Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs Win Behind the Play of Unlikely Heroes

Jason Seibel October 17, 2016 No Comments

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The Kansas City Chiefs Win Behind the Play of Unlikely Heroes

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The Kansas City Chiefs are the best team in the AFC West and it’s because of quarterback Alex Smith, pass rusher Dee Ford and running back Spencer Ware. If that isn’t the most unlikely set of heroes, I don’t know who is.

 

While everyone is aware, and agrees, that Spencer Ware is good great at football things, having him contribute 163 yards of total offense and a touchdown when a healthy Jamaal Charles was also on the field was surprising to say the least. While I applaud head coach Andy Reid’s use of Charles in this game–giving him just enough work to get his confidence back and to quote the Voice of the Chiefs, Mitch Holthus, “taste the sweet, sweet nectar of the end zone”– I will say I was surprised at exactly how much Ware was used.

 

Many have said that once Charles was back and healthy, Ware would be the thunder to Charles’ lightening, but during this game, there was a helluva lot of noise, and not much light, if you know what I mean. Ware was used to degrade and demoralize the Oakland Raiders the entire game. They were simply unable to stop his continual hammer-style rushing attack. It almost wasn’t fair.

 

On the defensive side of the ball, the Chiefs were going to have their hands full. Everyone knew it from the opening kickoff. Entering this Week Six contest, the Raiders had the No. 5 overall rated offense in respect to yards per game. Raiders’ quarterback Derek Carr has been electric in his four wins and he has a very good corps of wide receivers as well as an offensive line who holds up well. That’s putting it lightly. Coming into yesterday, Carr had only been sacked five times all season.

 

Chiefs’ linebacker Dee Ford has been labeled as a “bust” already in his young career. He hasn’t quite lived up to his first-round-pick-status, nor the comparisons to the late, great Derrick Thomas and that amazing “first step.” Instead, Ford has avoided contact, been slow off the ball and an all-around disappointment. Even I lamented at the huge miss by general manager John Dorsey earlier this year.

 

But just like last year, Ford seems to have a serious knack to show up in the most opportune times and make the play that absolutely, positively has to be made at the exact time it has to be made when the game is on the line.

 

Take this game, for example. After the Chiefs kicked a field goal to make the score 26-10–and a Raiders’ comeback still very attainable–Carr was moving the offense. In fact, he had maneuvered the Silver and Black into position to punch it into the end zone, or at least kick a field goal and attempt to get the ball back. On a second-and-ten yard play, when the Chiefs needed to stop the Raiders, Ford came up huge, sacking Carr, causing a fumble and giving the Chiefs the ball back.

 

That alone would have been good enough to give him a reprieve from the calls for him to be cut from the team. But on the very next Raiders’ drive, Carr was attempting to convert a fourth-and-fourteen, when Ford chased him around the left end of the line and brought him down by his ankles, effectively ending any hope for an Oakland comeback.

 

Those were just his “great” plays. As it turns out, Ford was really good all day long.

 

Yes, we know that the Raiders’ defense isn’t very good. But they do have a guy named Kahlil Mack on their team. It seems that they should have been able to muster a better performance than one guy. Pretty impressive. Maybe Dorsey didn’t whiff after all.

 

Finally, I’d like to talk about Alex Smith. The afternoon started off with this gem.

 

I seriously wonder about people sometimes. I honestly thought we might hear the calls for Nick Foles at some time this season, but I didn’t think it would be in Week Six when the team was 2-2. It’s truly amazing at how short some people’s attention spans and memories are.

 

Have we forgotten 10 straight regular season wins last season? Have we forgotten the first playoff win since I was in high school? (I’m almost 40, by the way.) Have we forgotten the quarterback that put his team on his back in the first week of the season and led the biggest comeback in Chiefs history? Finally, have you ever seen Nick Foles play football? I mean after his first few games with the Philadelphia Eagles. Have you seen him play football recently? If you had, you wouldn’t be tweeting silly things like that.

 

Alex Smith was about as perfect as an NFL quarterback gets yesterday. The fact that he did it in a virtual monsoon in the worst stadium in the world made his game all that much better. Did you know Smith tied a franchise record he now co-owns with Lenny “The Cool” Dawson?

 

Alex Smith also is the sole owner of another record after yesterday’s performance.

 

 

I’m thinking that’s pretty damn good. Smith hasn’t looked the same this season, and I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s another year older on his legs and his arm. Perhaps the plays aren’t being called the same–we know that former offensive coordinator Doug Pederson is now holding the reigns in Philly–which could be some of it. I’m not exactly sure why Smith hasn’t looked the same, and it doesn’t really matter.

 

In addition to running this offense as adeptly as any quarterback has run any offense, Smith managed to drop a couple of dimes in tight coverage to his receivers. Maclin and Wilson were both on the receiving end of deep Smith passes. A third explosive play was broken up by what should have been a pass-interference, but just ended up being an incomplete pass because the official didn’t see Chris Conley being mugged. Apparently. Again, this was all done in a torrential downpour that lasted nearly the entire game.

 

My point here is, that these three players stepped up when their team needed them. Of course, they weren’t the only ones. A huge hit from Derrick Johnson helped fire up the team. Marcus Peters’ fifth interception of the year against Carr was a huge boost to the team in the first quarter. Tyreek Hill had a huge 50-plus yard punt return that set up the Chiefs with excellent field position, and Smith hit the big man, Dontari Poe for a screen-pass touchdown, which had the entire team fired up. Of course, there was one person not happy about that play.

 

This team is going places. I predicted them 12-3 at the beginning of the season and I’m sticking by that. They are the best team in the AFC West and it’s not close. Now that this offense is starting to click they are going to take off, and they just got Charles back. Wait until this defense has Justin Houston on the field. They will be unstoppable.