See how Alex Smith performs in the red zone compared to rest of AFC West

[beach tribe]

It was a breezy, borderline chilly, Sunday afternoon in mid-November last season. The 7-2 Kansas City Chiefs were at home against the five-loss Tampa Bay Buccaneers, rolling with a five-game winning streak that included victories over the New Orleans Saints at home and the Oakland Raiders and Carolina Panthers on the road.

It was also ... confession time ... my first visit to Arrowhead Stadium.

I will say, it was an experience I’ll never forget. The atmosphere, the tailgating, the fans ... it was all amazing. But, at the same time, it was just about as frustrating a game as you’ll ever see.

The funny thing is, though, Alex Smith had your typical, average Alex Smith performance. The Chiefs QB threw for 261 yards, had one touchdown and one rushing touchdown, along with one interception. Pretty so-so, but that seems to be then norm for No. 11. Spencer Ware rushed for 69 yards on 17 attempts, a stat line that pretty much was his average performance on the ground in 2016.

I did some digging and found the postgame column of The Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger. You don’t have to read too much to remind yourself of how that game panned out.

What could’ve been another ugly Chiefs win turned into an ugly-as-vomit 19-17 loss to the mediocre Buccaneers at home on Sunday the moment quarterback Alex Smith executed a bad throw, poorly leading to an interception in the end zone when even a field goal would’ve probably been enough to win.

The biggest frustration, aside from the inability of the offense to score, was the red zone performance by Smith. Most notably, Smith threw a crucial interception from Tampa Bay’s six-yard line (the one referenced by Sam above) with KC trailing 12-10 early in the fourth quarter.

I won’t spend too much time dwelling on the Smith interception, but it appeared to be a predetermined read, where Smith failed to notice Chris Conte waiting in the middle of the end zone.

And as a Chiefs fan, you probably feel that this missed throw in the tweet below by Smith is one you see every Sunday.

Click here to see Tigerupyourbutt's lover boy make one of the throws that led to his AFCW ranking:
https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2017/...red-zone-stats

The Chiefs scored in the red zone 46 percent of the time in 2016, which was 26th-best in the league. That’s about 10 percent worse than Kansas City’s red zone conversion rate in 2015.

Plus, what really makes the red zone inefficiency by Smith & Co. so frustrating is that the offensive line for the Chiefs did a pretty good job in 2016. According to Pro Football Focus, the Chiefs offensive line allowed the fewest pressures in 2016 (they tied with the Raiders) and Smith saw the lowest percentage of pressures on third down.

For an offense that operates like the Chiefs, scoring in the red zone has to be one of the most important parts of their game. Minus Tyreek Hill running wild throughout the field, there isn’t a big-play threat out there. It’s reasonable to contribute the lack of a play maker to Smith’s inability or unwillingness to take shots down the field.

So, if you were asked a trivia question on where Smith ranked in red zone passing performance in the AFC West in 2016, you’d be a winner if you answered with ... “dead last.”
2016 AFC West Red Zone QB Stats
Quarterback Passing Completion % Passing Yards TD INT Passer Rating Yards/Attempt Rushing Yards
Derek Carr 44/90 47% 306 19 1 91.9 3.4 -7
Philip Rivers 45/96 47% 333 22 2 86.5 3.5 1
Trevor Siemian 28/55 51% 164 10 1 89 3 5
Alex Smith 29/63 46% 167 11 3 72.7 2.7 51
Statistics via Pro Football Reference

The only real edge that Smith has over the other three quarterbacks actually has nothing to do with his passing game. He has 51 rushing yards; the other three have -6 combined rushing yards. Congratulations.

Trevor Siemian threw for one less touchdown than Smith did in the red zone in 2016 but had eight less pass attempts. Smith’s passer rating was 16.3 percentage points worse than the next-best rating, owned by Siemian (89).

The Chiefs are at the point now where no one reasonably expects them to be any better than an average offense so long as Smith is behind center. The AFC West won’t be an easy division to play in in 2017 by any means, and if the Chiefs want to compete for a playoff run, improvement in the red zone should be one of their highest priorities.

[TigeRRUppeRRcut]

And how many support your believe that Geno will be a superstar ? Did anyone even agree with you when you said Tyreek would be a bust?

Silly kid.

[RunKC]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

It's easy to understand why the Chiefs drafted Hunt in the 3rd round this year.

Ware has been okay when healthy but he's not a game breaker nor a guy that can consistently get 1,200 plus yards season to season. Much of his "success" is due to Andy's scheme. And, he's fallen off a cliff in December and January in both 2015 and 2016.

