The Exasperating Reid, Episode LXVIII

I just had to do it, I just had to. I had to add this post. Right now Chiefs fans are going apoplectic over Andy Reid's decision to continue with Alex Smith in spite of the fact that it was proven Smith absolutely cannot deal with the kind of defense teams are throwing at them since they've finally got what Pittsburgh does to the Chiefs time after time after time.

Apparently this "Cover 2" defense is the culprit, but I'm hearing this is a basic set that any team should be able to address, adjust to, and beat. Andy Reid has been coaching for -- ahem -- how long? How many times has an average Pittsburgh defense smashed Reid's face into the ground and twisted his arm behind his back with whatever it is they do?

Reid has firmly announced he's going with Smith, even though everything points to Smith's refusal to cope no matter what Reid does. "Fool me once shame on you [the Giants game], fool me twice shame on me [the Bills game]." In fact it is really many more games than that in which Reid continues to believe Smith can do the job. We should be beating any NFL team regularly 28-14. Instead we've always eeked out wins, or gotten spanked by bad teams as we have recently, having to endure over and over the precise things Smith and Reid are incapable of doing.

Again, read this post from Arrowhead Pride if you haven't already. 

It simply isn't a matter of Andy Reid coming up with another game plan to address the horror of Chiefs football these days. It is a matter of going with Mahomes. Yes, I confess, before the Bills game I did insist we should go with Smith for the rest of the season, but then I saw the light.

We simply don't have anything to lose with Mahomes in there.

And besides, here's the main thing with Reid. If he's such a good coach, why can't he put in place things that Mahomes would do, that he can do that Alex Smith simply can't?

I guess right now I'm okay with whatever happens. Here are the four possibilities, and really, all four are fine as long as Mahomes turns out to be a fine quarterback for us sometime.

1. Smith stays in and stinks like we all think he will. What's good about it: More credibility for our view that Smith needs to be benched, more likely Mahomes will finally go in. The difficult part is the question about whether it will move the Hunt-Veach faction to put pressure on Reid, even going so far as to consider letting him go if he continues to refuse to go with Mahomes.

2. Smith stays in and does well enough to win us more games. What's good about it: We win more games, we get into the playoffs, though not getting past a Pittsburgh or New England yet again will be a major disappointment. But then, we're used to it, so what's different? Oh well. At the very best Smith figures it out, decides he wants to win football games, and will actually truly comprehensively do what Reid says he's going to do to change things up. Okay so we're going to go with another thing Reid's going to pull out of his hat to fix all this. Yeah, I'm thinkin' ::HAHAHAHAHA:: too, but again, it's what we've got, let's just see. What are we going to do?

3. Mahomes goes in and stinks up the place. What's good about it: He learns and learns and learns by walking, no, by running and plowing and slashing about in the fires of fierce adversity. Let's get him going on this thing though, dammit, right now. Let's actually win football games sometime doing what our players can consistently do best.

4. Mahomes goes in and does pretty well. What's good about it: See the first part of Item 2 just above -- even with Bennie Logan at quarterback winning games is a very very very good thing. What's better is that we'll see what we should get with Mahomes and joyfully anticipate those future days when he's torching opponent defenses even more viciously. And again, if we don't get far in the playoffs (if we even get there), what do we have to lose? We're already resigned to that with this brutally realistic assessment of Smith.

Yes, there is no question about 98% of us Chiefs fans desperately want either Item 3 or 4 to happen. As of now, we won't get it. Andy Reid may have Santa Claus' girth, but he doesn't have his generosity.

So we'll just watch what happens when the Chiefs play another New York team, the Jets, this Sunday. Third time's the charm right?

Right Andy Reid?

To be fair, I should close with a link to this piece from an SI guy, who also does a decent job of dissecting what's ailing the Chiefs right now. Interestingly though, while this writer elucidates the reasons why Smith should stay in, he ironically and perhaps somewhat inadvertently demonstrates how much Mahomes should be in there. All those things this guy says should keep Mahomes off the field for now are covered in the Arrowhead Pride analysis, every one.

Mahomes should be in right now.

But again, among all of the four things that can happen, there are some nice advantages to each. It may be perverse, I agree, but this Chiefs thing can actually be pretty good right now. 

___