This Kansas City Chiefs Epic Fail
Falls On Several Shoulders
Well…what can we say?
As far as I’m concerned there’s plenty of blame to go around. After the game was over I got a text from Ladner “Editor in Chief” Morse asking if I’d be okay enough to write an article for today. With a chuckle, I responded, “Oh, you’ll be hearing from me.”
Laddie told me he hoped I would hold head coach Andy Reid over the fire for his part in the loss. And I will.
First, Andy, stop with the icing the kicker crap. It doesn’t work, and as you can with yesterday’s loss, it more often backfires. You gave former-Chiefs and current Titans kicker Ryan “Mr. I’m-not-so-irrelevant know” Succop a practice swing. Which he missed. Horribly. It’s an old school way of thinking.
Second, Andy, why oh why after Tyreek Hill took his first touch 63 yards to the house, did he not see the ball again for the rest of the game? It what universe does that even come close to making sense? That play type is exactly what Hill needs to be doing when he touches the ball every time. That should be about 15 times per game between the running and passing game. How he disappeared, even when the Titans came storming back is beyond me.
Next, speaking of invisible offensive weapons, where the hell was Travis Kelce yesterday? When he was targeted, good things happened. He is a superstar in this league and was completely underutilized today. The Chiefs were one-for-FREAKING-four in the red zone yesterday. Kelce wasn’t targeted one single time on those possessions. Inexcusable.
done defending Andy Reid that was it for me! His play calling after 14-0 lead not using Hill after 1st Qtr shows he’s not right HC for KC!
— Chiefs Insider (@ChiefsInsider) December 18, 2016
However, I’ll tell you one thing, it’s not time to do. If you’re calling for Andy Reid to be fired, you’re an idiot. I said it. You’re not smart about football things. Is he frustrating? Yes. Does he sometimes outthink himself? Yes. But fire him? Seriously?
If you missed it during the game, the CBS crew flashed a graphic on the screen. Reid is one win away from entering the Top 10 Winningest Coaches of all time. Not this year. Not this decade. All time. All FREAKING time. And you want him fired? Wow. There are no words.
However, all of the blame in the passing game doesn’t fall on Reid’s shoulders. While he’ll take all the fault in the post-game press conference, we know that quarterback Alex Smith is the guy actually throwing the ball. You can call Smith a game manager. You can call Smith a game winner. You can call Smith average, above average, or below average. You’d be right in any case. This year, he’s been a little of some of those and a lot of the others.
As an Alex apologist, it’s hard for me to say these things, but after nearly four years in Kansas City, we all know what Alex is. He thrives on rhythm and his strong suit is not turning the ball over. However, when he turns it over and is throwing bad passes to boot, it’s hard to make a case for him.
Alex was all over the place today. He hits a big-time throw to set up the Chiefs second touchdown of the game, but can’t hit the quick bubble screens that are the “bread and butter” of this offense. I’m not sure if it was the cold that affected his accuracy today, but it was definitely affected.
This teams goes how Smith goes. If he’s on, they’re on. But if he’s not, the 1985 Bears Defense, combined with the 2000 Baltimore Ravens Defense couldn’t take this team anywhere. I still firmly believe this team can win with Smith at the helm. But he has to be on for that to happen. Today he wasn’t. As my mom who watched the game with me today said: “Today, he’s an idiot.” And today he was.
There were several other players besides Smith who couldn’t make plays today. Where the hell were Justin Houston and Dee Ford? They didn’t even make the stat sheet. That means not one single tackle between the two of them. That’s ridiculous.
The next group I feel deserve some of the blame are the officials. Now I don’t feel they “lost the game” for the Chiefs, but they were definitely bad today. I’ll just leave this here.
I don’t know in what universe this is a touchdown. You can clearly see Titans’ running back Derrick Henry is short of the end zone. However, it was called a touchdown on the field and upheld under review. Why even have the damn review process if you’re not going to use it the right way. These are the types of plays meant to be overturned under review. It’s incredible how bad officiating has been in general this season. This game was no different.
Oh, by the way, that pass interference call against Terrance Mitchell late in the fourth quarter? Yeah, it wasn’t.
Finally, I’m blaming the fans. Yes, the fans had a part in this loss. This weekend started with an overwhelming majority of you buying into this idea that NBC put into your head that Kelce wants to leave Kansas City so he can be a bigger star.
It continued to the game where fans didn’t even show up. When you watched the game on television, you could tell the “Chiefs faithful” didn’t turn out to fill Arrowhead Stadium. I don’t give a rat’s behind how damn cold it is. That is absolutely no excuse. If I lived in Kansas City, you bet your red and gold butt I would have been there.
It’s hardly a “home field advantage” if there’s no noise. And there wasn’t any noise. Not one false start. Not one delay of game. The red sea…wasn’t. And that’s sad.
To top this day off, the headline STILL ticking across ESPN and the NFL Network is that the Oakland Raiders have clinched their first playoff berth since 2002. That disgusts me.
Two games to go: win next week and at least they’re in the playoffs. Maybe they’d have a better chance if they fired Andy Reid, started Tyler Bray and relocated the team to San Antonio.
