Today’s entry in the Reason Why The Chiefs Are Struggling is a good one. Former Chiefs QB and current CBS broadcaster Rich Gannon went on 610 Sports with Lake and Bink and had a good point about the Chiefs offense.
Gannon said that after the Chiefs lit the NFL world on fire in the first five weeks and they did it by blending the west coast offense and spread elements that other defensive coaches around the league spent a long time looking at their offense.
Tl;dr: the Chiefs have been figured out and they haven’t responded.
“I would tell you that after what they did the first month of the season a lot of teams around the league took a look at that,” Gannon said on 610. “I’m talking about offensive staffs trying to incorporate and borrow and steal those ideas and concepts into their game plans.
“I think defenses really went out of their way to look at and see (the Chiefs offense) because this is a copycat league so you look at the success Kansas City is having, well, let’s take a couple of their plays and incorporate them into our game plan down in the red zone.
“Defensive coordinators have spent a lot of time studying what the Chiefs had done. It was cutting edge, it was different, it was unique. The shovel passes, the end arounds, the sudden change of direction plays, the misdirection. It was a lot of different things because of the personnel they had with Tyreek Hill and (Kareem) Hunt and (Travis) Kelce doing some of that stuff.
“I think teams have studied it a little better and are more aware of it so you’re not seeing those jailbreak plays. There’s plenty of offense and there’s plenty of things they can do off of that, they just haven’t done it effectively enough.”
This isn’t a bad theory. I can buy some of this. Of course, the followup question is don’ they spend time studying the Patriots and Steelers offenses too? What do you think?