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Grading Andy Reid: Week 8 vs. Detroit Lions

By Gary McKenzie
Steve Flynn-USA TODAY Sports

Sometimes in life you are given a really easy test. The Kansas City Chiefs Week 8 game against the Lions was one such test. The Lions are in complete disarray and their struggles continued against the Chiefs. After winning 45-10 in London is there really any question as to what grade Andy Reid is getting in this game? They made the test look easy this week and Reid was well prepared for it. This will be a very abbreviated version of the post since there is so little to critique.

We'll just list each grading section and provide a few comments in regards to the positives.

Starting Lineup

It appeared Reid chose the correct starting lineup in this game. The OL consisted of Fisher-Allen-Morse-LDT-Reid. Most did a good job overall. Another notable item is that Albert Wilson saw 60 snaps compared to Chris Conley's nine. I found this interesting as it appeared Conley did a nice job filling in for Jeremy Maclin in Week 7.

Player Preparedness / Discipline

  • I liked the fire Alex Smith showed in this game. Instead of taking a slide on his 49 yard run, he elected to continue running past the safety. Smith also got in the face of Ziggy Ansah after he felt Ansah wronged him after a play.
  • The Chiefs are going to have to continue walking the fine line of showing fire while standing up for themselves but at the same time not committing too many foolish penalties. Currently they are doing a good job of this.
  • The Chiefs only committed three penalties. Excellent.

Offensive Play Calling

A lot of the success the Chiefs had on offense appeared to be due to the Chiefs players simply outmatching their opponents. The Lions players could not keep up with the Chiefs players in this game. The Chiefs players executed very well.
  • The offense went 8/13 on third down. This is the second week in a row the Chiefs were excellent on third down.
  • Scoring 45 points is a pretty good indicator for offensive success.
  • The Chiefs scored a touchdown in six out of their seven red zone drives. If the world has a tendency to even out, perhaps this is repayment for the seven FG game in Cincinnati.
  • Reid called 36 pass plays and 27 run plays. This is the balance the offense needs to be successful.

Game Altering Decisions

When your team is beating the pants off their opponent, there are not many game altering decisions to be made. Reid could have elected to run a fourth and 10 draw from his own one yard line in this game, and still won by 25-plus points. Long story short, there were no game altering decisions in this game.

Challenges

There were no challenges in this game, so the score will not be adjusted.

Total Grade 100/100

2015 Average Grade: 71.38

Next week during the bye I will do a study of Reid's behavior so far in 2015. There will be graphs, and we'll break down each section of the grading criteria to see where Reid is struggling / thriving. I am hoping to get some insight on Reid as well as perhaps see some tendencies in 2015.

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