With Offense Flailing, Chiefs' Pass Rush Only Thing That Can Save Playoff Hopes

It's time to face the cold, hard facts: The Kansas City Chiefs offense is in disarray, the division is slipping out of their fingers, and the only chance they have to right the ship is by leaning on their fantastic pass rush. 

Sunday night's 29-16 loss to the Denver Broncos was just more proof of that.

Since Peyton Manning arrived in Denver in 2012, he's never lost to the Chiefs, and in the process, it feels like he's exposed some of the team's biggest flaws. On Week 13's broadcast of Sunday Night Football, what we saw was the Kansas City offense flailing around, looking for answers.

This was a very winnable game from the get-go for Andy Reid and his crew. The Chiefs defense did a good job of limiting the Broncos' effectiveness in the red zone, despite being gashed on the ground to the tune of 214 yards—168 of those came by way of C.J. Anderson.

Whenever you play Manning, if you can slow him down just a bit, you have a really good chance of pulling off the upset. Sunday night, he threw for just 179 yards and a pair of first-quarter touchdowns.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

But whenever the Chiefs stopped the Broncos and their offense got the ball in their hands, they could never complete drives and keep the game close.

The biggest moment offensively for the Chiefs came after edge-rusher Justin Houston ripped the football away from Manning with 14:10 left in the third quarter. Down 20-7 at that point, the Chiefs took over at the Broncos' 23-yard line.

Instead of punching the ball into the end zone, they picked up just two positive yards and had to settle for three points.

Remember, this is a team that entered the night with a 7-4 record and was coming off of a shocking loss to the 1-11 Oakland Raiders. As a franchise looking to return to playoff action, you absolutely cannot settle for three points when you force a turnover like that against the division-leading Broncos.

The most frustrating part about this whole narrative is that the Chiefs have talent on that side of the ball.

Jamaal Charles is one of the league's top running backs, second-year tight end Travis Kelce is quickly becoming a matchup nightmare for defenses, and Dwayne Bowe, despite all of his flaws, is still ranked No. 3 on the Chiefs' all-time receiving list.

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

As of late, outside of Charles, they haven't been able to get anything or anyone going.

Without forgetting about the woes of the Chiefs' offensive line, the one guy who will continue to get a lot of the blame pushed in his direction is Smith.

Smith has never been spectacular, despite being picked No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft by the San Francisco 49ers. As Sports Illustrated's Doug Farrar mentioned on Twitter, he's a man with countless limitations:

Pro Football Focus' (subscription required) advanced metrics tell the real story of Smith's 2014 campaign. If you look at his game chart, you'll see he's been efficient at times, but never breathtaking.

Reid may be a masterful play-caller, but that doesn't change the fact that the way the Chiefs' personnel are structured, they need a commanding QB under center to really elevate the play of those around him.

Watching Smith in 2014, it feels like when things do go well, he's being shielded by keen play design and the spectacular efforts brought forth by Charles.

The numbers Sunday Night Football tweeted out confirm those suspicions:

Facing the Broncos, Smith completed 15 out of his 23 passing attempts for 153 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He was also sacked six times, losing 43 yards in the process.

His lowly 6.7 yards per completion was actually higher than his season average to date, as Grantland's Bill Barnwell divulged:

A huge problem for Smith also seems to be his wide receivers. For whatever reason, the 30-year-old QB has not been on the same page with those guys since the season kicked into gear.

How bad has it actually been? Check out this crazy piece of information ESPN Stats & Info dug up:

So, with a struggling offense and a quarterback who hasn't been able to put this team on his back at times, where do the Chiefs go from here?

The good news is, at 7-5, they are still right there in the playoff hunt. In fact, they still hold the No. 2 wild-card spot despite having the same record as the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.

But with the playoff window so tight, the only logical place to turn is back to their pass rush.

Peter Aiken/Getty Images

The strength of the Chiefs will always be that pass rush. Outside linebackers Justin Houston and Tamba Hali are as good as it gets when you're talking about players who can constantly find ways to shake things up in the pocket.

Diving back into PFF's data (subscription required), not counting Sunday, Houston has been credited with a league-leading 39 QB hurries, while Hali has picked up 23 of his own.

Houston played well against the Broncos, producing eight total tackles, three tackles for loss, one sack and two passes defensed. Hali, on the other hand, wasn't elite, but he did manage to finish with five total tackles and one tackle for loss.

It's certainly looking more and more like these two guys are going to have play out of their minds if the Chiefs want to compete again come January. They're the unquestioned stalwarts of this defense who set the tone for everybody else around them.

We all know by now what a tremendous, earth-moving pass rush can do for a defense. They create turnovers, take pressure off of the secondary and speed up an opposing quarterback's mental clock.

The benefit of having quality edge players like Hali and Houston is that they give this defense the luxury of sending more guys into coverage instead of having to blitz numbers to achieve all of that. When you can sit back and send your best pass-rushers after the quarterback, it opens up a lot of other creative things you can do on that side of the ball.

That famous 41-14 shelling of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in Week 4 is exactly what can happen when everything clicks for this roster.

That night, going by PFF's count (subscription required), the Chiefs finished with 10 QB hurries, three sacks and 33 passes battled or deflected at the line of scrimmage.

Once again, it goes without saying: Hali and Houston are the last great flicker of hope left in this team.

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

We've seen everything needed to make a judgement on Smith. He's a capable quarterback who fits well in Reid's system most of the time. But right now, all of the signs are pointing to him not being the guy to lead Kansas City deep into the playoffs.

The Chiefs have four games left to play. Those games are against the Arizona Cardinals, Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers and San Diego Chargers.

If they don't find an answer in the twinkling of an eye, we're going to be calling it curtains a lot sooner than we had hoped for a few weeks back.

Unless noted otherwise, all game scores and information come courtesy of ESPN.com.