Adrian Fedkiw
What did Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Doug Pederson have for an encore following an impressive second-half play-calling debut a week prior against the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Eh, there wasn’t much of one.
There didn’t have to be.
Prior to his introductory press conference in January there were reports saying that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid allowed Pederson to call plays, but nobody knew how often. During the presser Pederson explained how much latitude he was granted.
His answer may have raised a few eyebrows.
That Steelers game was the start of Kansas City’s stunning turnaround in 2015. The Chiefs were in the midst of a five-game losing streak and 1-5 heading into that Week 7 contest, but their 23-13 win was the beginning of their 10-game winning streak to close the regular season. Kansas City’s 45-10 Week 8 drubbing of the Detroit Lions in London vaulted it to 3-5.
The Lions were a complete mess at the time. A joke compared to the team that thrashed the Philadelphia Eagles 45-14 on Thanksgiving Day. They were 1-6 coming in and made wholesale changes within the coaching staff during the week. Quarterbacks coach Jim Bob Cooter took over at offensive coordinator for Joe Lombardi. Ron Prince rose from tight ends coach to offensive line coach, with Jeremiah Washburn getting the boot. Assistant offensive line coach Terry Hefferman was canned and Devin Fitzsimmons became tight ends coach.
Quarterback Matthew Stafford was a human boxing bag, getting sacked 13 times over the last two weeks, including a career-high seven in a 28-19 loss to the Minnesota Vikings a week prior. Justin Houston and Tamba Hali wreaked havoc throughout, with Houston being credited for 1 1/2 sacks. Hali teamed up with Houston on that half a sack.
The Chiefs’ offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage, paving the way for four different Chiefs rushers to score with Charcandrick West, Alex Smith, Spencer Ware and De’Anthony Thomas all finding paydirt. West carried the ball 20 times and ran for 97 of Kansas City’s 206 yards. Smith scampered for 78 yards on five carries.
Let’s go possession by possession.
How the grading works:
To put it simply a (+) is a win for the offense, a (-) is a win for the defense and a (/) is a tie. For example, if a team has a 1st and 10 and the offense picks up five-or-more yards it’s a win for them. It’s a victory for the defense if they hold the offense to three yards or fewer. A four-yard gain is a tie.
An offensive touchdown results into (+++), but a turnover forced by the defense gets (- – -). A field goal is (++) and a safety (- -).
(++)- Offense gains 15-29 yards past the original line of scrimmage. If the offense commits a holding penalty and they pick up 15 yards on a 1st and 20, the offense gets just one (+) instead of two.
(+++)- 30-49 yards
(++++)- 50-74 yards
(+++++)- 75-or-more yards
Other notes: A 75-yard TD gets (++++++++) and any pick-six/fumble recovery for a score results into (- – – – – – – -). Another example, if the defense forces a turnover and returns it for 50 yards, they will receive (- – – – – – -). If the defense forces a three-and-out they get a bonus of (- -).
KC 1st drive of second half: 15:00 left in the third quarter, ball at own 39 leading 24-3
1+10 (39)- 10 personnel-West inside handoff and picked up two yards off the right side (-)
2+8 (41)- 12 personnel- Dump off to West in the right flat, made Evan Lawson miss in space and gained seven yards (+)
3+1 (48)- 22 personnel- Knile Davis takes a toss to the left and runs for three yards off the left edge (+)
1+10 (49)- 11 personnel- West right tackle for four yards (/)
2+6 (45)- 11 personnel- Kelce dropped an in-route toss from Smith, which would’ve been about a 15-yard gain. The throw from Smith was a bit low, but should’ve been caught (-)
3+6 (45)- 10 personnel- Smith scrambles for nine yards to move the chains on third down (+)
1+10 (36)- 21 personnel- West off left tackle for four yards (/)
2+6 (32)- 12 personnel- Play-action pass to a crossing Jeremy Maclin over the middle, who reeled in the toss that was low and wide for a gain of 11 yards (+)
1+10 (21)- 11 personnel- West gains one yard off right guard (-)
2+9 (20)- 20 personnel- Kelce motioned from his tight end position off the right side of the line to the slot off the left side and hauled in a crossing pattern for 18 yards (++)
1+GL (2)- 11 personnel– Kelce two-yard touchdown reception on a flip screen to the left (+++)
9-3 KC on drive
This is the only possession worth delving into further as the Chiefs held a huge lead through the entire second half. Trailing by three touchdowns, it was very important for the Lions’ defense to get off the field quickly and establish some momentum if they had any thoughts of a comeback.
