Offensive problems bring Chiefs down

Nov 21, 2017 - 5:21 PM KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The downward slide of the Kansas City Chiefs continued in Sunday's 12-9 overtime loss to the New York Giants, and head coach Andy Reid's once red-hot offense finds itself squarely in the crosshairs following back-to-back losses and four losses in the last five games.

"I thought defensively we played well enough, in particular early there, to win the game, and offensively we weren't able to be consistent enough," Reid said of Sunday's loss. "We were going backwards at times instead of going forward."

The Chiefs offense earned all of the glory during the team's 5-0 start. But the offensive production has plummeted during the last five games. Kansas City averaged 414.2 yards in their first five games. The club averaged only 327.6 yards over the last five.

Reid believes he can find a fix for the offense's woes.

"Right now, it's one of those things where we're off by one tick on a play, and unfortunately that's costing us," Reid said. "We got to get out of that."

The head coach pointed toward turnovers and penalties as the main culprit stealing their rhythm Sunday. The Chiefs turned the ball over three times and committed nine penalties for 87 yards.

"We'd be getting going then all of a sudden something takes you backward," Reid said. "In this league that's a tough thing, that's a tough thing to overcome. That's a proven thing."

The Chiefs fell behind 6-0 early in the second quarter against the Giants when miscues began plaguing the offense. A holding penalty wiped out a 39-yard kickoff return by De'Anthony Thomas. Two offensive line penalties wiped out an 18-yard run and a 12-yard catch by running back Kareem Hunt. The drive stalled on the Giants' 13-yard line, leading to a 31-yard field goal by Harrison Butker.

Despite the recent slide, the Chiefs still own a two-game lead in the AFC West with six games remaining. Reid now turns his focus to reminding his squad that a postseason bid remains within their grasp, so long as they keep pulling on the rope in the same direction in a virtual tug of war.

"We do that we're going to be OK," Reid said. "You got to kind of dance the same dance. Everybody's got be dancing. You have a mistake here and there and bad things happen unfortunately."

--The Chiefs stood atop the NFL, cruising to a 5-0 record with just under 3 minutes remaining in their Week 5 win over the Houston Texans when disaster struck. Wide receiver Chris Conley scooped up an onside kick and appeared ready to return it for a touchdown when he crumpled to the ground with a ruptured Achilles tendon in his left leg ending his season.

Fellow receiver Albert Wilson sprained his knee earlier in the game and, coincidence or not, the offense entered a tailspin.

The Chiefs' offense averaged 32.8 points per game through the first five games. The team averaged 19.6 points since then. In games without both Conley and Wilson, the Chiefs averaged a paltry 13 points per game.

Head coach Andy Reid supports his young understudies filling their places, but grants that missing their two veteran leaders on the field makes a difference.

"To say you wouldn't like to have those guys out, that's wrong," Reid said.

Conley and Wilson both serve as role players for the Chiefs. Conley caught 11 passes for 175 yards through the first five games, while Wilson has 17 catches for 221 yards in seven games. But Conley was the team's best blocking wide receiver, a crucial role in the team's outside zone run scheme. Wilson often plays the motion role in the team's jet sweep packages, and also helps create space for other receivers with his play from the slot.

The numbers bear out the importance of both players. Wilson and Conley rank as the team leaders among everyday players in net yards over average. The Chiefs average 1.72 yards more per play with Wilson on the field and 1.66 yards per play with Conley on the field versus the league average. Tyreek Hill ranks third among the team's receivers with 0.95 net yards over average.

Second-year wide receiver Demarcus Robinson stepped into a starting role with Conley's absence. De'Anthony Thomas took on a larger part as Wilson battled a knee sprain and later a hamstring injury. Robinson and Thomas combined for 100 snaps in Sunday's 12-9 loss to the New York Giants, yet contributed just three catches for 18 yards.

Reid remains confident in his young receiving corps, but acknowledges the offensive changes without Conley and Wilson as spark plugs.

"I'll tell you we've got young guys out there that are learning and getting better as they go on and we're still able to do some things with them out there," Reid said. "But again, it's new for them. But I still feel very positive about them."

--When the offense fails to find a rhythm, the blame often falls on the quarterback. But Chiefs head coach Andy Reid seemed uncomfortable Monday putting the blame for Sunday's loss squarely on the shoulders of Alex Smith.

"The quarterback has a responsibility there," Reid said. "He's a stand-up guy, he's always going to tell you he can do better."

But Reid said he provides his own counsel on evaluating the individual performances of his offensive players.

"What looks like it was a botched play by the quarterback, inevitably he'll take the responsibility for that," Reid said. "But there are other things that I look at that go into that that need to be done."

Reid said he considers the defensive pressure, whether receivers ran the correct route depths and even the play-call itself to determine what led to the breakdown of an unsuccessful play.

"Did we put the guy in the right position to make the play?" Reid asked. "That's how we go about it and then that's how you play and gain play time, all those things go into that and that's how we analyze it."

And Reid rather defiantly said he doesn't plan to change the way his evaluation process operates.

"It's been fairly successful for us so we're going to keep doing that," Reid said. "We're going to tweak what we need to tweak, but we're going to keep working that system that we're doing and try to get better at it here."

--The Chiefs made a change along their offensive line Sunday against the New York Giants, with backup Zach Fulton drawing the start at left guard.

Journeyman offensive lineman Bryan Witzmann started the first nine games of the season at left guard. The team converted Witzmann from tackle during the offseason to fill in for Parker Ehinger, who is continuing his return from a torn ACL sustained in October 2016.

