Kansas City Chiefs intel

here are some PFF rankings for comparison:

Pitt vs KC

offense passing ranking 23rd vs 18th

receiving 17th vs. 23rd

rushing 3rd vs 14th

pass blocking 2nd vs 13th

run blocking 6th vs 17th

run defense 18th vs 25th

pass defense 18th vs. 12th

pass coverage 8th vs. 5th

This game might come down to turnovers. The Chiefs are good at takeaways, we are average. The Chiefs don't give it away, we do sometimes. let's hope for better.

Alex Smith's TD pass vs. INT ratio has been good his 4 years in KC. 23 to 7, 18 to 6, 20 to 7, 15 to 8. I usually don't think of Alex Smith and 'good' in the same sentence. Here's one more thing Pitt will need to watch out for.....Smith ran for 5 TDs this season. Really???? Yep. I'll show you a Dak Prescott rollout that I think KC will use against us in this game if I can find the pictures. Andy Reid might get fancy and try this if he thinks Smith has some legs. It was used to keep James Harrison home more and not rushing so fast. After what Bud Dupree did to Dolphin Moore, I don't think they'll run it to Dupree's side.

since coming back from his injury earlier in the season, Ben has thrown the highest % of his passes deep of any QB in the NFL. ( Ben's 16.9% vs. 13.9% for #2 ranked Cam Newton) The weather might limit the deep throws in this game, hurts Pitt. This game was predicted to be the lowest scoring game this weekend and that was before the bad weather.



Antonio Brown is tied for the NFL lead with 8 TDs from deep throw targets.

The Chiefs have a shutdown CB in Marcus Peters who holds opposing QBs to their second lowest QB rating when throwing in his direction, trailing only Josh Norman over the last two year period. The catch is....he only plays on the left side and does not play one on one against the opposing teams #1 WR. When by chance covering Brown in the game earlier this season, Peters didn't see a single target. Probably a good idea. Well that leaves CB Terrance Mitchell at RCB when offenses are in 3 WR sets. He holds QBs to a 58.8 QB rating when throwing at him, for a ranking of 5th best in the NFL. Not much drop off there.

The Chiefs really do have a winning formula for pass defense. a good rush forcing throws into a ball hawk secondary. reminds me of our Kevin Greene and Rod Woodson days.



The Chiefs' pass rush holds opposing QBs to the 5th lowest QB rating when pressured. (Giants #1)

The last game the Chiefs lost was to the Titans, and PFF said the reason the Titans won was because of their OL......ahem...we have a pretty good one. PFF grades all NFL offensive linemen on pass blocking and here's how ours finished: Villaneuva 26th of all LTs, Foster 4th of all LGs, Pouncey 7th of all Centers, DeCastro 9th of all RGs, Gilbert 8th of all RTs. That's pretty good and their 14 sacks allowed was the 3rd fewest in the league.



Let's hope the game doesn't come down to special teams too. As previously noted in the Pitt-KC pregame thread. If it comes down to turnovers and special teams, advantage KC. If it comes down to a shootout, advantage Pitt.

 

To Alex Smiths running this year... he has about 130 yds this year or so when I looked it up. Way down from the 400 or 300+ he usually has IIRC. What gives? Are the skilled players finally stepping up - as in Maclin, Kelce, Ware and Hill. I posted a couple days ago about his 5 rushing TDs in another thread, he is a threat but his yardage seems down. Maybe he's just picking his spots.

 

Smith averaged 394 yards rushing in his first 3 years with KC. He has 134 this year. I think its his reliance on Kelce and that should be the Steelers defensive goal imo. He had Jamaal Charles and Derek Bowe in previous years so I think the emergence of Kelce is the difference. Bracket the TE on his pass routes and keep contain on the edges. Boom done.

 

KC Intel: they haven't won a home playoff game since 1993, no reason for that streak to end.

 

For me it would come down to red zone efficiency. Kansas City takes care of the football extremely well and takes the ball away just as well.

 

Here's the Dak Prescott rollout that I think KC will use: