NFL Panic Button: Saints, Colts among 5 teams looking for reset button after Week 2
By Shaun Church
Kansas City Chiefs
Quotable
"It’s a great learning experience going into Miami this weekend, the guys should have confidence. They played a good football team on Sunday, a team that was in the Super Bowl last year, and had a chance to win it at the end. They should have confidence going forward."
–Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson, via BJ Kissel of the team’s official site
Why the reset button?
It’s not like the Chiefs were expected to usurp the Broncos for the AFC West division crown in 2014. They were expected to compete for an AFC wild-card spot, however.
Kansas City also fell victim to playing Manning and the Broncos on the road early this season, falling last week, 24-17. Quarterback Alex Smith and the offense had a chance to tie it late but failed at the goal line with under a minute remaining.
Smith signed a four-year, $68 million extension that will kick in for the 2015 season. He is scheduled to make $4.6 million this season before a massive jump to $15.5 million next year.
The offense has not been great early this season. They have been solid converting third downs, at 46.4 percent through Week 2, but turnovers and ill-timed issues in the red zone have hurt them.
Of six possessions in the red zone, the Chiefs have three touchdowns, a field goal, a missed field goal and that turnover on downs to end the Broncos game. And more than the red zone, Smith is not completing passes at the rate at which he needs to be.
This season, he has completed 45 of 77 passes (58.4 percent) for 457 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions for a 63.6 rating. His 3.9-percent interception rate is the highest it’s been since his rookie season, when he nearly doubled it, at 6.7 percent.
Injuries have also stung Kansas City. Running back Jamaal Charles suffered a high-ankle sprain last week that could take at least a couple of weeks to heal.
And both sides of the ball were tormented by injury during the Week 1 disaster against the Tennessee Titans. Four players had to be placed on injured reserve following the game: offensive tackle Jeff Allen (elbow), linebackers Joe Mays (wrist) and Derrick Johnson (Achilles), as well as defensive end Mike DeVito (Achilles) all are on IR.
Add to that safety Eric Berry, who left the Denver game with a sprained ankle and whose status for Week 3 is questionable, and the Chiefs are in a heap of trouble just two weeks into the season.
All statistics gathered from Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise stated
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