The Chiefs scored 24 points in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s AFC championship game but still could not beat a Patriots team that had dropped five road contests this season. A day later, they are discussing potential staff changes.
The team is weighing whether or not to shake up its defensive staff, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com notes (video link), adding these conversations include defensive coordinator Bob Sutton‘s position.
Kansas City tied for the NFL lead with 52 sacks but was unable to pressure Tom Brady, and Monday’s discussions involve possible issues making proper adjustments. Andy Reid said Monday the Chiefs are evaluating all aspects of their team, but Garafolo stresses the most scrutinized facet in these evaluations is the defensive staff.
Production getting to the quarterback notwithstanding, the Chiefs ranked 31st in pass defense this season. On Sunday, they allowed the Patriots to convert 13 of 19 third downs in a game that featured 524 New England yards. The Chiefs, who featured one of the most explosive offenses in NFL history (No. 3 all time in points with 565), gave up more than 500 yards on four occasions this season.
Sutton has been Kansas City’s DC since Reid arrived in 2013; his past three units have ranked in the bottom third in total defense. Though, the Sutton-era Chiefs have bent more than they’ve broken in that span, with the team being better at deterring points than yardage. This season ended with 37 points allowed — the fifth time this defense yielded at least 37 points — and the Patriots’ final drive prevented Patrick Mahomes from seeing the field after the overtime coin toss. This came after Dee Ford‘s neutral-zone infraction nullified a likely game-clinching interception.
last year it was Nagy’s fault, this year it’s Sutton’s. Maybe they should be looking at the head coach?
Ageee when you look at all their eliminated games under Reid the team only shows up for 1 half.
Yea…. time to fire Reid! Heaven forbid he loses to best COACH/QB combo in history. They should replace him with GASE!
Never said that. I guess you cant question anyone now without wanting them fired. Tsolid: king of putting words in peoples mouth.
I did put words in your mouth on THIS one. I blame the D coordinator for not trying to employ the same strategies that the teams that beat NE used. Bumping the receivers on line of scrimmage and pressure up the middle on Brady to make him move his feet.
Or they could go with Hue Jackson who has 3 less career wins than Reid has playoff losses.
Last year they were blaming the early playoff exits on Alex Smith. Looks like those early exits continue. Atrocious defense. Just one stop would have sealed the game.
Only highlight was the interception in the end zone.
The AFC Championship game is considered an EARLY exit?? Interesting
Andy Reid deserves blame, but its not like there is an obvious candidate that would be better than Reid. Its the same reason Harbaugh is back in Baltimore, if you get rid of the HC which option out there is on the same level/better? The Chiefs are in a win-now mode (based on the talent they have on offense and the small-ish window they have to surround Mahomes with talent on both sides of the ball before he gets a new contract) so trying to find a new coach to grow with Mahomes isn’t really an option either.
Either way the defense has been a huge issue the past couple of seasons and the DC does deserve some blame for that. Honestly the defense has been terrible since Berry has had all his injury issues/cancer scare but a competent defense shouldn’t be built around one player like that. Realistically, there is some talented players on the Chiefs defense so perhaps a change in scheme could improve them.
I’d argue Jim Harbaugh would do a better job than Reid, complete opposite direction of Reid though and change the offense a bit to better suit Mahomes. Defense beats the Pats, 9 times out of 10 you aren’t winning a shoot out with them. If I’m KC I’m at least calling him.
Better suit Mahomes? How much better do you want him to be? 5000 yards and the 3rd most points all time in his first year as a starter wasn’t good enough?
Exactly… and 50 TD’s. This Dude is smoking something tonight.
Tsolid is it your goal to be annoying and get everyone on here to hate you? Cause you’re doing a great job! Both of you work on your reading comprehension JT said there’s not an obvious candidate better than Reid I said JIM HARBAUGH, I was talking about JIM HARBAUGH and how he would have to change his offense a bit. Again improve your reading comprehension
Do you honestly think I care if a bunch strangers that I will NEVER meet hate me? I’m sorry if you sensitive Sally’s go around looking for approval from strangers, but I don’t. I laugh every time you guys take this stuff to a personal level. This all FUN for me, so you take it this stuff as seriously as you want, Big Guy. Good Luck with that!
Oh… The SAME Harbaugh that can’t recruit a decent QB at Michigan would come in and do a better job than Reid, who’s had somewhat successful QB’s every year. Keep smoking
Nagy looked pretty good in his debut season. Reid has issues in the post season. Regular season his issues get sugar coated.
dray16……your an IDIOT if you think the Chiefs should fire Andy Reid before they should fire Bob Sutton!!!!!!!!! End of story!!
The word “idiot” always follows someone misspelling the word “you’re” but I didn’t make the rules
The Chiefs scoring efficiency actually worked against them this season. They ranked 26th in time of possession and although they had clock control over the Colts they reverted to their regular season form against the Patriots who had more than a 20 minute advantage. Hard to win when your opponent has the ball for an extra quarter.
I disagree in the sense that it wasn’t scoring efficiency as much as it was defensive inefficiency that caused that. It’s easy to win when your opponent has the ball for an extra quarter if you can score easily, and your opponent can’t.
How come it’s never Andy Reid’s fault????????
