Chiefs: Rewind First, Then Fast Forward

Chiefs: Rewind First,

Then Fast Forward

by David Bell

THE REWIND

Let’s back up. We knew that Alex Smith was departing and it was the dawn of a new QB era for the Kingdom. Patrick Mahomes was now going to be “El Jefe”, the “Maestro.” He was already in house. I had sat and listened to the many influences that could possibly contribute to a very positive outcome for his initiation as an NFL starting QB. The previous season, he had walked out of an NFL game departing with a victory.

The Chiefs needed to address Defense — Big Time. Here is a brief recap of what Brett Veach did.

First of all, he replaced Josh Mauga at the MIKE ILB with Reggie Ragland for the 2017 campaign. He had wanted to bring in Anthony Hitchens who was unavailable then but was freed by the Boys in 2018 and snatched up by Brett Veach.

Veach knew that he had Justin Houston coming back after a hugely disappointing year apparently due to not fully recovering from his injury that knocked him off his square. At the same time, he had Ford coming back after an injury plagued 2017 where was finally IR’d. Sure, we had unpolished Kpassagnon in the wings. In the draft, Veach pulled the string to get Breeland Speaks who would have to transition from a Defensive End to OLB, a work in progress but it gave Sutton 4 OLBs to intermix and surely they would play rested at the worst.

The Secondary needed a lot of help also. I was throwing up my hands on this. Veach moved to address as much as he could, signing David Amerson on a hope. He was here and then gone. He signed Orlando Scandrick,, who started rough but has played well since weak one. A Veach also cut a deal with Jerry Jones and traded Parker Ehinger for Charvarius Ward. Ward made his first roster appearance for the Chiefs on Monday night. At safety, Veach drafted Armani Watts and Tremon Smith, both earmarked talent for the secondary.

Did I cover it all? Nope but I am leaving offense aside for this piece aside from “The Play” below. The offense needed help as well but it was fulfilled for the most part and surely the defense needed more help.

HOW ABOUT THE DEFENSE?

Reid and Sutton have been unable to put things together and have a decent defense. It has had perhaps 3 quarters of the 16 that the Chiefs have played where you could say, “well, maybe.”

Veach has done a lot and apparently had a player in the wings with a forthcoming signing but that fell apart when Earl Thomas Sustained a broken bone Sunday.That’s a wash now.

We are still suffering and waiting for it to come together. We are all grumbling. We are all jaded and world weary of a porous defense. All of us lament the Dick Vermeil era Redux. Still we Murmur aloud and in our dream lives: “We have the Quarterback.”

FAST FORWARD

I rant and rave about things as we watch the game and post frustration in the commentary of the game thread.

The recent unpleasantness ended in a win due to that drafted top ten draft pick, Patrick Mahomes. “El-Jefe”, The “Maestro”, took the game and the team on his shoulders and came off the field with a win, coming from behind. He fulfilled all of KC Fandom’s dreams and hopes to get a quarterback who could be just that type of player. El Capitan drove the team down the field, used his off hand to throw a pass to move chains and was a master of making big plays. Then came the “BIG Play”, with Hunt scoring a TD on the ground to go ahead , giving the Chiefs the lad to win the game if the defense could hold Denver out of the end zone. They had about 1:48 left on the clock to work with.  I point out here, this poor defense had held Denver to only 23 points for the game.

FANS FRET AT HOME…

… AND AT MILE HIGH

Everyone was fretting back here in the Kingdom and even at Mile High. Nails were chewed. Swear words eschewed a loss due to poor defense here in KC town. Out at Mile High the fans chewed nails and their nails. They now trailed and needed their own come from behind success. KC Fans had been watching our defense and it looked like the Broncos would pull it off–they made two big passing plays to get down field to set the stage.

Case Keenum overthrew his wide receiver. All reality stopped. It was a maze of emotions for the fans I am sure of both Denver and KC. That one moment the receiver is caught wide open. Ron Parker is late getting to coverage and hearts fell… mine nearly collapsed as I watched a coverage failure — AGAIN. But my heart did not hit the dirt–the pass by Keenum did.

When it was over, I knew that Case had thrown his desired pass, one that he was comfortable with and that if completed, would have won the game. The ball hit the dirt. Wonder of wonders, the defense stopped the Broncos.

Then… the game comes to an ends.

The Chiefs are 4-0 having secured their second road win against a division foe. The Chiefs should take the division again! Wow. This was a huge win, no matter what. No one would have thought it possible in August. I still believe that part of Andy Reid’s game plan was amiss. I didn’t like the play mix and it didn’t stimulate the players to the fever pitch  we had been seeing. It looked like the Walrus had done it again.

THE WALRUS PLAY

Andy Reid is a smart Walrus and he is insightful every play of the game… well… when he is not up in his own head too much. When the scoring play was called, I knew that something was different but didn’t identify what it was. Then ball was snapped and the score to the left side put the Chiefs ahead in the game and it was set up for the end of the game drama.

An reader at ArrowheadOne, noticed that something was different. Here’s what the ever observant Dean Dalquist wrote to Laddie about the scoring play:

I knew something was different but even replaying the game I didn’t isolate it. I was totally focused on defense for most of the game. Dean nailed it (thank you Dean!). My focus was defense and I was sick of players on their heals, out of position, using poor tackling technique, and just generally playing without fire. Denver had fire but couldn’t extend it to a big lead. They were highly successful on the ground but went aerial and then their lead was squandered.

“THE PLAY” is an Andy Reid Special — Andy Reid sent in a play and the offense set up as follows:

The offense sauntered up to the LoS. At first it looks normal. Only Mitch Schwartz is a bit tardy in arriving at the LoS.

What Dean identified was that the Offensive Front was un-even. He must have seen something in the game and watched carefully upon replay as he observes. Schwartz didn’t move to the right side of the line, rather, sort of sauntered as if Tardy for class and goes immediately to the left of the offensive line, sets quickly as Demetrius Harris was the end lineman to the right as a tight end. Both offensive tackles are now on the left with an unbalanced but legal formation. Mahomes uses a quick snap count, both LDT and Cam Erving pull into the hole between Swartz and Fisher (as shown above)… and the result is Hunt waltzing into the end zone on the over powering left side. I don’t think the Denver Defense even noticed before the ball was snapped.

Andy Reid overpowered the Chiefs left side of the Offensive line and the Denver Broncos Defense with a sly “Trick” at the same time.

Give’s you something to think about though. Reid is on top of it and it was the difference in the game, was it not? The next thing to observe is that the defense pulled of a stop for all the marbles. Chiefs Win!

David Bell – ArrowheadOne

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