The exact opposite happened.
In patented Kansas City fashion, the Chiefs slowly matriculated the ball down the field. They picked up a pair of third downs, drained 6:07 off the clock and capped the march with a Kelce two-yard touchdown reception. Six of the 11 plays were runs, so Pederson did a solid job of balancing out the play-calling.
31-3 Chiefs, game basically over.
Detroit had a chance for a fast three-and-out, but Lawson missed an open-field tackle on West in the right flat along the line of scrimmage, which would’ve forced a 3rd-and-long. Instead, Kansas City converted on 3rd-and-1 when Travis Lewis failed to set the edge and Davis bounced it out off the left side to pick up the necessary yardage. Smith also had an amazing nine-yard scramble to move the chains on a 3rd-and-6. He was under a lot of duress on the play, but managed to find some daylight off the left side after some fancy maneuvering. Smith, who had 68 yards on the ground in the first half, was the game’s leading rusher with 77 at that point. Also check out the block by West near the first down mark.
As dangerous as Smith was scrambling in the game, his usual pin-point accuracy was lacking. He threw low to Kelce over the middle on a 2nd-and-6 and Maclin had to make a spectacular catch on a toss that was low and wide of the sure-handed receiver.
Smith did, however, fire an 18-yard laser to Kelce, which got the Chiefs inside the five. Kelce motioned from right to left on the 2nd-and-9 play and with James Ihedigbo shadowing him, Smith knew his playmaking tight end had one-on-one coverage against the outmatched safety. Kelce beat Ihedigbo right off the line of scrimmage and easily gave the Chiefs that 1st-and-goal. Kelce then scored from two yards out on a flip screen to the left side. The play appeared to be a run at first glance with three tight ends bunched up tight to the formation along the left side, but Kelce stepped back to receive the screen following a play-action fake. Here’s the 18-yard reception.
KC 2nd drive of second half: 7:52 left in the third quarter, ball at own 25 leading 31-3
1+10 (25)- 10 personnel- Smith throws it wide to Albert Wilson on a quick slant (-)
2+10 (25)- 10 personnel- West draw right guards two yards (-)
3+8 (27)- 11 personnel- False start
3+13 (22)- 11 personnel- Lawson called for a pass interference penalty on a deep comeback to Wilson (+)
1+10 (37)- 11 personnel- Kelce flip screen left side for four yards (/)
2+6 (41)- 10 personnel- Lawson called for illegal use of the hands (+)
1+10 (46)- personnel 21- Davis left guard loss of a yard (-)
2+11 (46)- 11 personnel- West up the middle for six yards (-)
3+5 (49)- 10 personnel- Jones sacks Smith for a loss of seven yards (-)
5-2 Det on drive, 11-8 KC in second half
The Lions answered Kansas City’s score with a lightning-fast three-and-out. The Chiefs were 7-of-9 on third down before Jason Jones and Haloti Ngata teamed together on a stunt to get to Smith for a sack a seven-yard loss. Jones beat the right guard Laurent Duvernay-Tardiv easily. Lawson had a pair of penalties called on him to continue his disastrous day.
I was a bit surprised three of the six plays were passes and two other snaps were also called passes before the Lawson penalties nullified them. Kansas City lined up in a power eye formation just once on the trek and the other two called runs came out of more conventional passing formations.
