How can Alex Smith look so bad for three and a half quarters and then look so good for another half quarter and overtime when the pressure is on?
This stat via ESPN isn’t what I expected to see out of the Chiefs this year because Alex Smith doesn’t strike me as the lead-a-big-comeback type:
The Raiders are +39 in scoring in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter. The Chiefs are second at +27.
“Yeah, it’s weird, but I think the crazier it gets, the calmer he is,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “For whatever reason – that’s just how he’s wired. It seems to just calm everybody else down. It’s a unique thing. It’s one of the things that makes him a great player I think. He handles that very well.”
Alex credited it to the Chiefs practicing those situations.
“It’s that type of training in practice that allows you to have success in those types of situations,” Alex said. “They’re hectic and crazy. As much as everyone can think straight in a situation like that and use their head, especially down the field, the better off we are. You kind of saw that. There wasn’t any panic. Even on fourth down, it felt like everybody was locked in and didn’t skip a beat.”
This is important because, despite it being a cliche, the margin being winning and losing in the NFL is razor thin. That’s why a Bucs team can go out and beat the Chiefs and Seahawks in back to back weeks or why the Chiefs can crush the Patriots a few months before they go onto win the Super Bowl.
While it’s great to see these fourth quarter comebacks, it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if Alex were better in the first three quarters...