The Film Don't Lie
 

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A weekly look at what the Chiefs must fix:

Despite getting their first victory Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs have a few things to clean up heading into next Monday night’s game against the New England Patriots at Arrowhead Stadium. Foremost is their protection of quarterback Alex Smith.

Smith has been sacked on 10.8 percent of his pass attempts this season, which is the second-worst rate in the NFL. The Chiefs will be missing starting offensive linemen Jeff Allen and Donald Stephenson again, one because of an injury and the other because of an NFL suspension.

So the Chiefs will again be forced to use an offensive line inhabited by journeymen (tackle Ryan Harris and guard Mike McGlynn) and developing players (tackle Eric Fisher and guard Zach Fulton). That means the pass protection will get tested by the Patriots next Monday night.

The solution is to go with a quick passing game, a strategy that best suits Smith’s abilities. The Chiefs had some success with the shorter passing game in Sunday’s win over the Miami Dolphins. Smith was sacked five times by the Dolphins, mostly when he took deep drops and intended to go downfield with the ball.

But when Smith stayed upright, he got rid of the ball quickly. None of his 25 pass attempts in Miami went beyond 8 yards downfield, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Smith completed 19 of 25 passes for 186 yards and three touchdowns in a 34-15 victory.

http://espn.go.com/blog/kansas-city-...espnapi_public

I dunno, would an NFL average back have done any better? I bet we could have had Cyrus Gray running the whole time on Sunday and faired just as well. I wasn't as impressed with Kniles as I was with our line's run blocking. JC could have had >200 yards easy with our line playing that well (obviously ignoring the pass blocking). The hard thing is that Reid would try to be extra fancy when we've seen JC put up crazy numbers with no QB and the defense knowing "he's going to be running the ball."

So long story short, I don't think PFF should grade his day as extraordinary. League average back would get about 4 ypc +/- a few. The fact that they gave him the ball so many times just leads to more yards. The fumble could have easily cost us the game. Imagine that happening against NE. They're trying to get stats that are somewhat independent (similar to baseballs sabremetrics). i.e. a fumble at this spot in general leads to a terrible situation even if it didn't this one time.

Fumbles happen...I think Jamaal fumbles too with that rip move the tackler made on Davis..

I wouldn't say extraordinary either.

There were a few plays that most backs would have gained good yards from. On many others, however, he had to generate on his own through vision and breaking weak tackle attempts. 4 out of our 5 lineman had negative run block grades. Hudson barely broke out in the positive.

I'm not saying Davis was incredible.. or is incredible... just that a -3.2 grade in running seems a bit harsh and inaccurate.

Remember, technically, he fumbled twice. One of them he lost, but there was another that he managed to recover. I'm guessing PFF decided to take that into account.

ah, true that.

And (I don't remember where I read this) but fumble recovery is basically a coin flip in the long run.

It was -7.2 not -3.2

I was specifying his run rating.. not the sum of the other aspects.

I don't need a website to see with my own eyes that Harris is a turd at RT, I don't need a website to show McGlynn getting stuffed 3 yards back on impact on most snaps, or to see that the rookie is struggling at RG. In addition to that, I've been of the line of thinking that Hudson is pretty much a turd at center.

Fisher, struggles, but he is definitely improving, especially in run blocking.

No one needs the website to make their own determinations... but it can be an interesting tool to see if their perspective matches or conflicts with your own.

Hudson is what I thought he was.. decent... solid... the best OL that KC has.. not great still.

The OL has played awful, but at some point you have to understand they can't block an entire defense. When 7-8 guys blitz the QB, the QB has to make that read and get the ball out. Alex has failed to do that several times this season.

Their ineffective pass protection combined with Alex's tendency to take sacks against big blitzes doesn't bode well for the overall sack numbers this season. Expect Alex to hit the turf 40+ times.

It's better as a way to evaluate the hundreds of players you DO NOT see every week. It's not foolproof, but it's hands down the best grading made available to fans.

PFF's OL grades, on the other hand, are highly questionable. The fact that KC went from having the worst run blocking OL grades in 2009 with LJ running and then 'suddenly' became, I think, the 3rd highest with Jamaal, indicates the grades are often more reflective of the RB's success than the quality of blocking.

Look how crunched together the slots are from 3-15.

Stephenson's coming back. And the interior line will improve gradually bit by bit. I only need the Chiefs to be the 27th best team in allowing the least amount of sacks.

Anything can happen, but I still feel just fine.

As bad as our pass protection is, I don't think it's as bad as it was after three games last year. Help is on the way at RT. LG is a disaster, though.