Andy Reid's Underuse of Offensive Weapons Thwarting Kansas City Chiefs
The Kansas City Chiefs enter their bye week both optimistic about the remainder of the 2014 season and disappointed with their 2-3 record. Two of their losses came down to the final drive on the road against good teams, but the Chiefs weren’t able to make the plays necessary to win those games. The other was an ugly home loss in Week 1 to the Tennessee Titans.
A common thread in all three losses was the limited usage or availability of the Chiefs’ offensive weapons—both overall and in key moments. Head coach Andy Reid has too often used running back Jamaal Charles, tight end Travis Kelce and others at a suboptimal level, thwarting his team’s odds of victory in the process.
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Over the first five weeks of the season, the Chiefs have demonstrated they can play with the best teams in the league. If Reid can consistently get the offensive mix right, the Chiefs have a chance to be a surprise playoff team once again in 2014.
With players getting a little extra time off, the bye week is about self-evaluation. It probably isn’t hard for Reid to figure out that not getting the ball to his playmakers has cost his team victories.
| 19+ Carries | 11-1 | +13 Points | 5.4 |
| 10-18 Carries | 1-6 | -4 Points | 7.3 |
When Charles gets 19 or more touches under Reid, the Chiefs are 11-1. When he gets fewer than 19 carries, they are 1-6, with the only win against the Oakland Raiders. It’s clear there is a correlation between how Charles is used, the team’s point production and the team’s performance.
Touches for Charles correlate to points scored until the Chiefs score about 27 points, at which point his touches are probably unnecessary. That doesn’t mean giving Charles touches guarantees a certain point total, but instead that the offense is humming when they can give Charles about 20 touches per game.
The lone win on fewer than 19 touches came on a day that Charles racked up 215 yards from scrimmage on 16 touches and then took a seat on the bench in the second half. The lone loss when Charles tallied more than 19 touches was when the Chiefs lost by seven points at home to the Denver Broncos and had a chance to tie with less than two minutes remaining.
On that fateful final drive, Charles didn’t receive a single target or touch. Charles averaged 5.7 yards per touch in the game, but the quarterback Alex Smith instead targeted wide receivers Dexter McCluster and A.J. Jenkins in the red zone and failed to convert on 4th-and-4 to keep the game alive.
There’s nothing wrong with trying to keep opposing defenses off balance by utilizing players other than Charles and Kelce, but in the key moments, your best players need to be involved. Reid should have learned that lesson against the Broncos.
After giving Charles just seven carries in Week 1 of 2014 and Kelce just 18 snaps, Reid took responsibility for calling a bad game.
“Not giving (No.) 25 the ball more than seven times is negligence on my part,” Reid said via Terez A. Paylor of The Kansas City Star. "This offense is best when there’s balance. I’ve got to make sure I maintain that and continue to give your best player, or one of your best players, the football.”
It wasn’t the first time, and Reid has developed a reputation for these types of errors. It happened again not even a month later against the 49ers.
Reid seemingly forgot about Charles and his new weapon Kelce on key drives late in the game. Charles had 15 touches in the first three quarters and just one in the fourth quarter. Kelce didn’t get a single target in the fourth quarter and only three in the whole game.
A pass on 3rd-and-4 from San Francisco’s 36-yard line fell incomplete to tight end Demetrius Harris, and the 49ers subsequently drove 71 yards for the go-ahead field goal. The Chiefs responded with a three-and-out, and they failed to convert on 3rd-and-1—a prime situation for Charles, and to a lesser extent Kelce, over wide receiver Dwayne Bowe.
“We could have done a better job of giving him (Charles) more carries and better opportunities,” Reid said via Kathleen Gier of The Kansas City Star. “In particular on that third and 1, if I could do it all again with hindsight, I might have handed it to him and given him the opportunity to make that play.”
| 1st | 6 | 0 | 2 | 10:59 |
| 2nd | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5:47 |
| 3rd | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5:26 |
| 4th | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1:44 |
| Totals | 15 | 1 | 4 | 23:56 |
| 1st | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 2nd | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 3rd | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| 4th | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 2 | 3 | 1 | 17 |
The 49ers added another field goal to build a five-point lead after the Chiefs failed to convert. In the two-minute drill thereafter, Smith threw incomplete for A.J. Jenkins, and the 49ers intercepted his pass intended for tight end Anthony Fasano—sealing the victory for the 49ers.
For a coach who has been doing it as long as Reid, to continue to make the same mistake is a problem. Reid knows there is an issue, but he’s been unable to correct it in the heat of the moment.
“It’s important that we step back here and as coaches look in the mirror first at what we’re doing and make sure that we’re putting players in the best position to make plays,” Reid said via the Star.
Reid’s game plans clearly feature Charles and Kelce at this point, but he’s so worried during the game about staying balanced and not being predictable that he’s not going back to his playmakers when he needs them the most. If history is our guide, Reid may be able to solve the problem temporarily, but it’s only a matter of time before he makes the same mistake again.
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