Kansas City Chiefs Archives - Head Coach Ranking

AFC Championship Observations

By HCR Staff | Jan. 20, 2020

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs and their victory yesterday, sending them to their first Super Bowl in 50 years.

Here are our observations to the game.

The Chiefs have to start faster. With the victory, Andy Reid’s Conference Championship record improves to 2-5. In order to win the Super Bowl, however, we feel the Chiefs simply have to start faster. Too many times now Reid’s teams come out tight and sluggish in big games. They caught a break when Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien decided to run a terribly ill-advised fake punt that gave much needed momentum to the Chiefs, and in yesterday’s game, the Chiefs were able to come back against a tired Titans squad playing its fourth consecutive road game. Now the Chiefs have to play on a neutral field against a team that knows how to close out games–a faster start in quarter one will be very important.

The Chiefs defense is starting to believe. The Chiefs have some very talented players on this unit–it’s just taken some time to gel under defensive coordinator’s Steve Spagnuolo’s system. But that gelling is happening, and one can see the increased confidence level, as well as the smoother communication. Spagnuolo’s also won a Super Bowl as a defensive coordinator with the Giants, and in a one-game season, we are sure he is going to empty his playbook and feature an aggressive, attacking scheme.

Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy’s play calling has been superb. Bienemy played offense as a player, and he isn’t afraid of players making mistakes–he coaches with aggression. He knows he has supremely unique talents in quarterback Patrick Mahomes and wide receiver Tyreek Hill, so he doesn’t take the ball out of their hands. Hill will get his looks running and catching, no matter the coverage. Win or lose on Super Bowl Sunday, we like this philosophy–put the ball in the hands of your best players.

What to Watch For: AFC Championship Tennessee Titans at Kansas City Chiefs

By HCR Staff | Jan. 18, 2020

To some degree, this matchup reminds us of the 2003 AFC Championship, when the high flying Indianapolis Colts visited the New England Patriots. The Colts were considered the finesse team, and the Patriots the physical team. Titans head coach Mike Vrabel took part in that game as well. Like this year’s Titans, the Patriots were a good, downhill running team.

Here’s what we’ll be watching.

Tennessee’s offensive line vs Kansas City’s front seven. The Titans’ OL is in an historic groove right now, and we don’t see Titans offensive coordinator Arthur Smith deviating too much from what’s worked for them thus far in the playoffs. Smith is going to run the ball, and he’ll want to see if the Chiefs smallish linebackers hold up–they’re not thumpers, but they’ll have to be willing. As for Kansas City, much will depend on whether defensive lineman Chris Jones plays, and they’ll have to get good rotational play from Derrick Nnadi, Mike Pennel and Xavier Williams.

Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s use of tight ends Jonnu Smith and Anthony Firkser. Smith and Firkser make for a very clutch and talented duo; not household names, but highly productive and physical. Against the Patriots, Firkser had grabs in key situations, and it’s obvious Tannehill trusts him. Smith is a physical specimen who plays to the whistle on every play; he’s a rare TE homerun hitter. Everyone anticipates the Chiefs loading the box to take away running back Derrick Henry, so Tannehill is going to have to make a few more plays in the pass game than he did in their earlier playoff wins.

Titans kicker Greg Joseph. Joseph hasn’t been called on at all in the playoffs, but we think he’s going to be called upon at least twice in this game. How clutch is he? None of us know. The difficulty for Joseph is that Arrowhead Stadium is a tough place for kickers, especially in the winter months.

Andy Reid’s Performance Was Poor Notwithstanding the Historic Victory

By HCR Staff | Jan. 13, 2020

Even though the Kansas City Chiefs rallied for an historic win at home against the Houston Texans, Kansas City head coach Andy Reid performed poorly.

We think even he would agree with this assessment.

Coming off bye weeks, Reid is among the best in NFL history. His teams usually are sharp and buttoned up. But yesterday, they were anything but. Absent a boneheaded decision by Texans head coach Bill O’Brien in calling for a fake punt ahead 24-7 early in the second quarter, Reid was headed for another disappointing playoff defeat.

The Chiefs let the Texans race out to a 24-0 lead, and nearly all of it was due to unfocused play by the Chiefs.

