wordpress hosting - Good Twins

Although the Kansas City Chiefs are celebrating their seventh straight AFC West title, the team didn’t make Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans very fun to watch. Kansas City needed an overtime touchdown to win 30-24.

As for Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, however, that was to be expected. Going into the game, he knew a Houston team coached by Lovie Smith was not to be underestimated. What was Reid do not expected the costly mistakes of his team. They made the game much closer than needed.

“We have to do better in the penalty area [and the] rolling area,” Reid told reporters after the game. “We have to make sure we fix this problem.”

On Sunday, the Chiefs were called for 10 penalties totaling 102 yards — unlike the Texans, who only got four penalties for just 33 yards. Although some of the flags may have been questionable, Reid believes there is a simple solution to fix the problem.

“You have to work on your fundamentals and your techniques – and then you have to trust them when you’re out there,” he explained. That’s what we’ll do. That’s the easiest way.

Penalties aside, Sunday’s game was the ninth straight game the Chiefs’ offense has committed a turnover. Kansas City had two in the game — two fumbles that led to Houston touchdowns.

“Ridiculous,” Reid said of the turnovers. You can’t have that. Guys know it. Nobody’s trying to turn it around, but you gotta do the best you can [to] hang on to football – and take care of football, if [you’re] the quarterback.”

Of the two fumbles, the one committed by rookie running back Isiah Pacheco seemed to stand out the most. It was his fourth of the season – and Reid seemed to be sending him a message about the importance of ball safety as he benched him for the rest of the first half in favor of veterans Jerick Mckinnon and Ronald Jones.

Reid often puts young players back in/gives them the ball back after a fumble; interesting that he didn’t do that with Pacheco…

— Gregorian Vahe (@vgregorian) December 18, 2022

“Just keep your eyes up,” Reid recalled of Pacheco’s mistake. He lowered his head – and they managed to get under that. Just keep your eyes up and you’ll be more likely to latch on to this thing. He had two hands on it, so he got away with it. But sometimes when you bend over like that, they can catch you.

Thankfully, Pacheco’s stay in Reid’s doghouse was short-lived. He was back on the pitch for the opening runs of the second half. He finished with a productive day, leading the team in a hard-running rush for 86 yards on 15 carries.

“You’re going to get hiccups with the young guys,” Reid observed, “but they play their tails and go a hundred miles an hour. So you can live with that because they’re going to make games that are big games – and then there’s going to be a mistake here or there.

“It pays off for you after you’ve been through all of that – and they’ve gradually improved over the season. Then we’ve got enough veterans in there who can help them with that par game that you get – and our guys are good with it.”

Quarterback Patrick Mahomes also doesn’t hesitate when his guys commit a turnover.

Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images

“I don’t even have to say anything,” he explained. “I think the guys know – especially with the way Coach Reid is calling the game. When something like this happens, we get right back to you. You saw it with Isaiah. He started running the ball and started running extremely hard – even harder than he usually runs.

Coach Reid does a good job of keeping these guys involved and not letting them down. They know we all believe in them on this team, and that’s what it takes to be a great team.

The other errors in Sunday’s game came from placekicker Harrison Butker. The longtime Chiefs kicker was 1 for 2 on extra runs and field goal attempts, including a 51-yard missed field goal that would have ended the game in regulation time.

“You know what? Being a kicker is a lot like being a hitter,” Reid noted. even better than he was. You gotta keep kicking – and that’s what we’re going to do with him.

Since returning from an ankle injury in Week 6, Butker has been unusually hard to trust in clutch situations. He has a conversion rate per field goal of 76.2% in 2022, well below his career average of 88.5%.

In the case of Sunday’s missed kicks, former Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt offered his opinion on what could be to blame for Butker’s inconsistency.

He is an exceptional bettor…. If you look at the strikes on the extra point, the #laces face the touchline, and on the more than 50 yards missed, he kicked the ball at him at the last second and forced the ball to go to the right – he’s been missing the spot all year.

-Dustin Colquitt (@dustincolquitt2) December 19, 2022

Whether it’s penalties, turnovers or missed scoring opportunities, the Chiefs have a lot to clean up as they prepare for the playoffs – where they’ll see much stiffer competition. Still, a win is a win — and ultimately, that’s all that matters to the Kansas City chief.

“The important thing is that we won the game,” Reid said. “They are hard to get in this league. We’ll take advantage of this one on the way home and then prepare for the arrival of a good team from Seattle on Christmas Eve.