Guess it was Sutton that lined up in the neutral zone on a play that would have sealed it for KC. There were plenty of other bad plays but that was just plain brutal.
Sutton 100% should get fired he’s horrible, HOWEVER Andy Reid should get fired as well you can go 16-0 in the regular season or have 1,000 wins but it doesn’t matter if you can’t prepare your team for the game that matters most. Offense looked like crap the 1st half, O-line looked nonexistent against a bad Pats pass rush Mahomes was hurried on almost 50% of the plays. Defense for the most part couldn’t stop anything. When one side of the ball doesn’t come to play that’s on that coordinator, when both sides don’t come to play that’s on the head coach. (Yes the offense came to play in 4th)
Did you think that the CHIEFS would just walk through the Patriots with no resistance? Belichek/Patriots have made a career out of making offenses look terrible over the last 15 yrs. remember Peyton Manning/Rothlisberger/Rivers? C’mon man… At least they came out made an adjustment in the 2nd 1/2. The one thing about Reid is that he leaves the Defense alone b/c he knows that’s not his strength. Most of the time he spends sitting on the bench talking to Mahomes whole the defense is on the field. Sutton should’ve had a bette scheme vs Patriots. Everyone knows that pressure up the middle rattles Brady, plus he eats up zone coverage when they play off of the receivers
No not at all, there’s no excuse at all for the Chiefs poor half this was the third highest scoring team of all time and to have 32 YARDS AT HALF is unacceptable I don’t care who you’re playing. You can’t honestly say that this Chiefs team was ready to play, that is on Reid he’s proven over and over he can’t beat BB and Brady bring somebody in that can
The fact that you think that b/c a team gets outplayed in a 1/2 is b/c their “not ready to play” is kind of ridiculous. The Patriots came in with game plan of pressuring Mahomes up the middle and not letting him beat contain. Chiefs had chances to score early, but Mahomes taking BAD sacks took them out of FG range. Please tell me of a coach that can beat the Patriots? 9 Super Bowls, 4 out of last 7.
At the end of the day, I’m not getting rid of the guy that had the guts to trade up and take Mahomes when others didn’t see what he saw.
Tom Coughlin can. Hes never been beaten by the Pats in the playoffs.
I’m glad Tom Coughlin coached in the AFC, right. Go sit down somewhere
Since when do the Giants play in the AFC? He’s never lost a Super Bowl to Brady and he played them twice.
The Patriots defense cost them both games.
He started with Jax here h 3-2 Where he went 3-2 vs the hoodie. He also had the 2 SB wins, so a career 5-2 mark is pretty damn good. Albeit a small sample size
I’m probably the biggest Pats fan but I understand that the first half wasn’t not all because of the Patriots plan, I’m not gonna argue with you cause it’s obvious you’re not gonna stop making excuses. And it’s a good thing you’re not the one in charge of firing or hiring coaches
Dude… your EXCUSE was blaming Reid b/c the chiefs “weren’t ready to play.” Me saying that the Pats had better game plan is not making excuses. I’m sorry if you can’t understand that. Obviously you’ve never played sports before and realize that sometimes Teams have better game plans, like taking Hill out of the game and it has nothing to do with be ready to play.
Oh I forgot… I guess the Chargers “weren’t ready to play” last weekend. Fire Lynn
The truth, there is nobody that can….
I’m just curious… who would any chiefs fan want to replace Reid? I don’t want to hear anyone is better than Reid. Who would you hire to replace Reid?
The guy I would choose is in heaven winning games against the angels with the 65 toss power trap.
Maybe they should consider getting better defensive players?
The GM started out in Philly as an intern holding Andy’s headset cable and is now a GM because Andy took a liking to him and groomed him to be where he is. There is absolutely no way he fires Big Red.
How come Tony Romo was calling out every play on the last two drives but Sutton had his defense out of position? The Patriots always plan to stop the playmakers first. They effectively took Kelcie and Hill out of the game for the most part. Without those two the Chiefs had a hard time getting the ball down field!
On defense, the Patriots offensive line dominated the Chiefs’ defensive line. They shut down the running game. The Chiefs lacked playmakers without their two leading receivers. Yet the game was winnable for the Chiefs if not for lining up off sides!
They scored 31 points, man. It’s like people in this post are sharing the same bong
Anyone advocating firing a coach that guided a FIRST YEAR QB, likely MVP to a 50 TD season, also an offsides away from going to the SB, need to their heads checked. No doubt about it.
2nd year QB actually. But I get what you’re saying.
Yes i know the Chiefs defense has holes. In 2 games vs pats chiefs scored 71 points. They were obviously outscored by 9 points in those 2 games. So is the Pats defense just as bad or is it offensive indifference? Wouldnt giving up 71 points in 2 games cause any concern?
Weighing… or preparing? Dude ran one of the worst D’s in the league and also screwed Mahomes twice against the Pats. Pats won both games on their final drives when Mahomes was on the sideline watching the defense sputter. Both games looked like whoever had the ball last was going to win. But Sutton had no answer for the Pats. He’s got to go. I will say in his defense that this D is not the same as previous years and could be aging. Eric Berry was injured all year, Justin Houston looked slow, Dontari Poe had Marcus Peters are gone. Ron Parker too. But to go to the Championship and let the defense get demolished. A lot of that has to do with the coaching.