He had a good game and made some good throws. The O-Line gave him good protection too.

I'm okay with his stat-line if we get that game in, game out from Smith.

Also pleased with his overall performance, when considering that our run game has been.. less than good. More games like this, and I'll not only be open to a fair SB shot, I'll expect it. :)

Its name is Andy Heck. Don't underestimate losing Chung to Philly either.

Heck is a horrible OL coach, and has struggled since he got here.

How do you know that? If we weren't gifted the game-winning 2-pointer, we could have marched down the field with plenty of time to set up a field goal. If Berry doesn't get an INT, we could have made a stop and used that possession to set up a score. If the Chiefs weren't up by 11 in the 3Q, maybe Andy Reid doesn't pump the brakes with the playcalling, which became significantly more conservative once we were preserving a lead.

I haven't had much confidence in Alex's ability to close games until this year. With his performance at San Diego and Denver, he certainly deserves a benefit of the doubt. Alex didn't have a perfect performance. It doesn't happen unless Alex played a much more aggressive version of himself... but he did.

I can say as I am watchig more, I am unimpessed with some of Fulton's efforts.

Usually it's Alex Smith. But that wasn't the case yesterday.

When he doesn't press, the defense loads the box and stuffs the run game.
When he goes into a conservative shell, he pump fakes to his first reads instead of getting rid of the ball, so he holds onto the ball longer than he needs to. It also helped that Reid was more creative with the playcalling, so he needs to be aggressive too. I don't know why we waited so long in the season to start showing jet sweeps and options, which keep the defense on their feet.

It's amazing how much better the OL looks when Alex plays aggressive football.

Mostly disagree. Change the name to Andy, and I would. At the very least, the lack of aggression is more like a 70/30 ratio on HC and QB.

Most of what Smith does is by design.. from Reid. You can tell that Andy draws up lots of screens and designs to get the ball to just one target. You can tell that Andy doesn't want to risk Smith taking many hits.

First intended target is open at all, Smith will go to him... and he frequently does. Say that this first target is Hill on an 8 yard curl. Remotely open, and Smith hits him. He doesn't wait to see if Kelce.. the next option.. is getting open on a flag route. Why? because pass rush.. and he won't abandon the 8 yard gain just on the chance that maybe the next option might get open.. and maybe he'll have time to get it there. Smith is not a risk taker.. and only becomes one when it becomes more clearly necessary.

Yesterday was both HC and QB recognizing that the ATL offense might slaughter on the scoreboard.. and along with that, understanding that ATL was weaker in the secondary.

AMEN for that, because the ATL defense was shutting down the KC run game. What little Ware got was nearly all on his own toughness and ability.

Now, we see if Andy goes back to small ball... actually, maybe not this week.. as OAK has similar strengths and weaknesses as ATL. 70/30 ratio, imho.

Hate to break it you you people but every QB, including Brady, Rodgers, Benny, all miss those kinds of passes like the ones to Ware. In fact, we have benefited over the years against those very QB's among others, by them doing just that. Shit happens.

From what I've been told, Heck struggles to teach fundamentals (which was apparently Chung's strength).

Ehringer already has solid fundamentals (hence him starting as a rookie). I think his loss was a bigger blow than most people realize.

To the point of the previous poster's point, Fulton is a significant drop off.

Especially on a scramble play.

That wasn't a designed route, IMO. Ware saw the open space and ran upfield. Meanwhile Smith is running around trying to keep the play alive and had to make a bang/bang play.

I agree with an earlier poster that he should've lofted it out there to give Ware a chance to run under it - failing to do so was a mistake. That said, that play was nowhere near the gimme that people are calling it. When guys are trying to essentially be psychic to determine how their teammate is going to handle a play, there's really nobody to blame if they can't pull it off.

It was a tough but makeable play. In a playoff game, making it may be the difference between advancing or going home. That said, Smith has shown that he can make that play on occasion as well. There's nothing that happened on that play to suggest that he can't hit it should it happen again later.

It's just not a 100% play. Sometimes he'll get it, sometimes he won't. You hope that the next time he does.

It was miscommunication on a broken play, plain and simple.

Smith thought Ware would run full speed, Ware slowed down and thought Smith would hit him earlier. It's one of those plays that everyone involved wished that they could have back but the blame lies with neither player.

I'm actually happy to see the effort. This was Smith's best game since San Diego, IMO. It *appears* that he gained a lot of confidence in the 4th quarter and OT period in Denver, which is a great sign for the offense.

I thought he was better against Oakland and New Orleans than he was against SD (and I still think he was far better against TB than people will acknowledge).

For as much as 'steady' gets thrown around w/r/t to Smith's play, he's been oddly erratic this year. He's had 5 games where I thought he played really well - Oakland, NO, TB, Atlanta and NYJ. Houston, Pittsburgh and Carolina were hot garbage. Then in SD and Denver he was hot garbage for 85% of the game before suddenly playing really well at the end.

The guy's been extremely hot and cold this year. It's really strange for a guy that has been so even his performances for the 3 previous seasons.

If Alex was truly committing to his first read, we wouldn't have the problem of him holding onto the ball. Smith is tentative to throw to receivers who aren't open by a country mile. You can see it in games where he literally pump fakes to a reasonably open receiver.

He has to start getting rid of the ball faster. We have to see late game Alex show up in the 1st half. When Alex presses, he commits to his throws and the ball gets out a whole lot faster.