What the Chiefs Need to Improve, in Prepping For the Playoffs – the Chiefs need to improve their level of play before the playoffs including: efficiency from the offense, consistency from the defense, and avoiding complacency trom the entire team.
Efficiency From the Offense
This season the offense has been good for one game, then bad the next. Or they have been good one possession, bad the next one. Yes, the level of talent on opposing defenses can make the Chiefs squad look good or bad, but to win in the playoffs the offensive line needs to be efficient throughout the entire blocking scheme. On many plays there’ll be only two or three quality blocks, while the remaining OL are getting badly beat, which creates:
- Sacks
- QB pressures
- Run plays for short yards, or
- Negative plays.
All of this subpar play equates into many non-scoring drives, multiple 3-and-outs, a lower 3rd down success percentage, and poor red zone efficiency. Backup offensive linemen have also matched this pattern of inconsistent play, from one down to the next.
So what must the Kansas City Chiefs do to resolve these issues?
Well, it must start with the Coaches, HC Andy Reid, OL Andy Heck, OC Eric Bieniemy, and any other assistant coaches involved in the scheme and the technique teaching of better blocking, but also instructing of better communication skills. Bret Veach is also relied on to find the right mix of players in finding replacements for the Covid issues, injuries, or just poor play. Yes the coaches select the individual players each week to start games and substitute in games, but they need an adequate and deep list to select from.
The Offensvie Linemen
We’ve seen Daniel Kilgore as the starting Center now for two consecutive games, and the reason stated by multiple sources as known Chiefs insiders, is that they are looking for better communications skills from that position. The Center is responsible for calling out blocking assignments on each individual play and last week we saw Bradley Chubb, on two separate plays, went unblocked, and yes both times he quickly sacked Patrick Mahomes. Of course the Chiefs themselves blamed no one for the mistakes, because they are not a team that assigns blame to anyone other than themselves, that’s what championship teams do!
We’ve also seen Nick Allegretti playing extended minutes with elevated play, maybe earning himself a full-time starting gig. For now, Mike Remmers is playing Right Tackle in place of the injured Mitchell Schwartz, but Remmers he is not at that same level of play that we have gotten used to. We need Mitchell back to play at a 100% pain free, or we need Martinas Rankin made available to play from his long stint on IR. Mike Remmers is better suited as a Guard, and backup duties in the future, once the best starters are designated.
Before the playoffs start, the Chiefs need to find the right 5 players that are healthy, hopefully stay healthy, have good communication skills, good cohesiveness, and to play efficient, above average play. They must keep Patrick Mahomes from being pressured at a high percentage, not allowing him to take unnecessary hits, and at the same time they need to open up the running lanes for the Running Backs.
The Offensive Skills Positions.
The QB, RBs, TE, and WRs, all need to be more consistent in their level of play. Too many times early in games we’ve seen some not giving 100% effort on every play. It seems as if they’re waiting for someone else to make a play, or maybe it’s a faulty thought process, as in: it doesn’t matter what happens in the first three quarters because Patrick Mahomes will win every game in the 4th quarter. To have overall team consistency from the skill positions, these players need to treat every play as if it’s the last possession of the game, and that they must score.
Staying Aggressive
What I’m seeing this year from the Chiefs coaches and players compared to other previous years within Patrick Mahomes tenure is less aggressiveness. Maybe Andy Reid does not want to open it up early in the year, or maybe he just does not want to open it up against non playoff teams. If that is the case then it needs to start happening soon. I don’t believe in the theory that: the way teams are playing us defensively, is making us less aggressive. The Chiefs just need to pick times to go deep and to be aggressive… wisely… not on every set of downs.
The way to beat teams in how they are game planning, is to be consistent with the running game, screen game and short quick passes on the under routes. Take what they allow because, with the Chiefs talent level, teams can not cover every player, every foot all over the field. Plus, with Andy Reid’s ingenious play calling, Patrick Mahomes should be more efficient at finding the open receiver, even if it’s only 5 yards. With most teams playing everything deep, the Chiefs should still be making good yards on short passes after the catch. We know Patrick can play and win this way, because we’ve seen him do it, we just have not seen it to be on a consistent basis. Teams will still make mistakes allowing deep passes, especially as the game wears on the DBs and LBs get physically worn down from chasing our speedster’s for 60 minutes.
Team Wide Complacency
In Week Two, the Los Angeles Chargers game was a good example of team wide complacency, a game which the Chiefs could have lost. The Las Vegas Raiders was a game where team wide complacency was clearly evident, and the Chiefs lost that game as they were not mentally tough and were looking to the next game, which at the time was an undefeated Buffalo Bills team. Complacency happens when a team is over confident, and they don’t take an opponent as a serious threat, which creates a lackluster effort, and sometimes a loss or a closer outcome than what it should have been. The lesser opponents need to be finished early in the game, don”t let them hang around long enough, that an unexpected event (interceptions, fumbles, bad calls by the refs, and a worse case scenario is an injury to a starter). Once the final result is a sure thing, because of a large score deficit, then the starters can be replaced with backups to finish the game, therefore not risking un-needed injuries to vital players.
The remaining schedule shows that the Chiefs have multiple opponents that could be overlooked and that is a serious problem that the team needs to correct. They need to change the pattern of playing down to the lesser teams and only upscaled play against the quality teams. Mahomes Magic is part of this complacency problem, as I stated earlier, players have the mindset that the Mahomes Magic will win at the end.
N.Y. Jets: Game Results
The Chiefs won easily 35 – 9. In this game they did all of the things that I just wrote about. They played focused, not complacent, they were playing and play calling aggressively, and Patrick Mahomes was taking what the Jets were leaving open: short passes. Yet, he took some shots down field: 6 passes of at least 20+ yards, with 4 TDs of at least 26+ yards. Patrick made good choices with the RPOs and numerous times could be heard calling for blocks on blitzing defensive personnel. The backs did a good job picking up blitzes, and they along with the OL kept the pressure on their QB down to a minimum. The defense played spectacularly, with the Jets punter having more yards than the Jets offense.
Summary: Prepping For the Playoffs
We see it every year, teams get hot, leading into the playoffs. Last year, the Chiefs were one of those teams. They need to do that again this year, as I am a believer that how a team plays in the regular season, does carry over into the playoffs. So they need to avoid complacency starting immediately, because it could derail the entire @runitback goal.
Alan Haupt
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