The Kansas City Chiefs and every other team have some version of the 24-hour rule where you give yourself either 24 hours to celebrate a win or 24 hours to be miserable after a loss before moving on. That’s why I found it interesting to see Alex Smith say that he’s still thinking about all the missed opportunities in the passing game against the Houston Texans.
“I’ve been thinking about it and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t,” Alex said via quotes from the Chiefs. “We haven’t had a day like that in a long time. I can’t remember the last time.”
Alex said that he saw seven or eight “missed connections” which was “a lot of yards.” The Chiefs just seemed ... off. Even Jeremy Maclin was dropping passes, which was more unusual than Alex not throwing the ball well.
So what’s the solution?
“You don’t panic, you go back to the fundamentals a little bit,” Alex said. “You go back to the work, communicating, making sure we’re on the same page, and getting those things worked out. You can’t get everything ‘repped’ in practice, so some of that is up to us to communicate about looks we see on film and the ‘what ifs’ for different scenarios.”
Obviously the Texans played a role in this. They have a terrific defensive front that gave the Chiefs problems throughout the day. (This is normally where I would normally make a JJ Watt joke or mention that Dee Ford has more career sacks than Jadeveon Clowney but since the Texans won I can’t really talk trash for a while, right?)
The Chiefs won’t be facing another JJ Watt but they will once again be facing one of the best defensive fronts in football in the New York Jets. Leonard Williams was a No. 6 overall pick. Muhammad Wilkerson has an $86 million deal. Mizzou fans remember Sheldon Richardson. The Chiefs will find out real quick if they fixed it or not.