After last night's disaster and thinking far too much about it, I simply had to add a few thoughts in this blog post. I'm not going to get into all the technical details of our failures, but I will address them. I encourage you to slip over to Arrowhead Pride because they have people who do an excellent job with posts detailing the intricate stuff that happens with plays on the field and so forth.
I did want to bring up some ugly things about last night's game, and offer the disclaimer that indeed, everyone can have bad games and when you're playing against Aaron Rodgers, a bad game can be especially gruesome. I will never give up on the possibilities that the brutality from this one can be efficiently rectified, and that we do have the personnel from top to bottom to do that.
Thing is, yes, I'm afraid I'm going to single out one individual in particular for censure here, so forgive me. I don't dislike this individual and, as I've already said, I have that above-board devotion to him as a key Chiefs component of our success.
But damn.
Did Andy Reid get mnfmp-faced last night.
Here are the critical indictments.
1. Our running game, specifically the run-blocking. We have three backs who should be flying down the field, Jamaal, Knile, and De'Anthony. Alex Smith should be able to do that deep drop and hand the ball to any one of these guys and have them shoot the gaps that the O-line provides for them -- the issue is, they're not getting those gaps. Last night it seemed like there were 18 defenders swarming our backs.
Who are these guys on the line?
Eric Fisher. Sorry, but he absolutely must play more like the No. 1 pick he's supposed to be. Yes I know it isn't all on him, but he should be doing much more to open those lanes.
Ben Grubbs. Major pick-up from free agency who I'd heard nothing but great things about. Now these first two guys alone should be getting our backs the room they need.
Mitch Morse. The center who's been drawing raves, but he's still young and green and learning.
Laurent Duverney-Tardif. Where'd this guy come from? Seems like this is a guy who just got the job because he happened to be the best of a weak bunch. I don't know, but it looked like the Packers were just mauling him last night.
Donald Stephenson. Slotted at that left tackle position to protect the pocket. At the beginning of the season he was switched from right tackle when, ahem, Eric Fisher apparently couldn't handle that tackle job. At the beginning of the game the announcers were saying the Packers have been switching guys all around. Seemed to work for them. What's our excuse?
We just flat out didn't seem to know how to run-block. It just didn't seem to be there, even though it just doesn't seem like they're all that horrible individually.
Who is this the responsibility of?
The head coach. And I thought Andy Reid was a master working with the offensive line.
2. Our passing game. Alex Smith got sacked seven times last night.
Seven - nfnknk'ing - times.
So this offensive line that was so offensive also did an abysmal job of pass-blocking, but you know? Alex Smith is mobile, and he did have enough time to get throws off. The number of times I screamed at the television "JUST THROW THE BALL!" -- really, had to have been a record.
Why were we so out-of-sync? How come the Packers seemed to just know everything we were going to throw at them? And why can't Alex Smith just make those laser strikes to a receiver with a DB all over him?
Any time a team looks overwhelmed with an opponent that seems to psychically portend every - single - thing we did, that's on, do you know?
The head coach.
Andy Reid's passing game plan was predictable, his receivers unresponsive, his routes smothered. And here's the key.
Alex Smith looked scared all night long. I mean he looked like a bug in a bat's lair. What a contrast to the breezy, confident Aaron Rodgers. Yes, Rodgers is indeed the best player in the NFL. But Alex Smith has still got the skills, he does. I know people want to give up on him, but don't quite yet. Thing is, and this just isn't a new thing as those who know him from his early pro days, Smith can easily get shaken up.
That's on the head coach for not doing things that Alex Smith needs a coach to do. This is so critical. Smith is such a phenomenal talent, but he needs a coach to make the things happen that get him to use his abilities to the fullest.
Oh wow has Reid been failing at that, let's just face it. I mean it's been okay before, let's give him credit, we've won games with the Reid-for-Smith plan. But yeah, last night, it was like Reid just flat-out lost complete track of who his quarterback was and what he needed to do to make him successful.
3. Our pass defense. While a mediocre Packers defense looked like their 1967 version, our celebrated defense with 57 All-Pros looked like a luscious pad of room-temperature butter sitting there on the kitchen counter.
The Packers offensive players, every single one of them, had wide open spaces before them on every running and passing play. Their backs shot out into the wild like gazelles, their receivers inspired and dominant like soaring eagles. Our D-backs looked like annoying stumps.
And the Chiefs had one of the top-rated pass defenses in the NFL last year? Only this time with added fine players, and more experience, and Eric Berry back? Sorry, but a missing Sean Smith was not the reason for this failure.
It was, ahem,
The head coach.
And if you looked at Andy Reid when the cameras were on him last night, he just had that look of aggravation all night, I mean it was the same look every time you saw him. Here's the distressing thing: it was clear the look wasn't about what the Packers were doing to him, but rather that his game plan in every single area was an abject failure and he was just feeling it.
Errgh errgh errgh.
Now, this is one game. But I don't have a whole lot of confidence that the 3-0 Bengals who I presume are healthy and at home are going to make it any better next week.
Now maybe this'll all be great gut-check stuff. But it won't matter if Andy Reid doesn't have that deft insight into how to prepare for this week's team and do what it takes for him to make Alex Smith succeed.
Now just maybe our modestly inspired play in the 4th quarter of last night's game means something about the character of this team.
I'm hoping.
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