KC Chiefs: The Playoff Version of Alex Smith

The KC Chiefs head to Houston on Saturday for the second playoff appearance in three seasons. Hopefully, the playoff version of Alex Smith decides to show up.

The last time a Kansas City sports team rolled into Houston for a playoff game, the city was left speechless and the Texas Governor put his foot in his mouth. But that’s a different story for a different sport for a different day. The 2015 KC Chiefs look to change the stigma associated with the Chiefs and the playoffs.

For the last 22 years, they’ve gone without a win in the post season. The last time they won a playoff game was in 1993 and ironically enough, they traveled to Houston. The team they beat that year, the Houston Oilers, no longer exists.

Maybe this small piece of irony is all the Chiefs will need to snap their playoff losing streak of eight consecutive games. But most likely, it will take continued stellar post season play by their captain and quarterback, Alex Smith.

While Alex may not be a top passer during the regular season, his stats jump off the page in his limited post season appearances.

Alex Smith has been somewhat of a question mark throughout his career. For a long time it looked as if he would be a bust after being the first overall pick for San Francisco in 2005. Smith finally got a break when Jim Harbaugh took over in San Francisco and used a system that played to Alex’s strengths.

Once Smith got a chance to settle in, he became one of the most dependable quarterbacks in the league. Everyone knows the story on smith. He’s a guy that will protect the football but doesn’t really light up the scorecard.

He’s more a less a game manager, and he’s a pretty good at it. After all, he has the most wins by a Chiefs quarterback ever in any of their first three seasons. While Alex may not be a top passer during the regular season, his stats jump off the page in his limited post season appearances.

Below are a few stats on Alex Smith comparing his regular season numbers to his playoff numbers. (Stats courtesy of www.pro-football-reference.com, chart courtesy of Microsoft Excel)

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Although only having a very small sample size to work with, Smith’s numbers in the playoffs are impressive. It’s enough information to prove that he won’t buckle under pressure and in fact may even play better under pressure. Kansas City sports fans have gotten accustomed to players responding well in high leverage situations and Smith is no exception.

While Smith is 1-2 in the playoffs, neither of those losses can be pinned on him. His first loss came at the hands of a Giants team who took advantage of two special teams’ turnovers, and his other loss saw the Chiefs’ defense collapse to blow a huge lead.

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If you’re wondering about home-road splits, Smith has only played one of his playoff games on the road. That was the aforementioned Chiefs loss in Indianapolis. Smith played the best playoff game of his short playoff career throwing four touchdowns and passing for over 370 yards.

If the Chiefs hope to beat the Texans on Saturday they’re going to need the playoff version of Alex Smith to be in full effect. Houston has a monster on defense and Smith will need to be at his absolute best to beat them.

Both of these teams are different animals than they were when they met in week one. Houston’s defense has solidified and recently gotten more solid quarterback play from Brian Hoyer. Meanwhile the Chiefs have lost their best player but found new heroes in the backfield. Maclin has found his stride and is clicking with Alex Smith at just the right time.

Next: Top 5 Chiefs Quarterbacks of All Time

Let’s go Chiefs and let’s go Alex Smith! You have a defense that shouldn’t give up a big lead this time. You throw four touchdowns this time and you can expect a different result.

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