Originally posted by Joecool:
If you haven't known, Smith is passing at 56% with nearly half as many INTs as TD's and a low rating. I'm talking about Reid's offense with Alex Smith. The KC passing game has gotten worse. Why don't you look at Smith's weekly rating. It has dropped nearly each week where it was at 94.4 in week 1 and was 56.9 week 6.
Even heard on the radio that the Raiders were focusing on the underneath routes. I have seen some of the other Chiefs games and the ones Alex played well, there were a lot of underneath routes open. In the past few weeks, the underneath coverage has been tighter and teams are forcing KC to throw the long bomb.
So, if teams are not beginning figure out the offense, then how do you explain the drop in production from week to week?
I've noticed the stats.
And believe me, I know what Smith likes to do. What I find interesting is that Smith finds decent success despite the fact that he's had two terrible games against the Giants over the last two seasons (with an average one vs. Seattle). It's quite puzzling because there's really nothing remarkable about the Giants' defense in 2011/2012 yet somehow their personnel seems to flummox him. This year their defense had almost no pass rush on him and still got two picks.
Then you get division rivals like Arizona who got annihilated by him last year in his final full game as a Niner. Say what you want about his style of play, that was an impressive offensive outing against a good defense in the division.
Teams have seemingly adjusted very well to Kaepernick and Wilson to the point that their drop offs are more dramatic than Smith's.
I'm just wondering what it is Smith can do that prevents all teams from shutting him down completely.
This is not a debate but a real question.
I want Smith to succeed and do damage, but even Andy Reid doing everything in his power to give him full autonomy and encourage him to be more aggressive isn't doing anything.
There's gonna come a time when he needs to open it up to win. He did it successfully vs. the Saints, but since that game going forward he has not as we all witnessed in the NFCC and 2012 games against Minnesota and NYG.
This season will probably end up like 2011 for him. It's up to him next season to take the next step (I know, broken record) otherwise it will be more of the same and his career as a starter will be in danger.
[ Edited by JTsBiggestFan on Oct 14, 2013 at 2:17 PM ]