West was invisible last year. I know he lost 10 pounds and has been training hard this offseason but I still think he's a #3 back at best (although much better than Knile Davis or Cyrus Gray).

Hopefully, Hunt can deliver the goods.

Andy was a huge problem and a big reason we lost the playoff game. Ware had a TD and 4.4 YPC in that game and Hill had 3 carries of his own averaging 6 YPC.

The fact that Alex threw 34 passes that game was reason enough to lose.
The running game was not as weak as people said it was late in the year. Andy should have never put the game solely in Alex's hands.

Ware had only eight rushing attempts while averaging 4.4 YPC. Andy went full reerun.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by TigerUppercut

And how many support your believe that Geno will be a superstar ? Did anyone even agree with you when you said Tyreek would be a bust?

Silly kid.

Yeah no one cares about this shit. Unlike you I have the ability to admit when I'm wrong.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by RunKC

Andy was a huge problem and a big reason we lost the playoff game. Ware had a TD and 4.4 YPC in that game and Hill had 3 carries of his own averaging 6 YPC.

The fact that Alex threw 34 passes that game was reason enough to lose.
The running game was not as weak as people said it was late in the year. Andy should have never put the game solely in Alex's hands.

Ware had only eight rushing attempts while averaging 4.4 YPC. Andy went full reerun.

Another reason to move on from Alex Smith and have a gunslinger quarterback. Andy Reid is just a pass happy coach so he must be embarrassed with his passing game and he did all he could to make Alex what he wasn't. He dialed up plays that should have gone deep but Alex doesn't trust his arm or something.


Once Patrick Mahomes II "Gets It" this offense is going be fun to watch.

[TigeRRUppeRRcut]

Originally Posted by Hammock Parties

Yeah no one cares about this shit. Unlike you I have the ability to admit when I'm wrong.

And not to forget you were also wrong saying the Raiders would beat us down last season, or how you were over at the Mane proclaiming Denver was a better team. You also said the team wouldn't win more than 9 games. Wrong over and over again, cupcake.

[Hammock Parties]

Yeah, no one cares. Really.

[MahiMike]

That game reminded me of the Marty days. Playing those close games is a coin toss. We lost that flip.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by TigerUppercut

Go away, Geno. No one cares about your inane posts that have no factual evidence behind them.

How so you say that a post containing a ****ing video has no factual evidence?

And **** you for making me side with clay. ****ing asshole.

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by TigerUppercut

And how many support your believe that Geno will be a superstar ? Did anyone even agree with you when you said Tyreek would be a bust?

Silly kid.

Who still believes geno will be a superstar?

I think you are making that up.

[TigeRRUppeRRcut]

Because one video summarizes a whole season of said "A lot of that was due to throws like this one."

[Reerun_KC]

Ah the fan boy. Hates the chiefs franchise loves him some Alex.

Please kill yourself

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Alex had a typical Alex games against the Bucs, there's no doubt. But this writer undermines his point by claiming that the Bucs were "mediocre", which is outright bullshit.

The Bucs are a rising team that challenged for the NFC South crown with a 9-7 record. In addition to beating the Chiefs, they took the Raiders to overtime, beat the Seahawks, beat the Falcons once and the Panthers twice and lost on the road to the Cowboys by 6 points. This was no "mediocre" team.

The writer also fails to mentioned that Marcus Peters didn't play against the Bucs, which meant 5'11 Steve Nelson matched up against 6'5 Pro Bowl WR Mike Evans, which was a disaster.

Maclin missed the game and by that point, Spencer Ware had done his usual 4th quarter of the season disappearing act.

Had Maclin and Peters been available, the Chiefs would most likely have won that game, despite Alex being Alex.

I truly miss the objective, less Homer version of Dane. You once were one of the best.

I miss you. Come back.

[DaneMcCloud]

Originally Posted by Reerun_KC

I truly miss the objective, less Homer version of Dane. You once were one of the best.

I miss you. Come back.

Go **** yourself.

Then tell me what's false in that post, you ****ing moron.

[Reerun_KC]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

Go **** yourself.

Then tell me what's false in that post, you ****ing moron.

If I go **** myself. Will you film it, edit it and produce it for all of CP to see? Could we charge for this service.

[BlackOp]

The Bucs were mugging the living shit out of Jones that game...it was so bad I actually posted video captures off my DVR. It allowed Winston to repeatedly convert some long 3rd downs. KC didn't register a single sack that entire game and should have had 3-4.

The only thing I could gather was the NFL wanted Winston/Bucs in the South hunt towards the end of the season....and the Vegas Raiders to make the post season. It was terrible.