Mellinger Minutes: Indicting the Chiefs’ offense, defending the defense

[oaklandhater]

http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt...116407498.html

Way to long go to website to read entire article

So, the loss to the Bucs was bad, and bad for a lot of reasons. A few:

▪ Alex Smith wasn’t good enough, again, continuing what’s now a trend.

▪ It was a chance to maintain pace with the Patriots, and a lead in the AFC West.

▪ The Bucs stink, especially on defense, and this should’ve been a layup with the hardest part of the schedule coming up: at Denver, at Atlanta, vs. the Raiders in the next three.

▪ If Alex Smith takes a knee, or trips on his dropback, or, ahem, punts the ball into the stands — if he, literally, does anything other than turn it over there at the goal line — the Chiefs probably win.

All of that is true. So is this:

The Chiefs still control their own season. They can win the division, and have no worse than the AFC’s No. 2 seed by doing nothing more complicated than winning their games.

And we can talk about how they were lucky to win the Chargers game, or the Panthers game, but it’s also true that they were playing without Jeremy Maclin, Marcus Peters, and Jaye Howard (and Jamaal Charles and Parker Ehinger, but they need to get used to that), and with an injured or slowed Dee Ford, Justin Houston, Derrick Johnson and Charcandrick West ... and still would’ve won a game if not for a boneheaded mistake at the goal line.

If you want, you can make some optimism out of that.

My only retort: none of that matters if the offense doesn’t improve, improve quickly, and improve greatly.


@mellinger Fair enough. Let me ask you this: Do you think the Chiefs SHOULD move on from Alex Smith in the off-season?
This is the first offseason they can realistically move on from Smith, the first time his dead money number ($7 million) is manageable.

So, this is possible.

The answer to your question — and I always try to give a more definitive answer to these questions — is that it depends.

Is Kirk Cousins available? Is Watson there in the draft? Is Romo open to coming to Kansas City?

Also, and I’ve watched the games this year just like you have, but it’s worth asking anyway: does Smith stink the last six games, or is he closer to his 2015 self?

In other words: is there a better option?

Because Nick Foles is not a better option. Not based on what we saw against the Jaguars.

If the Chiefs can upgrade the position, they should do it. But a lot of the anti-Smith sentiment feels based in a bit of an anybody but that guy perspective that feels good but isn’t productive in reality.

@mellinger u say they must fix their offense what do u suggest?

I did say that!

And I meant it.

Not running a jet sweep to the tight end who just limped off the field would be a good place to start.

After that, they need to look for more opportunities to throw downfield, particularly with Tyreek Hill. There are ways to line him up in certain situations where the safety makes a decision, and either way something should be open.

But, look, I don’t claim to be smart but I am smart enough to know what I don’t know. Andy Reid is the best known of many Chiefs employees who know much more about their personnel, and football in general, than me. It’s up to them.

What I see is too many failures in execution, and I know that’s vague, and too much like the locker room cliches I try to keep out of my columns, but it’s also true. Jeremy Maclin is their most proven playmaker. He’s currently hurt, and on pace for the worst season of his career.

Alex Smith isn’t running as often or effectively as he has in the past. My theory is that teams began the season game-planning against it, Smith and the Chiefs failed to adjust back, and by now Smith has lost that part of his game. That problem is magnified by the head injury he suffered in Indianapolis.

He was much better against the Bucs than Panthers. Some of that should be expected. The Panthers are much better than the Bucs.

Some of this is a bit of an “other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?”* but other than the horrendous, awful, no-good, bad-idea-executed-poorly, single-biggest-reason-the-Chiefs-lost interception, Smith was pretty good against the Bucs. Missing the third downs is terrible, but Smith was mostly accurate, hit a few deep balls, and had the touchdown scramble.

*Yes, I did use that line on the Border Patrol.

It’s all there, in other words. Maclin needs to be healthy, and productive. They need to continue to target Travis Kelce. Continue to use Tyreek Hill to stretch the field and present safeties with difficult choices. Use an athletic offensive line to move holes and allow Spencer Ware’s talents to shine.

But all of this becomes so much more difficult if Alex Smith isn’t better. He needs better decisions, and better accuracy, but most of all he needs better production with his feet.

He, and the Chiefs offense with him, has always operated with a relatively small margin for error. By allowing such a big part of his game to disappear without making up for it in other ways is simply a brutal obstacle to overcome.

@mellinger Justin Houston was invisible against the Bucs? Overrated or just needs more time?

— Clay Wendler (@ClayWendler) November 21, 2016

On the list of Chiefs worries, this does not make the top 10.

Justin Houston is 27 years old, and just two seasons removed from 22 sacks. The Chiefs were committed to being patient with him, to better ensure that he was stronger when he came back, as opposed to being earlier when he came back.

I don’t know how realistic it would’ve been to expect him to be his 2014 self immediately. It doesn’t work that way.

But if you can’t trust a guy like that, in a situation like this, to gain strength and stamina as he plays, I don’t know who or when you trust.

That doesn’t mean Houston will be among the league’s best two or three pass rushers again. He’s coming back from a very bizarre injury. Nobody knows.

But the Chiefs have much bigger concerns at the moment.

[Sandy Vagina]

Originally Posted by Molitoth

haha, enjoyed it.. truly.

[Reerun_KC]

[Sweet Daddy Hate]

Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath58

Doing pretty good?

They have to be a Super Bowl favorite at this point.

And they don't have anywhere near the defense we have. If Dallas had our defense, they'd be unbeatable.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, let's add some truthy salt to the mix:

Dak was NOT projected in the "Guaranteed, Andrew Luck Sure-Fire(!)"-category as well!


It can be done if you ACTUALLY ****ING TRY!

IMAGINE THAT!