What actually ailed the Chiefs offense vs the Falcons?
Looking at how Kansas City shot itself in the foot on multiple drive-killing plays.
For the second season in a row, we’re asking ourselves what is going on with the Chiefs’ offense.
Theories abound. Andy Reid’s play calling is stale (and/or Matt Nagy’s influence is hurting the offense as a whole). Patrick Mahomes has been off. Travis Kelce isn’t playing like Travis Kelce. The OL has struggled in pass protection. No receivers but Rashee Rice are stepping up. Etc, etc.
The short story is that I’ve had enough people ask me about Reid and Nagy in particular that I thought it would be useful to examine and talk about what hurt the Chiefs on crucial plays against the Falcons. Was it play calling? Was it execution issues? Was the opponent just making a terrific play? By going through that, we can determine whether or not these are things that can be fixed moving forward or if they are more systemic in nature.
I’m sticking with the Falcons game because the Chiefs moved the ball well against the Ravens, and the issues against the Bengals have already been discussed at length (Kingsley Suamataia had an incredibly tough outing and Mahomes made some really poor decisions/throws that killed multiple drives).
So let’s dive right into it. Basically, I looked through each failed 3rd down from the Chiefs, as well as a few other drive-killing plays and missed opportunities, to try and pick up on what stalled the offense Sunday. Overall, as is often the case, it comes down to a few key moments and a few missed opportunities.
It’s sort of a good news, bad news situation. The good news is that the vast majority of the problems are highly fixable (non-systemic for the MOST part, we’ll talk about a few things I’d like Reid to change as well), and just require the Chiefs’ stars playing like… well, stars. The bad news is that the self-inflicted errors of the last half-decade appear to be back in full force, and this time they involve the greatest quarterback to ever live.