Bills at Chiefs - Week 12 - Record: 6-5 - Part II

I simply could not leave today's nightmare without a link to this fantastic piece by a top Arrowhead Pride writer, someone who takes only about 16,000 times more time and attention to what's happening with the Chiefs than I do. (Yes, in the midst of all the agony over our Chiefs right now, I did peek around at what others were saying, again.)

This guy does a terrific job of laying out the case for putting Pat Mahomes in now. He elucidates all the things we're all seeing with Alex Smith, and laser focuses on the real problem. It isn't Andy Reid, it isn't the offensive line, it isn't a soft defense -- all of these are possible culprits in our minds to some degree, however justified any one of them is or isn't.

No, the problem is really, actually one thing.

Alex Smith.

Just looking at those highlights of Smith doing what we all see him doing -- flat-out not seeing receivers any other NFL quarterback would see and hit in stride for points points points. And he does it (or not does it as the case is) time after time after time. The footage in this piece are just samples. How many more of these kinds of episodes have you seen right there on your television but you just shrug, "Well, I'm not an NFL quarterback, so how would I know? I'm sure it's hard to be an NFL quarterback... ::sigh::..."

I can only think about these receivers doing their damnedest to get open and run their routes and desperately desire to make things happen and Smith just ditches everything one way or another because he simply cannot cope. And how gracious they have been to support their quarterback and teammate. Kudos to them for that.

But we all see it too, and we don't have to be as deferential.

The only person who counts though, is Andy Reid, and the question right now throughout all of Chiefs Kingdom is, will he be so deferential?

I simply cannot deny thinking about that time back in 2012 when Smith was benched in favor of Colin Kaepernick. At the time Smith was playing well for the 49ers when he got concussed and was out for a few games. He never saw the field again that entire season. And I think, what did Jim Harbaugh see that forced him to make what-was-then a quite dramatic move?

Anyway, you just have to read the piece. It is comforting to find a perverse appreciation for the times we've sacrificed our voices going hoarse screaming at the television "THROW - THABALL - DOWN - THAFIELD." It is quite reassuring to know that there are people who see it and know it and have some desire to commiserate with one another. It is good therapy.

It would be really good therapy to know that the Hunt-Veach-Reid brain trust sees it

And does the right thing.
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