Kansas City Chiefs: Offense Struggling Through First Four Games

Before the season began, most Kansas City Chiefs fans thought the offense would be the strength of the team while the defense takes a step back. Unfortunately, the offensive has been much worse than the fans worst nightmares. Let’s find out the reason why and give some advice to fix it.

The KC Chiefs have talent on offense. The talent isn’t being utilized correctly in my humble opinion. Who else is sick and tired of seeing any kind of screen play? I’m not sure if I can take one more this season.

It seems as if most of the screen plays fail epically. Sure some actually work but that’s the minority of the plays. I want Alex Smith to have faith in himself and his wide receivers to throw the football down the field on a more consistent basis and not behind the line of scrimmage on what seems like over half of the offensive plays each week.

Another problem I have with Smith is his inability or his disdain to throw the ball more than 20 yards downfield more than a handful of time each game. Smith’s average yards per attempt through four games is 6.4 yards per pass.

One thing I do love about Alex Smith is his ability to limit interceptions. His interception total isn’t high because he doesn’t throw the football down the field a lot. Also, most of the time he stays away from double or triple team coverage. There have been a few plays this season where he zipped the ball into double or triple team coverage for a completion which shocked me.

Another player who’s played well but not up to snuff lately is running back, Spencer Ware. Sunday night Ware didn’t play well. He fumbled the ball for the third time this season and he ran into a defensive lineman leading to a rare Alex Smith interception. Smith looked to dump the ball off to Ware on a screen play but Ware was on the ground.

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Ware’s rushed the ball 54 times for 284 yards and one rushing touchdown. He’s caught 11 passes for 199 yards as well. The three fumbles are a bit concerning. He didn’t fumble the ball once last season on 72 rushing attempts and six receiving attempts.

The good news for Kansas City Chiefs fans is Jamaal Charles is back. The Kansas City Chiefs should increase his workload after the bye week this week. Ware should be the backup to Charles in the near future which should help the offense score more points.

Speaking of scoring points, the Kansas City Chiefs offense seemingly can’t score points on a consistent basis this season. In the last three games, the Chiefs offense has mustered 36 total offensive points scored. That’s an average of 12 points per game.

The Kansas City Chiefs only scored 24 points against the New York Jets at Arrowhead Stadium after receiving eight turnovers in the game. The Chiefs should have scored at least 40 points that game but they didn’t because they can’t convert touchdowns often enough. Through the first quarter of the season, the Chiefs offense totaled seven offensive touchdowns.

How can they fix the offense? I think the play calling needs to change a bit. Don’t do the screens all the time and throw the ball down the field more often. The Chiefs have talented receivers like Jeremy Maclin, Chris Conley and Travis Kelce to throw the football to down the field.

Jamaal Charles will help the offense be more dynamic when he returns to be the lead back. Charles is a big playmaker for the Kansas City Chiefs. On one play, he can take it to the house for a quick six points for the good guys.

Finding a reliable third receiver is needed. I think that guy could be Albert Wilson. Wilson saw an expanded role during the Steelers game. He hauled in five of eight targets for 52 yards against the “black and gold” on Sunday night football. His routes looked smooth and he made a couple of tacklers miss. Wilson also knows the playbook much better than rookie receiver, Tyreek Hill.

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What do you think Chiefs fans? Will the Kansas City Chiefs change the play calling after the bye week? Will the offense finally get it together in the near future? Let me know what’s on your mind in the comments’ section below.

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