were pretty easily defensible and the other half of which are just plays that average quarterbacks miss on occasion. So? I have NEVER argued that Smith was a great quarterback; only that he was an active impediment. Missing on plays that an average quarterback occasionally misses on is expected.

That's not the issue. None of those demonstrate a quarterback that would stare at a wide open guy breaking on a go route and not pull the trigger (at most, a couple demonstrate poor vision, but that wasn't what killed him here).

You've essentially completed a deflected pass to a guy 10 yards away from your intended receiver. Despite your best efforts, you've backed into a correct answer.

With what you've said in mind, then Smith missing Tyreek shouldn't at all be a singular play that makes you say "**** this guy." With that kind of acid test, nobody playing QB in the league hits Hill beside Brady and Rodgers.

What I'm contending here is that Smith isn't even middle of the road -he's a bottom tier veteran QB that's now playing closer to Casselian levels than he is playing closer to the comparison of Andy Dalton who epitomizes the average, middle of the road QB in the current day NFL. The gifs linked early demonstrate he's been bottom tier for a while and has been propped up offensively by getting first downs on scrambles or designed runs for the first three seasons in KC.