KC 3rd Possession of second half: 14:50 left in the fourth quarter, ball at own 45 leading 31-3
1+10 (45)- 11 personnel- West left guard two yards (-)
2+8 (47)- 11 personnel- Wilson wide receiver screen left side for no gain (-)
3+8 (47)- 10 personnel- Maclin quick slant seven yards (-)
5-0 Det on drive, 13-11 Det in second half
Hali and Houston combined to sack Stafford for a sixth time on a 4th-and-8 to get the ball back to the Chiefs. Kansas City, however, went three-and-out as Maclin was unable to gain enough yards after the catching following a quick slant completion. Isa Abdul-Quddus came up and made a nice tackle to keep Maclin shy of the line to gain.
KC 4th Possession of second half: 10:57 left in the fourth quarter, ball at Det 16 leading 31-3
1+10 (16)- 21 personnel- West bounced it outside off the right side but lost a yard (-)
2+11 (17)- 10 personnel- 17-yard touchdown reception by Maclin on a left seam pattern (++++)
4-1 KC on drive, 15-14 KC in second half
Thomas’ 37-yard punt return set the Chiefs up at the Detroit 16 and they needed just two plays to find the end zone. Kansas City came into the game with a red-zone touchdown percentage of 42 percent, which was 27th in the NFL at that point, but it scored for the fifth time on six possessions inside the 20 when Maclin hauled in the 17-yarder. Lined up one-on-one against Lions middle linebacker Stephen Tulloch, Smith immediately recognized the mismatch and placed his pass perfectly on Maclin’s back shoulder.
KC 5th Possession of second half: 7:19 left in the fourth quarter, ball at own 41 leading 38-10
1+10 (41)- 11 personnel- West with a nice cutback off the right side of the line for a gain of 32 yards and a horse-collar penalty set the ball up at the four-yard line
1+GL (4)- 11 personnel- Ware draw off right guard for a four-yard touchdown
15-14 KC in second half
The Chiefs recovered a Detroit onside kick attempt following a Lions touchdown. Chase Daniel made his first appearance of the regular season on this drive and because the game is well out of reach, I stopped my grading.The right side of the offensive line set the edge off the right side and provided West a gaping hole for the running back to pick up 32 yards on the first play.
Ware found paydirt from four yards out a play later on a draw play.
KC 6th possession of second half: 5:39 left in the fourth quarter, ball at own 34 leading 45-10
1+10 (34)- 11 personnel- West left guard one yard
2+9 (35)- 21 personnel- Davis left guard four yards
3+5 (39)- 11 personnel- Chris Conley six yard hitch route
1+10 (45)- 11 personnel- Davis right tackle two yards
2+8 (46)- 11 personnel- Thomas flip screen left loss of three yards
3+11 (43)- 11 personnel- Ware right guard draw nine yards
Nothing to comment on here, the Chiefs attempted to run out the remaining clock.
Overall Thoughts:
Reid made it very simple for his pupil.
Kansas City roared out to a 24-3 halftime lead against the helpless Lions and the game was basically over. Pederson didn’t have to do much. He did call a nice, balanced drive to start the second half, but it was the only one which really mattered. It drained 6:07 off the clock, still resulted into a touchdown and gave the Chiefs a seemingly insurmountable 31-3 deficit for Detroit to overcome.
While some may wonder why Reid would call the first half and not the second, it’s not surprising at all. He’s known as being one of the best at scripting a game’s first 15 plays. This game was a perfect illustration of that. Kansas City scored 169 points in the opening 30 minutes and 162 in the final 30 over its last 12 games — including the postseason. So that’s 14.1 points per half for Reid and 13.5 for Pederson, not that much of a difference.
The Chiefs held a lead at the break in nine of those contests and six were by 10-or-more points, so Pederson was usually put in positive circumstances. A perfect situation to be in week after week for a young play caller.