On defense, they blew a coverage and gave up a 54-yard TD play to Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills.

They followed that up with allowing a punt block that was returned for a TD. Then they fumbled a kickoff return that led to another TD.

That’s not the type of play that Reid’s used to coming off a bye week. Down 24-0, Reid didn’t have any answers…until O’Brien chipped in with his own mistakes.

Reid came into the game with a postseason winning percentage of 46 percent–far below his regular season winning percentage of 62 percent. That kind of record won’t help any future Hall of Fame candidacy. Next week, he has another home game for a trip to the Super Bowl against a number six seed playing its third consecutive road game. Reid has a team loaded with talent on both sides of the ball, a true home field advantage, and strong incentive to win next week. We expect to see a better performance from him because yesterday, we just didn’t get it.

Epic Malpractice by Houston Texans Head Coach Bill O’Brien Leads to Historic Defeat

By HCR Staff | Jan. 13, 2020

We don’t take any joy in writing this, and we certainly didn’t take any joy in watching it. At HCR, we want to watch good football, and head coaches showing off their strategic chops.

But the effort by Texans head coach Bill O’Brien has to be called out. In our view, his decision-making amounted to coaching malpractice–if he were a surgeon, his license would be pulled pronto.

The Texans jumped out to a quick, first quarter 24-0 lead at KC, silencing the entire Arrowhead Stadium crowd. That’s a hard thing to do, but O’Brien’s squad managed to do it.

At this juncture, O’Brien has achieved head coach nirvana–he’s in control of the momentum and his team’s confidence level is sky high. Momentum and confidence are the keys to every game, and when you have it, Rule Number One is to not affirmatively do anything to screw that up.

In short, as a head coach, you should never make a decision that harms your own team. Pretty simple, right?

Apparently, it isn’t that simple.

Ahead 24-7 early into the second quarter, and facing a 4th and 4 from his own 31, O’Brien approved a fake punt call. Generally, teams that are in control of momentum and confidence don’t pull fake punts deep in their own end because it can cause a loss of momentum and confidence. In O’Brien’s universe, however, momentum and confidence apparently have no value.

The fake punt failed. The momentum shifted, the Texans lost confidence, and proceeded to give up 34 more unanswered points from that point on.

Bill O’Brien turned a 24-7 lead, into an historic Texans loss. The Chiefs became the first team in NFL history to trail by more than 20 points and win by more than 20 in playoff history.

None of that is possible unless there is egregious human error.

We really don’t try to be hard on coaches, but we can only call it as we see it. If Bill O’Brien were the owner of the Texans, and he had to watch his head coach make this decision, we’re pretty sure O’Brien would feel the same way we do.

After the game, O’Brien said that while a 24-0 lead was good, he felt it would not be good enough against the high powered Chiefs.

We don’t buy that. That was spin. He just blew it.

He harmed his own team. Punting in that situation wasn’t even a tough call.

He made a ludicrously poor decision that no amount of spin can cover.

What To Watch For in the Houston Texans vs. Kansas City Chiefs Divisional Game

By HCR Staff | Jan. 12, 2020

Here’s what we’re keeping an eye out for in this game.

Does former New England Patriots defensive Romeo Crennel copy the Pats’ 2018 blueprint against the Chiefs? In last season’s AFC Championship Game, the Patriots had a lot of success in the first half of the game slowing down Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. Current Texans DC Romeo Crennel has a long and strong Patriots background, and we have a feeling he’s spent some time studying last season’s AFC Championship game and Bill Belichick’s defensive game plan. The Patriots were able to slow down Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce–will Crennel double him and force the action to other options?

Can the Chiefs get pressure rushing four? We think Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo would prefer dropping seven into coverage, but that only works if the Chiefs can get pressure upfront rushing only four people. The Chiefs defense over the past month has been playing much better, and they do have talent on the DL, led by Chris Jones. If the Chiefs can do this, it could be a long day for Texans QB DeShaun Watson.

Andy Reid’s clock management in a close game. With or without a Super Bowl, Andy Reid is going to be under serious consideration for the NFL Hall of Fame. However, if he’s had one blind spot in his career, it’s his clock management in close games. Icing playoff games hasn’t been his forte. We’ll see if this improves tomorrow.

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