Kansas City Chiefs Laddie Morse

Four Reasons the Chiefs Will Continue to Win

LadnerMorse October 25, 2017 No Comments

 

 

 

One year your team is up. The next year your team is down. Of such is life in the parity riddled National Football League. Any time your team can show they are winners by ripping off a five game winning streak, then you have to wonder if there are legitimate reasons why or if it was just the bounce of the ball. In the Chiefs case, since head coach Andy Reid came to K.C. on January 4th, 2013, the team has a .666 winning percentage including winning streaks of: 9-games in a row in 2013, 5-games in a row in 2014, 8-games in a row in 2015 (9 if you add the first game in the playoffs vs. Houston that year), and 5-games in a row in 2016. Reid and company have accomplished this while only allowing more than a 3-game losing streak “once” (a 5-games skid near the beginning of 2015).

 

The 2017 edition of the Kansas City Chiefs are an improved offensive team. It’s fair to say the offense is carrying the team to most of their victories this year. There are four reasons why, which I’ll detail here. Unless there are injuries, these reasons for success should continue throughout the rest of the year.

 

 

Running Back, Slash WR, Performance

RB/WR Kareem Hunt is having such an outstanding rookie year that his name is in all the conversations for Rookie of the Year (RoY) across the league. His success is the number one reason the Chiefs are a tough out.

 

You may have already gleaned all that. So, the question is, who is Kareem Hunt to Andy Reid?

 

Within the dynamics of Reid’s evolving offensive scheme, having a productive running back makes all the difference. While his system is tweaked for his own purposes, in other words, to take advantage of his player’s strengths — for the purpose of this piece — we’ll just call it a West Coast Offense (this is not a piece about the origins of the west coast). First, let’s review a few systems currently being used in the NFL and the general tenets of those systems:

 

  • The Erhardt-Perkins (EP) system, is based on the coaching styles of Ron Erhardt and Ray Perkins, it boils down to, “throw to score, run to win.”
  • The Air Coryell (AC) system, is based upon Sid Gillman and Don Coryell’s down-field, stretch-the-field deep, pass-to-win, run-if-you-have-to, philosophy.
  • The West Coast Offense (WCO) system, is based on stretching the field wide, using short-passes, and passes-like-running-plays, all to open up the field for longer runs and longer pass plays.

 

The purpose of bringing up offensive philosophies, is that the RB plays a different role in each. Kareem Hunt is a “fit-like-a-glove” RB, with his skill set, for the WCO.

 

Bill Walsh revolutionized the WCO and in the 1980’s and had RB Roger Craig who not only rushed for over 8,000 yards in his career — and 8 out of 11 of his years were with Walsh — but more importantly, he had nearly 5,000 yards receiving and helped the 9ers win 3 Super Bowls. Mike Holmgren was part of Walsh’s staff in the 80s and he went on to become the Green Bay Packers HC in the 1990s and participated in two Super Bowls — winning one — with Edgar Bennett at running back and he had 1,067 rushing yards in 1995 with 648 yards receiving. The Packers won the Super Bowl the next season. And, who was an assistant coach on those Holmgren teams? That’s right, our Mr. Reid. In fact, his excellent work there, got him the HC job in Philly… and his success there, the job in K.C.

 

The point is, Andy Reid is still working with those mental constructs when it comes to how a running back can be used in his system. Kareem Hunt has hands like a wide receiver and that’s a huge part of his role in Andy’s scheme. I know you may have seen this picture before but I’m sharing it again because I think this is, at least partially, what he had on his mind the moment when he realized that they had just drafted RB Kareem Hunt: I call it, his “cat who just swallowed the canary” moment and look.

 

 

 

 

You can count on the design of the Kansas City system utilizing Kareem Hunt, who will continue to help the Chiefs succeed this season. While I see Hunt as the linchpin in the Chiefs attack this year — the real difference from last season — I think all four reasons are inextricably tied together. That’s why it’s hard to talk about the success of Kareem Hunt without mentioning the field stretching abilities of Tyreek Hill.

 

 

Field Stretching, Mind Blowing, WR Speed

 

Some day, the history book of the Kansas City Chiefs will include a beautiful chapter called, Jamaal Charles. So, it was befuddling to fans when he was cut lose in the manner he was, this past March. It’s also true that the release of WR Jeremy Maclin, who went to the University of Missouri and had ties to the area, was making Chiefs fans everywhere wonder what was up at One Arrowhead Way.