Fulton started six of the team's first nine games, including five games at center for injured starter Mitch Morse and one game at right guard for injured starter Laurent Duvernay-Tardif.

Ehinger was on the team's inactive list Sunday, and the team's long-term plan for the position remains unclear. Head coach Andy Reid did not rule out an eventual return to the line for Ehinger.

"We're not ignoring him," Reid said. "We look at those things. Right now we feel Zach was the best option there."

NOTES: LB Terrance Smith left Sunday's game with a concussion and remains in the league's concussion protocol. Smith received a flag for unnecessary roughness for a block on New York Giants long snapper Zak DeOssie. ... CB Steven Nelson left Sunday's game during the overtime period with an undisclosed injury. Nelson, who missed the first seven games of the season while on injured reserve with a core muscle injury, landed awkwardly on his chest while attempting to make a tackle. Head coach Andy Reid said after the game he believed Nelson would be OK. ...

LB Dee Ford missed his fourth game of the season with a lingering back issue, and his availability remains unclear for this week's matchup against Buffalo. ... LB Tamba Hali did not play Sunday against the Giants after making his return to the roster in Week 9 against the Dallas Cowboys. Hali played 23 snaps in that game, but head coach Andy Reid said the veteran pass rusher experienced swelling in his knee afterward that kept him out of practice last week. ... WR Albert Wilson missed his second straight game with a hamstring injury. Wilson initially sustained a sprained knee in Week 5 against the Houston Texans, and the two injuries have limited him since then. His availability for the team's Week 12 game against Buffalo remains in doubt. ... DE Allen Bailey sat out Sunday's game with a sprained knee. Reid indicated Bailey's knee improved during the bye week and in the lead up to the Giants game, but he was held him out of the game as well as practice last week. ... LB Reggie Ragland played a season-high 47 snaps on defense against the Giants, cementing his status as the team's starting Mike linebacker. LB Ramik Wilson appeared only on special teams. Reid said Ragland did a nice job against the Giants and believes he continues improving week-by-week. ... LB Derrick Johnson and LB Kevin Pierre-Louis split playing time down the middle against the Giants in the Will linebacker role. Johnson played a season-low 35 snaps with Pierre-Louis playing 34 snaps. Head coach Andy Reid plans to continue rotating his inside linebackers to keep everyone fresh and playing more aggressively downhill.



REPORT CARD VS. GIANTS

--PASSING OFFENSE: D-minus - Could the Chiefs passing attack have fared even worse than it did Sunday against the Giants? Yes, it could have actually been worse, which is the only reason quarterback Alex Smith and his group avoid the F grade. Smith saw his streak of passes without an interception end in Week 9 at 297, and now he has three in last 46 passes. Unless the ball went to tight end Travis Kelce or wide receiver Tyreek Hill, the Chiefs couldn't move the ball through the air. The Chiefs whiffed on three trips inside the red zone, a touchdown on any of which wins the game. Failing to get a touchdown from Kelce against the worst team in the league defending the end zone against tight ends is an unpardonable sin.

--RUSHING OFFENSE: C-plus - The Chiefs rushed for a solid 134 yards on the ground and Kareem Hunt averaged a decent 4 yards per carry. But penalties wiped out 27 rushing yards from Hunt and another 12-yard reception that killed any momentum the Chiefs hoped to build. Hunt had just four rushes in the first half, even as the Chiefs struggled to control the clock and move the ball through the air on a windy day.

--PASS DEFENSE: C-plus - The Chiefs showed some improvement in the passing game, allowing Eli Manning just 205 yards through the air. But given that Manning entered the day with an injury-decimated receiving corps led by Roger Lewis, who entered the game with 14 catches for 166 yards, the Giants were still too successful. The Chiefs' paper-thin pass rush generated zero sacks and tallied just a single quarterback hit, allowing Manning way too much time to operate. The final numbers look OK and the defense played well enough to win, aside from failing to stop the Giants on the game's final drive in overtime. Grading on a curve given the competition, however, a playoff defense should have dominated this game.

--RUSH DEFENSE: B - Again the overall numbers look good, with the Giants gaining 112 yards on the ground and averaging just 3.5 yards per carry. Again, the run defense played well enough to win, but still allowed the Giants above their season average. The Chiefs bend-but-don't-break defense yielded again in allowing Orleans Darkwa into the end zone. A solid but not spectacular effort from a struggling Chiefs defense.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B - Special teams penalties cost the Chiefs at several key junctures again. Both kickoff and punt return teams cannot find a way to break the big one, with the kickoff team average just 22 yards per return. The coverage teams and kicker Harrison Butker boost this grade. The rookie kicker provided all the Chiefs' scoring with three field goals, including the game-tying 23-yarder forcing overtime. The rookie Butker has made 22 straight field goals, matching the franchise record shared by Pete Stoyanovich and Ryan Succop.

--COACHING: F - The lowest possible grade gets earned when nothing could get worse, and head coach Andy Reid and his staff earned it this week. Given two weeks to prepare for a struggling team with arguably one of the league's worst defenses, Reid's team laid the proverbial egg. It's hard to imagine this game going worse for the Chiefs, and Reid agrees the responsibility rests with him. The defense showed some improvement this week, but still allowed too many rushing yards to a woeful ground attack. But Reid owns responsibility for the offense, which utterly failed in all aspects. The Chiefs again abandoned any commitment to the run game and committed to a passing attack that lacks teeth beyond Kelce and Hill. If the Chiefs hope to right this sinking ship, Reid and his coaching staff must get this team back to what it does well.