K.C. Chiefs: 5 and Oh Yes!

Your Kansas City Chiefs are 5-and-0 and look like the best team in the National Football League. They are scoring at a 32.8 points per game clip which happens to rank them… uh… let’s see… first overall! The L.A. Rams are second at 30.4 ppg and no other team charts over 30. Not since K.C. averaged 30.25 for the season in 2003 have the Chiefs offense been this much fun to watch. Yep, that was the season Priest Holmes led the league with 27 TDs all by himself.

The lessons of a team like the 2003 Chiefs include making sure you have a defense that can make stops because trying to outscore every opponent is a hard task to accomplish.  While the Chiefs have had a stellar defense in recent years, this years effort doesn’t match up well. Not yet anyway. But let’s not talk about that right now.

What I’m wondering at this moment is… have the Chiefs EVER in forever had a QB who was a legitimate MVP candidate after 5 games into the season? The answer is no. Lenny Dawson was the 1969 Super Bowl MVP and deservedly so. However — and this may not be news to you but — no Kansas City player has ever won the MVP award. Sure George Brett flirted with a .400 batting average in 1980, the year he won the MVP in the American League (he finished with a .390 average). If only George played football. But alas, we now have Alex Smith knocking on the MVP door by recording a 124.2 QB rating while no other QB with at least 33 passing attempts has a rating higher than 112.0.

This is not so much about the “numbers” either, because Smith has the look of greatness… then again, when a QB is playing so incredibly, his numbers are going to be good too. To put this in perspective, consider the following statement: Alex Smith is doing things that no human — in a Kansas City Chiefs uniform — has ever done before:

One of the pitfalls of only focusing on the stats of a QB is that football is the ultimate team sport… meaning that without solid performances of those around them, their performance means diddly-squat. Just ask Dan Marino, Warren Moon, Fran Tarkenton… you get the idea.

In fact, no matter how good a QB is, sometimes it takes the excellent play of others for that QB to shine. I recall the long and frustrating career of a guy named John Elway. Until the Broncos drafted RB Terrell Davis, when Elway was 35 years old, his career was headed for a Dan Marino epitaph (great but no championship). While many — including me — have been surmising that Alex Smith elevated play is due to the presence of an heir apparent in Patrick Mahomes II — it may be more justifiable to argue that the presence of the breakout kid — Kareem Hunt — is giving Smith the balanced attack he needs to operate within.

I’d like to echo something one of our blogger — freshmeat62 — has stated, “Alex Smith is showing the talent he’s had all along.” If you consider that to be a truth about Alex Smith, then it is also incredible that after all these years, he’s never once thrown anyone under the bus… or called out anyone else, player or coach… nor could you find him yelling at another player on the sidelines (gee, when have I seen that happen before with other players?). Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees but, it’s obvious to me the Alex Smith is a great leader and always has been, certainly while he’s donned a red and gold uniform.

As I mentioned previously, I don;t want to get too caught up in the numbers but… at the same time, if you are dominating, you’re numbers are going to be compelling, and they are:

Yes, football is a 22 man sport, at least… add in the special team players and and coaches, and you can see why it’s considered the ultimate team game. However, they don;t say that the QB position is the most important position in th game without reason. Although the Chiefs could have lost the game on Sunday night by having any one of their TDs fail… West’s catch on the goal line, DAT’s jet sweep left, West catch and dance to evade defenders on the right side… any number of plays that led to this victory could have spelled a loss. The point? That didn’t happen… and Alex Smith’s leadership and on field play was as big a reason — and really much bigger — than anything else.

If you get a chance to watch this one again… do so right away. It was a delight and I never got the idea that Alex Smith wasn’t in control of this one. 5-and-oh yes!

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