Pro Football Focus sends along some of their most interesting stats after each Kansas City Chiefs game. One of them on Alex Smith stood out this week.
Alex’s final line of 366 yards and four touchdowns is impressive and it’s something he did largely against no pressure. PFF tracks stats from when Alex had pressure from the Jets and when he didn’t. Check this out:
On passes with no pressure: 17-21 for 323 yards, three touchdowns and a 158.3 passer rating
On passes with pressure: 2-12 for 43 yards, one touchdown, two sacks, one run and a 69.8 passer rating (15 dropbacks).
Josh McCown’s numbers weren’t as good but obviously they were really good against no pressure too (as it turns out not having a 6’5, 265-pound man in your face makes it easier to throw!). The Chiefs obviously built this team the way that they did — a lot of draft capital and money in the offensive line — thinking they would be able to protect the quarterback. If Alex Smith is your quarterback and he performs like this without any pressure then you can see why the Chiefs would invest in the line and go into this year thinking they had a good one.
One other note about the Chiefs offensive line, they did look better on Sunday against the Jets. Maybe that’s because of all the big plays. Last week, some of the Twitter highlights showed Zach Fulton getting beat at left guard against the Bills. I should note from these same PFF stats that Fulton did not allow a pressure yesterday against the Jets despite switching from left guard to center after Mitch Morse’s injury. That’s an impressive response.