 

Yes, Chiefs fans were dazed and confused. However, all that upset, has come to an abrupt end now that the Chiefs have won 5 games in a row and seen their rocking rookie RB and their current x-factor at WR, tearing up the league together. Based on the first 7 games of the 2017 season, Hill is projected to have 82 receptions and 1,117 receiving yards.

 

As much as you might say that RB Kareem Hunt is prototypical RB for the WCO, Tyreek Hill stretches the meaning of an “X” or a “Z” receiver. The X typically lines up wide, on the line of scrimmage and usually doesn’t go in motion. Since we know that Hill lines up at both the X and the Z (the Z is often lined up wide on the opposite side of the field from the X but on the same side as the TE so he lines up off the los and is sometimes known as the flanker) we get a glimpse into the various formations that Andy Reid uses and requires his wideouts to memorize. Hill’s speed causes tremendous stress for any defense he faces because he can get to his spot so quickly, once the ball is snapped whether that’s running an out pattern or going long. His skill-set, like Hunts, is a match made in heaven for Reid’s WCO. Plus, whenever he is in motion, QB Alex Smith can get a good read on what kind of defensive set the other team in using on any particular play.

 

When Hill gains his next 79 yards, he will have surpassed his total receiving yards production of 2016. He already has 16 TDs in his career in just 23 games, including his return duties. Hill’s success is also dependent upon the QB getting him the ball, and in this case, Alex Smith is having a career year. However, let me state again, that all four of these reasons I’m listing here, that make projecting further success for the Chiefs, are interconnected. That said, we know Hill would not be having the year he’s having without a multi-talented QB.

 

A Multi-talented QB

 

There’s been a lot of talk about why Alex is surging in his career right now. I’m not sure I really care about why, because he looks like he’s going to continue on that path. He had 15 passing TDs in 2016, and already has that many TDs one game prior to the half way mark of this season.

 

While I’ll be interested to see how he does against the league’s #1 defense of the Denver Broncos next Monday night at Arrowhead, the rest of the year looks like a Silly Putty Party, as far as defenses he’ll face goes. The Chiefs will face one top ten defense in their remaining games after next Monday and that’s the #10 defense of the Miami Dolphins (although they face the Broncos again in the last game of the regular season).

 

The reason for that focus is… I’m not listing any defensive reasons for the Chiefs continued success this season. It’s the offense that’s going to carry this team. While I certainly hope that Andy Reid and Bob Sutton get it all straightened out on that side of the ball, saying the defense will lead to the team’s future success is not something I want to hang my hat on right now.

 

What we appear to be able to rely on, is Alex Smith. Personally, ladies and gentlemen, I’d rather have it this way. Who wants to look like the 2000 Baltimore Ravens who had to rely on their defense each week to punch their ticket all the way to a Super Bowl win. Having a QB who can lead the charge suits me just fine. Alex Smith is not just having a career year… he’s having a year for all-times:

 

 

 

 

Since we know that Andy Reid has a very good record following any Bye Week — and this is like a mini-bye — then I’m projecting Alex Smith to have a very good game vs. the Broncos. After that… the mind wonders to Oz and back. Now, you know I don’t like swearing on our site… but this just made me gut-laugh… and it’s technically not swearing so…

 

 

 

 

My apologies to all Alex haters in the crowd. As long as Andy Reid hands Alex Smith a great game plan and takes advantage of his diverse and unpredictable play calling, then the Chiefs can go all the way.

 

 

Keeping the Play Calling Diversified

 

When you add all these reasons for continued success together, keeping the play calling unpredictable is just as important as… having a QB in the midst of a career year… a WR faster than the wind… or a RB who can catch and tote the rock.

 

One of the final reasons for this past loss was, that Andy Reid went into a run-only mode and his play calling was predictable. I would hope at some point he could see that when he does that, he’s sending a message to his players, “I don’t trust you to execute the plays we’ve been practicing all year“… the same plays he’d been calling the whole rest of the game.

 

To that, Reid might respond by saying that he wants to protect his players from having to be the goat. What he doesn’t realize is that this kind of thinking also takes away their possibility to achieve. It’s as if he may think that players don’t know the risks of competition. But, it also limits their ability to overcome any situation. In a feeble attempt to be sanguine, let me say, I hope Andy Reid can learn to share the ultimate losses as well as the ultimate wins. Unless he does, he may be holding the team back. However, as much as I think this has been a growth year for Alex Smith, Tyreek Hill, and Kareem Hunt, I think Andy Reid can make the steps necessary to continue to lead this team to great success.

 

I could have named this piece, “The Biggest Changes From 2016” but, it’s more important to note that these are the main reasons the Chiefs should continue to win moving forward.

 

 

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