Yes, yes, I know for eons we've been severely admonished not to compare Alex with Aaron, because it is so easy since Alex was taken first in the 2005 draft and Aaron, what was it, 24th or something like that. Alex was bounced around from one 49ers offensive coordinator to another while Aaron got to settle in waiting for Brett Favre to finish up before he took over. Not fair.
But my comparison here is about this thing that I've been thinking about.
Have you noticed that when Aaron Rodgers plays, it seems like you've got him pinned down, but he just gets up and torches you with some heart-breaking, will-shattering play that only he can make. It's 3rd-&-16 after he's just dumped a pass and gotten sacked, yet the next play is a fiery dart 20 yards downfield to a double-teamed receiver at the sideline. He'll do it again and again until the game's over, you look up, and the scoreboard says "Green Bay 20, Your Team 19."
Then there's Alex Smith.
Have you noticed that when Alex Smith plays, he'll throw a super crisp wide-out pass in the flat for 7, then a soft toss to the tight end for 18, then scramble and plow into some impenetrable linebacker and stretch for the first down. Awright awright awright! Amazing Alex Smith!
Then he implodes. Then he throws the ball away. Then he dances around and gets sacked. Then he misfires on a pass the receiver just can't track.
Then at game's end you look up at the scoreboard and it says "Other Team 12, Kansas City 9."
This is why Alex Smith is the anti-Aaron Rodgers, and every Chiefs fan knows it.
Please, we all know Alex Smith is a winning quarterback. We all know the Chiefs have been winning regular season games on a regular basis ever since Alex got here in 2013. That's cool -- again, we all have a love-hate relationship with Alex Smith.
But the fact is Aaron Rodgers has a slough of playoff wins under his belt and a Super Bowl ring. Alex Smith has one Chiefs playoff win in his four years here, that one over a decimated Texans team in 2015. I can't neglect to mention that I believe this does have a lot to do with that supernatural impediment that somehow someway dooms the Chiefs every year -- Alex Smith is just an unfortunate part of that.
Still, there is something about Aaron Rodgers that gets it done, and something about Alex Smith that doesn't. Please don't get me wrong -- I am going on record now with much more forcefulness to insist that I'm looking for Alex to pick it up, revert back to his first-five-games-of-this-season form in which he was blisteringly good, and we run the table and make the fine playoff run we should be making.
I am genuinely really hoping for that.
On the other hand, I can't deny precisely what I wrote about in my post-ugliness post yesterday...
That it'll be really nice to see Pat Mahomes in there in 2019 doing Pat Mahomes winning things.
See, I never look at any of the standard NFL punditry after games, except for a few times, and I must confess I caught myself looking yesterday -- yes, just to see if anyone was calling for Pat Mahomes.
Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong WRONG.
Don't do any of that. Keep things exactly the way they are, letting Mahomes just soak up things on the sideline, learn from Alex and Andy, no pressure -- do it the way they did it with Aaron Rodgers. He got Green Bay a Super Bowl title in his fifth year in the league. Hey, I'm great with a Super Bowl title in 2022. Aren't you?
But let's let Mahomes learn and learn and learn and get him developed. Does this mean he can't go in and run things if Smith gets injured? No. But for right now just go with Smith.
Sorry folks, I got news for you.
This Chiefs team isn't going to the Super Bowl this year.
Again, our offensive line is playing abysmally right now, and our defense is far too soft without Eric Berry. Yeah, huh, I know, you've just got to work with what you've got. What, you mean we have no chance this year? No, of course not, anything can happen, and I will always hope we win the Super Bowl every year. Always. I just said I'm hoping like crazy Alex Smith gets off his rear end and shows us what he's got.
I mean, after thinking about those couple of plays yesterday in which Smith really sacrificed his body to power for the first down, you do have to admire him. We all do! Again, he's smart, he's athletic, he has a good arm, he runs plays beautifully, and let's admit it, he is very competitive. On the other hand, it was clear from yesterday's game, he's inconsistent, he has terrible downfield vision, he struggles to improvise with the pass, he gets nervous too often, and he's simply not courageous enough to make that critical clutch pass when we need it most.
Here's to hoping that he does more of those good things he can do and we can win this year -- always always hoping.
As it is, I had this final thought. The two best teams right now are clearly the Eagles and the Patriots. Looks like it may likely be those two teams in the Super Bowl, I'd think. Wouldn't you think?
You of course know what that would mean, don't you -- an Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl?
It'll mean yet another instance when the two teams appearing in the Super Bowl will have BOTH been defeated by the Chiefs in the regular season. For the fifth straight season both the Super Bowl participants will have suffered a loss to the Chiefs either the season before or the season after.*
And how many times have the Chiefs appeared in any of those Super Bowls? How many conference championship games will the Chiefs have appeared in to even earn a rematch with the team they beat or will have beaten?
Yeah, uh-huh.
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(*The 2013 Super Bowl version of the Broncos was defeated in 2015, but it was essentially the same Peyton Manning-led team. Close enough.)
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