The Kansas City Chiefs seem to have turned things around after their mid-season swoon, but substituting touchdowns with field goals won’t win a Super Bowl.
The Kansas City Chiefs have given their fans plenty to celebrate recently. For the first time in team history the Chiefs have won the division in back to back seasons. They also have a 4,000 yard passer, a 1,000 yard rusher and a receiver and tight end with over 1,000 receiving yards for the second time in history.
On Christmas Eve the Chiefs secured the division with a respective win against the Miami Dolphins in their home finale. Still, there are some glaring issues that will keep Andy Reid’s Chiefs from advancing further than the first weekend of playoff football.
Another achievement for the Chiefs that came Sunday afternoon was Harrison Butker making the most field goals in a season in franchise history. Impressive, being that Butker was on the Carolina Panthers practice squad for the first three weeks of the season.
Turning a positive into a negative can be hard on the blood pressure and sometimes depressing, but often needs to be addressed if the situation allows. If Butker is kicking the most field goals in team history, it means the Chiefs aren’t scoring touchdowns.
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This style of play can beat the likes of the Dolphins, Chargers, and Raiders, but field goals will not beat the Patriots and Steelers. Field goals can often be looked at as a missed opportunity. Better than nothing, but not what was intended. Missed opportunities simply don’t win championships.
Missed Opportunities
Four of Butker’s five field goals came in the red zone against the Dolphins. He also missed a 46 yard try. Kickers don’t lose games, they win games. Without Butker’s kicks the score would have been 17-13, which is still a win of course.
On the other hand, if the Chiefs scored touchdowns instead of those four red zone field goals, the score would have been 45-13.
Two of three field goals came in the red zone against the Chargers. That’s an eight point swing. Two of four were red zone kicks against the Raiders. In total that is eight missed opportunities during the three game winning streak. That’s 56 potential points that could have come from touchdowns. The math says that is a possible 32 point swing.
In the 12-9 overtime loss against the Giants, all three field goals by Butker came from the red zone. All in all, 22 of his 36 field goals came from 39 yards or less, which is either red zone, or close to red zone opportunities.
Playoff Potential
Moral of the story, the Kansas City Chiefs must find a way to get the ball into the end zone. Teams like Pittsburgh and New England will welcome field goals instead of touchdowns each and every game.
Andy Reid can draw up plays with the best of them, it is up to Alex Smith and the rest of the Chiefs to execute those plays and take care of business. The formula is clear. The Chiefs have had no problem moving the ball, the problem has been crossing the pylons with that ball. If Kansas City can fix that issue and that issue alone, the possibilities are endless.
Score touchdowns, win football games.